SACRIFICE IN CHRISTIANITY
J. Mitchell
Romans 12: 1, 2; 1 Kings 17: 7–16; Acts 20: 18–28
What is on one’s spirit is to say a word about sacrifice. I need hardly say that sacrifice is the very essence of Christianity. It has been set on by God Himself. There is a verse in Romans which says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”, Romans 8: 32. That verse is beautifully illustrated in Genesis 22 where God’s feelings in not sparing His own Son are brought out. In seeking to say a little about sacrifice, we have to bear in mind that it is seen supremely in God Himself. There has never ever been another sacrifice like it; it stands unique. It is one of the greatest expressions of divine feeling there could ever be. Think of what the humanity of Jesus meant to God. Think of the days of Christ upon earth here, days that were infinitely pleasurable to God Himself. Every breathing of His, every movement of His, everything that He did, every step that He took, afforded the greatest pleasure to God. For the first time God had in absolute fulness what had been in His affections in relation to man. He had it there in that blessed Man in its absoluteness and fulness, and yet that Man went out by way of death. There is a most affecting passage in Isaiah 53, where it says, “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him” (Isaiah 53: 10). That is something I always marvel about, “it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected him to suffering”. I only bring that forward to show that if we are to say a little about sacrifice, we see it supremely in God Himself.
Now I think that God is looking to us, looking to His own, that the spirit of sacrifice might be seen in ourselves. It is not that He would look for something that is beyond our measure or look for something that He Himself has not had the experience of. He Himself
knows what sacrifice is in the supremacy of it, in the giving of His only-begotten Son, so that as He looks to us that there might be some measure of sacrifice with us. He does so feelingly, in the Old Testament sacrifice is spoken of extensively. When Pharaoh said to Moses that they could leave the cattle behind, Moses did not accept that; he said that the cattle would go with them because the divine thought was that His people should go into the wilderness and sacrifice to Himself. So as we come to the wilderness books, the book of Leviticus particularly, they set out in detail the sacrifices that God had in mind for His own people. An infidel, reading that, might think that God is very demanding and very selfish, but the background to God looking for sacrifice from His people is what He Himself has given. We need to maintain that in our spirits and in our affections so that no infidel thoughts might come into our minds. There were the set sacrifices which God arranged in detail in the book of Leviticus, but then there were the voluntary sacrifices. I understand that the children of Israel in the wilderness failed in the voluntary sacrifices.
Now that is what I wish to speak about—voluntary sacrifices. The two-and-a-half tribes that settled on the wilderness side of the Jordan had much cattle, and the reason they had much cattle was because they were mean with the voluntary sacrifices. If they had been liberal with the voluntary sacrifices they would not have had so much of cattle, and it would not have hindered them from going over the Jordan to dwell in the land of Canaan. So God is looking for us to sacrifice. Sacrifice means that we give up things that may even be legitimate, and which we might think are our own; we give them up for God. That is what He is looking for.
He speaks in the Psalms about “my godly ones, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”, Psalm 50: 5. Now a covenant has two sides to it; God has fully filled out His side, and now He is looking to us that we might fill out our side of that covenant by sacrifice.
I have read in Romans to encourage even the youngest. The apostle’s affections are coming out as he is saying this, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice”. The youngest might say, I have nothing, I have so little. But you have a body, and that is a very important thing, and what the apostle is bringing forward here is that that body is to be sacrificed for God. It is not a dead sacrifice.
He is not expecting us to go to martyrdom. Of course, some have gone to martyrdom. Some have gone the full way, and given up their lives sacrificially for God. We were speaking in the reading about the Spirit’s operations in the Dark Ages, and I remember a time when it was said that there was nothing for the Spirit in that period; it was even said that there was nothing of the assembly in that period. But I commend to the young people, if they have time apart from reading the ministry, to have a look at Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. What you see in that book is that the Spirit of Christ was in persons who gave up their lives. They were like Stephen in the giving up of their lives. I take it that the record there is authentic. If it is, it is quite clear that these persons who gave up their lives had the Spirit of Christ in them, and that came out into expression in what they said as they were suffering. Some of them suffered awful deaths, men seeking in their own way to linger the matter on to increase the suffering, and yet what came out was the Spirit of Christ. There were beautiful results of the Spirit’s operations in persons like that. So that, I say without any hesitation or doubt, there was much for the Spirit in that period. Maybe there was not the intelligence that we have at the present time, but the quality was there in the Spirit of Christ.
