January 8

 ‘And Abraham built an altar…and bound Isaac his son.’ – Genesis 22:9

                I‘ve always felt that the lesson of Abraham’s near Sacrifice of Isaac was a bit ambiguous. Why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son, let him build an altar, strap Isaac on it, and then at the critical moment say, ‘Gotcha!’? The whole episode seems rather elaborate for a simple test of faith.

                It is true that God was testing Abraham’s faith (and arguably Isaac’s). I think though that a greater lesson in the story is just exactly what Oswald Chamber’s points out in today’s devotion. God wants us to be living sacrifices. He does not intend that we live our lives simply to die for Him. Our death has nothing to offer Him. Rather, His death has everything to offer us.

                I think that God took Abraham and Isaac all the way to the point of sacrifice to illustrate the futility of our death as sacrifice. God does not need martyrs. While Christians are occasionally called to martyrdom, this is more for the sake of those whom are doing the murdering than for those whom are being martyred. God needs living, breathing, and obedient tools which He can use for the advancement of His design.

                So what does it mean to be a living sacrifice? The living sacrifice is the sacrifice who has allowed his former self to be martyred. He has chosen to sacrifice the selfish inclinations of his own will and replaced these with submission to the will of God. The living sacrifice has let the old self pass away so that he can be reborn in Christ Jesus.

                The living sacrifice is a daily sacrifice. He is constantly sacrificing his will, as the world and his latent selfishness tempt him to rescind the sacrifice. Sound difficult? It is. Though, only if the sacrifice is made without reliance on Christ. To live in Christ is to draw strength and worth from His sacrifice in order to sustain our daily living sacrifice.