Sacrifice & Surrender

It’s Good Friday today, where we Christians celebrate, or perhaps commemorate the death of Jesus Christ. I personally went to church today, and I got something going on in my mind about the Good Friday itself, and how it will affect our daily life ahead.

I strongly believe, as many people do, that Jesus Christ died at the cross because of our sins, which have been paid in full by His own blood. As my pastor said, that Jesus came to this earth to repay our debts, our sins, which He could easily turned around in a blink of an eye, yet He didn’t choose such way, but fulfilling the hardest way possible, through death.

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The wages of sin is death, which should all expensed to us, the sinners. Yet He came here to write the expenses off, through the way it should be, as said in the bible. For me, it’s His greatest sacrifice for all mankind. Then, the sins have been paid, and we are set free by His grace, and what should we do then? Remembering the love He has poured for us so grand, yet it feels impossible to repay.

I got this very thought when I was praying, and it went like this, “God, thank You for Your sacrifice at the cross for me, I surrender all my life to You. Lead me Your way, wherever You want.” Then, instantly I thought about how it correlated, the sacrifice and the surrender.

First, let’s talk about the similarities between sacrifice and surrender. First thing I noted that both need something as an object, rather than a subject. Jesus Christ sacrificed His own life, for our lives. Then, we should all surrender all our lives to Him. Second, it needs a big object, significant enough for us to ponder many times before we make commitment about it. Life it is. Sometimes, we want life to go our way, where we want it to be, yet surrendering means giving control over everything life-related to Him, the way He committed His life hung up on that nasty cross for us.

Then, both surrendering and sacrificing need a proactive mind approach. By proactive approach, I mean there are things need to be done to sacrifice, or to surrender. As Jesus Christ has done His time on earth, ministering about the kingdom of God, until the time He was prosecuted and sentenced to death. He has sacrificed His life on earth for one reason, saving us. For me, surrendering is no easier than sacrificing. Proactively surrender means doing what we can with our maximum ability, and surrender the rest to Him who has all planned out, rather than passively waiting for signals and hoping that all will be provided with less work.

Over all the similarities I have stated above, there is one difference between them. While sacrifice goes downwards, the surrender goes upwards. Jesus Christ has sacrificed His life, as He’s a son of God, for us sinful humans. He willingly reached for us the helpless, instead sitting graciously on His seat. We look up to surrender our life, where we place our hopes and prayers, faith and fears, happy and tears.

Jesus extends His grace, as He sacrificed His life for us, we reach out for His hands, as we surrender all our life to Him.