The Ultimate Sacrifice (Please read)

Yey! It's good Friday and I am overly excited. Can't wait to get to Church. Hehehehe.

Well, yesterday I visited a popular blog and I stumbled into this heart breaking question: How is Jesus’ death a sacrifice if He rose from the dead? And it was followed by streams of heart breaking responses.

That question inspired this article.

That Jesus gave up His life that you might be saved. That’s a sacrifice. 

Jesus said in John 10:18, “No one can take my life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded."

He had the power to take it up or lay it down but rather He chose to give it up for our sake so that through His death, we may have life and deliverance from sin/ fallen nature. That’s a sacrifice.

We can’t even begin to quantify His agony, the agony that made His sweat become like drops of blood as He prayed fervently in the garden of Gethsemane.

He was in anguish because He was completely man but He had to do it because He loves you. That’s a sacrifice.

Despite the fact that He knew the horrors of what He was going to face, He still said, “Yet Father not My will but Your will be done.” That’s a sacrifice.
They rejected Him. He took it.

They mocked Him. He took it.

They slapped Him. He took it.

They yelled at Him. He took it.

They insulted him, beat him, pushed Him around, flogged Him with a lead tipped whip, yet He did not say a word in defense of Himself.

They drove a crown of thorns into His weary head and subjected Him to a gruesome and shameful death. Still He bore it, all for you. That is a sacrifice.

You were on His mind as He walked down that long and dreary road to Calvary. Jesus put you first. That is Sacrifice.

His death on that rugged cross became THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE, for He, like a Lamb with spot or blemish was given so that we may live. He died in our place. He bore our sins. He alone was qualified to do this. No one else. 

It was important He rose from death. For His resurrection symbolizes total victory over death. This is the foundation of Christianity. This is what makes us who we are.

 If Jesus did not rise from death our faith is futile. What’s the use believing in a dead God? But for the fact He rose, we live without the fear of death because we know we have hope. We will rise again just as Jesus did.

A spiritually myopic person cannot understand this. To him it is plain foolishness but God has used the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1 Cor 1:27)

So when you sit down to curse out the Lord who gave His life that you might be saved by just believing in Him, please remember that ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.’ (John 15:13) It means that Jesus loves you with an unquantifiable love even when you despise Him.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the ultimate sacrifice!

Happy resurrection. Enjoy your holiday.