I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1–2)

For most, what you do is a large part of your identity: you are a pilot, a doctor, a wife, a teacher, a grandparent, an IT specialist, a mother, a financial manager, a husband, a student, an aunt.

Of course, if you are a believer in Christ, that should form the greatest part of your identity. When you think of who you are, first and foremost you should see yourself as a child of God, in Christ, a redeemed, justified believer, a true Christian.

In my life, my identity as a Christian and my identity in my work are very closely intertwined. To be a Christian and to be a pastor of Christians means those two areas overlap and merge. That is a high privilege, which I do not take for granted, which also comes with its own dangers and threats to your soul.

But while at home and unable to preach or counsel or lead, I was confronted with my Christian life without the pastorate. Once you remove full-time pastor from my identity, what sort of Christian am I? And I began thinking, would I still be a full-time Christian, even if I wasn’t a full-time pastor?

A full-time Christian. Some might say that’s a redundancy. You’re either a Christian, or you aren’t, and if you are, you’re a Christian all the time, right? So isn’t every Christian a full-time Christian?

It’s true that if you are a child of God, then you are a child of God internally and permanently. But it is a possible, and in fact quite common, for Christians to act as if their relationship with God is a part-time affair, maybe a weekend endeavour. It’s one of the great dangers and obstacles that we face in our modern, secular society. The danger of compartmentalisation. To keep up with our busy lives, we put things in boxes. Work life goes here – Monday to Friday from morning till evening, family life goes here, health and recreation goes here, and God and church goes here: Sunday morning. And the problem with that is not that we are organising our lives into boxes, the problem is that the boxes too often don’t touch. So what you put into the God box on Sunday doesn’t seem to affect the work life of Monday to Friday, or the marriage life or the finances, or the health, or the family.

So for all intents and purposes, you are then living like a part-time Christian. The part-time Christian feels the frustration of so little time spent in the things of God, and God so absent from his thoughts when at work or school.

Some others don’t feel any frustration; they feel it is perfectly normal to scan or punch your Christian card once a week at church, and then live your own life the rest of the week. Either way, it is a Christian life that begins to border on nominal Christianity – Christian in name only, or cultural Christianity, Christian only by being born into a culture that is not Moslem or Hindu or Jewish.

But Scripture calls for your Christianity to touch all of your life.

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

A full-time Christian is not a full-time vocational pastor or missionary. You don’t have to read and study the Bible and pray and counsel and teach all day to be a full-time Christian. That’s what the church pays me to do. Being a full-time Christian is not about how many hours you’re directly involved in the study of the Word.

Instead, a full-time Christian is one whose relationship with Christ is woven into the fabric of all of life. Jesus casts His shadow over all you do: your work life, your family life, your financial choices, your recreation, your health and sports and hobbies. The Word of the Lord may not be in every conscious thought you think, but it has become the background music of your activity. All of Christ in all of life. Your life is hidden in Christ, Christ is your life.

A full-time Christian understands and lives the meaning of 1 Corinthians 6:

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

You are not your own. You don’t belong to you. A full-time Christian no longer uses the world’s motto, “It’s my life!” Are you a full-time, or a part-time Christian? What do you want to be, in this coming year?

Perhaps the most famous Scripture on this full-time Christianity is Romans 12:1. This is one of those verses every Christian should memorise, one of Paul’s 2-carat diamonds to be treasured, hidden in our hearts, and often brought out to gaze at and study.

Here, in just a few words, Paul will capture what it means to be a full-time Christian, whatever your vocation. And being the rigorous, logical thinker he was, Paul will tell us what it is to be a full-time Christian, and then supply us with reasons and motives why we should do this. He is going to capture our imagination by taking us into the Old Testament sacrifices, place us in the room, and show us what full-time Christianity looks like.

So, let’s hold this diamond up the light, and let it sparkle, and see the two facets of full-time Christianity. Let’s begin not with the first words, but with the main action of this verse, which is in the very middle of these 27 words in NKJV.

