Sacred Offerings

SACRIFICE: n. an act of offering to a deity something precious; something given up

History:

The earliest definition for the noun form of sacrifice reads, “primarily, the slaughter of an animal (often including the subsequent consumption of it by fire) as an offering to God or a deity.” The second definition indicates a change in the sense of what is offered: “anything (material or immaterial) offered to God or a deity as an act of propitiation or homage.” The third definition, “offering by Christ of Himself to the Father as a propitiatory victim in his voluntary immolation upon the cross,” points to both divine justice required as the cost of sin and divine love manifested in Christ’s substitutionary gift. The first...