Original Entry: April 15, 2008
McMinnville, OR
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. Romans 3:21-25
I have chosen to study the word “sacrifice” in the New Testament because sacrifice seems to be the Medal of Honor among men. The Medal of Honor awarded by the government is given to men who sacrificed their lives to benefit others, some to the point of death. Even in the great game of baseball a sacrifice bunt or fly ball is not penalized in the batting average but acknowledged as a necessary casualty in achieving victory.
Sacrifice, however comes at the high price of pain, suffering and loss. Something has to hurt or be surrendered to earn the award of sacrifice. God not only asks people to tithe a portion of their income but to give sacrificially beyond the usual. In other words sacrifice, or sacrificial giving, is to give until it hurts some kind of loss is incurred through giving.
Nearly every day of my life I wake up in neck pain as a reminder of a sacrifice to my college football team and tailback collogues. As a traditional “I” formation fullback, my job was to block-period. In four years of football I carried the football 12 times and never caught a pass! Paul Marcy, the tailback I had the privilege of blocking for, was the leading rusher in the Western Athletic Conference as a junior. The year after I graduated I connected with him and he barely had half that amount telling me later that, “They just wouldn’t block for me the way you did.” As a fullback, or full block as we joked, we had to run sometimes more than 10 yards before our man ever appeared. Can you imagine the impact of two 220 pound men running full speed at each other? Add that to as many as 30 running plays a game and the running “block” is nothing more than a human sacrifice for his tailback.
Twenty years later my neck would have to agree.
Men are drawn to the memory of sacrifice. Even now the names of men in history flashing their faces of sacrifice before our eyes- a coach, a teammate, a hunting buddy, a youth pastor, a friend.
Men remember sacrifice. Men forget selfishness.
In Romans 3:21 we read that the “righteousness of God has been manifested”. In other words, God has done something great to reveal His power that brings men into a relationship with Him. Verse 24 goes in to call that sacrifice a “gift of his grace”. One verse later we read that, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood..” God knew that our sin blocked our way into a relationship with Him and presented His son Jesus to the world saying, “Men, Jesus will block for you. Jesus is your blocking back of righteousness who punches a hole in Heaven for you to enter through!”
Jesus punched a hole in Heaven!
Here is how it happened, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men-the testimony given in its proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
The impact Jesus made on sin was great, greater than any pain. So great that its impact resulted in, “His blood” (25). A great force was needed to create a hole for us to run through. A wall of sin was so thick that only the greatest impact by the greatest blocker was need to tear it down.
A sacrifice was made by Jesus that was so great no man can ever forget it. Have you?
