Is Jesus Enough for Your Sacrifice?

“They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha” Mark 15:22.

What sacrifice can you make that will impress God more than Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary? None! In the light of the one great sacrifice made by Christ Jesus, our best efforts at self-denial fade to nothing. The great missionary, David Livingstone, sacrificed everything to bring the Gospel to the continent of Africa, yet he said, “I never made a sacrifice. We ought not to talk of 'sacrifice' when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself up for us.”

Indeed, the heart of Christianity is neither about us nor our sacrifices, it is about Jesus. As P. T. Forsyth said, "Christianity is not the sacrifice that we make; it is the sacrifice that we trust."

Is His sacrifice enough for you? Is He wonderful to you? Is HE enough? Consider this, on the day of His death, the Lord Jesus was brought to Golgotha, the place of the skull. Look at Him, the perfectly pure and lovely One, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He is brought to a wretched place littered with skulls and bones, stripped naked and publicly executed. As Isaiah said, “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” Did you hear that word, ‘SLAUGHTER’! Let’s not pull punches or try to sanitize this, He was slaughtered and cursed for us.

Jesus—the greatest, kindest and most gracious man who ever walked, is led to Golgotha where he will suffer tortured agony. But how can this be? His life was one of doing good and glorifying God. In fact, if you look at Him, you will see what real love and compassion looks like. Yet, He is condemned to a wretched place where the worst and the wicked are executed.

Look at Him again, He is more than a man, He is God manifest in the flesh---the God Man. One word from Him and the armies of Heaven will mobilize and suddenly appear to defend Him. Look at Him, concealing His Sovereign power as He refuses to save Himself. Pity the wicked men who contrived to kill him. They are laughable; they thought they were in charge of events that day. Look at them again and see the reality; see them maliciously scheming to murder the Lamb. But unknown to, and in spite of themselves, they are fulfilling His will. They mean this vile act for evil but God means it for good and for salvation----- and it’s all according to His plan.

So here He is, the Ruler and Judge of the universe being led as a lamb to the slaughter. Look again at the leaders of religion: This is the day they have plotted and planned for, yet look closely again and see, in spite of all their supposed power, they are impotent. Again, see who it is who is really in control, It is Jesus. He did not resist them. A man in charge does not need to resist. One glance from His eyes could have slain them all. Look at the cruel, wicked men fulfilling His will. But listen to your Master and marvel, for He says, "No man takes my life from me—I have power to lay it down." So here in His sovereign authority He moves all history, the will of man and the hatred of His enemies to one inescapable conclusion…Golgotha

Was it because He was compassionate, gracious and righteous? Yes, but more than that, He went there because no amount of sacrificing or religious observance on our part could rescue or redeem us.

And so, "they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha" the place of ultimate disgrace. In Jerusalem, in those days, parents would warn their children that if they took the wrong path in life they would end up at Golgotha: It was the end of the line, fit only for the lowest of the low! And so the Lord of Glory, Jesus, identifies with the lowest, the vilest and the worst. Don’t ever think, therefore, that you have gone beyond His reach or exhausted His love. You can never exhaust a love that goes to Golgotha for you.

So here at the cross, the place of the ultimate sacrifice, we find our meeting place with God. Here man and God meet and see each other clearly. At the cross, we declared our hand and displayed our hatred for God; yet at the cross, God meets man, and fully demonstrates His love and grace towards us.

And now, because of Jesus and His sacrifice, the cross is the true center of Christian fellowship, where all believers meet. We do not meet on the ground of our denomination or doctrinal distinctives. Here, at the cross, we can forget our differences and love one another even as He has loved us.