Which is greater, voluntary or compulsory sacrifice?

[lforrest]

Recently I have been pondering the question of what kind of sacrifice is greater. Is a sacrifice given freely better than one where you are forced to give? Instinctively I would think a voluntary sacrifice is greater than a compulsory one. The motivation for a freely given sacrifice is love, which is greater than all other motivations. Compulsory sacrifice is one given by some other motivation, mainly fear of the repercussions.

Let us look first at the greatest example of a voluntary sacrifice, the Lord had the power to avoid his death on the cross yet he allowed it to fulfill the will of the Father. Surely his love for God was his motivation for being obedient unto death. Suppose that Jesus didn’t have the power to save himself, would that have made his sacrifice of lesser value?

Or let’s consider the solder that is ordered to fight in an impossible battle to survive. Is their sacrifice less than the solder that dies being heroic to save his fellow solders when they could have stayed under cover?

Consider then being required to give a large portion of your paycheck to a tax used for social programs. Would it be better if this tax didn’t exist but you helped these people through your community by voluntary providing the services they need and financial support?

Why did Jesus tell us to go the extra mile in [SIZE=10pt]Matthew 5:41[/SIZE], when referring to the practice of impressment? In this practice a Roman soldier was permitted to conscript a Jewish native to carry his equipment for one Roman mile. Was it to turn a compulsory sacrifice into a voluntary one, thus making it of greater value?

 

[Robertson]

The first thing that came to mind was the first chapter of Isaiah where the Lord tells Israel that He is tired of their vain sacrifices, meaning the sacrifices of the law of Moses. (Isaiah 1:10-15)They were continuing to obey the law even though their hearts were impure and their motives were purely compulsory by their leaders. The Lord here considered an involuntary sacrifice without any heart behind it to be meaningless.

Your question about Jesus having the power to save himself is an interesting one. That would take us back to the beginning, from before the foundation of this earth, where the Father chose Jesus to be the Messiah, the Anointed or Chosen One, to perform the Atonement. It was back then that Jesus made the decision to make the sacrifice, so I'm not sure him being able to save Himself or not has anything to do with the fact that He freely chose to take the route that would put Him on the cross. If He didn't want that, he could have just lived a different life.