“We feast on a sacrifice at our spiritual altar, but those who serve as priests in the old system of worship have no right to eat of it. For the high priest carries the blood of animals into the holiest chamber as a sacrifice for sin, and then burns the bodies of the animals outside the city. And Jesus, our sin-sacrifice, also suffered death outside the city walls to make us holy by His blood.
So we must arise and join Him outside the religious “walls” and bear His disgrace. For we have no city here on earth to be our permanent home, but we seek the city that is destined to come. So we no longer offer up a steady stream of blood sacrifices, but through Jesus, we will offer up to God a steady stream of praise sacrifices – these are “the lambs” we offer from our lips that celebrate His name!
We will show mercy to the poor and not miss an opportunity to do acts of kindness for others, for these are the true sacrifices that delight God’s heart.” – Hebrews 13:10-16 (TPT)
I think of this question often: “Is my life a reflection of Jesus?”
We often hear in churches, messages about loving like Jesus, and those concepts of “love” fit well into our vernacular and moral compass most days, because we too want to be loved by others.
“Do I love like Jesus?”
I wonder in our assessment of Jesus’ love, if we grasp fully the extent of His love - that His love is sacrificial…. It’s death. It costs us something, just like it cost Him to love us. Paul pens the words beautifully in 1 Corinthians 15:31, when he says, “I die daily.”
“How has loving like Jesus cost us?”
It should be costing us our pride, our reputation, our awards and accolades, in order that we point others to Him and not us. Loving like Jesus will allow us to show mercy like Jesus. Kindness like Jesus. But to lay ourselves down - our thoughts, our passions, our desires, and attitudes – we need to replace them with what His Spirit in us and His living, active Word has for us….the abundant life of a sold-out follower of Jesus. Sacrificial love looks like love rooted in His Truth, and in His ways. Love that is moved to action because of our adoration of Him. Love that echoes our heart’s cry that sings, “You are worthy Lord. You are worthy.”
May our lives be a reflection of these types of love offerings… lives that pour out the praise sacrifices that He deserves. Amen? Amen!
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