The Model

Devotional Message at the 62nd General Conference Session, July 7, 2025

In Yangon, Myanmar, is a structure that really has to be seen to be believed. The Shwedagon Pagoda is considered the most sacred Buddhist pagoda in the country. It might have been constructed more than 2,500 years ago, while the Buddha was still alive. At 325 feet—or 99 meters—tall, the entire structure is covered in gold, and the top is adorned with almost 2,500 rubies and 5,500 diamonds, including one that weighs 76 carats.

In the south of India, in Tamil Nadu state, is a temple that some describe as worthy of being one of the seven wonders of the world. The Brihadishvara Temple is a Hindu temple, originally constructed about 1,500 years ago. Seeing is believing. Unchanged for 1,000 years, it remains a breathtaking structure.

This is what religious people do: to honor their gods, they build temples, which are often magnificent. We could mention St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, or the still-unfinished Sagrada Familía in Barcelona. Incredible buildings, all designed for the purpose of worship, or enhancing your journey on your chosen religious path.

The Christian Temple

The Bible-believing Christian has no earthly temple to point to. Instead, we look to a temple in heaven, “the sanctuary . . . the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected, and not man”(Heb. 8:2). Although we’ve been told that “no earthly structure could represent its vastness and its glory,”* we don’t look in its direction to admire its architecture. The temple for the end-time Christian believer exists to inform and impact our Christian experience, to teach us that there is a God in heaven who has done everything He can to save us from the wages of sin.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Not even sin could prevent a loving God from dwelling in the midst of His people. He said to Moses, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it”(Ex. 25:8, 9).

This tabernacle wandered with Israel in the wilderness, which is another way of saying that God went with Israel. In the pillar of cloud and fire, God was with His people. Moses struck the Rock in the presence of that cloud, and Jesus caused the water to flow. Ten plagues, bitter water, manna on the ground . . . and God was with His people. Now He would dwell in their midst. A two-room structure was established, with every detail and every service designed to teach the salvation story.

There would be an altar for sacrifices; a laver where priests would wash; a room containing an altar, a table, and a candelabra—each of them object lessons. The table of showbread pointed the people to Jesus, the Bread of Life. The seven-branched candlestick prefigured Jesus, the Light of the world, and the Light of our world if we’re constantly fed with the oil of the Holy Spirit so that we may be the light of the world. The altar of incense saw incense rising before God, representing the righteousness of Christ ascending heavenward with our prayers.

In the most holy place were found two statues of angels atop the ark of the covenant, which contained, among other things, the Ten Commandments. The journey into the sanctuary traced the path from penitence to oneness with God, from brokenness to wholeness, from unrighteousness to righteousness, from unholiness to holiness.

The Call on Your Life

It speaks to us of the calling God places on our lives. “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”(Rom. 12:1).

There is intensity in his language: “I appeal to you.”

“By the mercies of God.” Oiktirmos. Paul is the only New Testament writer who uses this word. Paul invokes the compassion God has for His people. He doesn’t say, “I appeal to you based on the justice of God.” He tells us, “God longs for you, desires to save you. Consider the depths of God’s compassion for you.”

I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, “that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.” This is, of course, an oxymoron. Alive, but placed on the altar. This is the life to which God calls us. This is not the first time Paul has written this way to the Romans; it’s the very same thought as Romans 6:1: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” 

The challenge we face as Laodicean Christians in a sinful world is to walk in newness of life.

It was the logically illogical question to ask based on what he had written previously: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom. 5:19, 20). Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? His answer is unambiguous: “Certainly not!” (Rom. 6:15). Paul explains vital Christianity: “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (verse 2). The person who comes to faith in Jesus dies to sin and is raised up from the dead to walk in newness of life. 

The Challenge to Laodicea

The challenge we face as Laodicean Christians in a sinful world is to walk in newness of life. Some throw their hands up in desperation and declare it too difficult. Others justify their carnality by claiming the Bible doesn’t mean what it says, rationalizing sin, and pretending Sabbath breaking, wine drinking, and so forth are not offensive to God. I can assure you they are. God calls us to be living sacrifices; human nature wants to dismiss sin as inconsequential. 

If “Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary” (Ps. 77:13), we are to be living sacrifices, “dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). Not Pharisees. Not loveless critics. Jesus already warned us that we think we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and He says to us, “You need the righteousness of Christ!” That’s where our hope is: only in Jesus. Then we grow to represent Him more and more.

Back in Romans 12:1 Paul goes on to say that a living sacrifice should be “holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” We are called to holiness. Monitor your attitude throughout this General Conference Session. You may disagree with decisions, which is your right, but watch and see how that disagreement alters you. Nothing about what Jesus said in John 13 has changed. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Those who take it upon themselves to be the correctors, the critics, the accusers of the brethren—not people who disagree, as disagreement is biblical, but those who air their dirty linen and attack the church—had better have some good excuses for their behavior, because
they will need those excuses in the judgment.

Holy living includes the attitudes we manifest, our willingness to love one another, even when we don’t like a vote. Even when we feel our leaders have let us down. What did Paul call it? “Your reasonable service.” The Greek word he used is logikos. Rational. Logical. It’s rational to be a living sacrifice, irrational not to be. Logical to put your life on the altar of burnt offering, illogical not to do so.

We are here at this General Conference Session to do the business of the church, and the real business of the church is to grow in the likeness of Jesus, to grow in holiness. God can do that work in your life. Paul’s remarks are based on 11 prior chapters. All are sinners, he has said. Righteousness does not come by the law, he has said. Righteousness comes through faith in Jesus, he has said. Justification—pardon–—brings peace, he has said. You will have to battle your carnal heart, but there is a way out of slavery to self, and that is Jesus Himself. Paul said, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25).

If we can go from this place with a prayer in our hearts—“Let my life be a living sacrifice”—then being here will have been worth something. If we cannot, this will have been an expensive exercise in lukewarmness. Let me appeal to you today: Seek holiness. Seek Christ. Seek His righteousness. Better than that, claim it. Claim the righteousness of Jesus as your own. Be that living sacrifice for Jesus. We want Jesus to do a great work in this world. But first, let Him do that great work in you. 

* Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1890, 1908), p. 357.