What I was getting at was whether God looked upon Jesus as undesirable simply because he had taken human form. I'm not sure I could agree with that. We know that God the Father looked upon Jesus Christ with great favor -- "And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17, MKJV)
I think it's a difficult thing to think that God finds disfavor with the form of his creation -- that is, humans. I believe he is greatly displeased with the disobedience of his creation. Christ was without sin; he was perfectly obedient to the Father's will. It would seem that Christ himself needed no such sacrifice to return to the Father. His sacrifice was for us, which is the great gift, given to us because ... well, you know the verse: "For God so loved the world ... "
But you're on to something with the idea of our sacrificing something. Paul -- somewhere; darn it, I wish I had a better command of the Bible -- speaks of himself being an offering, "poured out" to God. It's not that Paul set out to sacrifice some aspect of himself: an arm, a weekend a month ... whatever. Rather, he sacrificed his entire life to the service of Christ, and did so gladly and with joy.
Oh, how I wish I had a better grasp on what that is all about.
That is my wish, truly -- that I might come to know the Lord intimately, and to walk with him every day, gladly doing all that he bids me to do.
* * *
By the way, the idea of humanness -- or actually, matter itself -- being somehow inherently evil goes back to Greek times, doesn't it? Isn't there a philosophy that adhered to the notion of God detesting physical reality ... what, the Gnostics? I don't remember. Something like that.
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