I. The Response of Full-time Christianity

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Paul pleads with his readers to do one thing: present your bodies a living sacrifice to God.

That’s the main action, and the main image of the verse. Present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Paul calls us into the Jewish Temple, to witness one of the offerings that was made. There were several kinds of offerings Israelites could make: a sin offering, a guilt offering, the peace offering, the thanksgiving or grain offering. But there was one offering known as the whole burnt offering, and that’s what Paul has in mind here.

An offerer would choose a bull, male sheep, goat, or for the poor, a turtledove or pigeon, a male, without blemish. He brought it to the entrance of the Tabernacle or Temple. He would then place his hands on the head of the animal, symbolising the transfer of their guilt or dedication to the animal. He then had to kill the animal, while the priest collected the animal’s blood in a basin. The priest then sprinkled the blood against the sides of the altar of burnt offering. The animal was skinned, and cut into pieces. The priest would arrange the pieces on the altar. The entire offering was burned. Unlike other offerings, no part of the animal was consumed by the priests or the offerer.

Before Christ died on the cross, the sacrifice was partly used for atonement. But it also was used for expressing gratitude and adoration, or dedicating oneself.

Now Paul has spent chapters telling us that Christ’s work is complete, and we obtain righteousness through faith alone. He does not mean we make some kind of sacrifice to become righteous, or earn salvation. Instead, since Christ is already the perfect sacrifice for sin, we don’t look to a sacrifice to be saved. Instead, once we are saved, we ourselves become the sacrifice. We are the burnt offering.

When Paul uses the term, present your bodies, he doesn’t mean only the physical but not the spiritual, or specifically the body. No the term here means your whole self. Our entire being is consumed in loving service for God. We offer up all that we are for God’s use for God’s purposes. All of you. All the time.

The sacrifice assumes it is all of us. Imagine someone asking the offerer at the Temple, “so is this animal a part-time or full-time sacrifice?” The only answer to that would be, “Well, once they’re on the altar, there’s only one kind.”

And it’s a paradox – a living sacrifice. The Old Testament sacrifice was first killed before being presented on the altar. But here we present ourselves still alive on the altar, but as compliant and as yielded as if we were dead. How are we dead? We are dead to living a self-focused, self-directed life. We are not our own. As Paul put it in Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Or

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;

and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15)

But notice the words that Paul uses. He doesn’t say this is just something that happens to us. Notice the action we are to take. Paul says, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” You must be the one who offers and the offering. You must be the one who sacrifices and the sacrifice. You must climb up onto the altar, offer yourself wholly to God voluntarily. We don’t know what happened when Abraham bound Isaac. Some ancient Jewish tradition filled in the silence with suggestions that Isaac willingly accepted his fate, cooperated with Abraham, and said these words, “Father, bind me well, lest my body tremble from the fear of the knife, and I cause a blemish in the offering.” In that imagining, Isaac presented himself a living sacrifice.

We don’t know if that’s true. But we do know of another who presented Himself as a sacrifice, willingly. There’s a famous painting by Francisco de Zurbarán, called Agnus Dei (c. 1640). The painting depicts a lamb bound and lying on a dark surface, the taut ropes binding it. The lamb is very realistically painted, its wool, its body. And yet the striking thing in the painting is the expression on the Lamb’s face. It looks serene, slightly sad, but yet calm. No whites of its eyes, no alarmed expression. It is docile in the face of its impending death. De Zurbarán obviously meant to give us an imaginative portrait of how Christ was in the face of the Cross. He said, “Not my will, but thine be done”. That’s the idea: you present yourself.

People who present themselves at a wedding ceremony are saying, I am completely devoting myself to this one person for life. When people get married, they make promises of total devotion to the other. “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth, forsaking all others, and keeping only unto thee as long as we both shall live.”

Marriages go wrong when the parties who promised to now live as one, go back to living like they are single. They promised to go full-time, totally given to one person, but it reverts to part time. The marriage relationship is meant to be total devotion to one. And the Bible tells us that marriage is a picture of Christ and His church. We are also in a relationship with Christ where it is meant to be total covenant devotion. And it goes wrong when we act like it is not.

