PODCAST
More Acceptable Than Sacrifice
June 17th, 2017
Proverbs 21:1-15
What is more acceptable than sacrifice? “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice then Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings” (Hebrews 11:4). Later in the Bible we learn that obedience supplants even sacrifice. Samuel the prophet asked King Saul, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice,” (1 Samuel 15:22a).
John Wesley wrote, “[Justification] is not the being made actually just and righteous. This is sanctification, which is indeed in some degree the immediate fruit of justification . . . . The one implies what God does for us through his Son, the other what he works in us by his Spirit” [Works I, 187]*
No matter how hard or difficult of a sacrifice we may make it can be no substitute for a heart fully yielded to obey God’s will.
Proverbs 21 says, “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”
* W. Stephen Gunter, The Quotable Mr. Wesley, Atlanta [1999-2003]: Candler School of Theology, p 14.
Author: Phil Pinckard
