Sacrifice: When Nothing Else Matters

It was not the obligation or duty of Jesus to die for us. His sacrifice was wholly a matter of love. It is His incomprehensible willingness to love the unlovable that staggers the mind. A love publicly manifested by His giving up heaven's glory to enter a hostile and sinful world as a man rejected, ridiculed and condemned to die unjustly. The innocent for the guilty, to set them free, forever declares His humiliation and voluntary sacrifice on our behalf.

There are only two reasons that love motivated Jesus to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. Namely, His love for God and His love for God's creation – nothing else mattered (Hebrews 10:5-7). We must understand this, without that sacrifice is impossible! Nothing else mattered in his love but God and people – not His physical comforts (Luke 9:58); not His personal preferences (Matthew 26:42); not even His intense longing to be with His Father in Heaven apart from going to the cross (Luke 5:16).

Only when nothing else matters but God and people will God's people come to know the true meaning of sacrifice. Until then, the work of the local church will suffer want at the hands of physical comforts, personal preferences and longing to be elsewhere. We are not called to duty or convenience but to conviction and sacrifice that willingly serves through love. "And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. …No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 9:23, 62) If we learn to sacrifice because nothing else matters but God and people, then our light will always shine.