Sacrifice

Sacrifice

My Question for God

Why is it good to make a habit of sacrificing for others?

A Moment with God

Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and the LORD will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him.

Leviticus 1:4

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

Romans 8:3

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

1 John 4:10

A sacrifice is a giving up of one thing in order to obtain something of greater value. Parents may sacrifice a new car to save money for a child’s education. A baseball player executes a “sacrifice bunt” to give a teammate an opportunity to score a run. In the Old Testament, a sacrifice was an act of worship in which the blood of an animal was shed as a substitute for the punishment a person’s sin deserved. It seems strange and even barbaric that animals would be sacrificed on an altar almost continually. But how much worse if a person had to die instead?

Today we are desensitized to the seriousness of sin. But sin is just as serious to God as it has always been. Sin deserves eternal death because it separates us from God. God is holy; we are not. Holiness and sin cannot coexist. In Old Testament days, God provided a way for the people’s sins to be removed so they could be holy in God’s eyes. The animals people brought to the altar to be sacrificed would become their “substitutes.” The people symbolically transferred their sins to the animal before it was sacrificed, allowing them to be pure and holy once again, but it was only temporary. When Jesus died on the cross, he transferred our sins onto himself forever (read Hebrews 9:11-15; 10:11-18). Because Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect, no more sacrifices are necessary. All you must do now is recognize your sin before God and accept his gift of forgiveness. Anytime you make a sacrifice by giving something up for someone else, you are reminded, in some small way, of God’s greatest sacrifice of all.

Divine Promise

Just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 9:27-28