What constitutes a healthy relationship with God? There are a variety of viewpoints toward God. Some people have a cavalier attitude toward God and a number of people do not believe in God or don’t care that God exists. The Apostle Paul revealed how to have a healthy relationship with God:

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. (Romans 12:1)

The word therefore summarizes the theological argument of the first eleven chapters of this epistle. Paul then shifted his emphasis from doctrine to duty in chapter twelve. It is an axiom of Bible study that when we read the word therefore we pause and see what it’s there for.

Why should we give ourselves to God? Paul appealed to God’s mercy. Since we have been justified by grace through faith we realize that we have peace with God. We have also been redeemed from the power of sin as we are being progressively set apart for service to God. Paul did not issue a command, but he used a word that literally means to come alongside. This is a picture of a commander exhorting the troops to go into battle. Paul implored the church to consecrate themselves to God. We are to present our bodies to God. This refers to the totality of oneself, the body is an outward expression of the will. Paul used the word present earlier in this letter:

and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:13)

The force of this verb in this verse is a command that we are to present ourselves at once to God. Our lives are to reflect the theological reality that we are dead to sin and alive to God. This is a picture of consecration. Consecration isn’t giving anything to God, rather it is an acknowledgement that we already belong to God. Phillip Brooks observed, “It does not take great men to do great things; it only takes consecrated men.” Consecration is our spiritual service of worship – we are to be a sacrifice to God. The problem with a living sacrifice is that has a propensity to crawl off the altar. Our Christian life is a process as we grow in our knowledge of God. Does your life represent a sacrifice to God? 

Oswald Chambers points out, “There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself.” We must give up our right to ourselves, and follow the teaching of Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote in The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” We are to die to self and live for God.

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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