The greatest sacrifice of all

Many martyrs have given their lives for something they believed. But there is a sacrifice that surpasses them all — that of our Creator. Why was it done? 

"Jesus died for your sins"! This is a phrase we have heard many times, but have you really considered what happened that day almost 2,000 years ago, on a lonely hill outside Jerusalem? Have you thought about what this meant for us?

In Romans 5: 7 Paul wrote: “Verily, scarcely shall any man die for a righteous man; nevertheless, it could be that somebody dared to die for the good ”.

Yes, sometimes we see that someone dies for another person or for their beliefs. A poignant example occurred on June 20, 2009, when a young Iranian woman named Neda was shot in the chest by a stray bullet during a demonstration on the streets of Tehran. Everything was captured on video and it went around the world.

In a few hours, millions witnessed the last moments of his life. You could see the fear in his eyes that seemed to say: "What's happening to me?" In a few minutes she was dead in the middle of a pool of blood. Although Neda did not take to the streets that day thinking that she was going to die, she was proclaimed a martyr for Iranian freedom.

Sacrifice is not strange to Christians

One of the most famous books in Christian literature is Fox's Book of Martyrs , written by John Fox (or Foxe ) in the 16th century to record the history of Christian martyrs after the founding of church. The book begins with the Acts 7 account of Stephen, falsely accused of blasphemy. After giving a powerful defense message condemning his accusers, Stephen suffered the horrible death by stoning and became the first martyr for the name of Christ.  

Then Fox records the tradition that James, the son of Zebedee and a disciple of Jesus Christ, was beheaded. Felipe was flogged, put in prison and then crucified. James, the brother of Jesus, “at the age of 94 was flogged and stoned by the Jews; finally his brains flew out. ” Peter was crucified, and Paul was beheaded. As far as we know, John was the only one of the 12 original apostles who did not suffer martyrdom.

A sacrifice without sin

Throughout history, many people have made remarkable, even heroic, sacrifices, and have given their own lives for something. But even the men and women who died in the name of Christ, even though they were righteous, cannot be counted as the greatest sacrifice of all. This distinction belongs to someone else.

Returning to Paul's statement in Romans 5, in verse 8 he continues saying: "But God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Only one individual was perfect, sinless, and completely innocent, yet he was willing to give his life for the greatest cause of all - to give his life as a sacrifice so that all mankind could live. He was the Son of God and He gave his life for the sins of the world (John 3:16). 

Christ did not die only for his friends. Paul stressed in Romans 5: 6 that "because Christ, when we were still weak, died in due time for the wicked." And again in Romans 6:10: "For as soon as he died, he died to sin once for all." 

No one else could die from this cause — making forgiveness of sins, liberation from sin possible, and making reconciliation of all mankind with God possible. Christ's sacrifice was and always will be the greatest sacrifice ever made. 

To understand this sacrifice, we must understand who Christ was

Who was Jesus Christ? In his book More Than a Carpenter , Josh McDowell says that when one examines the claims of Jesus and his followers and witnesses, we have only three options: Jesus was a liar, or was he a fool, or was he our Lord? .  

What we know is important. Many years after Jesus died and was resurrected, the apostle Paul warned of others who were already preaching "another Jesus" (2 Corinthians 11: 4). This is exactly what we see today. The Jesus that is preached today is not the one we see in the Bible, it has nothing to do with either his appearance or his doctrine.

Jesus is currently commonly portrayed as a weak, long-haired person with an effeminate appearance. Is this the true Jesus, the carpenter's son who lived in Judea in the first century? Articles have appeared in recent years that show what the appearance of an average first-century Jew might have looked like, and it has nothing to do with the pictures and icons of Jesus we've seen in churches and cathedrals today. According to biblical and historical records, these descriptions are simply not accurate.

What we know from the Scriptures is that the Word, the one who was born of a virgin like Jesus Christ our Savior, was "God with us" (Matthew 1:23), and God "manifested in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16) . In John 1 we are told that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and that "All things were made by him" (vv. 1 and 3).

However, He “… stripped Himself, taking the form of a servant, made like men; and being in the condition of man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient until death, and death on the cross ”(Philippians 2: 7-8). By his selfless sacrifice, "... we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Let's look at the events surrounding his crucifixion. In the spring of AD 31, just around midnight, a few hours after the Passover celebration, soldiers and religious officials arrested Jesus. They brought him first before Annas (John 18:13), then before the previous high priest, then before Caiaphas (v. 24), the current high priest, and finally before the Sanhedrin or council.

The two high priests and the Sanhedrin sentenced him to death, but they needed the approval of the Roman authorities. Then, Jesus was accused of blasphemy and brought before Pilate, the current Roman governor.

Pilate sent him to Herod, who questioned him and then returned him to Pilate. Finally, Pilate gave his approval and Jesus was crucified around 9 am (Mark 15:25), on the morning of Easter. This occurred after nine hours of interrogation, teasing and spanking. Almost six hours later the Messiah and Son of God died on a hill called Golgotha ​​(John 19:17), just outside the walls of Jerusalem. Because he was God in the flesh, his sacrifice was a crucial event and the most important event in human history.

How could God die? This is a difficult concept for us to understand, but we believe what the Scriptures tell us: He died and his body was placed "in the heart of the earth", the grave, "three days and three nights" (Matthew 12:40 ).

Easter connects us with the death of Jesus Christ

Every year on the evening of the 14th day of the first month (Nisan or Abib ) on the Hebrew calendar, God instructs his people to participate in the annual Passover service to remember and commemorate the death of Jesus.

Paul declares that we must participate in this service in a worthy way because whoever does it in an unworthy way "will be blamed for the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). Neither of us is "worthy" of Christ's sacrifice, but Paul is simply explaining that we should take Easter in a worthy way, after taking the time to seriously reflect on what this means to us.

The Passover service also includes the foot-washing ceremony, described in John 13, which symbolizes our willingness to serve one another as Christ served us.

Then Paul explained to the Corinthians: “For I received from the Lord what I have also taught you: that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was delivered, took bread; And having given thanks, he broke it, and said: Take, eat; this is my body that is broken for you; Do this in remembrance of me. He also took the cup, after supper, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this every time you drink it, in memory of me. So, as often as you eat of this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes ”(1 Corinthians 11: 23-26).

Through this simple yet profound commemoration, the faithful Christians proclaim the death of Jesus Christ. What can we say about his resurrection? Certainly, we must recognize the importance of the resurrection, but the biblical commandment is to celebrate Easter annually and proclaim the death of Jesus.

One wonders when seeing the majority of the Christian world busy celebrating Easter Sunday, why do people pay so little attention to the fact that the Bible nowhere says we celebrate Christ's resurrection?

On the other hand, when the baptized members of the Church of God meet each year for Easter, the atmosphere of the service is solemn. It is not that we do not have joy and gratitude for what Christ did, but that we are reflecting on his death — the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice made it possible for each of us to be reconciled to God. Our sins, which separate us from God, are removed by this act of love.

There is much more we can say about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Everything changed that day.

In the years following Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, his disciples revolutionized the world with his message (Acts 17: 6), and many died for it. His conviction and encouragement can be traced back to the moment that the Father raised Jesus from the dead, confirming his acceptance of Christ's sacrifice (Acts 2: 23-24), on the hill outside Jerusalem.