Dave spoke tonight from Rom 12:1-8, a passage which reminds us that we are Christ’s body and are urged to offer our bodies to Him as living sacrifices. Nowadays, there’s enormous emphasis on our physical bodies, with whole industries growing up to help us have the ‘perfect’ body, whether this is through cosmetics or fashion, hairstyles, exercise, diet or even cosmetic surgery. That can leave us feeling somewhat discomfited when we read these verses, especially when we consider that in the Old Testament, the animals offered for sacrifice had to be perfect and unblemished. Where does that leave us? Do we have to be perfect before we can offer ourselves to God?
We may all be like the husband who, on visiting a city for the first time, watched an older woman use a lift and a young, curvaceous young woman descend from the same lift and reckoned this was a device fit for his wife! We wish there were some ‘magic elevator’ that could iron out our wrinkles and smooth away our sins.
The truth is that we don’t yet see the final picture; 1 Cor 13:12 reminds us that we only see dimly as in a mirror at the moment, but one day we will know fully even as we are fully known. God will clothe the perishable with the imperishable and the mortal with the immortal (1 Cor 15:53); one day, God will transform our lowly bodies so that they are like Christ’s glorious body. (Phil 3:21)
The transformation that God can bring into our lives means we don’t have to be perfect to approach Him; rather, He creates perfection within us. He accepts us as we are (Rom 5:8) and then works transformation in us. John Newton’s testimony, captured so eloquently in his hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, is that even one who was a slave trader can be changed by the transforming power of the gospel. All God requires of us is our surrender and willingness to offer all that we are to Him.