So what does it look like to do this? How do we do it? When? Where? How often?

One great moment for a Christian to do this is baptism. It’s once-off event, but it says to the world, I died with Christ, and live with Him; I am His, He is mine. All that goes under the water belongs to Christ. I am a living sacrifice. I am a full-time Christian, inside and out.

A second kind is what we can call significant moments of re-dedication. There come moments in a Christian’s life when you know your Christian life has been drifting, declining, losing discipline, losing commitment. And a significant moment of re-dedication is when you stop, repent of part-time Christianity and pray, re-committing all of yourself to all of Christ, all the time. It helps to sometimes do this with another believer – here at church after a sermon, pray with me, one of the leaders, or another Christian who can pray with you and for you. You can do it at home, with a family member. It helps to mark the date, maybe write what you’re recommitting to. In ancient Israel, they sometimes laid a stone of remembrance to mark: on this day, we made this vow to God.

A third kind is regular moments of rededication. The Lord’s Supper is a regular moment of rededication. At the Lord’s Supper we celebrate our covenant with Christ, and rightly used, it is like a couple renewing their wedding vows. We eat the bread and drink the cup and we say, you died for me, that I might live, now I will live and die for You.

A fourth kind is daily renewal. One reason to find time in the Word and prayer every day is simply to present yourself to God to be used. In Israel there was a daily sacrifice at the Temple, in the morning to start the day’s work, and in the evening, to mark its close. All of us need some kind of re-presenting of ourselves to God, preferably before the day’s work begins, to say, Here am I, Lord, use me. All of me is available for your work.

Now none of this requires that you be a full-time pastor. Whatever your vocation, you can do this. You can bake bread, program computers, balance books, change diapers, make meals, and manage a business to the glory of God. Being a full-time Christian is being a living sacrifice to God in your work, in your family, in every area of your life.

This action is straightforward. But we have to admit it can seem daunting, scary, like a hard task. We’re being asked to give our all. We’re being asked to bind our own hands, lay on the altar and be ready to be consumed in God’s service. Why should we do that? Paul has surrounded this action, this act with the motives, the reasons for doing this. On both sides of the clause present your bodies a living sacrifice, before it and after it are the reasons we should do this.

II. The Reasons for Full-Time Christianity

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

There are two reasons to be a fulltime Christian here, one at the beginning of the verse, and one at the end. The first reason is found in these words:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God

You can tell by the word therefore, that Paul is giving a reason, a cause. Therefore, because of a certain thing, I beseech (I plead, I exhort, I beg you) to present your bodies a living sacrifice.

What is that certain thing? What is the thing that Paul says, in light of this, therefore, present your bodies a living sacrifice?

The mercies of God. The mercies of God means God’s loving acts towards sinners. God’s mercy is based on His love (

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (Ephesians 2:4).

So we could paraphrase it this way: “I plead with you, based upon the love that God has for us, present your bodies a living sacrifice.”

You see, we’re picking out this verse in Romans 12, but Romans has been all about the grace of God in saving sinners. Chapter 1 to 3 showed that all are sinners. Chapter 4 and 5 showed God is willing to grant full amnesty, full and unconditional pardon to those who forsake their own works, and trust in the work of Christ.

When you do that, not only are you justified, but chapter 6, 7, and 8 show that you are now in Christ, which means all that is true of Him is true of you. All the love God has for His Son is showered on you. That guarantees your present and your future. Chapter 9 to 11 showed that God’s love and faithfulness continues even when people are unfaithful as Israel was. So that Paul finished this glorious tour at the end of chapter 11 by saying:

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! …”

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)

Now, on that basis, of all this love God has for you, you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

Here is why anyone places themselves on the altar: because He loved us first.

Full-time Christianity does not emerge out of fear. Fearful people don’t willingly give their all, they’re protecting themselves. Full-time Christianity does not come from guilt. Guilt prods you and drags you, but it never enthuses you. Guilty people are not zealous people.

