The Carnival of Beauty, sponsored by Sallie at A Gracious Home and hosted this week by Renee at Of Noble Character, has as its theme this week “The Beauty of Sacrifice.”

Sacrifice, in and of itself, doesn’t seem like a beautiful word. It conjures up images of animals, blood, and altars, or it makes us think of something we should give up that we don’t want to. I looked it up on dictionary.com and found a long list of definitions for different parts of speech. One that stood out to me was, “Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.”

In that definition I see a glimmer of the beauty of sacrifice.

On the one hand I think of the sacrifices God made for us. If you think of the amount of time and trouble we cost Him on an everyday basis (I hope I am not sounding irreverent: I am not meaning to) it seems like He could have created something that would have been far more pleasurable and less work for Himself. Yet He created us and He desires our fellowship. Amazing! And because He does, He sent only begotten sinless Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to lay down His life and take on Himself our sin and the just punishment we deserved so that if we repent of our sin and believe on Him, we can be saved, cleansed, forgiven, and made His own children, with a home waiting for us in heaven and His grace, Presence, and help here and now. We don’t merit that forgiveness and salvation by any kind of sacrifice we make: there’s nothing we could ever do that would be enough to earn it. It’s a free gift based on His sacrifice.

In His example, though, I think the definition doesn’t quite fit in the sense of surrendering something highly valuable for something of more value. We are certainly not of more value than His Son. But He did love us enough to give His greatest treasure for our redemption.

The Lord Jesus, in full agreement and in full submission to His Father, willingly surrendered, sacrificed His life for us.

In light of that, any kind of sacrifice we might make for Him pales in comparison. I’ve known of dear folks who echo David Livingstone’s sentiments:

People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which HE made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us.
(http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/classes/coreclasses/hss3/d_livingstone.html)

I understand what he means. Yet the Bible does honestly speak of sacrifices we are to make once we are His children:

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)

What kind of spiritual sacrifices are we to make?

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)

Even in Old Testament times, the sacrifices which were a picture of the coming perfect Sacrifice could be an empty ritual if one’s heart was not broken and contrite before God. I think this is the first sacrifice: our pride, our stubborn clinging to our “own” way, our laying aside of anything in our lives that is not pleasing to God. It’s also a continual sacrifice as we walk daily with the Lord, read His Word, grow in Him, and become more aware of how much that desire for our “own” way is ingrained in our thinking.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)

Not just our broken spirit and heart, but even our bodies are to be surrendered to Him. He reminds us that this is only our reasonable service in light of God’s mercies to us.

By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)

I’ve wondered why our praise to God would be called a sacrifice: perhaps because we have to get our attention off ourselves and our concerns.

But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Hebrews 13:16)

Some years back my husband commented on the honesty of this verse, acknowledging that it does cost us something to do good to others.

But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. (Philippians 4:18)

This and the previous verse indicate that sometimes those spiritual sacrifices manifest themselves in meeting physical needs, and Paul response to the Philippians’ sacrifice shows forth some of the beauty of a sacrifice given and received.

A few years ago my husband took our youngest son out to shop for my birthday. My son was excited about perhaps getting to buy a little something for himself after getting Mom’s present. As they shopped, my son chose the item he wanted to purchase for me. My husband told him that if he got that item, that would take all the money he had. It took my son a few moments to process the realization that if he bought that gift for me, he wouldn’t be able to buy anything for himself. Finally, though a little teary, he decided to go ahead with the purchase. I can’t tell you how that touched my heart to realize that he denied himself to do something special for me.

Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. (Philippians 2:17)

Paul was willing for his life to be poured out in ministry to others.

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2)

Even more than Paul, Christ is our example of walking in love and giving oneself.

What makes a sacrifice seem hard is the struggle to give up what we think is ours: our time, our schedule, our goods, our lives. But as David prayed after the people of Israel offered the things needed for the building of the temple, “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee” (II Chronicles 29:14). If we remember that anything we have is not our own but was given to us by God in the first place, and if we meditate on His mercies and all He has done for us, it doesn’t seem so hard then to surrender it back to Him. Back to our definition, whatever the value of what we need to sacrifice, it pales in comparison to the worth of the One to whom we are sacrificing.

The beauty of sacrifice is the humble surrender to God of what He freely gave us, in response to His great love and mercy, for use in His service in a life of love and ministry to others, which He regards as wellpleasing, as a “sweetsmelling savour.”

God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. (Psalm 118:27)