Perfect Sacrifice

READ: ISAIAH 53:4-12; COLOSSIANS 1:22; HEBREWS 9:11-28; REVELATION 5:12

You gave up Your life,

You are the Perfect Sacrifice—

God’s precious Son,

The Holy, Just, and Righteous One.

Speak to us softly, O Lord, we pray,

Speak to us clearly, O Lord, this day!

You alone are good,

Teach us, Lord, to live as You would—

Holy and pure,

By faith, Your blood the costly cure.

Speak to us softly, O Lord, we pray,

Speak to us clearly, O Lord, this day!

Risen from the dead,

You are Life, the Living Bread—

Lamb that was slain,

Bearing the curse, took up our pain.

Speak to us softly, O Lord, we pray,

Speak to us clearly, O Lord, this day…

Speak to us, Lord,

that we might obey.

Sometimes, when I try to describe the sacrifice of Jesus I am stilled into silence. Trying to put the most profound mystery in the universe into everyday words is sort of like visiting the Grand Canyon and bringing home a single snapshot. The photo is accurate, but it’s simply incapable of capturing the grandeur you see and feel— gazing across a chasm so vast that the bottom is a hazy blur. Only by hiking down inside can you begin to experience the canyon’s true depth and beauty.

That’s sort of what it’s like when we think about the matchless glory of the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. It simply cannot be experienced from afar—it is something we must enter into. Christ’s blood was shed on the cross, for us. He not only bore our sin, but He took up our suffering and pain (Isaiah 53). Come, and gaze with me there. • G. Kam Congleton

• Throughout the Bible, Christ’s sacrifice is portrayed in many ways. For example, we find similar descriptions in Isaiah 53:12 and in Hebrews 9:28. What do you notice is included in Hebrews that is not mentioned in Isaiah? Why do you think this is?

• The life-changing truth of the gospel is deeper than any words can convey, that because of the sacrifice of Jesus’s shed blood, God Himself can dwell with us—and in us—making us one with God. (More on our "Know Jesus" page.) Which description of Jesus’s sacrifice resonates with you most today?

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood— to be received by faith. Romans 3:25 (NIV)