Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus was the honored guest at a feast held in one of His favorite homes, presumably to celebrate the new life of His friend Lazarus. While Jesus, along with Lazarus and other guests, was reclining at the dinner table, Lazarus’s sister, Mary, entered the room with an alabaster box. The box contained very expensive perfume – equal to a year’s wages – that would have been her dowry. Mary took the box of perfume that represented her future hopes and dreams, broke it, and poured it on the head of Jesus. When she was criticized by those in the room as being exceedingly wasteful, Jesus sharply rebuked them while gently praising her for a beautiful act of sacrificial worship.
How extravagant is your sacrifice to God? Do you give God as little as you think you can get by with? A little bit of energy and effort when you’re not too tired? A little bit of time you have no use for? A little bit of money you don’t really need yourself? A sacrifice is not a sacrifice until it’s a sacrifice!
In the Old Testament, Abraham’s faith was tested when God told him to take his son, his only son, the son he loved, and offer him as a sacrifice. And Abraham did. Abraham bound Isaac to the altar and raised his knife to slay him in strict obedience to God’s Word. Just before the gleaming knife plunged down, God leaned out of heaven and urgently commanded, “Abraham! Abraham! . . . Do not lay a hand on the boy,” and Isaac’s life was spared! Abraham looked around; caught in the thicket nearby was a ram. After cutting Isaac loose, Abraham took the ram and offered it on the altar.
As God’s Son, God’s only Son, the Son He loved, hung on the Cross, the knife of God’s fierce wrath against sin was lifted, and there was no one to stay the Father’s hand. Instead, “He . . . did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.” Jesus was God’s Lamb and our Substitute Who endured the full force of God’s wrath for your sins and mine when He was bound on the altar in our place.
“Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul , my all!”
Noah took one-seventh of all of his flocks and herds and offered them in an extravagant sacrifice to the God of his salvation! Surely the sacrifice was one
of praise to God for His faithfulness and greatness,
of thanksgiving to God for His grace to save himself and his family,
of repentance from anything that would not be pleasing to God,
of rededication of his life to the One Who had saved it.
Noah must have been totally overwhelmed by the awareness that out of all the people who had been living on Planet Earth, God had saved him. Why? It was just God’s grace! Noah had been righteous and blameless as he had walked with God, but he knew that did not make him worthy of salvation. His heart must have felt ready to burst with the intensity of his gratitude. There could be no other way to express what was in his heart than to give back to God the life that He alone had saved. How can you and I do less?
In the Garden of Eden, God had been with man.
In the Old Testament, God had appeared to man.
In the Tabernacle, God had dwelt among men.
In the history of Israel, God had spoken through man.
In the Gospels, God was visible as Man.
But at Pentecost, God became available to dwell in man!
Until that Pentecost two thousand years ago, people were saved by faith in Jesus Christ, even though they didn’t know His Name. Their faith was demonstrated by the obedient sacrifices they made at the temple as they symbolically looked forward to the cross. Since Pentecost, we are still saved by faith in Jesus Christ. But our faith looks back to His sacrifice, which has already been made on our behalf at the cross. Additionally, we now have the experience of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Who seals our “rebirth,” or “conversion.” Do you bear God’s “Seal” of authentic conversion?
Jesus is our risen Lord and reigning King! You and I are to serve Him by getting involved in meeting the needs of others simply because He says so! He is Lord! And while we should never forget Who He is, we should also never forget who we are!
You and I are . . .
sinners saved, (Romans 3:23-24)
blood bought, (1 Peter 1:18-19)
prisoners freed, (Luke 4:18)
glory bound. (Colossians 3:4)
We are not our own. We belong to Him. (John 15:19 NKJV)
Our lives no longer are to be lived according to what we want but according to what He says. We are His faithful servants. If you know your place, have you accepted it?