Full-time Christianity does not come from stoic duty. Stoic duty can serve a rulebook, but it does not have the heart of a lover.

Full-time Christianity does not come from pride. Pride can motivate you to a point, trying to please others, and please yourself by your own achievement. But it never frees you to be a whole burnt offering. None of those motives will break you out of part-time Christianity. Samuel Rutherford said, “Oh, what a sweet master I serve! Love made me His servant, and love keeps me at His feet. I am Christ’s because He loved me before I could love Him back.”

D. L Moody said “Faith makes all things possible, but love makes all things easy. It is the love of Christ that compels us, for only love can conquer a selfish heart and turn it toward service.”

The mercies of God. To think of the mercies of God in Romans call forth a response of gratitude for the past, joy in the present and hope for the future. Mix gratitude, joy and hope, and you have a very happy person, willing and zealous.

When your spiritual tires are going flat, when your taste for God seems to be souring, when the spiritual temperature of your heart seems chilly, ask yourself, when last did I reflect on the mercies of God? In the morning, do you fuel your heart with the love of God? Or are you trying to run your spiritual car on the gasoline of guilt, or duty, or fear, or pride? Your engine will seize, and so it should, because you were meant to run on the love of God. 1 John 4:19 says we love Him, because He first loved us. 2 Corinthians 5:14 says it is the love of God that compels us or constrains us.

But then look at the second reason, the second motive. The first is a motive leading up to presenting yourself a living sacrifice; the second is motive flowing out of it.

holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service

Paul says, when you place yourself on the altar, this is what it looks like to God. In Christ, you are like a set apart (the meaning of holy), pleasing (the meaning of acceptable) sacrifice to God. In the Old Testament, when a sacrifice was done in the right way with the right material, it says it was a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. That doesn’t mean God has olfactory senses and smells in the humans way, it is an image to say God was pleased with it.

Then he adds some unusual words. He says, which is your reasonable service. The word for service is a worship word. It means the act of serving God in worship, often the public act of outward worship. And this worship is reasonable. It is the Greek word logikos, the ancestor of our word logic. It means something that is thoughtful, rational, logically expected. Paul is saying, this act of placing yourself on the altar is the logical, reasonable, expected, thoughtful worship. If worship is displaying the worth of God, if it is showing the value of God, then reasonable worship is when you do a solid calculation that God is worth at least placing my all on the altar.

Now to combine all these in one way: when you present your body a living sacrifice, you please God and you show how much you think He is worth, what are you doing? You are loving God. The first motive to be a full-time Christian is because God loves you, the second motive is that this is how you then love God. God’s love leads you to this altar of consecration, your love for Him finishes the task.

I think some Christians think that God wants things from them. He wants their money. He wants them to show up at church. He wants them to keep some rules. And so they oblige, because He’s God, but they really don’t want to, or understand why. Do you know that viewing God as a kind of cosmic toll-booth where you pay Him to go on your way belittles God? It treats God as if He is needy, and wants things that only we can supply. We become the benefactor, and God is beneficiary of our service.

That’s not the way the Bible describes real worship. In real worship, we offer God our all because we think He worth that and more, and when we do it, we are filled with joy in Him. God doesn’t want to get stuff from us, He wants us, our hearts. And the only way He fills our hearts is when we empty them of all other loves, and get on that altar.

Paul once had to say to the Corinthians,

“I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you.” (2 Corinthians 12:14)

And if the apostle could say that to a church, how much more the God of all creation, who own the cattle of a thousand hills. I do not seek yours, but you. Be a full-time Christian, not because I need your time, or your service. Be a full-time Christian because it’s the only way I can give you Myself, that your joy may be full, and so I will be glorified in your joy.

Why be a full-time Christian? Because He loves you. Because it’s the way you love Him.

The words of the hymn we’ve sung many times capture full-time Christianity:

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee,
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne,
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.