Quick … what’s the one thing in life that would kill you to lose? Your family? Your job? Your house? Your car?

That’s the question God asked Abraham when he asked him to give up his treasured son Isaac, the son he had waited literally 100 years to have. When Abraham willingly offered Isaac up, here’s how God responded:

Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me (Genesis 22:12).

In other words, the God you fear is the one you’re willing to give up anything else in life for. He’s the one you’re ready to trust and follow, no matter what it costs: your job, house, reputation, family, kids, or life. Your God is whatever it is in life that you can’t live without.

Many people say something like, “I’m interested in Christianity, but not if God’s going to make me give up this one thing in my life.” Guess what? Your god isn’t God. Your god is that one thing you don’t want to give up. But God wants to show you that he’s worth giving up anything else in life, because he’s more valuable than anything else in life.

Five hundred years after Abraham lived, after his family had become a nation of a million people and God had rescued them out of slaver in Egypt, he came to them to remind them how valuable he is.

Look at what God said to the Israelites:

When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. (Leviticus 1:2-3)

He wants the Israelites to bring the best of their animals to him once a year. These animals aren’t pets, they’re sources of income. They’re like employees. And your bull is your most valuable employee. In most herds, there would be only one male for every 20 females. You depend on that bull to keep breeding more livestock. So giving up your bull would be like giving up your employee of the year. Every. Single. Year.

And God says you need to burn it up. Completely. In other offerings, you could offer something to God, roast it on an altar, and then eat it. It would just be like a big backyard barbecue. But not this offering. The whole bull is going to be burned up. You’re not getting any benefit from it at all. Except for one:

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him (Leviticus 1:4)

An atonement is a payment that’s made to right a wrong. A payment that’s made in your place to right a wrong that you’ve committed. And that’s the point of the whole Bible.

You were created in God’s image (“in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”), but you rebelled against your creator (You thought “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”) and so you were given the death sentence (“you are dust, and to dust you shall return”) and so now you need a payment to deliver you from the death penalty.

But how are you ever going to pay it? How could you ever come up with enough money to pay what you owe? You can’t, and so that’s why God has to provide the payment for you. Later in Leviticus, God says this:

The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.” (Leviticus 17:11)

You need a payment, and God’s the only one who can provide it. Only he can provide it on the altar. And in this verse, he’s pointing forward to the final payment he provided, when he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross, and take the punishment you deserve for your sin. Jesus provides the payment you need to live. He’s the only one who can.

That’s why Jesus is the one thing in the universe you can’t live without.