Better Than Sacrifice, Yielding Our Heart to God预览

The beauty of sacrifice

There is no Christianity without sacrifice. Jesus Christ made our life in Him possible through His suffering and the sacrifice of His Life for us. 1 John 4:10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We cannot enter His blessed Life without sacrificing ourselves for Him. Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Taking up our cross means we declare ourselves dead.

Romans 6:2 says, “We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” We cannot just “try” God and see if we like Him, if He will fulfill all our wants and desires. He is God and we are not! I Samuel 2:2 makes that very clear with, “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God."

Are you thinking, “This is way too hard – I could never do it”? No, a thousand times no! This is blessedness and where real Life and adventure begin. It is the way of the transgressor that is hard (Proverbs 13:15). If you are looking for self-exaltation – this is not it, and never will be. This makes no sense from a worldly perspective, because in our sin-filled world we all strive to be the best, and don’t care who we hurt on our way up. But in the exciting and fulfilling life of a Jesus follower, we move up by going down, and our eternal Life and joy are more than worth it! We humble ourselves to be exalted (James 4:10). Jesus said in Mark 10:43-44, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”

This is not salvation by works – Jesus paid it all! But entering into His sacrifice will cost us everything.

Reflection: Eternal joy that is free, but costs us everything, may be difficult to comprehend – but it is the path to abundant life beyond imagination.