A Living and Holy Sacrifice

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

July 31, 2025

A Living and Holy Sacrifice

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

Romans 12:1 

For most of her two-thousand-year history, the various parts of the Christian church have debated who is responsible for the epistle to the Hebrews. Many today just say the authorship, since the letter is unsigned, is unknown. When the ‘church’ developed the litmus test for material to be included in the New Testament of whether the author was a person who had been with Christ, some people believe Hebrews was assigned to the Apostle Paul just so it could be included. Others say Hebrews was a sermon delivered by the Apostle Paul.

As for me, I have often commented on the importance of Hebrews 12:28 in my life: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe.” (NRSV) The similarity between Romans 12:1 and Hebrews 12:28 is enough for me to agree the Apostle Paul created the epistle of Hebrews, either by writing or preaching.

What do my comments, thus far, have to do with staying in God’s grace for today? Let’s read Romans 12:2

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Tomorrow, I will go a little deeper on this point as we consider God restoring our soul. For today, I see this call to be a willful participant in God’s work to transform my life, by changing the way I think, as a foundation to staying in His grace for today.

My Takeaway: When I give my body to be a living and holy sacrifice to God, I am becoming a willful participant in His transformative work in my life. Being at the center of God’s will is how we remain in His grace for today.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.