The incarnation of the Lord Jesus was self-sacrifice. His life of self-denial was proof of it. Through this, He was prepared for the great act of self-sacrifice in His death on the cross. Thus it is with the Christian. His conversion is, to a certain extent, the sacrifice of self, though a very partial one due to ignorance and weakness. From that first act of self-surrender arises the obligation to the daily exercise of self-denial. The Christian’s efforts to do so show him his weakness, and prepare him for that new and more entire self-sacrifice in which he finds strength for more continuous self-denial.
Self-sacrifice is of the very essence of true love. The very nature and blessedness of love consists in forgetting self, and seeking happiness in the loved one. Where there is a want or need in the beloved, love is impelled, by its very nature, to offer up its own happiness for that of the other, to unite itself to the beloved one, and at any sacrifice to make him the sharer of its own blessedness.
Who can say whether or not this is one of the secrets which eternity will reveal: that sin was permitted because otherwise God’s love could never have been so fully revealed? The highest glory of God’s love was manifested in the self-sacrifice of Christ. It is the highest glory of the Christian to be like his Lord in this. Without entire self-sacrifice, the new command, the command of love, cannot be fulfilled. Without entire self-sacrifice, we cannot love as Jesus loved. “Be ye imitators of God,” says the apostle, “and walk in love, even as Christ hath loved us, and given Himself a sacrifice for us” Let all your walk and conversation be, according to Christ’s example, in love. It was this love that made His sacrifice acceptable in God’s sight, a sweet-smelling savour. As His love exhibited itself in self-sacrifice, let your love prove itself to be conformable to His in daily self-sacrifice for the welfare of others. Thus will it also be acceptable in the sight of God. “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
Even in the daily affairs of home life, in the discourse between husband and wife, and in the relationship between master and servant, Christ’s self-sacrifice must be the rule of our walk. “Likewise, ye husbands, love your wives, even as also Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25).
And especially notice the words, “hath given Himself for us an offering to God” (Eph. 5:2). We see that self-sacrifice has two sides. Christ’s self-sacrifice had a Godward as well as a manward aspect. It was for us, but it was to God that He offered Himself as a sacrifice. In all our self-sacrifice, there must be these two sides in union, though, at times, the one may be more prominent than the other.
It is only when we sacrifice ourselves to God that we will find the power for an entire self-sacrifice. The Holy Spirit reveals to the believer God’s claim on us, how we are not our own, but His. The realisation of how absolutely we are God’s property, bought and paid for with blood, of how we are loved with such a wonderful love, and of what blessedness there is in the full surrender to Him, leads the believer to yield himself a whole burnt offering. He lays himself on the altar of consecration, and finds it his highest joy to be a sweet-smelling savour to his God – God-devoted and God-accepted. And then, it becomes his first and most earnest desire to know how God wants him to show his entire self-sacrifice in life and walk.
God points him to Christ’s example. He was a sweet-smelling savour to God when He gave Himself a sacrifice for us. For every Christian who gives himself entirely to His service, God bestows the same honour as He did for His Son – He uses him as an instrument of blessing to others. Therefore, John says, “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" (1 Jn. 4:20). The self-sacrifice in which you have devoted yourself to God's service binds you also to serve your fellow-men. The same act which makes us entirely God’s makes you entirely theirs.
It is this surrender to God that gives the power for self-sacrifice towards others, and even makes it a joy. When faith has first appropriated the promise, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me” (Mt. 25:40), I understand the glorious harmony between sacrifice to God and sacrifice for men. My fellowship with my fellow-men, instead of being, as many complain, a hindrance to unbroken communion with God, becomes an opportunity of offering myself unceasingly to Him.
Blessed calling, to walk in love even as Christ loved us, and gave Himself for us a sacrifice and sweet-smelling savour to God. Only thus can the church fulfil its destiny, prove to the world that she is set apart to continue Christ’s work of self-sacrificing love, and fill up that which remains behind of the afflictions of Christ.
But does God really expect us to deny ourselves so entirely for others? Is it not asking too much? Can anyone really sacrifice himself so entirely? Christian, God does expect it! Nothing less than this is the conformity to the image of His Son, to which He clearly calls you. This is the path by which Jesus entered into His glory and blessedness, and by no other way can the disciple enter into the joy of his Lord. “Walk in love, as Christ loved.”
It is a great thing when a believer sees and acknowledges this. That God’s people and even God’s servants understand it so little is one great cause of the weakness of the church. We need to lift on high the banner of Christ’s example, and to restore the truth of the power of Christ’s resurrection as it makes us partakers of the life and the likeness of our Lord. Christians must not only believe in the full union with their Surety for their reconciliation, but with their Head as their example and their life. They must really represent Christ on earth, and let men see in the members how the Head lived when he was in the flesh. Let us earnestly pray that God’s children everywhere may be taught to see their holy calling.
And all you who already long for it, oh, fear not to yield yourselves to God in the great act of a Christlike self-sacrifice! In conversion, you gave yourself to God. In many an act of self-surrender since then you have again given yourselves to Him. But, experience has taught you how much is still wanting. Perhaps you never knew how entire the self-sacrifice should and could be. Come now and see in Christ your example, and in His sacrifice of Himself on the cross, what your Father expects of you. Come now and see in Christ – for He is your Head and life – what He will enable you to be and do. Believe in Him, that what He accomplished on earth in His life and death as your example, He will now accomplish in you from heaven. Offer yourself to the Father in Christ, with the desire to be, as entirely and completely as He, an offering and a sacrifice unto God, given up to God for men.
Expect Christ to work this in you and to maintain it. Let your relationship to God be clear and distinct – you, like Christ, wholly given up to Him. Then, you will walk in love. Your fellowship with the brethren and with the world will be the most glorious opportunity of proving before God how completely you have given yourself to Him, an offering and a sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour.
Prayer: “O my God, who am I that You should have chosen me to be conformed to the image of Your Son in His self-sacrificing love? In this is His divine perfection and glory, that He loved not His own life, but freely offered it for us to You in death. And in this I may be like Him. In a walk in love I may prove that I, too, have offered myself wholly to God. O my Father, Your purpose is mine. At this solemn moment I reaffirm my consecration to You – not in my own strength, but in the strength of Him who gave Himself for me. Because Christ, my example, is also my life, I venture to say it: Father, in Christ, like Christ, I yield myself a sacrifice to You for men. Father, teach me how You would use me to manifest Your love to the world. Fill me with Your love. May I walk in love, even as Christ loved us. May I live every day as one who has the power of the Holy Spirit to enable me to love everyone I come into contact with. Under every possible circumstance, let me love with a love which is not of me, but of Yourself. Amen”