Sacrifice In Paul's Analysis

On the heels of describing how justification comes by faith and the state of the Jewish nation in God’s sight during his era, Paul now shifts to discussing practical matters. It was not enough to demonstrate how justification comes, nor was it sufficient to mention the Jews’ status; the Romans need to know how any of it applies to them. Paul, then, provides what they need, and he opens his practical segment by petitioning the Roman Christians by God’s abundant mercy to present themselves as living sacrifices to Him. The question, though, is this: how does one do that? We should first understand what a sacrifice is. From Paul’s Jewish perspective, a sacrifice would be one found in the Old Testament writings in books such as Leviticus (Lev. 1-7). These offerings were holy, without blemish, and exclusively offered by Levitical priests (Deut. 17:1; Num. 3:9-10). The whole purpose of these sacrifices was to please God and so receive forgiveness for sin, but ultimately, animal sacrifices availed nothing (Heb. 10:1-4). In addition, the very nature of an animal sacrifice was that the animal’s blood was poured out as an atonement; the way Paul uses it,

In the immediate context, he commands the Roman Christians to avoid conformity to the world and to transform their minds (Rom. 12:2). His goal is to prevent these Christians from returning to their former lives of sin and to keep offering themselves to God, because a lifestyle of sin cannot possibly please Him (Rom. 6:16, 19-20). Wrapped in this package of sacrifice is also what Paul commands regarding unity, humility, and peace (Rom. 12:3, 10, 18). The whole point is for Christians to live as God expects and to constantly sacrifice themselves to Him by forsaking sin. After all, this is the least one may do in response to wat God has done for him (Rom.