A Living Sacrifice

Jesus' life on earth was not some elaborate test that God set for him, to see if He could do it. Our Lord was already perfect and had the Father's complete trust, love, and respect. It was something Jesus himself volunteered to do, coming down here into the midst of sin, perversion, and decay to show us the way back home. And he didn't come to show us how easy it was -- just do like me, see, being a human isn't all that hard. No, indeed, He knew we could never follow exactly in his footsteps, but wanted, rather, to hold up for us an ideal to shoot for, knowing if we don't aim for perfection, we won't even hit mediocrity.

And, God didn't say if someone doesn't offer me a perfect sacrifice of his life and death, then I won't be accepting all those folks into my kingdom. It was not to satisfy a sacrifice-loving God that Jesus did what He did, but to show a beaten-down, estranged humanity how very much indeed God loves us and wants us for his own. He doesn't want death, not ours, and certainly not Jesus'. God wants life. Life, love, wholeness, fulfillment and being in communion with Him are what God desires for us. I imagine Jesus, himself, asking, "Father, let me go, to show them the way back home." Thus He taught us not so much how to die for God, but how to live for God.

Jeremiah 7.22 - I gave your ancestors no commands about burnt offerings or any other kinds of sacrifices when I brought them out of Egypt. But I did command them to obey me, so that I would be their God, and they would be my people.

Micah 6.7-8 - If you offered him thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of olive oil - would that please him? Would he be satisfied? If you sacrificed your oldest child, would that make him glad? Then would he forgive your sins? Of course not! No, he has told you what he wants and this is all it is: to be fair, and just, and merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.

Matthew 9.13 - It is kindness that I want, not sacrifices.

Psalm 40.6 - It isn't sacrifices and offerings which you really want from your people. Burnt animals bring no special joy to your heart. But you have accepted the offer of my lifelong service.

1 Thessalonians 4.1,2 - You already know how to please God in your daily living, for you know the commands we gave you from the Lord Jesus himself. Now we beg you that you live more and more closely to that ideal.

Mark 12.33 - And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Hebrews 10.18-19 - Now when sins have once been forever forgiven and forgotten, there is no need to offer more sacrifices to get rid of them. And so, dear brothers, now we can walk right into the very Holy of Holies where God is, because of the blood of Jesus.

Romans 12.1 - I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. When you think of what he has done for you, is that too much to ask?