As I was reflecting on Christ's Passion this week, I thought about the Reformation emphasis on the uniqueness of Christ's sacrifice. We always need to stress this point. Of course, Christians are called to present themselves as "living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1). We are also called to offer sacrifices of praise (Hebrews 13:15). Thus, our worship and our efforts to do good can be viewed as sacrificial. In this sense, even the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist can be seen as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
However, we must beware. Our sacrifices are merely thankful human responses to what God has done in Christ. Our sacrifices are not atoning. They can never set us right with God. Only Christ's self-offering throughout His life on earth and especially on the Cross can overcome our sin and restore us to fellowship with God.
The New Testament stresses the unique and final nature of Christ's sacrifice in various ways in many places (such as the Passion narratives, Romans, Hebrews). Unfortunately, there is a perennial human tendency to over-value what we do. Thus, during the Middle Ages, the unique value of Christ's sacrifice was undermined through misinterpretation of the role of the saints, exaggeration of the importance of the church hierarchy, and the spread of common errors about the mass. The Reformation was a scripturally based reaction that sought to restore a proper emphasis on the uniqueness of Christ's unrepeatable atoning work. We must never soften this point in misguided efforts to be more acceptable to the secular world or to other Christian bodies.
