Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
On Memorial Day we remember all the men and women who have served in our military. Many of them have fallen in war, giving their lives as the ultimate sacrifice. Many others have survived and come back from war wounded, perhaps missing a limb, perhaps with some other permanent disability, perhaps suffering from PTSD, perhaps suffering in some other way. All of them, whether they have fallen in battle or not, have sacrificed for their country, for the freedoms we often take for granted.
We understand, and most of us appreciate, the price these brave men and women have paid. We recognize that our country, our way of life, our freedoms are dependent on their courage, on their willingness to literally put their lives on the line. We may not always show it, but most of us have great respect for the men and women in uniform, for the risks they take and for the high cost that may come with those risks.
When our country is at war, our soldiers are expected to follow commands and fight. If told to attack, even at great risk to life and limb, our soldiers will be expected to do as instructed. In wartime the individual soldier’s will is subservient to that of the military. The soldiers that invaded Normandy on D-Day probably would have preferred to be almost anywhere else. However, that did not stop them from putting their lives at risk to capture that beach.
The Bible uses war terminology, literally life and death verbiage, in describing the Christian life, in tabulating the cost of discipleship. We are called to take up our crosses, symbols of torture, shame, and death, and follow Jesus. In the passage from Romans 12, we are called to be living sacrifices, and we all know what happens to sacrifices. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a well-known Lutheran pastor who died in a concentration camp in World War 2, described Christian discipleship using the words "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die".
When a person is converted, he is born from above, he is transformed, he becomes a new creature, a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. He has become spiritually alive, and his spiritual blindness is replaced with sight. He is also inducted, drafted, into the church militant, and outfitted with the battle armor needed for spiritual warfare - the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit (Ephesians 6:13-17). He is instructed, indeed commanded, by our Lord to be a royal priest, an ambassador for Christ, a teacher to all nations, a contributing member of the body of Christ.
There is a war that has been raging since the Fall between the forces of evil and the forces of good. Since we are, as Christian soldiers, members of the church militant, we are combatants in this war. So how do we fight against an enemy we can’t see? How do we wield the spiritual armor previously described to battle the devil, his evil cohorts, the world, and even our own sinful flesh?
We start this fight by ... surrendering. What?! We fight by surrendering? How does that make sense? Yet, it is exactly what we must do if we wish to be effective warriors. We must surrender - not to the forces of evil, who would be more than happy to see us sidelined - but to God. Just as a good military soldier surrenders his will to that of the military, we must surrender our will to God. We must be prepared, indeed desiring, to do whatever God commands.
Many of us want to straddle the fence. We want to be "Christian", but the kind of Christian that comes at a cheap price. We’ll give up Sunday mornings. We’ll pray before meals and at bedtime. Maybe we’ll read our Bibles, maybe we’ll have regular devotions, maybe we’ll try to be a good example to others, maybe we’ll try to run from temptations. But have we surrendered to God, or do we want to play by our own rules? Are our actions based on our priorities, our timeline, our will ... or on God’s?
The Bible states "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25). We are to put on the battle armor of God and join in the fight. The Christian life is not meant to be easy, not meant to be a life in which God is relegated some minor role, not meant to be a life in which our needs and desires take center stage. The Christian life is intended to be one in which we die to self, in which our desires fade, in which our minds are renewed, in which our hearts are transformed by the Holy Spirit to align with God’s good and perfect will.
Does this describe you? Are you in the battle against the forces of evil? Or are you watching from the sidelines? Have you surrendered your will to God? Are you pursuing His desires, His will, or are you chasing after your own desires, your own will? Are you a living sacrifice, are you carrying your cross and following Jesus, or are you playing it safe, saving your own life?
Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, and the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, sacrificed Himself for us, to take on our punishment, to suffer the wrath of God for our sins that justice demanded. He did this out of love for us, out of a desire to adopt us as His brothers and sisters and fellow heirs of eternal life. This incredible act of love, of mercy, has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all who believe and trust in Him. This is a wonderful gift, a totally undeserved gift, one for which we will be eternally grateful. Our response is to reflect this love to others.
So what comes after surrendering? How do we do the will of God? How do we combat the forces of evil? The simple answer is we do what God tells us to do in His Word, in the Bible. Essentially, this boils down to a combination of witnessing, sharing with others by our words and actions what we believe, and doing good works, deeds done in faith, out of love for God and our neighbor, for the glory of God and for the good of our neighbor.
The war between good and evil is raging. Evidence of this war is everywhere. Even in our country Christianity is under direct attack. The question is "Are you in the fight?"