How to Be an Offering - Accepting Our Weakness and Trusting His Perfection
The more I study the subject of worship within the Bible and how God made things right through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross the more I am completely blown away at how it all works. I am blown away at the privilege we get now to actually be the sacrifices that God now desires; living sacrfices. (Romans 12:1)
But what happens when we fail? And fail we do. Over and over and over. We are called to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15) to present our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) and to “offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5) But how do we succeed in the task of doing these things we have been called to?
The simple answer is this: we can’t succeed. It is hopless for us. No matter how hard we try, we won’t make it. The longer answer and the one that gives us victory is found in that small phrase in 1 Peter 2:5 that we might skip over sometimes: “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
If you are feeling like your offering isn’t good enough, you’re right! But the comfort comes in this. Because of the Blood of Jesus Christ, our sinful offering becomes not only acceptable but perfected before God! Perfected! Hebrews 10:14 says,
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
Yes, our lives are sinful and will never measure up to God’s standard, but because of Jesus’ perfect blood becoming the perfect sacrifice for us, He now perfects all of our sacrifices that we are called to make to God! What victory that brings us! Does this give us license to sin and just take for granted that perfect sacrifice? Absolutely not. The rest of Hebrews 10 gives some strong warnings against this. But we have the confidence and ability to know that when we do fail in the midst of pursuing holy lives, Jesus is always there for us before the Father, pleading for us to the Father that His blood makes us completely and absolutely clean.