Obedience vs Sacrifice

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One of the harder concepts to grasp for non-believers is that of sacrifice. The word is loaded with negativity. It connotes something difficult. Something that has to be forced. Something unnatural. Something that usually involves blood.

Although blood in the literal sense is also a staple of Christianity. Jesus spilled His to save us all. He did something difficult, endured something unnatural for a human body to endure, in order to secure our place in heaven.

With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

Hebrews 9:12 NLT

But that’s the Son of God. We strive for His goodness, but we are not Him.

And so that kind of sacrifice is not possible for us. We can spill blood, literally or figuratively, and it will never equal the same level of sacrifice that Jesus did for us.

Good thing that God is not asking for our blood, nor the blood of our, um, farm animals. All that was ended by Jesus when He died on the cross for us, ending that ritual once and for all.

What God wants is our obedience.

And isn’t that awesome? Isn’t that infinitely better? He wants it so that when we serve Him, we do so out of love. We do so with willing hearts, open hands. Without complaining, or compromising.

Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

Ephesians 5:2

So when the time comes that we are called — to serve, to give, to outreach, etc. — we shouldn’t think about it as having to give up something else in our life in order to do so. That would imply an exchange. That would imply that we have something that would equal the blessing that God can give.

Because friend, we do not possess that kind of resource.

No pound of flesh, no ounce of blood, even if we were willing to bleed it out, can ever match the way that God can bless.

Obedience versus sacrifice? I’ll take the former please. And thank you.

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