What are we giving our lives for?

Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In Christian circles there is a cool Christian brand phrase: “Give your life to God”. This phrase is mainly a reference to the sacrifices of people in church history. But when the phrase is used today, it is usually a vague desire to give our lives for an undefined cause. My desire is to give some definition to why we should seek to give our lives to God:

1. Giving our lives - The language of giving our lives may sound noble but one important question we need to ask is, “What are we giving our lives to?” Our lives in a sense are precious gifts from God, that we don’t have the freedom to just throw away. If we lose our lives it must be for a good reason.

2. The relevance of our lives - In church history we see martyrs who gave their lives for the gospel,whether because of their sound preaching or their efforts to make the gospel known. They didn’t give their lives because they were consumed with themselves but because they were consumed with Christ.

3. Make The Gospel Great Again - The purpose of a call to give our lives is to make the gospel known. We are now ambassadors for Christ, ministers of reconciliation, children of God, and heirs of the Kingdom. This is what martyrs understood rightly, - it wasn’t a supernatural vision or revelation that gave them a willingness to die but a basic understanding of the Christian life which is to obey God and to go to all the world and make disciples. 

Our lives and our sacrifices count for something as we surrender ourselves to God in order to make Him known through us. The call to give our lives may end in martyrdom but either way it begins in selfless love for others. You probably never heard about celebrity martyrs, because there are none in heaven. Preaching the Gospel in places where the name of Christ hasn’t been mentioned or translating the Bible in foreign languages is humble work. Serving in places where we won’t be known and where there may not be books written about us may not be exciting. But how many saints in heaven we will meet whose names were never part of the Christian reading for seminary class or the top 10 christian reading list! Take courage and give the Gospel - the knowledge of the one true God through Christ - even if it costs your life.

I only have one life,

And that will soon be past;

I want my life to count for Christ,

What's done for Him will last. ~ David Livingstone