Worship, biblically speaking, is always sacrifice.

In the Old Testament, the sacrifice was literal, but the meaning was symbolic. You killed a real sheep or a real goat as a way to symbolically offer things to God. After all, God Himself says in Psalm 50, “I own the cattle on a thousand hills” and “Do I drink the blood of goats?” God does not need our sacrifices; He desires us. Therefore they are (and always were) emblematic of something else.

These emblems are made real and given flesh in the New Testament. In fact, with the New Covenant the order of sacrifice has switched. Worship is still sacrifice, but now the sacrifice is symbolic and the meaning is literal. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was the once-for-all final sacrifice, and we in worship enter in (symbolically) to his sacrifice, so that we can literally offer our whole lives to God’s service. This is what Paul says in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” The sacrifice is entire.

Now, as you worship remember this: right now, in these songs, this sermon, this liturgy, this communion, in these silences and prayers, you are sacrificing your whole life to God through Christ.