Being an Offering

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

BEING AN OFFERING

 

Rom 15:14-16

14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

NIV

It is always good to be reminded of those things we know about Jesus Christ along with the whole of the word of God. Although we are New Testament believers we still need to be reminded of the lessons about the character of God we learn from his relationship with his creation written in the Old Testament. It is also good to remember that we are able to instruct one another because we are complete in knowledge and competent regarding the word of God, as well as filled with goodness. At least that sounds pretty good, but we wonder if that is completely truthful about us as Paul said it was about the New Testament believers in Rome. It seems today that our churches are made up of believers who, for the most part, come and listen to a learned and denominationally approved pastor. It also seems that whenever we do say something regarding the scriptures we either speak so as to agree with the pastor or speak to get the pastors approval. Rarely do we actually have conversations which might be somewhat of a debate about regarding how the scripture is interpreted. Yet, it is good to have a pastor such as Paul was to that church in Rome, for as with them, it is possible to get distracted by various things and forget to live in Christ, thus taking on certain attitudes and maybe even behaviors that are not profitable for our walk with the Lord. It is the calling and thus the task of the pastor to continually remind us of the ways of the Lord, instructing us. However, at the same time, if we are full of goodness, as those believers were, and complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another, then we should do so in order that we all become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified, which is being rendered, or declared sacred or holy, by the Holy Spirit. This is certainly another truth we can grasp ahold of, that it is the Holy Spirit who does this work in us, and that in and of ourselves we cannot declare ourselves to be holy or sacred. What we can do is what Paul said before, and that is to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. Once again, we remember that Greek word Hagios, which is translated as holy, meaning to be pure, morally blameless or religiously consecrated. This can only be done through our being in Christ, for in our humanity, we cannot blameless. It is God who declared us to be holy and blameless in his sight. However, we still need to offer ourselves to him in order for him to do this work in us and as he does then we are full of goodness and full of knowledge and competence to instruct one another. But it all begins by being an offering.