Here it is not exactly that the apostle is saying that is demanded of you. He himself gave his life, and we will come shortly to Acts 20, where he says he does not hold his life dear to himself. Think of that, a man who held his life sacrificially for God! What he is saying is,
“present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. Every one of us here has a body. Suppose you have nothing else that you can give to God, at least you have your body, and the appeal here is by the compassions of God. Think of what has entered into this epistle up to this point; the way that God has come in in regard to our guilt and our state as away from God and in sin; the way in which He has met these things in righteousness so that we have been set up in relation to God, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5: 5). After all that, he now says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”.
That is you become your own priest. One of the functions of the priest was to examine the offering that was brought, it was to be without spot, without blemish. That is the requirement in the Old Testament, and it is still the requirement, without spot and without blemish. So the priest looks on the offering. That is you and me, we become our own priest, we examine things, what we give our body to, that it might be “holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. So it involves what we do, what we say, what we give our ear to, where we go. It involves everything because the body is the vehicle in which you are expressed. It is not just a certain period on a Saturday at the fellowship meeting or on a Lord’s day; it involves the whole of your life, every day, every hour of the day, the one who has been affected by the sacrifice of God is looking and ensuring that his body is holy.
The epistle to the Thessalonians speaks to us about that, and I appeal to every one here, particularly our young people. It says, “that each of you know how to possess his own vessel”, that means your body, “in sanctification”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 4. Hold it apart from the awful trend that is in the world, the terrible system of sin from which you have been delivered through the sacrifice of
Christ, through what God has effected. Deliverance from that system is the point in the epistle to the Romans; where we have all been such failures through sin, we are set up here in righteousness to answer to God. Now he is saying, “to possess his own vessel in sanctification”, hold it for God, hold it in a holy way. I appeal to every one of us. You may say, Well this is a pretty severe word, but I appeal to you to hold your body, your vessel, in sanctification, “holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. It is a very blessed matter to hold your body as a sacrifice for God, not only clear of the whole system of sin, but clear of every matter. You might say, Such and such a thing is good for my health. In fact even the medical people say, Try a little of this, it is good for your health, sport or something of that description. How does that fit into this passage, presenting your body as a living sacrifice? That is the point of it, it is a question of sacrifice, you are giving something up.
Sacrifice is costly. There is no question about it. Think of the cost it was to redeem our souls, a tremendous cost. Now God is saying to you, I want you to present your body a living sacrifice. The point here is that your body is put on the altar and it is never taken away. There is no time when you say, This is a little time for myself when I can please myself.
It goes on here to say, “be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.
Christ, the One who was here and set out in perfection the will of God, is now on high, and it is most affecting to think of a company of persons here who are filling out God’s will. In John’s gospel, he says, “Now is the Son of man glorified”, John 13: 31. That is not exactly that He has gone to glory. In the previous chapter as the Greeks come up it speaks of the Son of man coming into His glory. That is the future public display of it, but it says, “Now is the Son of man glorified”, that is there has been a Man here who in every detail has glorified God, even to the cost of giving
Himself in death. The Son of man glorified in John 13 involves that, and the apostle Paul is saying here, “that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.
