1When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. 7But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written,
“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,
which didn’t enter into the heart of man,
these God has prepared for those who love him.”
10But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit. 12But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one. 16“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
A Living Sacrifice
A Living Sacrifice on the Altar
When Jesus spoke about taking up our cross and following Him, He was talking about us dying to self and finding our identity in Him. When we lay ourselves and our agenda aside, we are presenting ourselves as a sacrifice to the Lord. It is living, and it is holy. It is living because there is no physical death during the process. It is holy because it is you laying yourself at His feet to be set apart for His service. Paul says that it is the reasonable thing to do. And then, as a benefit of that sacrifice of self, we will find that we take on the form of Jesus more and more. We become shaped like Him rather than shaped like the world. Paul says this happens when we don’t conform to the world and its thinking, but we let our minds be transformed into something much more beneficial to our souls. We take on the mind of Christ. “16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
One of my associate pastors is fond of saying, “It seems like whenever we lay ourselves on the altar before the Lord, it isn’t long until we’re trying to crawl back down from there and do things on our own.” Let me clarify some of what we lay on that altar. Many of us bring great hurts, harms, habits, and hangups from our past. Many of us have had things done to us that shouldn’t have been. They were wrong. We have every right to be upset, to carry animus in our hearts, and to hold a grudge against others. Part of what we must lay on that altar as a sacrifice is our right to be offended and to feel wronged. When we put that on the altar, we are saying, “God, I put my rights and my desires to get even at your disposal. They are no longer mine.” That is part of presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable unto God.
Reader, go ahead and do it. Whisper a prayer and say, “Lord, use me today. I am yours and yours alone.” Ask God to give you a check in your spirit when you are tempted by the bait the world offers. Ask Him to take your thoughts and transform them by renewing your mind in a way only God can. When we do this, we become saturated with the things of God. Perhaps in the smallest of ways, our minds begin to see the world around us from God’s perspective. That annoying person no longer gets under our skin. You now see them as a “work in progress”. That’s how God sees them. We know that the problem is no longer an impossibility, but a possibility to be touched by the hand of God. There is a battle for your mind. Lay yourself down before Him today, and ask Him to renew your mind. Peace will come with that submission. Do it today and be refreshed in the Lord.