“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5

Often we are prone to think that we have impressed the Lord with our offerings to Him. Whenever we put money in the offering plate, we often think within ourselves about the great a contribution we have made. If we give of our time to the Lord, we think within ourselves about how we have done such a good thing. If we are called upon by some circumstance to give up a prized possession to do the will of God, we may often think about the sizable gift we have given to God.

Notice the clause in the verse above, “to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” God does expect us to make spiritual sacrifices. Many times these sacrifices are sizable in the eyes of men. Yet notice that the Bible says that these spiritual sacrifices are only acceptable to God “by Jesus Christ.” This means that were it not for the mediation of the Lord Jesus, these gifts would be unacceptable to God. They would be as pennies in the palm of a rich man. The very best that we can give to God is but refuse in His sight.

In Exodus 28, Moses writes of the apparel of the high priest for the tabernacle. In verse 38, he describes the crown that the high priest was to wear. The purpose for the crown was so that the holy gifts that the children of Israel were to bring would be acceptable unto God. They could not bring these gifts to God themselves. They had to have an intercessor to give their gift to God in order for Him to accept it.

This is the office of the Lord Jesus Christ today. He is always interceding on our behalf. Because of His intercession we can make sacrifices that are acceptable to God. God is so high and holy that we could never give a gift large and holy enough to please Him. As Isaac Watts wrote in his hymn, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small.” Yet because of Jesus Christ, we can now offer spiritual sacrifices unto God.

There was a seven-year-old boy who had seen a bicycle in a department store that he wanted very badly. He knew that it would take a lot of money to buy the bicycle so he decided that he would save all of his money until he could afford it. He told his father that he was going to save enough money to buy that bicycle and began working very hard to earn the money he needed. He found extra chores to do and refused to spend his money on candy and baseball cards. After a couple of months, he told his dad triumphantly, “I think I have enough money to buy that bicycle.” He showed his father the seven dollars and thirty-seven cents that he had saved. His father, knowing that the bicycle cost seventy-five dollars, took him to the store anyway. The boy found the exact bicycle he wanted and wheeled it to the front. There he presented the man at the cash register his seven dollars and thirty-seven cents. The father told the boy, “Go ahead and take your bicycle outside. I will be there in a minute.” As the boy walked out the door, the father paid the remainder of the price for the bicycle.

In the illustration, the boy had thought that he had had enough money for the bicycle and that he had bought the bicycle himself. But without his father, it would have been impossible for him to purchase it. Likewise, we may think that the things we have given God are pleasing unto Him, and they are. But the only reason is because we have a Saviour who forever is interceding on our behalf. Let us not be high-minded, but grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ.