God's sacrifice

1 John 4:9 (NLT)

9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

Strange that God should love impure, vain, vile, dust and ashes! That he has loved us at such a rate, at such an incomparable value as he has given for us; he has given his own, only-beloved, blessed Son for us: Because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him, v. 9. (Matthew Henry Commentary)

In the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom tells the story of Eddie, a carnival maintenance worker who dies saving the life of a little girl. In heaven he meets five people who had been part of his life.

The second person he meets was captain of his army unit in Vietnam. For the first time Eddie learns the captain died saving his life. As they reminisce about their time together, the captain talks about the significance of the sacrifices each of them made.

"Sacrifice," the Captain said. "You made one. I made one. We all make them. But you were angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost. You didn't get it. Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices. A mother works so her son can go to school. A daughter moves home to take care of her sick father. A man goes to war…"

He stopped for a moment and looked off into the cloudy gray sky.

"Rabozzo (a member of their unit who died in captivity) didn't die for nothing, you know. He sacrificed for his country, and his family knew it, and his kid brother went on to be a good soldier and a great man because he was inspired by it. I didn't die for nothing, either. That night, we might have all driven over that land mine. Then the four of us would have been gone."

Eddie shook his head. "But you…" He lowered his voice. "You lost your life."

The Captain smacked his tongue on his teeth. "That's the thing. Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you're not really losing it. You're just passing it on to someone else."

God made a sacrifice by sending His Son Jesus Christ to the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. People often question, what does it mean when it says “that we might”? It means we have a choice to accept the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us on the cross when He died for our sins. We might choose to believe or we might choose not to believe. John 3:16 tells us, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” We have a choice, believe or not to believe, but our choice determines our consequence. Accept the sacrifice Christ made so that you may live an eternal life with Him. That is what He is passing on to you.