The Ultimate Sacrifice

John 3:16

The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. John 15:13

God demonstrated his ultimate love for us by sending his Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What is the importance of this sacrifice?

When God created man in the beginning, he gave man dominion over all things.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

This wonderful plan by God for man on earth was disrupted by sin and disobedience when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which God had forbidden them from eating. God had instructed them not to eat of the fruit of that tree, for the day they do, they would die. God was referring to spiritual death because man was a spirit being. Sin makes us spiritually dead. Sin separated Adam from God. A spiritually dead man cannot worship and serve God in spirit and in truth. A spiritually dead man cannot walk in the supernatural and access all of the wondrous goodness that God has made available for him.

Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

For man to reconcile with God and be restored to his original spiritual form, the ultimate sacrifice had to be made. Jesus offered himself as the sacrificial lamb, on the cross he died for us and he rose on the third day, defeating death - the spiritual death of man.

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Romans 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved. By believing and receiving the Good News that Jesus is the Son of God who died and rose again for your sins and accepting him into your life as your Lord and Saviour, then you too can be saved from death. We have the gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Romans 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your son Jesus to die for my sins. Thank you Lord for the salvation of my soul. I ask for grace to live a life of holiness, pleasing in your sight all the days of my life in Jesus name.