“But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourself to God as weapons for righteousness.”

Romans 6:13

We were made to give our whole selves, every part of us, to God for His use. The phrase, “all the parts of yourself”, reflects the ideal of sanctification for every follower of Jesus. To hold nothing back from the Savior who gave His whole self for us. The temptation for every one of us is to give our heart in fragments. Compartmentalizing our devotion by giving a little here and there to appease our conscience but holding back from this command to surrender where we feel it may cost us. The reality is, as we hold back the places of our affections from the Lord, we are offering those very places up as weapons to someone else— something else. Paul tells us in Romans that there are two ways to offer ourselves. Either we are offering all the parts of ourselves to God as weapons for righteousness or we are offering ourselves to sin as weapons for unrighteousness (Romans 6: 13). Do you hear this? Either we give ourselves wholly to the Lord— a moment by moment posture of surrender to His will and eternal purposes— or we are supplying weaponry for the very disease that killed us from the beginning; sin. 

Doesn’t sin cling so closely? Aren’t we all fighting battles that we feel no one understands, no one sees? Complete surrender. Absolute devotion. Whole pursuit. These phrases scare us. We don’t like vocabulary which leaves nothing left. It is easy to push away from the biblical mandate to follow Christ without second thought. But this is what our God has called us to. The encouraging message of this call and the good news that fuels us is found in Romans 6:6-7.

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.” 

Romans 6:6-7

Or to paraphrase:

“Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.”

Romans 6:6-11 MSG

‭‭“Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you”. All it offers is noise, calamity, and false promises. But the language of the Spirit is clothed with a grace-empowering message. Grace has come and we have been united to Christ, dying with Him we will rise with Him. Until that time comes, He is working on all of us. Sin clings closely, but today the call is to remember its place. Not only sin’s place, but consider your position, Christian. You died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. This means that positionally you are wholly and completely His. 

The question is: In what way are you operating outside of who God has already said you are? Where do your feet need to be brought back in line with the cadence of the gospel? Offer your whole self to Him today. Especially the parts that feel most vulnerable…most fragile…most costly. Most likely, that is the very place the Spirit of God is hovering over and ready to transform to bring to life what remains unformed in you. There is nothing to fear. Whether it is your finances, time management, love life, friendships, or entertainment. It may seem trivial and you are already shutting down a prompting because so. No sin is trivial and no offering is without impact. Offer every part of yourself to God and experience leaps and bounds in your sanctification. Where do you start? Call out to the Father and confess where you are tempted to withhold trust. Admit where surrender is scary to you. That is where I am beginning today. I pray you will join me in this.