Do We Misunderstand The Purpose of Sacrifice? (Part 2)

If you haven’t read the first article on the subject of sacrifice called “Sacrifice – At What Point Does It Matter”, please do so before reading this one.  I opened the first article discussing the sacrifice of men trying to find and save a solider called Ryan in the movie “Saving Private Ryan”. The main premise is that sacrifice by both God and man should move us to respond by giving value to the one who gave.

In the first article on sacrifice I started out talking about the movie “Saving Private Ryan” and the challenge of the captain that was dying for him. He said just before he died, “Make Your Life Count” for the lives of the men that died to find him and send him home from the war. When people give their lives to make us free in our country we should respect their sacrifice by being good citizens and by making our country a better place because we live free. Too many squander their freedom for self-centered living and care less about the welfare of others.  Many in our country don’t even bother to vote because they don’t consider the sacrifice others have made on their behalf.

For many Christians the idea of and need of sacrifice by God is a very cloudy and mystical subject.  Some wrongly believe that if it wasn’t for Jesus that God the Father would kill us all, which is the farthest thing from the truth. That kind of thinking again comes from the ignorance of not studying the scripture and understanding that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.

When we fail as believers to understand the value of the Old Testament we lose the significance of the foundation for principles in the New Testament.  The New Testament was established on the foundation laid out in the Old Testament. I have met so many believers that have rarely read or studied the Old Testament and yet wonder why they have such weak faith in God. When God’s word does not make sense we tend to categorize it as fables and myths. Once that happens there is a total disconnect of any meaningful relationship with God other than the fact that we say we believe in Him. In truth, our relationship to God becomes mostly one of information rather than the intimacy that God desires and requires.

Jesus spoke to a wise man named Nicodemus about the need of being “Born Again” because though this man was wise and seeking truth he was stuck in memorizing facts and trying to be a good man who God would be pleased with rather than letting God into his heart to change his soul.

 John 3:1-4                                                                                                                                                                               

After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, [2] came to speak with Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you.” Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

Jesus goes on to say that unless there is a born again “Transformation” he wouldn’t even be able to “SEE” the kingdom of God and Jesus was amazed that with all this man’s learning he failed to understand the basics.

John 3:10   

Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 

There are many sincere people who walked forward in a church service or raised their hands to receive Christ into their lives and yet were never born again. They often and sincerely responded to an invitation based on an emotional, perceived need without knowing what God requires to be born again. Like Nicodemus, they now try to act like a Christian under their own strength.

Learning you have a need of God is only half the battle.  The second half of this transformation is realizing what the terms are for the opportunity of pardon and forgiveness. It’s like someone coming and offering us a special health insurance at little to no cost to us.  The sales person asks us if we would like this special health insurance that has everything we would ever want. Dental, vision, medicine, hospitalization and so on. They tell us it’s going to cost us $2 a month and will pay all our bills should we ever get sick or need a doctor. Who wouldn’t buy such a plan? But here is the catch. What if you have spent all your money on TVs, cars, house, kids education etc. and you get sick? You go to the doctor and the hospital and they want your health insurance information. When you give it to them they look at you like you’re a fool because you were fooled. Your policy is worthless. It didn’t matter how sincere you were when you signed up, the person you bought the policy from wasn’t authorized to sell such a policy.

The most fundamental passage of scripture is often misunderstood and consequently misapplied. Take the following passage which just might be the most misunderstood and misapplied.

John 3:16-18                                                                                                                                                                       

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. [17] God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. [18] “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 

Jesus is saying that He, the Son, will save those who trust Him …. not those who want a pardon without requirements and conditions. The sacrifice Jesus made first in becoming a man of flesh and blood and secondly yielding his life on the cross was not meant to just forgive mankind. If that were the case then every person on earth would be saved regardless of what they did or didn’t do. That’s called universalism.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church something that was brilliant. That when we truly come into a right relationship with God and are “Born Again” our purpose for living radically changes. Our rebellion to our creator moves from rebel to beloved child of God and thus our purpose and empowerment is brand new.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19                                                                                                                                                

Therefore if If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. [18] Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, [19] namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Let me close this article out with a preview of part 3 on this subject of sacrifice. We will be going through the Old Testament to build the foundational understanding that Nicodemus should have had when he spoke with Jesus the first time. It is the same understanding we need to recognize the importance and value of sacrifice.

Questions:

When you asked Christ to come into your life did you understand you were turning from being in rebellion to God and his ways and becoming His child in purpose and heart? If not, read the Gospel of John to get clarity.

Have you slipped in your application of Christ’s sacrifice? 1 John 1:9 is a great start.

May God help us to appreciate the tremendous value of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to live as we were called to live as Christians.

Pastor Dale