There is here what is for the pleasure of God in persons who, in their measure, are characteristically like Christ. Of course, there is no one who would ever come up to His measure. The Son of man glorified is unique, but nevertheless persons who are here sacrificially in relation to the will of God are characteristically like Christ and are of great pleasure to God Himself. I think it is very beautiful to think of that. Man gave Christ a malefactor’s gibbet. The enemy may have thought he had secured a tremendous victory, but God is never defeated. He has here what is characteristically like that Man, in persons like you and me, as we lay our bodies on that altar, and that is for the pleasure of God. How attractive it is, and he is appealing by the compassions of God. He is bringing these to bear upon us in order that we might lay our bodies on the altar. He says, “be not conformed to this world”. I do not go into that, it is enough just to say that and to leave it there.
When you come to 1 Kings 17 you find this widow woman. What a sacrifice it was for her.
Elijah had been fed by the ravens at the torrent Cherith. In verse 1 he said, “As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. If I may for a moment speak to brothers who seek to serve in ministry, I think there is something in this that we need to think about. As you bring out ministry you need to suffer along with the ministry. If we have something to say to the saints, God would look that there would be a suffering in our spirits in relation to what we may have to say to the saints.
Do not let us forget that. Let us carry that constantly with us. Elijah had to suffer, but he was sustained at the torrent Cherith, then where we read it says, “And it came to pass after a while that the torrent dried up, for there had been no rain in the land”. They
had drought in the land, no rain whatsoever to the extent even that the torrent dried up. He is sent to this widow woman and the first thing he says to her is, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel”. I wonder what Elijah must have thought about that. There had been no rain on the earth. Not only was food scarce but water must have been scarce. The little water that there was must have been extraordinarily precious, and he says to this woman, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink”. It says, “she went to fetch it”. She makes no demur about it, there is no questioning about it. She does not say, You know perfectly well that there has not been any rain over these years and the water that I have must be very little. The sacrificial spirit was there with the woman, she was quite prepared to go and fetch it. She had never seen this man before. She did not know at that point, I suppose, who he was.
Then as she went to fetch it “he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand”. What Elijah’s feelings must have been in that! He knew what the demands were upon this poor widow woman, but then at the same time he knew that God would sustain the woman. That is the point to come to, beloved, God is looking to us for sacrifice. Indeed as far as this woman was concerned she gave her all. She was like that widow in Mark’s gospel, when the Lord was sitting over against the treasury and she cast in two mites; the Lord said she cast in the whole of her living. That is what this woman did really when Elijah said, “a morsel of bread”, she answers saying, “I have not a cake”. She did not have it, she was in abject poverty, you might say, that was the situation. She says, “I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die”. Then Elijah said to her, “Fear not; go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first”. Things come that way, Make
me thereof a little cake first. Elijah must have felt what it was to ask this of the woman. He goes on to say “and bring it to me; and afterwards make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel—The meal in the barrel shall not waste, neither shall the oil in the cruse fail, until the day that Jehovah sendeth rain upon the face of the earth!” The sacrifice of that woman was her living, it was everything. If we are prepared to sacrifice in that respect, God is no man’s debtor.
You might say, If I give up this, how can I be sustained? God will sustain you as sure as can be. Elijah was a man of experience in this. He had been to the torrent Cherith, where he drank of that torrent, and the ravens had fed him. It is a remarkable thing that God should use unclean carrion birds like the ravens, but it says, “the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the torrent”. Elijah knew that God was able to sustain him. Where the greatest sacrifice is He is able to sustain persons with all that is required. What is impressing me in this meeting is that this really was this woman’s living. She had nothing else. She was going to gather two sticks and make a little meal out of that handful of meal in the barrel with the oil in the cruse and die. It was her everything, and yet she is prepared to give it. I think God looks for sacrifice from us. You might say, I cannot afford to give my everything, I need something for myself. God can sustain you as He sustained this woman, as it says, “she, and he, and her house, ate a whole year”. If she had kept the thing for herself it would have lasted a day or so, but then despite her sacrifice as she presented it to Elijah, she is sustained for a whole year. I have no doubt that that was not exactly in the mind of the woman. I think there was the sacrificial spirit in the woman which Elijah touched. In asking for “a little water in a vessel” I think he touched that sacrificial spirit in her, and he draws it out in its fulness. I believe the Spirit of God would seek
to draw it out from us today.
