Dying To Self

If there’s one Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote more well-known than others, certainly it must be this statement from his classic work, The Cost Of Discipleship:

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

So true! And the greater context of that quote indicates that Bonhoeffer has in mind the Christian’s “abandoning the attachments of this world,” an implication surfacing from Peter’s teachings in the second chapter of his first letter.

Continuing our verse-by-verse studies of 1 Peter, we return to our exposition of 1 Peter 2:5:

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Last time we considered Peter’s teaching about how Christians are living stones, connected to one another and needing one another in order to live for Christ.

Now we focus upon the second part of verse 5 where Peter makes this statement about Christians being “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices…”

What does this mean?

In the Old Testament, believers brought animals to God’s temple in order to offer them as sacrifices. And the believers did not approach God directly, but rather gave those animals to the temple priests. The priests, then, would offer the animals as sacrifices to God, killing the animal and burning it upon the altar. Doing this illustrated, among other things, the idea of death to sin and devotion to God.

But now, through the power of the gospel, the altar in the temple has been replaced by the death of Christ and His shed blood. And the temple priests have been replaced by you and me, by Christians; holy priests.

In essence, Peter is teaching this:

You Christians are living stones and you all are your own priests. You don’t need another person acting as a priest. You are priests yourselves! And your offering today is not the offering of animals, but the offering of yourselves as sacrifices. You are a spiritual sacrifice. You are to die; our Lord doesn’t want animals–He wants you!

So die to yourself and devote yourself to the Lord.

Die to yourself by laying aside your personal, selfish pursuits and live for Jesus Christ!

This teaching is similar to Paul’s words in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

So we’re to continually come to Christ that we may continually live for Christ.

We are acceptable living sacrifices to the Lord to the extent that we continually die to self.

• So you are a living sacrifice when you die to doubt and live to trust.
• You are a living sacrifice when you die to your self-interests and live for the interests of others.
• You are a living sacrifice when you die to insisting on having your way, and live that others may have their way.
• You are a living sacrifice when you die to demanding an apology and live to forgive others.
• You are a living sacrifice when you die to hoarding your wealth and you live to give your wealth away.
• You are a living sacrifice when you die to lust and live to love.
• You are a living sacrifice when you die to your will and live for God’s will.

The sacrifices acceptable to God are acceptable to Him–last part of verse 5–“through Jesus Christ.” This is the only way; through Christ.

Many people are trying to please God through some other means: human effort, good works, or some other religion. They have this inner sense of God from nature and from their conscience and they are trying to please Him. They are offering up sacrifices to Him.

They may well be sincere, but are sincerely wrong.

The only sacrifices that the One True God of the Bible accepts are those that come to Him–again, last part of verse 5–“through Jesus Christ.”

We must continually come to Christ. We must continually live for Christ. Thirdly, we must continually trust Christ. We’ll talk more about that one next time.

For now…

What About You?

• If you are a Christian, what are some other ways you may need to “die to self” today?
• If you’re not a Christian, die today to any other means of trying to earn God’s approval and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
• Interested in Bonhoeffer? More here.