By Rev Dr Isiah Dhliwayo
At the heart of Christ’s sacrifice is not his physical body, but his love. The Catechism says: “It is love ‘to the end’ that confers on Christ’s sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and satisfaction. Christ comes from the Greek word χριστός (chrīstós), meaning “anointed one”. The word is derived from the Greek verb χρίω (chrī́ō), meaning “to anoint.”
The Cross demonstrates the ultimate act of love in that, compelled by love, Christ laid down His life for us – His church. We now live in His place because He died in our place. Without the Cross, there is no salvation because there is no redemption. Through His death, Christ paid the ultimate price. Most systematic expositions of the sacrificial character of the cross is found in Hebrews.(Gaybba 1988:71)
The cross of Christ as a sacrifice is a profound and central tenet of Christian thought and theology, embodying themes of love, redemption, atonement, and victory over sin and death. It serves as a reminder to believers of the depth of God’s love and the incredible gift of salvation offered through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.The strongest biblical testimony to the concept of the cross of Christ as a sacrifice is found in Hebrews.
According to Culpepper 1966,1988:68,the writer of Hebrews probably saw the soteriological symbolism of the cross as a hermeneutic key to the atonement.
The etymology of the word sacrifice is from the verb hilasakesthai (cf.Heb 2:17)and the noun hilasmos (cf 1 Jn 2:2;4:10) and denotes hilasterion( Rom 3:24-25), expiation by blood(Culpepper 1966,1988:69-70,Berkhof 1979:304)
In consummating His sacrifice on the cross Christ in one perfect gesture of devotion fulfilled all the moral, ceremonial, and juridical precepts of the Old Testament worship.
The sacrifice of the cross is humanity’s perfectly worshipful homage to the God of all history, and the Resurrection of Christ is the living testimony to God’s acceptance of mankind’s spotless sacrifice. In the paschal mystery Jesus, humanity’s high priest, offered Himself to God as an immolated victim.
All actions of Jesus, as humanity’s high priest, were empowered by measureless efficacy for reconciling mankind with God. But acts anterior to Calvary lacked the specifically sacrificial meaning of the sacrifice of the cross. Sacrifice is an act of external worship; in it the interior act of religion, through which a creature pays homage to God and is united with Him, must be set forth under a recognizable symbol of visible oblation.
However one may ask this view with the question as to whether Jesus’ brutal death was necessary for the expiation of sin?It is a question of the tension between a gracious,loving and merciful God and the iustitia distributiva,retributive justice.
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