Musick-al Note # 265
When God gave His law to Moses concerning their worship, He required the very best animals for sacrifices to Him. Those animals were to be perfect. He forbade the Jews to offer an animal that was lame, or blind or in any way deformed. (Deuteronomy 5:21, Malachi 1:8). Since Christ became the perfect, eternal sacrifice for sin, God has found no pleasure in the sacrifice of a dead animal. In this New Testament age, He asks for the saint’s body as a living sacrifice. Being true to His nature He wants man to give his best – a living sacrifice that is unspotted and unblemished by sin (Romans 12:1. He taught that sin was not to be allowed to reign in our bodies to have dominion over us but to yield ourselves to God as those who are alive in Christ and use our members for good work (Romans 6:12-13).
Does God have the right to require such a sacrifice? YES! By right of ownership, He is justified in requiring anything that pleases Him. What, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
The body is not for sin but for God. He teaches us in Titus 2:11-12 to, “deny ungodliness and worldly lust and live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” The enlightened and faithful Christians will offer it without reservation to the will of heaven. He will not destroy the body which God has given him but will care and protect it against all disease and harm that he may do the work of Him who loved him and saved him from the eternal doom of hell.
Gordon Musick
Musick-al Notes 