Giving Ourselves unto Whom We Belong

Years ago, a rock singer had a popular song that you sometimes may hear on the pop stations titled My Life. The singer repeatedly says that it is My Life and for other people to leave him alone. Nothing intrinsically wrong with not wanting people meddling in our affairs, but we need to realize that it is not our life, we are not our own, but we belong to the creator of all things. Even though we may never say or sing it is my life, it is very easy to have a this is my life mindset.



1^st Corinthians 6:19) What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

A Call to Action Due to the Price Paid

1^st Peter 1:13) Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

14) As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15) But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16) Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

17) And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

18) Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

20) Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

21) Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

22) Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

23) Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

In the first chapter of Peter’s first epistle verses 13-17, he encourages believers to prepare their minds and pin all their hopes on Jesus, whom we have received and one day will see face to face. He calls upon believers to be obedient children and forsake their former way of living prior to conversion. Separation to God who is so high above and all together separate than anything in this universe is encouraged by Peter, this separation is to spill over in all areas of life. Additionally, Peter admonishes believers to life their life in reverential fear of God, for He is also is a God of judgment.

Starting in verse 18, Peter gives the reasoning behind this radical holy way of living. He states the price that was paid to deliver us from a life of separation of God. The price paid was the blood of Christ, the perfect undefiled sacrifice to redeem us from our defiled lives. What a price was paid for our redemption, no wonder Paul stated that we were not our own but had been bought with a price.

It is obvious that the price we were bought with was far from ordinary. Apart from being the blood of the Son of God, which is of greater significance than mortal man can fathom, there are some noteworthy aspects of the price that was paid for our souls that should shape our way of thinking and ultimately living.

1) It was a perfect sacrifice. In verses 18-19 of 1^st Peter Chapter 1, Peter speaks of the perfection of the sacrifice. It was a complete, perfect price that God paid for you and me. God does not do things halfway, which means that we have been completely redeemed from our former way of living. That being the case, we ought to live like those who have been totally redeemed.

2) It was a sacrifice in eternity. In verse 20, in my opinion Peter is alluding to eternity before the world and in verse 23 eternity when the world as we know it is destroyed. It is a price that is outside of the continuum of time or of eternity rather. Because of the eternal aspects of the price paid, we should view and live life from an eternal perspective.



3) It is a life giving sacrifice. In verse 23 we see that the price that was paid caused us to be born again, to be given a new life that sprang up from the seed of Christ.

The first step in living our lives in the reality of who we truly belong to is to change our way of thinking. We have to continually remind ourselves of whose we are and the price paid. Instead of thinking about what I want to do, we need to meditate upon what God would have us to do. God has given us gifts, spiritual and natural for us to use for Him during the time of our pilgrimage here on earth, the question we need to be asking is; how does He want me to use those gifts for His glory and the kingdom of God?