Singing in the Rain: April 2012

John Stott

Gary is enjoying the daily Bible readings and Thought for the Day which may be downloaded at Langham Partnership .

Our offering and Christ's
The New Testament authors never express the concept of our offering being united to Christ's. What they do is exhort us to give ourselves (as a sacrifice) in loving obedience to God in three ways. First, 'like' Christ: 'live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God' (Eph. 5:2).
His self-offering is to be the model of ours. Secondly, the spiritual sacrifices we offer to God are to be offered 'through' Christ (1 Pet. 2:5), our Saviour and Mediator. Since they are all tainted with self-centredness, it is only through him that they become acceptable. Thirdly, we are to give ourselves in sacrifice 'unto' or 'for' Christ, constrained by his love to live for him alone the new life-from-death which he has given us (2 Cor. 5:14-15). Thus, we are to offer ourselves 'like', 'through' and 'for' Christ. These are the prepositions which the New Testament uses; it never suggests that our offerings may be made 'in'
or 'with' Christ.

The Daily thought is taken from Authentic Christianity © 1995 John Stott and Timothy Dudley-Smith. Used by permission of Inter-Varsity Press UK, Nottingham. All rights reserved.

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