I Peter 2:9
God has set apart his people from the world. He has called us out of the darkness and into the light. He has called us to be in the world but not of the world. We are strangers is a strange land, looking for a better country (Hebrews 11:13-16). We are God’s priesthood, set apart for His glory, to proclaim who He is in our lives.
We are the living testimonies of God, showing the world who He is through our daily life. We are a fragrance offering to God (II Corinthians 2:15-16). In order to be that fragrance, however, we must be without spot or blemish, as the sacrificial animals were. As Christ was the sacrificial Lamb, He has called us to follow in His footsteps, to be sacrifices of praise to God. Then our aroma will testify to God and men that we are set apart for God, a sacrificial testimony. God has called us to sacrifice of ourselves—our possessions, our comfort zone, even our livelihood. We are to sacrifice it to him, to give Him control over it.
All that we have is His to give and to take. The most important thing in our lives is the testimony of what Christ has done, not only spoken but lived. Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t just to save us; it was to consecrate us, to make us holy (Hebrews 10:10), so that we might follow in His steps, to take up our cross daily, becoming living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).
Our fragrance spreads at the sacrifice of our flesh. We are the people of God, called by name, to be the testimony of what He has done. We are to be pure and holy. We cannot expect to be all that God wants us to be if we are doing what God doesn’t want us doing. The greatest sermon you have is not preached but lived.
—Mark