What does it actually mean to present your body as a living sacrifice?
Presenting your body as a living sacrifice means simply responding to God, “Lord, here am I, use me,” as Isaiah said, “Send me.” It is not about crossing rivers, relocating, or seeking an education God can use. It is yielding yourself to Him in light of His mercies, though alive in Christ.
Les explains that presenting your body as a living sacrifice is not complicated or dramatic. It means simply saying, “Lord, here am I. Use me,” like Isaiah’s “Send me.” You do not have to cross raging rivers, run from one place to another, or get an education God can use. This contrasts with the old animal sacrifices that were killed and gave up their life. The sacrifice that was killed pointed to Christ, who was put to death on the cross. But for the believer, the death now is a substitutionary death in the person of Christ. Paul meant this in Galatians when he said, “I’ve been crucified,” yet he was not dead; he was living and writing the book of Galatians. In the same way, believers have died—put to death in the mind of God on the cross of Calvary—but they are alive. So presenting the body as a living sacrifice is our duty, not a command, in light of everything God has done on our behalf while we did nothing. Spiritually we stood before God stark naked, with no hope of help, and the only fitting response is to say, “Lord, here am I. Use me.”
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.