A Reasonable Service

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

The believer is to present his body to God which is his reasonable service. But unless we distinguish between salvation by Grace and salvation by service (works), or discipleship, we are like to become confused when we read certain portions of the Holy Scripture.

We are not called to earn our way to Heaven, but rather, because we are already citizens of Heaven, we are called to present our bodies to God which is our only reasonable service. Because we are already saved by the shed blood of Jesus Christ we are to abstain from every unholy thing that would hinder our progress and bring dishonor to Christ our Redeemer.

Notice, we are to present our body a LIVING SACRIFICE. . We know our body is the temple of God. The temple is the building in which God dwells. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Cor. 3:16. In a nutshell, we must die to our prior selves, that is to let go of all our prior wicked deeds. See Colossians 3:5-14

All such service will be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. If it was a reasonable service for Jesus to leave His Heavenly glory, become a man, and as a man to sacrifice Himself unto death, then surely our little sacrifice is indeed most reasonable. We have very little to give, and when there is an opportunity for showing our appreciation to our great God and Saviour for His love toward us, we should make haste to use it.

The Heavenly Father set before His Son a great joy as a recompense for His obedience. The LORD does not invite us to sacrifice ourselves without any reward from Him. He has promised that if we do this He will make us joint-heirs with his beloved Son and partakers of the Divine nature.

I would say, not only is it a reasonable service for us to mortify the deeds of the body (Rom. 12:8) but thanks to our just God, it is also a most rewarding service.