What does First B Jackson teach about living sacrifice?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on living sacrifice starts with the word 'therefore' in Romans 12:1. Both Carl and Deborah Buckingham have emphasized that this hinge word carries the weight of everything Paul has argued through the first eleven chapters of Romans. The call to offer yourself to God is not a new idea dropped on the reader; it is the only reasonable response to mercies already received. Carl described those mercies one by one, reading through Romans to trace undeserved righteousness, forgiveness, peace with God, the Holy Spirit, Christ dying for the helpless, no condemnation, and nothing that can separate a believer from God's love. His point was that combing through that list makes the offering feel less like a duty and more like what a person simply wants to do.
The offering Paul describes is not a Sunday-morning arrangement or a partial one. Drawing from Romans 6:13, Carl described it as giving your whole being, your concrete existence, as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God, actively and continually, not in parts and pieces but all of it. Deborah pressed on the voluntary nature of the call as well, noting that Paul says 'I urge you,' not 'I command you,' because God gives us free will. The well-known problem, as she put it, is that a living sacrifice keeps crawling off the altar when the heat rises.
Both teachers located the real work not in willpower but in a transformed mind. Deborah drew on Ephesians 4 to make the point that the mind is not a neutral instrument; it carries a whole orientation that colors everything, and that orientation is what has to change. Carl was equally direct: we cannot will our way toward God. As a person trusts in Christ, God's Spirit is born in them, they become a new creation, and God begins to renew the way they think. That renewed mind is what makes it possible to test and approve what God's will is. The transformation Romans 12:2 describes is God's doing, not a self-improvement project.
Taught from Romans 12:1-2 · Romans 6:13 · 1 John 4:19 · Ephesians 4:23 · Galatians 5
The passage taught · 1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- August 28, 2016 A Reasonable Response to the Mercies of God Romans 12:1-2 calls believers to offer themselves fully to God. Carl explores what that means, why God's mercy compels it, and how transformation actually happens.
- August 28, 2016 Offer Yourselves: A Reasonable Response Carl walks through Romans 12:1-2, asking why believers should offer themselves to God and how it happens, grounding the answer in the mercies listed throughout Romans.
- November 4, 2015 WWW Be Right (33) Romans 12-13 calls believers to offer themselves fully to God, renew their minds through Scripture, use their spiritual gifts joyfully, and love others well.