We believers do need to be challenged to a life of committed discipleship, but that challenge needs to be based on the gospel, not on duty or guilt. Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ’s love for us will motivate us for alifetime.

— Jerry Bridges, The Disciple of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness, 24-25

HT: Of First Importance.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Rom 12:2) Because God’s mercy is as vast as the first 12 chapters of Romans reveals we can sacrifice our lives to worship the God of such mercies. Though our sacrifices will be imperfect, frail, non-spectacular, and sometimes we will fail to even give them, there is no place for fear. What calls us to this sacrifice is not duty or guilt, but One who revealed Himself as merciful. we can sacrifice ourselves for such a One.