------From Corinthians “The Gift of Love”
The Christian notion of sacrifice is spiritual sacrifice. Jesus' crucifixion is regarded by Christians as the "perfect sacrifice." Christians understand Christ's death on the cross to be a necessary atonement for the sins of humankind. Christianity often refers to Jesus’ Passion as the "ultimate" or "perfect" sacrifice. The Christian church believes that Christ’s death occurs as the ultimate expiation of sins and that it annuls the need for sacrifices named by the Old Testament. Using Jesus as an example, Christians believe that one can only gain resurrection through sacrifice.
Jesus has a special power by which he can help and heal others, but undoubtedly the greatest miracle of all is his resurrection. By rising from the dead Jesus shows that he really is the chosen one of God, the Christ. After three days Jesus' body which had been hung for hours on a wooden cross was raised to life again. His tomb was empty, and in his place an angel stood telling his followers "He has risen." The death of Christ is the death of one who is sinless, on behalf of those who are sinners. The resurrection of Christ is necessary to prove that Jesus Christ has accomplished what He has promised. 

III. The Development of Themes: Love, Sacrifice and Resurrection
   With A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of Christian love, sacrifice and resurrection. Characters are endowed with the force of love, the courage of sacrifice and the loftiness of resurrection.
A. Love
Love cures while hate and vengeance lead to self-destruction. It is the theme that Dickens elaborates in A Tale of Two Cities. Lucie Manette, whose love has the power to bind her family together—the text often refers to her as “the golden thread.” Furthermore, her love has the power to transform those around her. It enables her father to be “recalled to life,” and it stimulates Sydney Carton’s development from a “jackal” into a hero. Doctor Manette who spent eighteen years as a prisoner in the Bastille proves to be a kind, loving father who prizes his daughter’s happiness above all things. Finally, the motivation for Sydney Carton's great sacrifice is love. He loves Lucie more than himself. Even when Lucie married Darnay, Carton’s feelings did not waver. Carton promises Lucie that he would gladly sacrifice himself for her and anyone she loves. And this is what he ultimately ends up doing. Due to his uncanny resemblance to Charles Darnay, who is acquitted of treason, he makes the ultimate sacrifice.
In contrary, Madame Defarge is set as a typical victim of revenge. The initial chapters of the novel find her sitting quietly and knitting in the wine-shop. However, her apparent passivity belies her relentless thirst for vengeance. With her stitches, she secretly knits a register of the names of the revolution’s intended victims. As the revolution breaks into full force, Madame Defarge reveals her true viciousness. She invades Lucie’s physical and psychological space first by committing the faces of Lucie and her family to memory, in order to add them to her mental “register” of those slated to die in the revolution. Later, she bursts into the young woman’s apartment in an attempt to catch Lucie. Dickens notes that Madame Defarge’s hatefulness results from the oppression and personal tragedy that she has suffered at the hands of the aristocracy, specifically the Evrémondes, to whom Darnay is related by blood, and Lucie by marriage. However, her death by a bullet from her own gun symbolizes Dickens’s belief that the sort of vengeful attitude ultimately proves a self-damning one.英语作文