When Plans Change: A Living Sacrifice for Christ

The Cost of Following Christ

What would you do if following Christ cost you the future you had carefully planned, the career, the recognition, the security? As Christians we are called to give up our life for Christ. We don't necessarily die physically for Him but our needs and wants are to always take second place to His. When faith divides us from our own plans, sacrifice is always involved.

We must understand that living for Him will require sacrifice. Indeed, Scripture says we are a living sacrifice for Christ. If we are obedient and led by the Holy Spirit, our lives may take a different path than what we could ever imagine. Sometimes we become fearful of that change, but God promises He will be with us at all times providing strength through His Holy Spirit to do what we may think is impossible. The apostle Paul lived this out dramatically, but first, consider how it might look in everyday lives today.

How Surrender May Look Today

Someone who is musically talented might forsake a lucrative recording contract with a secular music company to record Christian music. Or perhaps they will lead music in open air revivals like the great George Beverly Shea. Before their world focused on possessions, but now they see their music impacting lives through Christ.

A person gifted with the ability to speak in front of others may become a politician or social media influencer but then when they follow the will of God they may preach in a small local church or start a YouTube channel where they discuss Christian topics. Before they were mainly interested in gaining power, but now their fulfillment comes from sharing the joy that living for Christ means.

The friendly, sociable individual may become a psychologist or a counselor but God may call them into the mission fields to share His love with others. Or you may meet them greeting people as they enter your local church with a welcoming smile. Before they wanted to help people in a worldly focused way, but now they are leading people to Christ and giving them a hope that will last forever.

We can be a brick layer, an electrician, a nurse, a janitor, or any number of professions and still serve God. We are not required to all become ministers or missionaries. We can share God through the witness of our life wherever we find ourselves, but we must be willing to give it all up if we feel His call to do so. History gives us real examples of men and women who faced that very decision and chose obedience over comfort.

A Historical Example: William Wilberforce

There are so many individuals that God has used in mighty ways. Let's look at one such person, William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce became a Christian at the age of 25. He was influenced to live out his life wholly committed to God by several people, including John Newton, the ex-slave trader and author of Amazing Grace.

He was a member of parliament and considered leaving his position to work in other areas for Christ. However, Newton encouraged him to remain and find ways to serve God politically. He became directly involved in ending the slave trade in Great Britain, which because of him ceased in 1807.

But Wilberforce was not a saint. At 29 he was prescribed laudanum for pain. Laudanum was a 10% opium powder dissolved in alcohol. Over years of long term medicinal use he found that every time he tried to stop taking it he suffered terrible withdrawal symptoms. Wilberforce believed in the grace of God and His forgiveness. He understood his weakness as something that drove him to deeper dependence on God for his political success.

His life is an example of a flawed individual who was still used in a mighty way. Obedience does not require perfection, only surrender. Wilberforce’s calling was political, but the principle behind his life applies to every believer. This same surrender is evident in lives today. A modern example is Derwin Gray, former NFL football player for the Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers (1993-1998).

A Modern Example: Derwin Gray

During his NFL career, Gray had a profound religious experience and became a Christian. Gray did not come from a religious background, but his conversion led him to pursue a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry degree. Leaving the fame and fortune that the NFL offered, he retired in 1998 and eventually founded a church in South Carolina, wrote five Christian books, and speaks nationwide for Christ.

Perhaps we value money, but God calls us to give it up and start a homeless shelter. Maybe we seek influence, but God touches our heart to realize that sharing Christ and His influence is the only influence that matters. Certainly we all want to be accepted and loved, and yet Christ may even ask us to give that up for Him.

And if we are called to do these things we know He will make a way for us. Not necessarily an easy way, because that is never promised. If Wilberforce shows us how God can use a believer within positions of influence, Derwin Gray shows us a modern example of walking away from worldly success and fame to follow Christ fully, and the apostle Paul takes this to its most radical extreme, losing everything for Christ.

The Radical Surrender of the Apostle Paul

Born Saul of Tarsus, in a town in modern day Turkey around 4 BC to 5 AD, he was a devout Jew from a wealthy family and also a Roman citizen. His Roman citizenship gave him privileges and legal protection. Paul was educated under the famous Rabbi Gamaliel and became a member of the Pharisees. As a Pharisee, he was deeply committed to Jewish law and tradition.

Growing up in a Greek speaking, culturally modern city, he was able to speak both Hebrew and Greek. This allowed him to cross the divide between the Gentile and Jewish worlds to become eventually one of the greatest missionaries that ever lived. But of course as a youth, Paul would have never considered such a future would be his. At that time, the very opposite seemed true: he became one of the church’s fiercest enemies.

When we first encounter him in Scripture, he is persecuting Christians for threatening traditional Judaism. But then he has an encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus that will change his life forever. Paul would later describe this transformation in Romans 12:1 where he explains that we are to be a "living sacrifice."

What It Means to Be a Living Sacrifice for Christ

In Judaism, sacrifices were first consecrated by the priest and then offered up to God freely. Our Savior has consecrated us with His death and resurrection. He has made us holy. Now we offer ourselves back. Our entire being must now be given over to the service of God. But it is our heart that Jesus wants most. So in this life, all that we do or say should be God's desires not ours. Walking in the Way, we sacrifice all our wants, freely and lovingly to serve Him.

As Paul says in Philippians 3:8,

“More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

Everything he once placed his confidence in, his heritage, his standing, his Pharisaic righteousness, he now considered worthless beside Christ. Paul tells us that he considered them rubbish compared to what he gained by knowing Jesus. Jesus was his very reason for living. Paul was not inventing a new idea; he was living out the very words of Christ. As Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:39,

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Paul's real life began on that road to Damascus. Blinded by a light from Heaven, Paul fell to the ground and then heard a voice. At that moment, Jesus asks Saul, "Why do you persecute me?" Saul replies, "Who are you?" Jesus identifies himself as the one that he is persecuting. And then Saul asks the question that will define his life, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" That same question confronts every believer. But contrary to many of us, when Jesus told him what to do he did it.

The Question That Confronts Us

Do we do as much? We may not be knocked to the ground by a blinding light, but Christ through His Holy Spirit still speaks today. Are we listening? Are we obedient? The question is not whether Christ still calls, but whether we will surrender when He does. To be a living sacrifice for Christ is our mission.

Following Jesus, our surrender leads to a deeper and more meaningful walk with Him. We look not for worldly rewards but eternal, heavenly ones. The sacrifices you and I make today can affect those people around us for eternity, because in our sacrifice they see Jesus.