Mike Focht 4/3/2026
After laying out some of the most systematic doctrinal teachings in all of Scripture, Paul the apostle pleads with the Roman believers to offer themselves to God as living sacrifices. No doubt, this is one of the most familiar and challenging applicational exhortations in all the Scripture. God, by the breath of inspiration, continues to repeat this plea to every one of us reading this Word.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. What I would like to point out about this plea of God, through the apostle Paul, is how it is given in the sphere of God’s mercy. We must not forget to include those five essential words in each aspect of the plea! By the mercies of God!
God calls us in His mercy. That God would even plead with us at all is a mercy. The Holy Spirit in us should echo this desire. That the plea comes to all brethren is a mercy of God. None of God’s true children are excluded: old, young, mature, immature, near to God, far from God, those walking sanctified, those walking backslidden and unclean—all of them. God knows who He is pleading with. We are not worthy of being called, but He is worthy of calling.
God is not pleading with us to present ourselves as living sacrifices because we are already holy and mature. The mercy of God finds us all in a state of imperfection. Maybe the very idea of living life as holy and acceptable to God seems unrealistic? Is the concept of a living sacrifice far from our practical experience? Perhaps we don’t even know a single person who lives like a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
Focusing on how far we are from this life will make us feel condemned. That is why Paul, through the Holy Spirit, told us to focus on the mercies of God! If thinking of offering yourself to God as a living sacrifice makes you feel condemned or ashamed, Satan is trying to convince you that, for some reason, you should not present yourself to Him because you are an imperfect sacrifice. Don’t listen to the liar. Listen to your merciful Lord.
Would it be a miracle for us to live like this? Yes! It was a miracle for Paul! A miracle of God’s mercy. It is the mercy of God that any sinner ever hears His plea to offer ourselves back to Him. If God is pleading with you to surrender your life to Him and to become a living sacrifice to His pleasure, don’t focus on your unworthiness as a sinner; be persuaded by His mercies as your Savior! His mercies are new every morning. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! is the gateway prayer to a holy life. Admitting our need for mercy is the way we hand our lives over to Him. Just present your fallible heart, mind, and body to Him and pray, God, if you don’t help me in Your great mercy, all I will ever do is sin! Then follow hard after Him.