The Neccessity of Sacrifice....

Have you ever thought about the reason behind the sacrifices God required of the Israelites? In order to be made right with God, the individual who sinned had to bring some sort of animal (farm animal or bird) to sacrifice it as an offering to God. The animal’s blood was then sprinkled on the altar. Why blood? Blood is the life-force of living, breathing creatures. By shedding its blood was proof of its death. In order for God to forgive, and remain just, something had to die. “For the wages of sin is death”, Romans 6:23. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin”, Hebrews 9:22. So blood was the evidence of something dying for our sin. Sound familiar? The OT trained the people to understand that they deserved death when they sinned. Yet God provided a substitutionary way to forgive them without requiring their own blood to be shed for their own sin. They knew what had to take place in order for them to be made right with God, something had to die. The Israelites lived every day fully knowing and understanding this. Fast forward to today. Why is the sacrificial system no longer instituted in the Jewish custom? Because there is no Temple to make the sacrifices. There’s no Temple because God allowed it to be destroyed in 70 A.D. Why did He allow this? Because Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was the once-and-for-all sacrifice that put an end to the temporary sacrificial system the Jewish nation had been commanded to follow. The OT sacrificial system was a type or shadow of the “FINAL” sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. There is no more need for an animal to die for the temporary forgiveness God offered. Jesus’ sacrifice fully atoned for our sins on the cross. His blood covered, covers, and will cover the sins of the past, present, and future of all people who repent and place their trust in Him. Just as the Jews of the OT knew that forgiveness was a daily thing, we too must never take for granted what Jesus did on the cross. Yes, it’s a one-time, for all-time, sacrifice, but it’s also a daily reminder that we are to cherish it and live out our gratitude towards Him every single day. We are to be “living sacrifices”, as Paul said. Just because we don’t have to go to them Temple and present a sacrifice every time we sin, doesn’t mean that we can live our lives the way we want to, knowing God has forgiven us. We easily forget the words of Jesus when He said, “anyone who wants to follow Me, must deny himself (die to self), take up his cross, and follow Me”, Luke 9:23. Instead of sacrificing an animal and shedding its blood to atone for our sin, we are to sacrifice ourselves by denying ourselves, living for God and others, rather than living for ourselves. Again, we are to be “living sacrifices”. This is the sacrifice that is still commanded today. It’s a choice we have to make every single day. And it’s a constant reminder that God knew what He was doing long ago. The only way this is possible is because Jesus paved the way with the shedding of His blood, and it’s in His power that it’s possible for us to make that daily sacrifice of “self” that we can do even greater things to further the kingdom of God. I trust the One Who made this possible. Do you?

14 Then Moses presented the bull for the sin offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the bull’s head, 15 and Moses slaughtered it. Moses took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on the four horns of the altar to purify it. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. Through this process, he made the altar holy by purifying it. 16 Then Moses took all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat around them, and he burned it all on the altar. 17 He took the rest of the bull, including its hide, meat, and dung, and burned it on a fire outside the camp, just as the Lord had commanded him. Leviticus 8:14-17