The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum What was Christ's greatest sacrifice?

Steering clear of controversy for a little, a question to stir our hearts and minds, what do you believe was Christ's greatest sacrifice and why? All of Christ and His work is precious, but what is it that "most" moves you to worship when meditating on Him?

That Christ left the glories of heaven willingly to dwell among and save wretched rebel sinners like me.

I beg the Lord that He would make place in MY heart and move me to meditate on Him who died.

[color:"0000FF"]This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 1 Timothy 3:15[/color]




Each struggle prepared Him for His greatest sacrifice that he might obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness and eternal life. IMHO Thanks for asking and have a good Lord's day.



William


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I agree with you both, and as I said, all of what Christ has done and is doing even now, is worthy of our worship.

His willingness to stoop down so low in order to lift us up. Wretched, rebel sinners that we are. As Marie pointed out.

How while in this life, He endured suffering, learning obedience, even the obedience of the cross which was our redemption as William pointed out.

We can stop there and never cease giving praise to Him, but there is something else that moves my heart. He united Himself with the form of man throughout eternity. When He rose, His body rose with Him, a glorious transformed body, but it is a body and form He will possess forever. The firstborn of a new creation Rom. 8:29. It is something He did willingly in order to deliver us. Not only deliver us but to raise us up in glory to the praise of His name!! It is something I'm unable to comprehend, but it stirs my heart to love and adore the one who loved me so much.


He CAME, He DIED and He ROSE again! hallelujah!!

For me the answer is simple. Christ's greatest sacrifice which moves me to worship was HIMSELF; His passive obedience (death) and His active obedience (perfect life). Both are absolutely necessary for our salvation. In His death He endured the penalty of sin, "being made sin that we might be the righteousness of God in Him." (2Cor 5:21) In His life He procured that perfect righteousness which is imputed to us who believe with a true and living faith. (Rom 4:5; Phil 3:9)

Now, as to the statement above, re: "He united Himself with the form of a man <span style="background-color:yellow">[/b]throughout eternity</span>[/b] . . ." this unfortunately is not true. The Son of God took upon Himself the form of a man IN HISTORY, (cf. Jh 1:14; Phil 2:5-8; Isa 7:14; Matt 1:16, 20-23; Rom 1:3; Gal 4:4; 1Tim 3:16; Heb 2:14-17; 10:5; et al) <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

<img src="/forum/images/graemlins/bash.gif" alt="" /> hisalone as usual, but realize, He was not flesh prior to His coming. His body is not hanging in a closet somewhere. It wasn't discarded somewhere either. Yes, it was transformed as ours will be some day Phil. 3:21, but it is still part and present with Him. This is something completely different than what He was prior to history.

God Bless

I'm very sorry this too has turned controversial <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/sigh.gif" alt="" /> I meant it for good.

I'm a bit confused by your answer above. Could you clarify what you are trying to say? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/shrug.gif" alt="" />

Yes, AFTER the Son of God (2nd Person of the Trinity) "the Word became flesh", He, the incarnate Son of God retained that body, albeit incorruptible after His resurrection.

So what was He (who are you referring to) prior to history?

The main question was very good and I for one appreciated you asking it! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

This is what I thought I said although somewhat differently.


The point being he "retained that body". After Marie's and William's answers, I thought of our Lord's birth, death and resurrection and how they all were a form of sacrifice in some way. Marie spoke of the birth, William the death and so I thought I would mention the resurrection.

I'm sorry if I seem defensive, it just seems I'm always getting into controversy.

hisalone,

I think Pilgrim was responding to this:


It sounds like you were saying that Christ was eternally man. Sure, He will always be fully God and fully man, but, unlike His Godhood, His manhood came about at a particular point in time. Although Christ was always God, He was not always man.

I see the misunderstanding now, I just wasn't as clear as I could have been, I made the assumption we all understood He is always fully God. I really believe we are finally all in agreement on something for a change. Praise God!

For me it was that He "emptied Himself." And I think the Biblical picture is not so much that He emptied anything from Himself, but rather that He emptied Himself into a physical body that could experience temptation, pain, and death on my behalf. A body which, however, did not experience corruption and decay, but which was risen incorruptible!

Let me illustrate with a true story: My church supports a mission in Uganda where the people live in little huts and ordinarily do without electricity, indoor plumbing, and all the luxuries most of us take for granted. People from our church have spent some time there on short term mission trips. Last year we were able to bring our Ugandan friend here to speak to our church and others, and he was absolutely dumbfounded at the sheer spectacular wealth and convenience we enjoy here.

When we met at last, he was still wide-eyed with amazement at all he was seeing. For a while I felt ashamed, because of the poverty he lives in compared to the wealth here. Until he set me straight.

"You must really, really love us," he said through tears. I was surprised at that.

I thought he'd have been a little angry, perhaps. I thought he might say, "You guys have all this abundance and you send us small tokens to make yourselves feel less guilty about the disparity." But that isn't what he said.

"You guys must really, really love us! To leave all of this wealth and convenience, to come to our village and live among us, helping us build the school..."

That's what Jesus did for us! But this missionary brought it light anew for me that day. If there was nothing else served by his visit, that was more than enough to justify the money we spent to bring him here.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Thank you for saying this I felt a little funny dividing up His work.


The question was about Jesus Christ so it's true that the "Son of God" took upon Himself the form of a man only after being "made of a woman".

I would like to add though that there were also pre-incarnate manifestations of Christ in the form of a man after creation.

He appeared to Adam, Genesis 3:8, He appeared to Isaac, Genesis 26:2, He appeared to Jacob, Genesis 32:24, 30, and to Moses, Exodus 3:1, 2, 3, and others.



William


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Christophanies and the "angel of the LORD"....

Now THERE is an interesting topic! You'd think the Bible was all about Christ or something <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to cause anyone unease. It wasn't with the intent of dividing anything up, all of Christ is precious, words can never do Him justice. However, we are all affected by something, and different things at different times depending on where we are in our lives and the things going on around us. I was blessed how the first three threads in reply spoke of His birth, the second of His death and the last of His resurrecion. I probably would have originally missed that connection if I hadn't been thinking separately.


In the form of a man as God, but today and forever He is always going to be the God/Man. I for one, am humbled by His willingness to endure that eternally for us, who were by nature His enemies.

No need to apologize I know your intent. I just thought Pilgrim gave a better answer than I. It was a GOOD question. Thank you <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/BigThumbUp.gif" alt="" />


William