1. “They gave themselves first to the Lord...through the will of God” (2 Cor. 8:5).
It is the will of God that the Lord would gain us. God called us and saved us so that we could be gained by the Lord. Therefore, when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we are following God’s will. If we do not consecrate, we will obstruct the will that God purposed for the Lord. We will damage God’s purpose for the Lord.
1. “I exhort you...through the compassions of God to present your bodies” (Rom. 12:1).
Through His Spirit with His compassions, God’s requirement in love for each of us is that we would present our bodies to Him. Consecration is a response to God’s requirement.
1. “Do you not know that...you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
The Lord not only saved us but also bought us. The Lord paid the price of His precious blood to buy us. Therefore, we are not our own; we are the Lord’s. We do not have authority over ourselves. The authority over us is in the Lord’s hands. Since we have been bought by the Lord, we should be completely His. Since the Lord bought us with His precious blood, He has the legal right to gain us. When we consecrate ourselves to the Lord and allow the Lord to gain us, we allow Him to enjoy His legal right. Without consecration, we are ungrateful with respect to His salvation and we are also negligent with respect to His legal rights over us.
2. “None of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; for whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7-8).
Since we are the Lord’s, we should live to the Lord. We should not only live to the Lord but also die to the Lord. Whether we live or die, we should be to the Lord, not to ourselves. Consecration is needed in order for the Lord to gain us to this extent. Unconsecrated believers cannot glorify the Lord through their life or their death. Only those who are consecrated, who do not care about life or death, can glorify the Lord in their life or their death.
1. “Do you love Me?...Follow Me” (John 21:15-22).
Consecration comes out of loving the Lord. Therefore, consecration is the proper expression of love for the Lord, and it is also the highest expression of love for the Lord. The Lord told Peter that if he loved the Lord, he would follow Him. To follow the Lord is simply to give ourselves to the Lord. If we really love the Lord, we will consecrate ourselves to the Lord. The extent of our consecration is based on the depth of our love for the Lord.
1. “God tested Abraham and said to him...Take now your son...and offer him there as a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:1-2).
God’s desire for us to consecrate ourselves is a test of our love for God. Abraham loved God, so God asked him to offer his only son to Him. By doing this, God tested Abraham to see whether his love was absolute toward Him, whether Abraham loved Him more than everything else, even more than his only son.
2. “Proving also the genuineness of your love” (2 Cor. 8:8).
Proving is related to consecration—either in the consecration of our money or the consecration of ourselves. All consecration is a test—a proving—of our love toward the saints or toward God. It proves the level of our love.
1. “Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse...and prove Me...whether I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing” (Mal. 3:10).
Consecration is God’s testing and proving of us. It is also our testing and proving of God. God said to the children of Israel, “Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse”—to offer up what should be consecrated—“and prove Me, if you will... whether I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing.” God meant that we could use our consecration to test Him, to prove how He will bless us because of our consecration. This was the case in Old Testament times but even more so in New Testament times. Throughout the ages many lovers of the Lord have tested and proven that God’s blessing is practical and rich through their consecration. Many can testify of this from their experience. Oh, brothers and sisters, we can test God’s riches by our consecration. God wants us to test Him and likes us to prove Him in this way.