As in recent studies, the topic of sacrifice has been discussed. The Bible has much to say about sacrifice, but needless to say this one word can stir a lot of things in our hearts and unsurprisingly, has brought up a lot of questions and conversations.
What does sacrifice mean?
What did it mean in Biblical times?
What dos it mean now?
Is God asking me to sacrifice something?
Would God actually call me to sacrifice?
These are just a few of the questions I've heard.
These are a valid questions and this is not an exhaustive study on sacrifice, but a shorter devotion that I hope brings light to understanding that to follow Jesus means to exist as a living sacrifice. It doesn’t mean it’s an easy conversation, but if we only talk about Jesus’s sacrifice and not what’s asked from us, not only do we distort the Bible, but we also run the risk of missing out on the entire purpose of our existence. That’s a big deal to me!
So why sacrifice?
It’s important to remember that so many of the conversations between God and man were in the context of idolatry and allegiance. To be honest, conversations about sacrifice often are challenging because at the core, our faith is being tested. We all want to believe that if we were faced with a decision to renounce our faith or die, that we would face death. When what we are being asked to sacrifice may make our life seemingly harder or less comfortable, we take our time answering the question.
Why? According to the Bible, and idol is anything that we worship or place above God, and I would even say something that we trust will produce life and happiness within us.
This has all been our struggle, but at the core of the struggle is our belief that we know more than God. WE are the idol.
We easily gloss over the fact that Jesus’s resurrection, ascension, and enthronement defeated the powers that can potentially keep us bound to living a life apart from God.
Often we are taught and believe, even as followers of Jesus, that we are wretched sinners, and it is only by grace I will get to heaven. (Ooooffff. It's getting hard to even say that) The Bible certainly have verses that speak of those dynamics, but to make doctrines and theology out of them is distortion and makes the Bible quite confusing and contradictory.
The news of his kingship and liberation that’s offered to us should produce a response! Our freedom from sin and direct connectedness that we can now have with God should compel complete allegiance to him. If we have not experienced freedom from certain sins in our lives it's simply because we don't believe it's possible or we have yet to have found a community where we can be open, honest, and real about areas of waywardness and unbelief so that what bound us there can be revealed by the light of God.
To experience this liberation, by default, does something in us. It produces a desire to live different, to love different, and to be hyper aware of the lies we believed that led us into the pit of despair Jesus rescued us from. This is simply a response to grace.
Our lives should be completely committed to him in all areas. Anything else that takes the first place in our heart is an idol, and idol he came to abolish. This is what covenant faithfulness looks like and it’s possible for us because Jesus lived it and has empowered us with his spirit to be hardwired to live that way as well.
We can care deeply about a person, a cause, a people group, or a mission, but Jesus said that where our heart is, therefore so is our treasure. Sacrifice is simply complete allegiance. It’s working out the justification and righteousness that has been offered to us in order to restore us and the world around us. As Paul said in Galatians “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The million dollar questions is if we've really committed to being completely crucified?
Have we given all of our life to Jesus and his kingship?
Jesus did not leave us without example. He didn't just teach seemingly impossible doctrines and then say "Good luck! I'm outta here headed to my heavenly recliner to watch the Bears lose again. He set forth for us the pathway, bestowed his spirit upon us, and said "follow me"!
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15.
Jesus is not unfamiliar with the weight of oppression and sin. I believe he deeply laments over the condition of our hearts, but it doesn’t mean he gives those lies more power that the truth of his kingdom. While here, he knew the word and sought truth from his Father. At the end, he made a decision to believe that truth over what he saw in front of him.
As we enter into Holy Week, we celebrate the power of humility and allegiance and what God can do with that but let us also not squander the gift we’ve been given. Let’s consider our response. Let’s consider what the sacrifice of our entire life to the cause of the Kingdom of Jesus may truly look like.
Jesus’s defeat of evil has set us free, but the extent of that freedom that we receive is simply revealed to the extent that we are willing to believe and think differently because of.
“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness”.
Romans 6:18
Rather than looking at sacrifice as the giving up of something, what if we looked at it as the giving up of what we think is good so God can lead us into what’s great.
Jesus’s death on the cross led to God raising him up as the only one through whom which all freedom could be found. It began with death and led to life. We are asked to trust the same process.
Sacrifice only stings when we doubt. Sacrifice only stings when we believe we are losing something rather than gaining everything. Sacrifice becomes a branding of nobility when our hearts are focused on God and is one of the most beautiful expressions of God's character that we have the privilege of giving others.
I pray today you draw one step deeper into your identity as a living sacrifice and that together we heed Paul’s reverent urgency to the new believers in Rome.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1
Let us draw near as we worship him with sacrificial living for the advancement of his kingdom here on Earth and the glorification of His good name.
