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.”
I have often referred to this Scripture
in my philosophical writings since it is so germane to a Christian musician’s
walk with Christ. Under the imperfect covenant, sacrifices consisted of
offering the bodies of animals for atonement for sin. But praise be unto our Lord Jesus Christ, His
death on the cross became our sacrifice for sin. Hebrews 9:11 explains, “But
Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and
the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of
the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?” The
sacrifice for atonement for sin required the shedding of blood which resulted
in the death of the animal which was being sacrificed. When Christ made the perfect sacrifice for the
sin of the world, He suffered and died on the cross.
Christian musicians understand the concept of dead
sacrifices, but sometimes they do not grasp the concept of living sacrifices. Christian musicians need to be reminded that
one of the requirements of being a follower of Christ is the presentation of
the musician’s body as not a dead but a living sacrifice. What does this mean to Christian musicians? It
means that a holy and acceptable sacrifice of a Christian musician requires
much more than being dead to sin. It
requires being a living sacrifice. A
dead sacrifice doesn’t have to do anything.
It cannot do anything because it is dead!
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