Perfect Sacrifice

"And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD." (Exodus 30: 10)

"Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year." (Exodus 12: 5)

The offering of sacrifices, holocaust offerings, where an innocent animal is slain, and its body wholly burned, is an ancient practice, among both the heathen (pagan) nations, and among the Hebrew. It was God's design, by these sacrifices, to teach the world something about both sin and salvation, about both mercy and judgment, and also about truth, justice and the holiness of God.

By this ancient method, "atonment" (or "reconciliation") was made. God was pictured as having been "offended" by the sin and rebellion of man. He therefore needed to be "conciliated" and his anger and wrath removed or "pacified."

The sacrificial system, as it is ordained in the Old Testament by Moses, under God's inspiration and direction, was designed to show the world the way of salvation, the way of atonement and reconciliation, the way of peace with God and of justification, and to answer the momentous question - "how can God be just and overlook (forgive) my sin?"

"Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." (Exodus 34: 7)

Only in the way of sacrifice can God be both a just and righteous judge and a kind and forgiving parent. God has allowed a "substitute," a "redeemer," a "ransomer." God will allow a suitable substitute for the criminal! He only requires that the hero be himself sinless. It is by this manner that he becomes BOTH "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Romans 3: 26) By this wonderful method, the Psalmist was able to confess - "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." (Psalm 85: 10)

By Isaiah the prophet, God had greatly expanded the language of the symbolism of the animal sacrifices, expressly and literally announcing the following prophecy of the Christ.

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted...But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed...he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter...for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken...thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin..." (Isaiah 53)

And when Jesus, the one spoken of in the prophecy, came on the scene, his forerunner and herald announced him thusly:

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1: 29)

Was he the one? Was he sinless and perfect? Wholly righteous and innocent? Was he a suitable one to be the sacrifice for human sin?

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4: 15)

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (II Corinthians 5: 21)

Praise God! Now the good news message to sinners is - "he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9: 26) and "once offered to bear the sins of many" (vs. 28)!

In the Old Testament it was ordered:

"And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness." (Leviticus 16: 21)

Sinner, I invite you to come to the altar, in your heart and mind, and see this sacrifice God has provided to you, and lay your hands upon it, confessing all your sins, in deep sorrow for having offended a just and holy God. Cry out to God as did the penitent that Jesus held up to sinners as the way to do this.

"And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful (propitious - allusion to the sacrifice burning upon the altar) to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified..." (Luke 18: 13,14)