“A wag once observed, ‘The trouble with living sacrifices is that they keep trying to crawl off the alter.’ Whether or not Paul intended to coin a new oxymoron (like jumbo shrimp), this phrase is jarring. After all, in the biblical worldview, sacrifice always entails death — a giving up of life. . . Yet living sacrifices are on the loose in the world wherever Christ’s perfect sacrifice leads to truth-telling, foot washing, enlightening, encouraging, overflowing, leading, and caring — all now multiplying Christ’s abundant life.”
Larry Wohlrabe, Bishop of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, from Luther Seminary’s God Pause Daily Email Devotions, commenting on Romans 12: 1-8.