OBJECTIONABLE (UNACCEPTABLE) SACRIFICE

I grew up with a dog that had the special privilege of being fed local Nigerian food. As far as we were concerned, there was nothing like dog food in those days. The dog just had to eat whatever the rest of us had to eat. The special delicacies included Eba and Soup Of The Day. The eba was usually moulded into small balls, immersed in soup and presented to the dog on a platter. For some reason, the dog accepted this piece of culinary excellence on some occasions and rejected it on other occasions. On rare occasions, there was partial acceptance as the dog would eat all the food and then transport itself to a discreet corner and ‘eject’ everything. I never really got to understand the rationale behind its choices. 

This however is not the case with God. There is no lack of clarity as to what makes a sacrifice acceptable or otherwise. God does not accept every sacrifice as is clearly stated in Malachi 4:8, but in each case, the people offering the sacrifice are not oblivious of the acceptance criteria

When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor and see how pleased he is!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. Malachi 4:8 [NLT]

Even Cain knew what he should have done to make his sacrifice acceptable.

The Lord said to Cain: What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so angry? If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling. But you did the wrong thing, and now sin is waiting to attack you like a lion. Sin wants to destroy you, but don’t let it! Genesis 4: 6-7 [CEV]

And now to us; Paul admonished the Romans to present their bodies to God as a sacrifice. This instruction is also applicable to us today. We are not just to present our bodies as any type of sacrifice, but an acceptable sacrifice that remains alive at the altar. Being a living sacrifice implies that we will always have a choice to get up and walk away from the alter but we choose to stay there as part of what we must do to remain acceptable. However, the fact that we stay there does not confer automatic acceptability upon us. We still need to meet the acceptance criteria.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1 [NLT]

The body in this passage refers to our physical bodies and not any other spiritual form of body. This body is made up of different components, which could sometimes develop their own minds and want to go out of line.

This reminds me of when Job said “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.” Job 31:1 [NLT] and Jesus also said “So if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose a part of your body than to have all of it thrown into hell.” Matthew 5:29 [GWT]. David on his own part prayed “May the words from my mouth and the thoughts from my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my defender.” Psalm 19:14 [GWT].

These are just a few of the components of our bodies. For our bodies to be acceptable sacrifices unto God, the individual components must be in line and acceptable to God. Taking stock and seeing how we are doing with this will be a good idea. The ageless hymn ” Take My Life, and Let It Be” by Frances Ridley Havergal captures this aspiration to be an acceptable sacrifice perfectly.

https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/445

If I want to indeed offer my body as an acceptable sacrifice to God, then I need to think in these terms – My eyes and what they behold have to be acceptable to God, the thoughts that I allow to rest on my mind have to be in line with God’s word, anything that flows out from my mouth must not be at variance with things that please God. This is the same with all parts that make up my body, including the parts that are normally shielded with beautiful clothes.

Thank God for the grace of God that has been made available for us to live above sin in our bodies and live as acceptable sacrifices unto God.

For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people. That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world. Titus 2:11 [GNT]