Some time back, my daughter Megan invited Diane and me to a Texas Tech baseball game at Rip Griffin Park with Meg and our grandson, Ethan. It was a bit windy and cool, but it was wonderful. I mentioned to my daughter during warmup before a new inning that the Baylor pitcher was throwing way inside for a “righty” batter. Sure enough, the pitcher nailed the first Raider who came to bat in the left shoulder. That brought back some painful memories.

As a boy, I was “drafted” to play baseball for the K-Mart little league team in San Angelo, TX. Well, full disclosure, I was allowed on the team because my left-handed older brother, Eddie, was so good at pitching, short stop, and first base. The team selectors didn’t want the possibility of losing him by splitting us up. That meant I got to come along. After all, how many errors could one scrawny, unathletic, bespectacled kid way out in right field create?

There is a lot of strategy in baseball. It has been described as a “chess game played on grass.” Intentional walks, relief pitching, the infield fly rule, blind picks, switch hitters, double steals—you name it. Oftentimes, a player is coached to perform a sacrifice bunt or a sacrifice fly ball to advance a runner.

I was called to a different kind of sacrifice as a kid. I was usually put on the roster as one of the first three batters in the lineup and left the diamond with seam marks of a baseball on my hands and forearms. That was because the coaches knew I had little chance of hitting the ball with the bat and I was called on to sacrifice myself for the good of the team. I was told it was better to crowd the plate and let the ball hit me. As I headed for the batter’s box, I would often hear, “lean into it, Tommy. We need a baserunner!” Ouch! That hurt in more ways than one.

The subject of sacrifices being offered is found throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, before grace, the substitutionary killing of animals and the shedding of blood was intended to make atonement for the one who had sinned…either an individual or the entire nation of Israel. In speaking of the covenant God made with man, the writer of Hebrews says, “…without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin.” Life, and so the continuation of life in forgiveness, is found in the blood.

The new covenant revealed in the New Testament of God’s Word had to supersede all the prior agreements and it was founded not upon the shed blood of animals. The new covenant was based once and for all time upon the sacrifice of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The Holy God of all the universe provided the way for us to be with Him despite our sinful lives. The substitutionary death of His Son was the ultimate sacrifice necessary to erase the death sentence of sin—past, present, and future. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross opened the way to heaven for all who would accept the Father’s promise of forgiveness through genuine repentance and accept His grace so freely offered. Sadly, many people are being misled into believing there is some deep secret strategy in becoming a “real” Christian. There are influential “spiritual leaders” today who confuse seekers of God with false expectations and non-biblical evidence they say must occur if one is “truly saved” and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Write this down: Adding any strategy to the Gospel message of salvation by the repentance of sin and faith in God’s grace is heresy.

There are no works, no sacrificial acts we can perform, no “leaning into it,” for us to be saved. Salvation is not a “something” that must be earned and so, can be lost. Salvation is Someone. His name is Jesus, and His sacrifice on the cross paid the debt of sin for all who would accept Him.

1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”

Christ died ONCE for all. The sacrifice He made did not leave superficial marks like what were found on my hands and forearms after a baseball game. The sacrifice made by Christ left His body beaten with nail-prints on His hands and feet. His sacrifice put a spear through His side and a crown of thorns on His head. And His sacrifice did “advance the runner,” providing the way for all who would believe to spend eternity in Heaven.

Grace,

Tom