DesWalter
A LIVING SACRIFICE
By Des Walter
Paul challenges us, “I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your BODIES a LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY ACCEPTABLE UNTO GOD which is your Spiritual WORSHIP.” Rom 12:1. Here is the same test that Abraham faced on Mount Moriah. This challenge follows the chapter concerning the grafting in of the Gentiles to become partakers of the root and fatness of the Olive tree. Finally he states the basis for this challenge to present our bodies thus :
“FOR FROM HIM AND THROUGH HIM AND TO HIM ARE ALL THINGS, FOR ALL THINGS ORIGINATE WITH HIM AND COME FROM HIM, AND ALL THINGS LIVE THROUGH HIM, AND ALL THINGS CENTER IN AND TEND TO CONSUMMATE AND TO END IN HIM. TO HIM BE GLORY FOREVER AMEN. "Rom 11:36.
Paul uses the word “THEREFORE” which means, in view of what I have just said, I want you to present your bodies. What exactly does this mean to us today? OUR BODY was made to be a receptacle to contain the divine image and likeness. According to Paul everything found its origin in God, and everything depends upon God for its existence, and finally everything finds its fulfillment and consummation by returning to God.
The presenting of our Bodies to God as a living sacrifice is an acknowledgement of our origin and the purpose of our being. However it goes far beyond this. Most Christians are looking for immortality for this physical body. Did Abraham want his natural son to LIVE FOREVER, NO! If immortalizing Isaac’s physical life was all that he desired then Abraham could never have birthed the CHRIST through Isaac his seed. BUT Abraham saw beyond the physical and so was willing to sacrifice his natural son Isaac as a LIVING SACRIFICE, because the reality of his existence in Abraham’s understanding was not the physical body he had, BUT THE CHRIST he represented.
In exactly the same way we must see ourselves not from the point of view of our physical BODY fulfilling God’s will and purpose, but by the SPIRIT to see our INCORPORATION in the CHRIST BODY. So as we present our bodies to God as a LIVING SACRIFICE it is HOLY and ACCEPTABLE unto the Lord. This is OUR “Mount of Olives” experience, where Christ himself was drawn by the Father to present HIS body as a LIVING SACRIFICE. In the spiritual “suffering” of that offering he sweat as it were great drops of blood. In terms of REALITY it was there, alone, while the disciples were sleeping, that the real SPIRITUAL sacrifice was made and not at Calvary. Jesus had warned the disciples to pray that they enter not into temptation. This is the testing to ascertain the quality of their integrity or their commitment to Christ.
The disciples were not yet ready for such a test as the NATURAL still dominated the Spiritual, and Jesus knew that. The fact that they slept through that ONE vital experience showed they still needed a spiritual awakening. The cross was the physical outworking of a completed SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE.
Christians today have so majored on the PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS AND THE LITERAL CROSS on which the body of Jesus died, that the true SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE that brings LIFE TO MANKIND has been largely ignored. That Spiritual sacrifice was THE OFFERING OF THE BODY OF JESUS AS THE WILL OF GOD, ONCE FOR ALL, BY WHICH OFFERING WE ARE SANCTIFIED. Heb 10:10.
Beloved it is not the wooden cross or the DEAD BODY that hung upon it that gives LIFE TO THE WORLD. It is what that cross represents in putting to death the OLD MAN in that Spiritual sacrifice that Christ made on behalf of all mankind. In 2 Cor 4:18 Paul states , “The things that are SEEN (physical) are only temporary, BUT THE THINGS THAT ARE UNSEEN spiritual) THESE ARE ETERNAL. (The REALITIES).”
The bread and the wine are just symbols being visible and physical, which DO REPRESENT a SPIRITUAL REALITY. But understand it is not the SYMBOLS that minister LIFE but the REALITY they represent. The Body and BLOOD of Christ is the SPIRIT AND SUBSTANCE OF HIS BEING, which we must EAT or assimilate into our being so that it becomes what we are. Jesus said, if we “EAT” his flesh and drink his blood it would imparts to us EVERLASTING LIFE, being a quality of LIFE enjoyed by Jesus Christ on this earth. Spirituality, is the ability to see into the REALITY OF THINGS, no longer considering the VISIBLE to be the REALITY
Excerpts from THE WILL And PURPOSE Of GOD
THE BODY OF CHRIST
By Des Walter
It is important for us to understand what these terms mean in the scriptures. Most Christians consider that all those who claim to belong to Christ constitute the BODY OF CHRIST, but this is not so. First of all let us look at our physical body in the context of Christ’s body. We must bear in mind that CHRIST is not a HUMAN BEING, and neither is it the Surname of Jesus. Christ is the Messiah of the Old Testament who was invisible, but was able to appear at certain times in bodily form for a particular purpose.
