Who are you living for?

Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

If you turn on the television and spend five minutes watching a show or commercials, you will notice one general theme: we are expected to cater to ourselves. Society thrives on humanism. Commercials solicit our wants and desires. Situation comedies revolve around a character's pursuit of career, love, or money. Even Christian authors are writing books on how to "Become a Better You" and "Live in Abundance." However, the central message of the cross is anti-humanism. It is a call to deny yourself and to be crucified with Christ.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes that we have been crucified with Christ. He uses the perfect tense, indicating that, though the event was completed in the past, it has a lasting effect. As believers, we share in both Christ's death and resurrection. The life we now live is not a result of anything that we have done on our own, but rather it is a result of the workings of Christ. Since we are now united with Christ, there is no more "I" in the sense that we are an individualistic, self-centered person. Christ's selfless sacrifice united us to him and calls us to do the same: to die to our selfish nature and live in fellowship with him. Therefore, we should no longer live according to our own desires, but we should allow Christ to live in and through us. We should do this because he was faithful in showing his love for us through his sacrifice. As a result, we ought to do the same.

Instead of focusing on ourselves, and what feeds our selfish desires, we should instead, focus on how we might serve the kingdom of God. Will this build our wealth, popularity, or status? Probably not. But it will build our character and obedience. If we do not of focus on how we might increase our own status, but place our minds on how we might display God's glory, we will show the world that we are different.

Tomorrow, we will look more in depth as to what this principle looks like practically. For today, I pose the question: who are you living for and who does the world see when they look at you?

Daily Challenge - July 08 - What is Worship?

Romans 12:1 - I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

In my last post, I posed the question, "are we serving (worshipping) God in the manner of reverence and admiration to which we should or are we merely pleasing him in the manner in which we are comfortable?" Today, I want to begin to look at what it means to serve God.

In the Old Testament, worship and service revolved around the sacrificial system. Offerings were made to God at various times for various reasons. However, Jesus brought an end to the sacrificial system by becoming the ultimate sacrifice and the great High Priest and ultimate mediator between God and man, making the system of the Old Testament obsolete. Therefore, in light of the fact that worship and service to God no longer revolved around the sacrificial system, how is the New Testament Church to serve God. I believe that the first part of the answer is found in Romans 12:1.

The first verse of Romans reflects back on the salvation God has bestowed upon both the Gentiles and Jews. In light of all that believers have received, and because of God's mercies, we are to offer back to God our bodies. The word bodies, in this context, refers to the whole person, therefore indicating that genuine commitment to God involves every aspect of a believer's life (Schreiner, 650). You cannot dedicate your spirit to God and not your body, nor can you dedicate your body to God and not your spirit. Our bodies, as sacrifices, that we are to offer to God are described as living, holy, and acceptable to God. By living, Paul is referring to a person's new spiritual state. However, this quality also contrasts with the Old Testament sacrifice in that now, the sacrifice consists of a quality of constant commitment (Dunn,710). Therefore, the quality of the sacrifice to which we offer God is one of constant dedication. We, as a sacrifice to God, are also to be holy, or set apart. This quality refers to the singular devotion to God, forsaking any other. The third attribute of our sacrifice is that we are to be pleasing to God. This quality represents the element of enjoyment that God receives through our sacrifice. He is well-pleased to have our constant and consistent commitment that is given to Him alone. It is this that God sees as our act of service to Him that is thought out and dedicated explicitly to Him (BDAG).

So what does that look like in 2011: To offer our entire lives to God in a way that we are consistently committed, constantly dedicated, and well-pleasing to God? How does that practically play out in our home life, in the workplace, and in our social life? How does that play out within the church?

The Challenge today is to think about how this applies within your own life. How do you show consistent devotion in each of your realms of influence so that God might be well-pleased with your worship?