Is presenting your body a living sacrifice a command or a duty?
Presenting your body as a living sacrifice is a duty, not a command. It is the believer's response to God's mercies, expressed by simply saying, "Lord, here am I, use me." It flows from gratitude for Christ's substitutionary death, not from a legal requirement.
Les explains that presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is not a command but a duty. In light of everything God has done on our behalf, and since we did nothing, we simply say, "Lord, here am I. Use me." He compares this to Isaiah's response, "Send me." We do not have to cross raging rivers or get an education God can use. Unlike Old Testament animal sacrifices that were killed, our death is a substitutionary death in Christ. We died when Christ died, yet we are alive, so it is our duty to present ourselves.
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.
More Questions
What is required to present your body as a living sacrifice?
You don't have to cross raging rivers, move to another place, or get an education that God can use in order to present your body as a living sacrifice; you just say, 'Lord, here am I. Use me.'
Are Christians under a ritual when they present their bodies to God?
Christians are no longer under the demands of a certain ritual or any particular commanding type of ritual; they are set free.