85. Stop Waiting to Be Mentored, Start Pursuing | Cheryl Marshall

Well, that could be a a couple hour discussion.

So if I can just narrow it down to what I think Paul was getting at real specifically.

So of course we have the Old Testament sacrificial system.

There were various sacrifices, Leviticus one through seven.

If your listeners want to get into the weeds of that, sometimes that Leviticus one through seven is called the handbook of Old Testament sacrifice.

And as you go through those, you see the grain offering, you see the peace offering, all these different types of offerings, but there's also the burnt offering.

And in the book, I make the argument that that may be what Paul was getting at was the burnt offering.

Why the burnt offering? The burnt offering was offered morning and evening.

It was offered daily on a never ending fire.

It was completely consumed to ashes.

Some of the other sacrifices would be shared with the priest.

Maybe they would just sacrifice a portion of the animal or something like that.

And then maybe the priest would eat some and maybe the offer would eat some of that or they'd be kept for other purposes.

But here with the burnt offering, it's daily.

It's continuous.

It's reduced to ashes.

It is fully consumed.

And I think that is what Paul has in mind as he's talking to those Roman Christians saying, present yourselves to God, present your body to him as a living sacrifice.

This is continuous.

This is full.

The word body there is a literal word.

It means the word body.

We are to present, as he says in Romans 6, the members of our body, the instruments of our body, or the members of our body as instruments or tools to do righteousness and not to do what is unrighteous.

So there is this literal aspect of my head, my toes, my hands, my feet, everything is to be committed to the Lord for his glory.

But I do think Paul also has a figurative aspect.