I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.

 

Tuesday, August 29, 2023


Psalm 145

2 Samuel 24:15-25

Acts 21:15-26


Observance: Beheading of John the Baptist


I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.


The niche area of Reformed Christian social media was set in a bit of a spin somewhat recently. A certain infamous political conservative speaker had made the claim that Judaism is a religion of actions, while Christianity is a religion of believing. This set off a number of responses and counter-arguments from our bearded Calvinist internet friends, who quite correctly pointed out that to reduce these two religions to those two basics shows a fundamental misunderstanding of both.


All through the Old Testament, and particularly in the prophets, God calls the people to stay away from a surface-level understanding of religion; to turn in their hearts back to the Lord. Meanwhile in the New Testament we find no lack of instruction and exhortation to reflect our faith with the fruit of our deeds.


Today we read that it was not just the prophets in the Old Testament who understood what God really wants from us. King David, desperate to do what God wants, repents from his sins and listens carefully on how to repair his broken relationship with the Lord. David understood fully what the purpose of offering burnt sacrifices was. God didn’t need dead animals to make Himself feel better; rather, by offering a sacrifice, David was showing by his deeds what was happening in his heart: that he loved God completely.


Every Sunday morning we tell our heavenly Father that “we offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice” (quoting St Paul in Romans 12). That is to say, we do not isolate the sacrificial part of our religion to something that happens once a week in church. We do not offer burnt offerings to the Lord our God that costs us nothing. Rather, we offer to the Lord our God everything: every waking moment, every breath, every thought, every intention, every desire. This level of devotion may seem like it would cost us everything. But Christ offered everything of Himself on our behalf on the cross, so that we might be given everything in return.

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