Are We Still Making Sacrifices?

For millennia, humans have offered sacrifices of one kind or another to a perceived deity who either requires them, or is somehow pleased to receive them.  Historically, cultures in very diverse places on the planet have had some form of sacrificial procedure that is embedded in that culture’s people.

Israel developed a rather complex sacrificial system, based on the commands of Moses who relied upon the specific commands of God [see law of Burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings- Leviticus chapters 1-6]. When King Solomon dedicated the new temple, the scriptures record that an astonishing number of no less than 142,000 oxen and sheep were offered as sacrifices [I Kings 8:63].

When the apostle Paul visited the city of Lystra in Asia Minor [modern day Turkey] the populace was so stunned by the dramatic miracles performed by Paul that the local priest of Zeus attempted to offer sacrifices to Paul, the crowds believing the ‘gods have come down to us’ [Acts 14:11]. It took considerable efforts by Paul to persuade the crowd that he was a mere man, like them.  The crowd then turned against Paul and stoned him leaving him ‘half-dead’ [vs.19].

The primary message of the New Testament is that the true one and only creator God can be known, by us personally, individually.  The scarlet thread woven through the entire bible is that the God who is, can only be approached via a blood sacrifice as an atonement for our sin. And that the ultimate and final sacrifice, a ‘one-and-forever-done sacrifice, was one made by Jesus.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest…He entered through the greater [heavenly] tabernacle, …and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His Own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having Obtained eternal redemption [Heb 9:11-12].

Are there any continuing sacrifices to be made by us after the extraordinary sacrifice by Jesus of himself? No and yes is the short answer.  The first is no-i.e. no more blood sacrifices required by God nor is there any other ‘blood-equivalent’ such as good deeds, or self-abasement, self-flagellation, or other forms of penitence in the form of self-abuse.  Jesus’ voluntary sacrifice of himself was the only sacrifice God accepted to satisfy our need for a permanent atonement.

But the second answer is ‘yes’, yet perhaps not in the form we would have anticipated. Scriptures name some actions on our part that are deemed to be ‘sacrifices’ offered to God.

On-Going Sacrifices

Focusing only on Jesus once-and-done blood sacrifice of himself on the cross, may block out our awareness of the call on our life to continue to offer up to God a different kind of sacrifice.  One that requires an ongoing thankful spirit/attitude that is expressed by us.   And, because of that kind of sacrifice, we see that, for the bondservant of Christ, offering up sacrifices to God has not ceased.

At the end of chapter eleven in Paul’s very powerful and logical letter to the church at Rome, he exclaims and exalts the mercy of God:

“For God has shut up all [i.e. Jews and gentiles]

In disobedience, so that He might show mercy

To all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the

Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearch-

able are His judgments and unfathomable His

ways; for who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who became His counselor, or who has first

given to Him that it might be paid back to hi

again. For from Him, and through Him, and to

Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever!

Amen” [Romans 11:32-36]

Paul follows up the above praise of God’s mercy with his well-known ‘therefore’ exhortation to the church at Rome for each believer to offer up to God his own body as a living sacrifice. [Romans 12:1].  Someone once said the problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps ‘crawling off the alter’.  It appears to me keeping our body, mind, and soul committed to God as a living sacrifice requires daily dedication to Him.  Casualness in this regard is simply not sufficient to bring it about.  Part of that dedication as a living sacrifice includes the additional sacrifices of praise to God, along with doing good for others and sharing our resources:

“Through Him [Jesus] then, let us continually

offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of

lips that give thanks to His name.  And do not

neglect doing good and sharing, for with such

sacrifices, God is pleased.” [Heb 13: 15-16]

Jesus’ offering of Himself as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sin is indeed a ‘once-and-done’ event.  Thanks be to God that this is so!  But other ‘sacrifices’ of a very different kind are still asked of us, as Christ followers, beginning with daily offering up our life to Him, along with our praise and thanksgiving, seizing and initiating opportunities to ‘do good and share’ with other fellow pilgrims on the journey.

Are there any on-going sacrifices you have been neglecting? I have fallen short in each of these areas, but awareness is the beginning of a corrected and renewed mind.

CJS

“Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say” [Luke 6:46]