Monday, March 27, 2017

The Temple of God is the Believer’s Body, and, Your Reasonable Service: Romans 12:1 and 1 Corinthians 6:19



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Romans 12:1, "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."

There was a profound change in God’s plan for acceptable worship. It once required all those complicated requirements for acceptable worship: a temple building, with furniture and relics and a priesthood and an altar and animal sacrifices according to the calendar, but now all that is changed. God no longer has a temple building of stone and wood, but in this new dispensation of the grace of God, the temple of God is the believer’s body! “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” (1 Cor. 6:19).

Today we worship God, not by going to a building (after all, we are God’s building), or making use of certain furniture, and the appropriate personnel, and observing a certain ritual; OUR worship today, for members of the Body of Christ, is to present our bodies a living sacrifice. When Paul writes, “which is your reasonable service,” we should underline the word “your.” Israel’s acceptable worship was there at the temple, doing the prescribed ritual, but Paul writes, “YOUR worship, the worship God had commanded from you Gentiles, you members of the Body of Christ, YOUR worship is to present your bodies as a living sacrifice."

Our worship today, again, is not to go to a certain building, on a certain day of the week or certain holy days of the year. It is not to practice a certain ritual. For God’s “earthly people” Israel that was appropriate, but God has set the people of His “Holy Calling” free from that kind of worship. We can worship God at any time and in any place. We can worship Him continually, not just once in a while. We don’t need a priesthood or a building or a special day. Our worship service is not just one hour on Sunday morning, but a life. 24 hours a day; 365 days a year!

"...which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1

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In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.

So There You Have it!

Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.

Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.

In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry

LLM - Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)

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