Costly Sacrifice

Anyone in Christianity has heard that the Old Testament sacrifices are a picture of the sacrifice of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The sins of the people were put on the animal, the animal shed its blood and died to atone for, or cover, those sins. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

God gave us life. When we disobeyed Him we chose death. The wages of sin is death. Going against the one who gave you life, moves you in the direction of death.

But the New Testament also tells us that the shedding of the blood of bulls and of goats can never fully take away sin. We needed a better sacrifice. Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the cross, died, and rose again for our justification.

He dealt with our sins in this way to make us right with God.

All very cool.

But there’s a flippancy I hear among Christians about this sacrifice stuff.

An aspect of these OT sacrifices I don’t hear mentioned much is that those animals cost the people! They were their animals, and were to be the best of their herd too. This was no small price.

Not only did you lose the value of the animal, but if it was the best one you would also lose the potential breeding capabilities. Usually you keep the best one and mate it with another best one so you have healthy offspring. Getting rid of the best ones would diminish the quality of your flock.

But that was part of the price of sin.

But we skip that.

This then leads to flippancy about the death of Jesus. Oh yeah, He took my sin, He did all the dying and stuff, I just get the forgiveness.

This is so overplayed we go so far as to tell people sin isn’t that big of a deal. You can still be saved and live in uninterrupted sin because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

If there was a cost for sacrificing animals to merely cover sin, is there not a cost for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who once for all put away our sin?

Sure seems like there would be.

But, but, but, Jeff! There is grace in the New Testament! Nothing is required of us. There is no cost. It’s all grace, man.

That’s what I’m told. But unlike a lot of people, I read the Bible as though it were written by the one who will judge me. I don’t just listen to crazy ideas of crazy people who are not my judge.

There’s one verse, a popular one, one you know, one that gets quoted all the time that tells you what the cost is for the life of Jesus Christ being laid down for your life. Shall I remind you of it? I shall. Romans 12:1, perhaps you’ve heard of it:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”

The reasonable sacrifice is your body. Christ’s body was broken for you. It seems fair.

In fact, it still seems like an awesome deal for us! It’s no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in this body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

My flesh is already crucified with Christ with its affections and lusts. I want to put off this old man, this dying carcass. Giving up my body seems a very high cost, but when you understand all this in the light of the Gospel, it’s the exact thing the Believer wants to give up anyway!

Jesus told His followers to “count the cost.” His yoke is easy and His burden is light. There’s a cost, but the payoff is huge and eternal.