What Is The Goal Of Consecration? by Apostle Arome Osayi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Five Offerings and Their New Testament Meaning

In the book of Leviticus, Moses ordered five different kinds of offerings. Understanding them unlocks the meaning of Romans 12.

• Sin Offering — Compulsory. A national-level offering. In the New Testament, Jesus is our sin offering. The blood of Jesus speaks better things than the blood of Abel — it has a higher volume and a higher plane of vocabulary. Therefore, there is no sacrifice in the realm of witchcraft that can supersede the utterance of that blood. It is expected that your life will go in a better direction because the sin offering was offered on your behalf.
• Trespass Offering — Compulsory. This restores fellowship when commandments have been violated. As in Colossians 1:14, the forgiveness of sin restores fellowship with God. However, when sin is willful — when the will was involved, when it was planned — the case carries a different and heavier judgment. Hebrews 10:26: "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." Grace is not a picture of Samson and Delilah. Grace is a picture of Joseph and Potiphar's wife.
• Burnt Offering — Voluntary. This is consecration. If this offering has not taken effect in your life, it means you have not yet moved into active, deliberate service to God. This is what Romans 12 is about.
• Peace Offering — Voluntary.
• Meat Offering — Voluntary.

What Consecration Is — Romans 12

Romans 12:1 begins with "I beseech you therefore." Why is Paul pleading? Because consecration is voluntary. He cannot command it. He can only appeal. And he does so on the basis of what God has done.

The bride price illustration makes this clear. In many African cultures, when a man pays the bride price, he has bought the right to take the woman home and access her body. But he cannot buy her love. Her love must be freely given. When she looks at the sacrifice her husband made and decides to give herself to him wholeheartedly in return — that is consecration. That is the reasonable act of reciprocation.

Jesus paid your bride price in blood. The only reasonable response is to consecrate yourself — to make yourself available for whatever he wants to do through you. That consecration is what Romans 12 calls your reasonable act of service. It is the entry point into a life of service.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15: "For the love of Christ constraineth us — because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead — and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again."

Two reasons are embedded here for why consecration is the only reasonable response:

1. The love of Christ constrains you. From within your spirit, the Holy Spirit draws your attention to the fact that God wants all of you. This is not cognitive; it is spiritual — a discerning of the desires of God in your heart. He is compelling you from the inside.
2. He paid for you. As a matter of property rights, you belong to him. He has a legal reason and a loving reason. But because he is a gentleman, he will never force you. You must choose to become reasonable.

The Vision — A Kingdom of Priests

Exodus 19:6: "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." This was God's original vision for his people — not just a nation with some priests, but an entire nation of priests, every individual in active service to God. Israel was not able to fulfill this vision; what was meant to be national became tribal. God now wants to restore that template through the church.

This means that at the end of the day, every believer will be in the service of Jehovah. But you cannot jump into service without first making the consecration. The consecration is the entry point.

The Mechanics of Substitution — 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

The wisdom through which God secured salvation was substitution. He came to die in your place. He identified with you in death so that you would identify with him in life. If Jesus went to jail as you, then you can no longer live the life you used to live, bear the name you used to carry, or be the person you used to be — because he took that person. You must change your identity. Your new identity is what Jesus would have been doing if he had not gone to the cross on your behalf.

The testimony of the Christian life is not change. It is exchange. It is no longer I, but Christ.

Most people receive salvation but are not ready through consecration to ask the next question: "Jesus, I understand what it means to be saved. What will you have me do?" That question is the exchange. That is consecration.

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The Two Chapters — Romans 12 and Romans 6

Two chapters in the New Testament speak about consecration in detail, each emphasizing a different dimension:

• Romans 12 — The goal of consecration is service. The blessing is that you will have access to the knowledge of the will of God: Romans 12:2: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." A consecrated believer who is in God's service will always know what God wants them to do.
• Romans 6 — The goal of consecration is righteous living. Romans 6:16: "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey — whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" This is the law of servitude: any spirit you obey, you become its slave. When Adam yielded to Satan's proposal, he became Satan's slave — and Satan has been operating in Adamic authority ever since. The prescription for the believer is to yield members as instruments of righteousness — and the fruit is holiness, and the end is everlasting life (Romans 6:22).

The Law of Servitude

This law operates silently but consistently. Even if a born-again believer makes a deliberate practice of a particular sin, over time the spirit governing that sin will come to aid the practice. It will become spiritual. The person will want to stop but will find they cannot — because through yieldedness they have enthroned that spirit and made it governor over their life.

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was about this very law. Satan's agenda was clear: if Jesus yields to even one of his proposals, Jesus becomes his servant. That is why Jesus did not engage, debate, or negotiate. He refused every proposition. Dominion goes to the one who is obeyed.

Suffering Is Part of the Package

1 Peter 4:1-2: "For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind — for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin — that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."

Suffering and sin cannot coexist in the same space. The one who reaches victory over sin is the one willing to suffer for the will of God. The salvation you received was procured through suffering — and the service into which Jesus calls you will also involve suffering at some point. Arm yourself with that mind now, so that when you arrive at that point, it will not look strange.

There is nothing that a man can truly do to you. Stay in covenant with Jesus. Eagles do not fly in flocks — it is a lonely road, and men will give you names. But the anointing is not affected and the lifespan is not affected. Only your covenant with Jesus matters.

The Portrait and the Map

The description of a consecrated life is not ambiguous. Romans 6:22 gives a clear map: freed from sin, become servants to God, fruit unto holiness, end in everlasting life. If you live consistently along that trajectory, you are going straight to heaven. There is no uncertainty.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him. Even though all believers are saved, they are not the same. Consecration is what separates those who know God's will from those who are always guessing. It is what separates those who operate in a full economy of grace from those who live in a partial one. God will not force you — but if you refuse to give him his right, you are not being reasonable. And he will deal with you as an unreasonable person.

The way to blessing is service. As you serve him, he begins to enlarge you. He will never allow any of the sons of Jacob to serve him in vain.