HOW TO BE USEFUL TO THE LORD
CHAPTER SIX
WEEK 3 - SUNDAY
Bible Reading: Rom. 12:1; Rev. 21–22:2; 22:3–5
Read and pray: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." (Rom. 12:1)
LIFE IN THE EPISTLES
Romans is a book that outlines God's salvation, the spiritual experience, and the spiritual life of a Christian. At the beginning, Romans shows how we are saved and can have the Lord's life. Then, it shows how we should pursue holiness and victory. After presenting the experiences of sanctification and victory, chapter twelve shows us that we must offer our bodies as a living, holy, and acceptable sacrifice to God, and that this type of service is reasonable (v. 1).
This means that in our consecration, we must go through a "crisis" in which we leave the realm of not serving God and enter the realm of serving Him. However, many people do not see this matter. They do not realize that life is for service, salvation is for service, sanctification is for service, and victory is for service. All spiritual virtues are for service.
Moreover, service is not simply an outward behavior. Rather, it is the growth of life within us. In the first verses of Romans 12, Paul exhorts us to go through the crisis of consecration, leaving the realm of not serving God and turning to the realm of serving Him. It may seem that service is an outward act according to the first verse, but in reality, it is a story of the life within us.
I believe we all have this kind of experience. When we kneel to pray, surrendering ourselves to the Lord to love Him a little more, draw closer to Him a little more, and allow His life to take deeper root in us, we immediately have a desire to serve God. Within us, there is something inexplicable that urges us to serve God, preach the gospel, help the brothers, and serve in the church.
If we do not serve, we feel uneasy and restless, as if something is missing. If we serve, we feel at ease, relaxed, peaceful, and joyful. What does this mean? It means that the life within us is a life of service.
We often hear people praising: "Lord, we praise You because Your life is holy, powerful, bright, and spiritual." However, we rarely hear people saying: "Oh Lord, we praise You because Your life is a life of service." Few of us have seen that the Christian life is a life of ministry, a life of serving God.
We need to pray that the Lord will give us this light and this revelation because it is a great and important revelation in the New Testament. The life in the Gospels is for service, and the life in Romans is also for service. The same is true in the books of Corinthians and Ephesians. In Ephesians 4, Paul says that once this life reaches maturity, "the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (v. 16). What is this? This is ministry; it is service.
LIFE IN REVELATION
At the end of the New Testament, when life has reached perfect growth and maturity, we have the New Jerusalem. What is the final point of the New Jerusalem? Revelation 22:3–5 says that those in the New Jerusalem will serve God forever. In chapters twenty-one and twenty-two, we see the manifestation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth in the future eternity. The New Jerusalem is the central point of God's work in both the old and new creation throughout the ages, that is, both in God's work of creation and His work of redemption.
From the beginning of chapter twenty-one to verse 2 of chapter twenty-two, we see the nature of the New Jerusalem. Then, in three short verses—verses 3 to 5—we see what the people in the New Jerusalem will do. They will do nothing but serve God eternally.
Enjoy more: Hymn 215
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