“But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I will buy them from you at a price. I cannot sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” 2Samuel 24:24
It is in the nature of the case that God’s people want to believe that they obey God out of love and gratitude for what He has done, rather than from a motive of accruing personal gain in eternity. Indeed, I am confident that much of the time, this is how we are motivated. But how does this relate to a sacrificial life?
Faith can be defined as “commitment before knowing.” Paul said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” The dictionary defines sacrifice as “surrendering something of value for something of greater value.” Christ’s followers, by faith, live lives of perpetual self-sacrifice in anticipation of gaining in return something of greater value.
What is the “greater value” you seek? If you are motivated to obey God solely because of gratitude and love, then where is the self-sacrificing life? And how do you respond to God when He (hopefully on rare occasions) asks you to do what you don’t want to do and you are ungrateful?
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