This is the one created in the image and likeness of God in the beginning, that God called MAN. John calls him THE WORD or LOGOS who was in the beginning with God and was God. There is no mention of any corporeal body in connection with this one. However John goes on to tell us, “And the WORD BECAME FLESH and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the ONLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER, full of grace and truth.” Jn 1:14. If he BECAME FLESH then we know that he was not FLESH before he came to this earth
It must be evident to all that if CHRIST is SPIRIT then his body must of necessity be of the same substance. This we would call a SPIRITUAL BODY. Our problem is that the majority consider this physical body to be all that we are. Therefore when they receive Christ they believe they have eternal life and will live forever in some ethereal heaven in this same body with a few adjustments. Christians speak of family ties in heaven, and meeting parents and relations who have passed on before. So to be “SAVED” means that, what we see in the mirror is “saved” and will live on forever. This is the concept of immortality most Christians accept.
In reality, IMMORTALITY is a LIFE we can live now, in which there is no fear of death in any of its forms, for it has been destroyed and no longer exists. “Forasmuch then as the children (of God) are partakers of FLESH and BLOOD he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through DEATH he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE.” Heb 2:14
There are two basic parts to our being, the SOUL and the SPIRIT which form the SPIRITUAL, invisible part of man, and the BODY which is physical and material. When we speak of D-E-A-T-H we consider it to involve the taking of LIFE from the BODY. This is a traumatic experience for all Christians who still live in the carnal mind where what we can see is the reality. The CARNAL MIND says :- I am a separate entity from God, having come from the dust and will return to the dust, and THIS IS THE DEATH which has come upon all men.
THE CARNAL MIND IS DEATH. Whenever the Carnal mind functions in us, WE ARE DEAD. The GOOD NEWS is, that the WILL and PURPOSE of GOD for man has been revealed in Jesus Christ WHO HAS ABOLISHED DEATH, AND HAS BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL. 2 Tim 1:10.
“For we know that if our EARTHLY HOUSE of this tabernacle (Temporary Tent) were dissolved, WE HAVE (not will get) WE HAVE a BUILDING OF GOD, A HOUSE (not a tent) NOT MADE WITH HANDS E-T-E-R-N-A-L IN THE HEAVENS. 2 Cor 5:1.
Where is that “BODY” NOW? This is the ”BODY” Christ has NOW IN THE GLORY, which is not a flesh and blood Body Christendom tells us he has up in the sky somewhere. Flesh and blood cannot dwell in the realm of Spirit. But I want you to notice that Paul uses the word “BODY” in the singular and never in the plural with regard to the BODY OF CHRIST. THERE IS ONLY ONE BODY OF CHRIST!! There are not a million SPIRITUAL BODIES IN THE HEAVENS waiting for us to put them on.!! THERE IS ONLY ONE and that one, is THE BODY OF CHRIST.
That BODY is available for us N-O-W to put on, so we are told to PUT OFF the old man and his way of life, WHICH IS CORRUPT ACCORDING TO THE DECEITFUL DESIRES, AND BE renewed in the spirit of your mind. Then PUT ON THE N-E-W MAN (WHICH IS CHRIST) WHICH AFTER GOD IS CREATED (NOT BORN) IN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND TRUE HOLINESS.
Paul says, “If any man be IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATION.” 2 Cor 5:17. Beloved we are speaking in this section about the BODY OF CHRIST about which Church theology has distorted the Truth leaving the saints confused. Every one who is BORN OF GOD was CREATED IN CHRIST Eph 2:10. So in the realm of Spirit or heaven, there will only be that MANY MEMBERED MAN that is CHRIST. James confirms our origin when he says, “Of his OWN WILL BEGAT HE US WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH that we should be a kind of first fruits of the HIMSELF KIND.” God’s will and purpose for man is this, “As we have borne the image of the EARTHY, we shall also BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY which is CHRIST.” 1 Cor 15:49.
Paul says to Timothy, “Without controversy, great is the mystery of GODLINESS or GOD LIKENESS. God was manifested IN THE FLESH, Justified in Spirit, seen of messengers, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and TAKEN UP IN GLORY” 1 Tim 3:16. Beloved when we see beyond our physical identity into the reality of OUR BEING we are not looking at FLESH AND BLOOD at all, BUT WE ARE LOOKING AT CHRIST the SON OF THE LIVING GOD.
Excerpts from THE WILL AND PURPOSE Of GOD