The sermon continues a study of Ephesians 5:1-2, focusing on the second half of verse 2: Christ "gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (ESV). The preacher opens with Charles Colson's account of a group of American prisoners of war forced into hard labor building a railway during World War II. When a guard miscounts the shovels and believes one is missing, a young soldier steps forward and falsely confesses to the theft rather than let five of his comrades be executed, and he is shot on the spot — only for the guards to recount and discover all twenty shovels were there all along. The story illustrates a self-sacrificial love that, however moving, only dimly foreshadows the love of Christ, which believers risk hearing so often that it becomes commonplace rather than astonishing.

The sermon then unpacks the word "sacrifice" (korban), distinguishing it from the sense of "victim" and identifying it instead with the Old Testament sacrificial system, in which the high priest alone entered the Most Holy Place once a year on the Day of Atonement, sprinkling the blood of an unblemished goat or lamb on the ark of the covenant. That system, the sermon argues, could never truly remove sin; it was merely a shadow pointing to Christ, the true Lamb of God, who — unlike every earthly high priest, who had to offer sacrifices first for his own sins — was sinless and offered his own blood once for all. This point is anchored in Hebrews 7:26-27 and Hebrews 10:11-14, which stress that Christ's single sacrifice perfects for all time those he has sanctified, in contrast to the repeated, powerless sacrifices of the old covenant.

The sermon then turns to the word "fragrant," arguing that it signifies a sacrifice pleasing to God, drawing a parallel with Philippians 4:18, where Paul calls the Philippians' gift to him "a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." Christ's death, likewise, delights the Father. This raises the sermon's central tension: how can God be pleased by the death of his own beloved Son, especially a death on a cross, which Galatians 3:13 calls a curse? The sermon holds together two truths from Romans 8:3 — that God condemned sin in Christ's flesh, even though the sin condemned was not Christ's own but ours. God's wrath against sin and God's delight in the Son's obedience meet at the cross without contradiction, because the Father is both perfectly loving and perfectly just, and the wages of sin — death — could not be waived.

Three reflections are offered to help the congregation grasp the weight of this sacrifice ahead of Communion. First, Christ offered a perfect, sinless, supremely valuable life — even his enemies, including Pontius Pilate, could find no guilt in him. The recent shooting of political commentator Charlie Kirk is invoked as a contemporary point of comparison: many were deeply shaken by his death despite his acknowledged imperfections, which should heighten, not lessen, believers' grief and gratitude over the death of the truly sinless Savior. Second, Christ offered his life as the eternal, only-begotten Son, the second person of the Trinity (drawing on John 1:1, 14 and Philippians 2:6-8), who emptied himself, took on flesh, and thereby became capable of bearing a crown of thorns, a scourging, and nails. Third, Christ offered his life as the Father's beloved Son, affirmed at his baptism and transfiguration; the sermon insists God did not love humanity more than the Son, but that Father and Son were united in an eternal covenant to redeem sinners, with Christ willingly drinking the cup of suffering in Gethsemane. At the cross, uniquely, Jesus cries "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" rather than his customary "Father" — the one moment the Father turns his face from the Son as he bears the sin of his people, even though the Father's love for the Son never actually wavers.

The preacher closes with a personal story: his wife endured thirteen hours of labor without shedding a tear, but wept uncontrollably watching their newborn daughter suffer dehydration and an IV after an accidental exposure to wine in breast milk — a small, human echo of the anguish a father feels watching a beloved child suffer, meant to help the congregation feel, however faintly, what it cost the Father to give up the Son. The sermon returns to Ephesians 5:1-2 as a call to be imitators of God as beloved children, walking in love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, and closes by inviting the congregation to prepare their hearts for Communion.

Bible Verses Used

• Ephesians 5:1-2: The sermon's main text, calling believers to imitate God and walk in love as Christ loved them and gave himself as a fragrant sacrifice.

• Hebrews 7:26-27: Shows Christ as the sinless high priest who, unlike earthly priests, needed no sacrifice for his own sin and offered himself once for all.

• Hebrews 10:11-14: Contrasts the repeated, powerless sacrifices of the old covenant with Christ's single sacrifice that perfects believers forever.

• Philippians 4:18: Supplies the sense of "fragrant offering" as a gift pleasing and acceptable to God, applied to Christ's sacrifice.

• John 10:17: Grounds the claim that the Father loves the Son precisely because the Son lays down his life in obedience.

• Philippians 2:8-9: Describes Christ's humble obedience unto death on the cross and God's exaltation of him in response.

• Galatians 3:13: Raises the tension of the cross as a curse, setting up the question of how such a death can please God.

• Romans 8:3: Explains that God condemned sin in Christ's flesh, resolving the tension between God's wrath against sin and his delight in the Son.

• John 3:16: Cited as the ultimate reason God gave his only Son — because God is love and does not want people to perish.

• John 1:1, 14: Establishes Christ's identity as the eternal Word who became flesh, the only-begotten Son of the Trinity.