Sacrifice

Sacrifice

MY QUESTION for GOD

Why should I make a habit of sacrificing for the sake of 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

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

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

1 Peter 2:24

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

Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22

A sacrifice is a kind of substitution. You give up 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 the people deserved for their sins. They brought an animal to the altar, symbolically transferred their sins to it, and sacrificed it as their substitute. This allowed them to be pure and holy once again before God. It may seem like a strange and even barbaric ritual to us, but think how much worse it would have been if each person had to die for their own sins instead. Today we are desensitized to the seriousness of sin, but it is just as serious to God as it has always been. Sin 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 sins of his people to be removed so they could be holy in his eyes. When Jesus died on the cross, he transferred the sins of all people for all time onto himself. No more sacrifices need to be made. Jesus was the final sacrifice. All you must do is recognize and confess your sin before God, then accept his gift of forgiveness. Whenever you make a sacrifice by giving something up for someone else, you can be reminded in some small way of God’s sacrifice.

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