Good Friday 2009
The Ultimate Sacrifice

Today is the Friday Christians call good. Why? Because today the ultimate sacrifice was given. Jesus Christ died on the cross. Yesterday, I posted on sacrifice or lack thereof in human terms. The sacrifice we commemorate today is unthinkable in human terms. He Who was very God and very Man died on the cross. Your Creator became your Substitute, Redeemer, Propitiation, the Sacrifice required to take away your sin and His wrath. He was the Price Paid to purchase you from slavery to sin. And yet, the world refuses to acknowledge this ultimate sacrifice.

Who needs a bloody sacrifice? Surely we are more sophisticated that that! What is wrong with the world can be cured with more education, more jobs, more cash, more programs to help the disadvantaged, more of anything but Jesus. Superstition can not help us, but human progress through science and technology can. Science will eventually solve all the so-called “mysteries” of life. Belief in a Savior other than man is a crutch for the weak. Not only is the foregoing the party line of the world, the world goes to great length to put out all manner of drivel to disprove Jesus, His life, death and resurrection.

Recently, one The ExChange dudes, Willie Mo, responded to whether he had considered what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ means to him in the following manner: “I saw on the Discovery Channel that crucifixion was impossible.” I bet that was news to the Roman Empire and the thousands they crucified! Why is it that there is a full court press every Easter season to disparage the death and resurrection of Christ? It is the absolute No. #1 threat to secular humanism. And for Christians, without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to Paul, we are helpless, hopeless and foolish, to be pitied above all men.

Christian, be of good cheer. Fear not. Science will not figure it all out, it will only discern what God reveals to science. And, He has already revealed His plan for the salvation of man. There is no better man-made or devised plan for man to be discovered by man. Last year at Oxford, Dr. Gary Habernas made a compelling presentation on why the resurrection happened. He has also made his case to skeptics who have always held that the resurrection was a “spiritual event”, that is it occurred in the hearts and minds of believers. Guess what, they admitted there was truth to the actual physical death and resurrection of Christ! Hallelujah…the world has been won for Jesus Christ!

Just one moment, please. While it may be factual that Jesus rose from the dead, the skeptics still choose not to believe. They do not want to believe regardless of the facts. And, is that not the real issue…unbelief? Folks just do not want to believe in the ultimate sacrifice. So, our loss of the desire to sacrifice personally so we can be what we want to be, is also translated into the loss of wanting to believe in the ultimate sacrifice. Why? Because it will not leave us as we are if we believe. We will be changed by it and that terrifies those who are comfortable in their sin and guilt. So, the world continues to choose not to believe in the ultimate sacrifice.