I come to Acts 20. Paul says there, “I make no account of my life as dear to myself”. That shows the sacrificial spirit in which Paul was here labouring among the saints. I suppose this chapter brings that out more than any other. The brethren know the saying, ‘love at the beginning, love in the middle and love at the end’. I think you find there the love of Paul coming out as he appeals to these elders, as he goes over his time among them, and in his affection for the saints at Ephesus he appeals to the elders as to their service. He says, “Ye know how I was with you all the time from the first day that I arrived in Asia, serving the Lord with all lowliness, and tears, and temptations, which happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I held back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce it to you, and to teach you publicly and in every house”. What a life was the life of Paul. Now you might say he was an apostle and he had a unique place. He certainly did, but then he says,
“Be my imitators”; not only is Paul an apostle but he is set out as an example for us. There were persons with him who got the gain of that example. Timothy being one such, but then we are to get the gain of it. The character of life of Paul has been left on record for us. He says that to Timothy; he speaks about his teaching and his manner of life. Timothy had known it and taken account of it, and I believe we are to take account of the manner of life of men like Paul, so that there might be some reflection of that character in us in order that the saints might be rightly served.
It is often said that the Ephesian epistle is the height of Pauline ministry. The saints in Ephesus were the height of Pauline ministry. The truth was there in a substantial way. Sad to say, the Lord has to say to them later, “thou hast left thy first love”, Revelation 2: 4. But that should not in any sense becloud the fact that there was a full answer in a substantial way in Ephesus to the ministry of Paul. It was there in the persons. How wonderful it was at the very beginning. They did not come short in that respect, it was there.
It was soon lost but there it was and he is speaking to these persons and he is bringing out his manner of life and the character of his service. I speak to those who in any measure seek to serve. This is an example for us. If you want an example of service you have to go to Christ.
He says, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”, Luke 22: 27. And if you think of sacrifice, His life was a life of sacrifice culminating in the supreme sacrifice of giving Himself, “who by the eternal spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Hebrews 9: 14. But then there are men like Paul, men of like passions to ourselves who set out the same character of sacrificial service among the saints. That is the need of the moment, persons who will serve the saints sacrificially, and carry the burdens and the sorrows and the state of the saints in their spirits. It is a suffering position, and I think that the more those who serve suffer in their spirits the better the state of the saints will be. I have no doubt in my mind as to that, the more sacrifice there is among those who seek to serve and those who take responsibility for the saints in their localities (because Paul is here speaking to the elders, not exactly gifted men) the better the state of the saints will be.
So he brings that out. I do not need to go into detail, but he says, “I held back nothing of what is profitable, so as not to announce it to you, and to teach you publicly and in every house ... repentance towards God ...”. I just make a comment on this, that he says, “But I make no account of my life as dear to myself”. His life was on the altar; not only his body but his life, that is where it was; he made no account of it as dear to himself, he held it for God. I often think of that passage, one of the most challenging passages in Scripture, where he says, “For for me to live is Christ”, Philippians 1: 21. What a thing that is, “for me to live is Christ”. I often wonder what that really means. Does that mean that Christ is the object of his life? That Christ is the power of his life? That his life is the very expression of Christ? I believe it means all three.
He goes on to say, “and to die gain”. It seems as though he was given a choice there, to depart to be with Christ which is very much better or to remain here. What it must have meant to Paul as he contemplated that, to depart to be with Christ which is very much better, but, he says the alternative was to remain “for your sakes”. Not to remain for himself, but to remain “for your sakes”, how beautiful that is. You see the character of a life that is entirely sacrificial, held entirely for God and held here for the service of the saints.
So he says, “Wherefore I witness to you this day, that I am clean from the blood of all, for I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. I think that is a word for every one of us; Take responsibility among the saints, “shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. It is perhaps one of the most appealing references to the assembly in the whole of Scripture, “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. Well that is worth serving. May the Lord bless it to us, for His name’s sake.
Address at Dundee
17 April 1999