Articles
It’s My Turn To Be the Sacrifice!
The Bible shows us that God requires sacrifice for sin. The Old Testament is full of rules
and regulations about sacrifice that we have been studying in Paul’s Sunday morning class. The
Israelites were told several times in different passages that the sacrifice had to be a pure, healthy
animal. “You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or
any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the LORD your God” (Deut. 17:1). God demands and
deserves the best.
In both the Old and New Testaments, God compares His people to sheep that are often
lost and astray, in need of a good shepherd. Jesus came to be that shepherd. “I am the good
Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a
shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and
the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing
for the sheep. I am the good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father
knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:11-15).
The Jews were used to the idea of sheep taking their place, and paying the price of their
guilt and sins. But, Jesus introduced a new idea, the shepherd paying for the sins of the sheep!
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were
redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the
precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
We are the blemished, unacceptable, sheep to God! But Jesus solved that problem and
made us presentable! “That He might present to Himself the church in all Her glory, having no
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that She would be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27).
Jesus’s blood has made us sheep without blemish. Because of Jesus’s blood and sacrifice,
now we are ready, and can be sacrificed. “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” (Romans 12:1). A day by day, minute by minute living sacrifice to the
Lord, and it’s because we have been made pure and blemish free by the blood of Christ. Are you
ready to be sacrificed? Are you being the sacrifice the Bible calls you to be? ~B Tolbert
