1 Kings 18:33
33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood
After Elijah had repaired the altar according to the prescribed order, he put the wood and cut up the bull in pieces and laid it on the altar. A bull offering was a sin sacrifice to make atonement.
We who live in the New Testament no longer have to offer bull sacrifices for the atonement of sin because Jesus became our sacrifice once and for all on the cross at calvary. All we have to do is believe in him and allow him to live in us.
Romans 12:1 NKJV
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
You are I are to offer our bodies not as the dead animal that lay on the altar, but as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God. To offer our bodies means to offer our whole self, body mind and soul. Remember, the greatest commandment tells us to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul. God wants the whole of us because Jesus gave his whole self to us.
Remember as well that in 1 Cor 16:20 Paul informs us that we were bought with a price, and thus we ought to glorify God in our bodies and spirit which are his. In the previous verse, he mentions to us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
We are living sacrifices always on the altar meaning we die daily (1 Cor 15:31) meaning I no longer live, but Christ lives through me.
Jesus put it this way, that each must pick up his cross daily and follow him.
It sounds like an oxymoron that we are living sacrifices, but we die to self daily.
Our bodies are the containers we live in, but now that we are born again the Holy Spirit lives in us as well. May we learn to take good care of our bodies and what we do with them, not offering them to harlots and substances that abuse. Instead, we should use them for God’s glory and offer ourselves wholehearted in worship to God.
