Week 3: The Meaning and Purpose of Consecration
In our previous posts, we saw the basis and motive of consecration. The basis is God’s legal right to us; He purchased us with the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. The motive is our love for God, which originates from His love for us. A proper experience of consecration requires both basis and motive. If we only had the basis, God’s legal right to us, our experience of consecration might seem bitter. If we only had the motivation of our love for God, our consecration might be sporadic, shifting with our emotions. The Scriptures provide us with both a firm basis and a sweet motivation for our experience of consecration. What then is the meaning of consecration? We’ve already defined the word, but now we need to understand its significance and result. In this post, we’ll explore the meaning and purpose of consecration.
What happens when we consecrate ourselves to God? Paul says, in Romans 12:1, 'I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, [which is] your reasonable service.' Paul was raised as a Hebrew and had a comprehensive knowledge of Jewish law. (Phil. 3:5-6) And he frequently relied on the Old Testament to make his case for Jesus as the Christ, and to instruct the believers in Christ. (1 Cor. 10:11; Heb. 2:9; 1 Tim. 2:5) When Paul mentions 'living sacrifices' in Romans 12:1, he is undoubtedly alluding to the sacrifices commonly made according to Jewish ordinance and tradition. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices and offerings were absolutely for God; they were consecrated. When we consecrate ourselves to God, we become a sacrifice. Viewed spiritually, this type can help us understand the meaning of consecration. When the Old Testament priests offered something to God, both the position and the purpose of the sacrifice changed. Originally, an ox may have lived on a farm, but when it was sacrificed to God, it was moved to the altar. Formerly, the purpose of an ox may have been to plow fields, but when it became a sacrifice, its purpose changed, and it became wholly for God’s purpose and satisfaction. Similarly, when we consecrate ourselves to God, we cease to be for ourselves and are absolutely for Him. Before our consecration, our life was in our own hands, and our purpose was our own. After we consecrate ourselves to God, the position of our life changes from our hands to His hands, and our purpose changes from our own to His. God regarded the offerings of the Old Testament as 'His food' and found them 'satisfying.' (Num. 28:2) Similarly, when we consecrate ourselves to God and become a 'living sacrifice,' we are 'well pleasing to Him.' God takes nothing by force. Based on His purchase of us and motivated by our love for Him, we offer ourselves willingly to Him. This is genuine consecration and is, according to the Apostle Paul, a logical and appropriate response, a 'reasonable service.' When he wrote Romans 12:1, Paul may have had Psalms 110:3 in mind, which says, 'Your people will offer themselves willingly / In the day of Your warfare, / In the splendor of their consecration.' When we consecrate ourselves to God, our position and purpose change; we become a sacrifice. This is the meaning of consecration.
The result of being a sacrifice in the Old Testament would have been death. This makes Paul’s paradoxical choice of modifier significant. According to Romans 12:1, we should be a 'living' sacrifice. Paul presents a similar concept in Galatians 2:20 when he says, 'I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.' Experientially, the meaning of consecration is: 'not I but Christ.' And the purpose of consecration is similar. As a living sacrifice, our consecration allows God to work within us and through us for His purpose. Before we proceed, we must emphatically stress this point: consecration is not a promise to do something for God. We do not consecrate ourselves to a work, a church, or a ministry. Genuine consecration is to God and God alone. The primary purpose of consecration is that it allows God to work within us. This makes us suitable for Him to work through us. Countless Christians, stirred up by their love for God, have sought to serve God before allowing Him to first work within their hearts. Thus, the source of their service was themselves and not accepted by God.
We can illustrate this point with the story of Cain and Abel. Genesis 4:2-5 tells a sober tale: 'And Abel was a tender of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the course of time Cain brought an offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought an offering, from the firstlings of his flock…And Jehovah had regard for Abel and for his offering. But for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.' Both Cain and Abel earnestly desired to serve God and made offerings to Him. But God only had regard for Abel’s offering. This is because Abel’s offering was according to God’s choice, while Cain’s was according to his own preference. Abel served God according to God’s desire. (Gen. 3:21) The story of Nadab and Abihu is another similar, but lesser-known, story from the Old Testament. Leviticus 10:1-2 says, 'And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in them and laid incense on it, and they presented strange fire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, and they died before Jehovah.' Nadab and Abihu were not heathens rebelling against God. They were genuine priests who desired to serve God, but they did so according to their preference, not according to God’s ordination. The Scriptures make the seriousness of this principle clear by recording Nadab and Abihu’s failure three different times. (Lev. 10:1; Num. 3:4; 26:61) The stories of Cain and Abel and Nadab and Abihu illustrate that any service for God must be initiated by God. Therefore, God must first work in our hearts before we can do anything for Him; 'For apart from Me you can do nothing.' (John 15:5)
When we consecrate ourselves to God, we are giving God permission to work within us. Ephesians 3:17 tells us that Christ desires to 'make His home in your hearts.' Our feelings, thoughts, and choices all come from our hearts. And Paul tells us, in Philippians 2:13, 'it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.' When God works and operates in our hearts, He transforms our emotions, mind, and will so that they become Christ’s home. When we receive Jesus Christ, our heart becomes His residence, but it takes time and cooperation for our heart to become His home. Just as our own homes match and express us, Jesus Christ desires that our very hearts would match and express Him. Our consecration gives Him our cooperation.
What does this look like? Jesus Christ Himself is our perfect pattern and example. In John 6:38, Jesus says, 'I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.' In 12:49, 'I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He Himself has given Me commandment, what to say and what to speak.' And in 5:19, 'The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner.' These verses show us that Jesus Christ was in perfect oneness with the Father in every way. The result of this oneness was that Christ’s work and ministry were perfectly according to God’s will and preference. In John 5:17, Jesus says, 'My Father is working until now, and I also am working.' Jesus moved because God was moving, and He worked because God was working. We appreciate that as the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins. But we may have never considered that even before His death, Jesus lived as a sacrifice, the perfect pattern of consecration.
God has a desire and purpose. (Eph. 1:9) By Christ’s blood, God bought us, and by His love, we’re constrained to no longer live to ourselves but to Him. (2 Cor. 5:14-15) When we received Christ Jesus, He immediately began to make His home in our hearts. Our experience confirms this. Before we received Christ, we acted according to our own mind, emotion, and will. But after we opened our hearts to Christ, He began to operate within us, and we became aware of His feelings, thoughts, and intentions, if for no other reason than that they differed so greatly from our own. Consecration is the continuation of our experience of Christ making His home in our hearts. This kind of cooperation is indispensable if we desire to serve God. Before we can work for Him, He must first do this work within us. Without this crucial step, we risk offending God by serving Him according to our way and preference.
We hope this post has helped you to see the meaning and purpose of consecration in the Scriptures. Having seen the basis, motive, meaning, and purpose of consecration, only one thing remains. We need to consecrate ourselves to God in practice! In our next post, we’ll explore how to bring the exceedingly deep truth of consecration into our daily walk with Christ.
