Today we are going to look at the Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but we will also be touching on the sacrifice that Christian’s are expected to make as we follow Jesus. Sometimes we need to be willing to lose our own life on behalf of another. Sometimes that is the only way to go on living and those who live only for themselves find that they have nothing.
Mt 16:26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Last time we looked at Chapter 9 – mainly verse 14, which says: 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? From this we saw that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross at Calvary was:
• A necessary sacrifice – there was no other way for us to be forgiven and saved
• A willing sacrifice – the Father did not force Jesus to die in our place, He went willingly
• A Trinitarian Sacrifice – the whole of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, played a part
Truly Jesus is The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 and these two chapters, 9 and 10, have so much more to teach us about how much better Christ’s sacrifice was than the OT sacrifices. Next notice that He was:
Our sacrifice
This sacrifice was for our sins and lawless deeds 10:17. In the OT it was generally the person offering a sin offering, not the priest, who killed the sacrifice. Eg in Lev 4: 27 if any one of the common people shall sin through ignorance … 28 Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, shall come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering … 29 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.
This was probably God’s way of bringing home the consequences of sin. Sin is not to be treated lightly. Its consequences are death, either of the sinner or an innocent substitute. This OT ritual foreshadowed what happened when Christ died. As Peter declared you, by wicked hands, crucified and slew Him. Acts 2:23. He said this to the Jewish people in Jerusalem although they hadn’t actually nailed Jesus to the cross –the Roman soldiers that. The Jews were responsible, though in that their leaders had conspired to have Him executed and they went along with their leaders.
And we are responsible too. It’s just as though we took the hammer and nailed Jesus to the cross ourselves, a blow of the hammer for every sin. It is as though we took the spear and plunged it through His side into His loving heart. Yet it was His great love that took Him to Calvary and kept Him on the cross.
And yet He prayed for the Roman soldiers, and for us today too, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing Lu 23:34. Did Christ died in your place, the just for the unjust? Have you been forgiven because of His great sacrifice? If Jesus didn’t die as your substitute then you will have to face God’s judgement for your sin yourself.
Is 53: 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgement, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked––But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.
A perfect sacrifice
14 Christ… offered Himself without spot to God
Those who worshipped God in the OT knew that they could not bring God the worst lamb, eg one that was lame or otherwise injured, from their flock – something that was of no value that they could not sell in the market. They had to give Him the very best. Their sacrifices had to be without spot – outward blemish.
Le 22:20 Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it shall not be acceptable on your behalf.
De 15:21 "But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
De 17:1 "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.
And His beloved Son proved that, inwardly and outwardly He was stainless. Peter described Jesus as a lamb without blemish and without spot – 1Pe 1:19 and he went on to say that Jesus "committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth" v22.
Only the sinless could die in place of the sinner. None of us, not even the most saintly of men or women, could do that. We are all sinners, even the best of us, and deserve to die for our own sins. God’s chosen sacrifice for the sin of the world had to be perfect and only Jesus met that standard. God gave us His very best, His only begotten Son. Why? Because God so loved the world!
2Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
A costly sacrifice
12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
God tested Abraham, thousands of years earlier, by calling on him to offer his son, the son of promise, as a sacrifice. (Gen 22) We can imagine Abraham’s reluctant obedience; the effort involved in travelling with Isaac; his feet dragging as they climbed mount Moriah together; then the agony of heart as he bound his son to the altar and put the knife to his throat. Of course, at the last minute God spared Isaac. It was a test of Abraham’s obedience – and also of Isaac’s submission to his father, for the old man could never have forced his strong young son to submit.
Thousands of years later our heavenly Father watched His own beloved Son on His journey to Calvary, but this time there was no one to stay the executioner’s hand at the last minute. The Father watched His beloved Son die, bearing upon His spotless soul the sin of the world, my sin. Truly, as Abraham had told Isaac all those years ago, God did provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. Gen 22:8
His own blood – Andrew Murray said “I know of no word in the Bible that contains such mysteries! In it are concentrated the mysteries of the incarnation, in which our God took flesh and blood; of the obedience unto death, in which the blood was shed; of the love that passeth knowledge, that purchased us with His own blood; of the victory over every enemy, and the everlasting redemption; of the resurrection and entrance into heaven; of the atonement and the reconciliation and the justification that came through it; of the cleansing and perfecting of the conscience, of the sprinkling of the heart and the sanctifying of the people. Through that blood Christ entered once for all into heaven; through that blood we enter too and have our home in the Holiest of all. As the Holy Spirit from heaven, dwelling in us, imparts to us the boldness the blood gives, and the love into which it opens the way, our whole inner being will be brought under its power, and the cleansing of the blood in its full extent will be our experience.” And how desperately we need that boldness, love and cleansing.
