Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought of the other meaning of sacrifice for this, although I've read that usage througout the Bible. I'll read up on that angle some more. OTOH, my initial thought is that would be God sacrificing to himself, still not much to be a cornerstone of the most important world religion.
“The first thing that must strike a non-Christian about a Christian’s faith is that it is all too daring.
It seems too beautiful to be true: The mystery of being, unveiled as absolute love, coming down to wash the feet and the souls of its creatures; a love that assumes the whole burden of our guilt and hate, that accepts the accusations that shower down, the disbelief that veils God again when he has revealed himself, all the scorn and contempt that nails down his incomprehensible movement of self-abasement—all this, absolute love accepts in order to excuse his creature before himself and before the world.”
Hans Urs von Balthasar