A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-2

    ¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Much is discussed about the nature of Jesus’ sacrifice, so much that at times it becomes “a stumbling block for many”, not only for those who skeptically explore the nature of God’s design, yet so for those who seek to understand and apply the teachings of the Gospel. Jesus’ death, the violent manner of it, the seeming predetermination of it; can all be at times disturbing elements that highlight the difficulty of discerning scripture, even for the believer who accepts the grace and life-spanning value of such monumental event.

Many concepts flow from the Lord’s sacrifice and its purpose, from the traditional theories of substitutionary atonement, to the progressive universalist view of salvation.  Yes, much is written about this, so I will not attempt more discussion of it. Instead I first confess my ignorance to even attempt such a lucid argument.  My only point of reference to appropriate Jesus’ sacrifice into my life and into those around me is Paul’s statement of humble faith in his letter to the Corinthian church, “for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”(1 Cor 2). So I choose my message to be reduced to this as well, Jesus died, so that we may have life eternal. His death is a fact; the second is a statement of belief. Like a grain of wheat on the earth, like the fruit of the vine planting its seed on the ground, so did Jesus die for those in all time; from the ones who walked with him, through the ones who only heard the prophesies about him, and also for the ones who will hear the Gospel until God exercises the time to reveal himself.

There is no mystery in this, Jesus died - but then he lived again. The historical fact is joined in faith to the second part of this axiom so that life for all can be restored. It is precisely the second part that becomes a mystery to me, not so much because it would be great to see a resurrected Jesus and request to see his wounds. Rather the mystery is in the purpose of his resurrection. If he lived again, why did he die in the first place? The question and the belief that He is resurrected, and that His life brings life to all are the elements that provide meaning to His sacrifice. He lived again, and lives in transformation, so that all life can be transformed in his spirit. His life transcends into the lives of all who hear and decide to follow him, so that my life can be transformed and hopefully become living proof that death is dead (spiritually at first, but even sentient in a future state of resurrection). So that all who follow him be transformed into living sacrifices of love and redemption; from a failed state of human nature, transported now to a path of restoration unto perfect relation to all things holy; one that reveals the true nature of God to all humanity for the benefit of creation as  a whole. It should therefore follow that the creation is not complete, that although God rested on the seventh day, he is still at work today and perhaps tomorrow, for the creation needs to be restored. His plan involves a Messiah, a perfect lamb, unblemished by sin; but also the recognition of humanity to close the circle from start to end, an Alpha and Omega that will banish evil away. So the nature of this sacrifice is one of “humble conquest”, one that transforms the violent nature of the world by rejecting the basic element of sin, selfishness; and empowers the awakened spirit into a committed search for love, justice and the benefit of the whole rather that the pursuit of the self.

Yes, a transformative sacrifice, one that offers itself in each one who follows his path of unrestricted love; not in personal mourning or individual fasting, nor in inflicted suffering or ritualistic sacrifice; and certainly not in one done in pursuit of benefits that have already been poured onto us by the sole acceptance of believing; but on the one that is done in communal purpose, unrestricted by prejudice, fear, vengeance or guilt; love for Love’s sake. To quote a famous non-believer, but one who clearly described the need for restoration of this holy relationship: in “no possession and no religion”; but one that transforms the mind and the spirit and transcends time and space.

So I cannot fully explain His sacrifice, but I do know that it exists and can also embrace its power. The discovery of scripture not only provides a glimpse to the meaning of God’s nature, but also lifts the veil of my inner self, its intentions, pursuits and the workings of the world. This discovery provide not just a contrast  between the outside forces at play in the world, but the inner ones, as love and evil exist not only in the greater scheme but within the self as well. In this way, the holy characteristics of God though Jesus are even more powerful. His willingness to pay for our salvation in advance, even as I am still an undeserving sinner, comes as graceful statement of what God is not –a wrathful God; but one whose love, compassion, generosity and patience I can believe in earnest; one whose most precious gift invites to transform within to prepare a transformation without. I can therefore be glad for it, certain that Jesus’ sacrifice has been executed for me, for the forgiveness of my sins and for the benefit of many.

Jesus’ crucifixion was not a demand from God, but the consequence of His unrestricted love for a world consumed by the self. This argues not for the necessity of such sacrifice but for the value of it. Seeing that it was not only the sacrifice of the perfect, but that it is the perfect sacrifice, the one that requires no other, the only ultimate sacrifice. One that starts and ends in the origin of all things, offered, endured and paid forward so that we all may enjoy it and be free, with a freedom that touches multiple dimensions; from the grip of death, from fear, from sin, from the self. A freedom that calls me to be a follower not for sacrifice, but for love, and any consequence that it may bring. Yes, even sacrifice itself.  

Amen.