Peter said: you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot 1Pe 1:18-19 and truly Jesus blood is precious!
A young Roman was condemned to death for treason. At the end of the trial an older brother stepped forward. He had lost both arms fighting for Rome. Holding out the stumps he pleaded for his brother’s life. He confessed his brother’s guilt and that he was worthy of death, but he pleaded for his younger brother’s life because of his own sacrifice. As they looked at the stumps the judges pardoned the younger brother for the older brother’s sake.
No greater price could have been paid for our redemption. Can you begin to understand the feelings of our Father in Heaven when He sacrificed His Son that we might be saved? Is it any surprise that the earth quaked and the skies darkened as His beloved Son died? How terrible must our sin be to God, since it could only be forgiven at so great a price!
What claims Christ has upon those that He has bought at the cost of His own precious blood! Is His sacrifice meaningful to us? Does it really make any difference to our daily life?
What about when we give something to God, our time or our money? Do we give Him the very best or just the leftovers? David said 1Ch 21:24 I will not … offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing. How much does serving God cost us? The price we are willing to pay reflects our love.
Eric Fellman told of meeting a Chinese couple in Hong Kong, while travelling to China. "A friend took me down a narrow alley to a second-floor flat to meet a man recently released from prison in China. A Chinese man in his 6Os opened the door. His smile was radiant, but his back was bent almost double. He led us to a sparsely furnished room. A Chinese woman of about the same age came in to serve tea. As she lingered, I couldn’t help but notice how they touched and lovingly looked at each other. My staring apparently didn’t go unnoticed, for soon they were both giggling. "What is it?" I asked my friend. "Oh nothing," he said with a smile. "They just wanted you to know it was OK they’re newly-weds."
I learned they had been engaged in 1949, when he was a student at Nanking Seminary. On the day of their wedding rehearsal, Chinese communists seized the seminary. They took the students to a hard-labour prison. For the next 30 years, the bride-to-be was allowed only one visit per year. Each time, following their brief minutes together, the man would be called to the warden’s office. "You may go home with your bride," he said, "if you will renounce Christianity." Year after year, this man replied with just one word; "No." I was stunned. How had he been able to stand the strain for so long, being denied his family, his marriage, and even his health? When I asked, he seemed astonished at my question. He replied, "With all that Jesus has done for me, how could I betray Him?"
If we truly love Christ, as we claim, would not our zeal would be much greater than it is? Would the Church always be short of workers? Would its income be so low? Would so many treat Sunday and midweek meetings as optional? As Jesus said where your treasure is, there your heart will be also Mt 6:21. Is our treasure back in that comfy chair in front of the TV or somewhere similar? Would we rather be there than worshipping or serving God?
A missionary in India was hurrying along the street one day by the Ganges River when he saw a native woman standing looking at the water. In her arms was a sickly, whining infant, while at her side stood a beautiful, strong, healthy child.
The mother looked from one to the other and then at the river. The missionary stopped beside her and engaged her in conversation. Finding that she was in deep distress and trying to make up her mind to give an offering to her god, the Ganges River, the missionary knowing what this meant tried to dissuade her, telling her of the love of Jesus and trying to point her to the One who had made the supreme sacrifice for her. But she only shook her head.
After a time the missionary had to leave her to go to other duties. When through, he hastened back by the same route, hoping to find the woman and again tell her of the love of Jesus and His willingness to save her.
Soon he saw her in the distance with the sickly child in her arms, but the beautiful boy who had stood at her side was gone. He knew what had happened; to appease her god she had thrown her child to the crocodiles in the turbid river. She was sitting rocking herself to and fro, the tears streaming down her face, and moaning as she wept.
"Oh, why did you do it?" the missionary wailed.
"I made an offering to my god," she replied, "and maybe he will hear me."
"But why, if you had to do it, did you give your beautiful boy? Why did you not give the sickly little one?"
The woman rose to her feet, drew herself erect, and proudly made reply, "We give our gods our best."
C.T. Studd, "If Christ be God and died for me, there is nothing too great that I can do for Him."
