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NASB | Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. |
Subject: our sacrifice and our faith |
Bible Note: Oh, one thing I forgot to say (I am not as eloquent as some). Since Jesus is God when we talk about serving God we are talking about serving Jesus. I am sorry, I thought that was a given. CHM continues talking about our sacrificial service ... There are two things needful to a course of steady and consistant action, viz, the Holy Ghost as the power of action, and the Word to give proper direction. To use a familiar illustration, --on a railway, we should find steam of little use without the iron rails firmly laid down: the former is the power by which we move; and the latter, the direction. It is needless to add that the rails would be of little use without the steam. Now Abraham was blessed with both. He had the power of action conferred by God, and the command to act given by God also. His devoted ness was of a most definite character; and this is deeply important. We frequently find much that looks like devotedness, but which in reality, is but the desultory activity of a will not brought under the powerful action of the Word of God. All such apparent devotedness is worthless, and the spirit from which if proceeds will very speedily evaporate. We may lay down the following principle, viz, whenever devotedness passes beyond divinely-appointed bounds, it is suspicious, if it comes not up to these bounds, it is defective; if it flows without them, it is erratic. I quite admit that there are extraordinary operations and ways of the Spirit of God, in which He asserts His own sovereignty, and rises above ordinary bounds; but, in such cases, the evidence of divine activity will be sufficiantly strong to carry home conviction to every spiritual mind; nor will they, in the slightest degree interfere with the truth of the principle that true devotedness will ever be founded upon and governed by divien principle. To sacrifice a son might seem to be an act of extraordinary devotedness, but be it remembered, that what fave that act all its value in god's sight was the simple fact of its being based upon God's command. |