><>...Mark, you asked;...><>
Why then did Jesus need to be sacrificed?
A most considerate question.
First Mark, Jesus the Christ was a willing sacrifice.
John 10:17-18
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
OK, that being said, I'll get to the heart of your very poignant question.
Why then did Jesus need to be sacrificed?
Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could be reconciled to God.
Two things , are necessary to effect a true sacrifice.
1. Laying on of hands of the offerer upon the sacrificial being, Lev.16:21.
This act of obedience was symbolic of 4 things
a.Confession...When a person receives Jesus the Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they are confessing that they are not without sin and need His righteousness.
b.Acceptance....In Lev. when the offerer also signifies by laying on of hands that he acknowledges that the offering to be for himself.
c.Transference....Now the offerer knows by divine intervention that his sins pass from himself to the sacrifice.
d.Identification....He identifies with the sacrifice as the sacrifice now has the offerer's sins upon it.
The second necessary ingredient for a sacrifice to be effective was, that the sacrificial animal must die. Its blood must be shed before the LORD. Nothing short of death and the spilling of its blood would render it an acceptable atonement.
And of course the sacrificial animal had to be without spot!
Consider the passover Lamb, a most instructive type of redemption. God said when I see the blood of the Lamb I will pass over you and none will die..... Atype of our Saviour to come.
And when He did come John the Baptist pointed to Him saying...
John 1:29
29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Lev 17:11
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Heb 9:11-27
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
There is no high priest needed any more to offer, once a year, a sacrifice to God for the remission of sins as was once the case. We have a High Priest who did it once and for all...His name Is Jesus the Christ.
Rev 5:9
9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Jesus's works and teachings here on earth would have all been in vain had He not completed His works at the cross. His only reason for coming to earth,was to reconcile us to God and the only way that could be accomplished was to be a sacrificial Lamb! A perfect, unblemished Lamb, whose blood needed to be shed for the sins of the world. It is what God required for the remission of sins. No other man was worthy to be that sacrifice but Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God.
Mark that is why it is so important for us to believe that Jesus was worthy to die for us. Just believing in Jesus is not enough. Believing He was a good person, a kind and tolerant guy, a holy prophet, or a wise man, is just not good enough! It is not even good enough to believe that He was sent by God.
We must believe that He was worthy to have died for us, and that the blood He shed was accepted by God for the remission of the sins of the world. And that there was no one else in the entire universe who was worthy but Him!
If there were no remission of sins except by the spilling of blood either by spotless lamb in the OT, or by spotless The Lamb in the NT...Jesus Himself...then we shall die with our sin... and we know that sin cannot exist in heaven. But God made a way for us...Praise His Holy name. That way is Jesus Christ.
That is why Paul said.
1 Cor 1:17-19
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Without the shedding of the blood, by the Lamb of God,...at the cross ....we have nothing!
And now you know the rest of the story!
Good day.
Shalom...><> |
