An All-Sufficient Sacrifice

Text: Isaiah 1:11,18, John 1:29, Hebrews 9:11-14, 10:1-14

It’s hard to be told you’re not good enough.

I still remember being cut from the Junior Varsity basketball team. I absolutely remember not being cast as Maria in our school’s production of West Side Story after singing and dancing my heart out on that enormous, empty stage. (I was cast as “Anybodys” instead. There’s just not as much glory in playing the role of a tagalong tomboy.) I remember being rejected by that boy when I was sixteen, not getting that scholarship when I was applying to go to college, and spending way too many anxious nights telling myself I’m not a good mom.

Rejection is hard. Nobody wants to hear that her best efforts can’t possibly make the cut. It’s hard enough when you’re trying to earn the approval of your peers, but it’s quite another thing when you’re endeavoring to win the eternal approval of the One who made you.

We may no longer sacrifice the blood of bulls and goats in an attempt to right ourselves in the eyes of God, but that doesn’t mean we don’t throw other things at the altar to make a show of faith or a pass at redemption.

We tithe and dig wells and adopt orphans. We read and write books, we “buy one, give one” and shop with a purpose. We make legitimate and worthy sacrifices from genuine hearts of compassion and love for the benefit of others and not ourselves.

We try.
We do the right thing with the wrong heart.
We do the right thing with a right heart.
We sing and dance and hope our Father notices.
And it’s absolutely not enough.

Nothing we do can garner acceptance or atone for sins. Nothing can. Scholarship denied.

Our sacrifices are not sufficient, however genuine they may be. No matter how much we do justice and love mercy and walk humbly, our “blood of bulls and goats” can never be good enough to do what the shed blood of the Lamb of God accomplished on our behalf.

You see, God always knew that a Greater Sacrifice would have to be made. And once and for all, it was.

“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'”
Hebrews 10:4-7, ESV

Friends, you and I are not enough—and that is okay. Know that. Hear and acknowledge and embrace that. Hear also that the blood of the spotless Lamb of God has been shed on your behalf. It is okay that we fall perpetually short because He is our Enough.

In glorious light of the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus, let’s lay our striving down. And on this fourteenth day of Advent, may any good thing we offer simply flow from the joy of a heart that is eternally redeemed and forever thankful. Amen.

For an added layer of worship during this sweet season of adoration and expectation, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Advent 2014! You can find the complete SheReadsTruth | O Come Let Us Adore Him playlist at this link, or listen to today’s track on the player below. Enjoy!