Christ As An Offering and Sacrifice

A Prophecy About Jesus Christ

Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. --Isaiah 53, NLT (here and throughout unless otherwise noted)

Many Twenty-First Century Christians seem to have forgotten that the only scriptures available to the earliest practitioners of our faith were those which we now refer to as the Hebrew Old Testament. Indeed, for many modern Christians, outside of a few favorite stories and the occasional psalm or proverb, the Old Testament is largely ignored. Sure, there is also a small group of saints who are obsessed with eschatology and are consequently interested in the Old Testament prophets. Still, outside of a few Christian theologians, for the majority of Christians alive today, most of the Old Testament is a complete mystery and mostly considered by them to be irrelevant.

Nevertheless, Jesus Christ did say: "I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose." (Matthew 5:17) Now, while this obviously encompassed almost the entirety of the Hebrew Old Testament, Christ's words are probably no where more meaningful than in the realm of the sacrifices and offerings required by the Torah.

Of course, the first such sacrifice that comes to mind is the most obvious one related to the Passover Lamb. We read in the book of Exodus that "The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects" (Exodus 12:5). Continuing, they were to "Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal" (verses 6-7).

This language calls to mind several things related to Jesus Christ. In the gospel of John, we read that "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, 36) Likewise, in the Revelation, we find Christ portrayed symbolically as the Lamb of God throughout the book. Indeed, the apostle Paul even wrote to the saints of Corinth about Christ being "our Passover" who was sacrificed on their behalf (I Corinthians 5:7). And, finally, in the various accounts of the Last Supper, we have Christ's disciples symbolically eating his flesh (Matthew 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22). 

In the first seven chapters of the book of Leviticus, many of those sacrifices and offerings are outlined and summarized. We read there about the burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering and trespass or guilt offering. What do these sacrifices and offerings have to do with Jesus Christ? The short answer is: a great deal!

Of course, one of the most obvious ways in which the burnt offering related to Christ was the designation of what kind of livestock was considered appropriate in this instance. We read there that "it must be a male with no defects" (Leviticus 1:3, 10). Another obvious feature of these sacrifices, and this one applied even to birds, was that the blood of the animal had to be spilled (Leviticus 1:15). It is also interesting to note that the Israelites were instructed to place their hands on the head of the animal prior to killing it. In this way, the Lord would "accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him" (verse 4). The language employed here and in Exodus was obviously on the mind of the author of the first epistle of Peter when he wrote about "the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (I Peter 1:19, NIV).

The grain offering took the form of an unleavened bread which was offered to God and consumed by the priests (Leviticus 2:4-10). This, of course, calls to mind the bread partaken of by Christ's disciples in the Lord's Supper or Communion service. And, in both the case of the burnt offering and the grain offering, we are told that they were "special" gifts with "a pleasing aroma to the Lord" (Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17 and 2:2). In this connection, it is interesting to note what Paul wrote to the saints at Ephesus. Speaking of Christ, he wrote: "He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God" (Ephesians 5:2).

The peace offering could be a male or female animal, but it still had to be without defect (Leviticus 3:1, 6). Like the burnt offering, the Israelites were instructed to lay their hands on the head of the animal prior to killing it (verses 2, 8, 13). As the name of the offering implies, it was intended to symbolize being at peace with God. In the New Testament, we read in the book of Acts that part of the good news for Israel was the fact that "there is peace with God through Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:36). Paul also wrote to the saints at Rome: "Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us" (Romans 5:1). Likewise, he wrote to the saints of Corinth that God had reconciled them to himself through Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 5:19).

The sin offering was presented to God for the unintentional sins of the priesthood and the people (Leviticus 4), and some scholars have noted that it seems to refer to the first five commandments. The guilt offering, on the other hand, could be intentional or unintentional and may have referred primarily to the commandments related to the treatment of their brothers/sisters/neighbors. At any rate, both offerings were made to elicit God's forgiveness for the offense and involved laying hands on the head of an animal without defect (symbolically transferring the sin and guilt to the offering) before slaying the beast and sprinkling its blood on the altar (Leviticus 5, 6 and 7). And, as we will see when we look at several New Testament scriptures toward the end of this post, the forgiveness of sin was the primary motivation behind the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, in addition to these sacrifices and offerings, we know that there were other special sacrifices and offerings  related to harvests and the Holy Days. We've already mentioned Passover, and we know that there were a number of offerings associated with the beginning of the harvest (Leviticus 23:9-14). There was also a special "wave sheaf" offering where the firstfruits of the grain harvest were symbolically presented to the Lord by the priest waving the sheaf in the air, and these were also combined with various animal sacrifices (Leviticus 23:15-21). In this connection, it is interesting to note that Paul wrote to the saints of Corinth that Christ was a kind of "firstfruits" (I Corinthians 15:20, 23).

In the same vein, we know that there were special sacrifices/offerings associated with the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). And we know that the New Testament book of Hebrews has a great deal to say about how those things related to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8, 9 and 10).

Indeed, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews was convinced that all of these sacrifices/offerings pointed to Jesus Christ! We read there: "So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant." (9:11-15)

The author of the epistle went on to underscore just how important this sacrificial system was to the Old Covenant: "That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an animal. For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool. Then he said, 'This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.' And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship. In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." (verses 18-22) He then went on to point out how those sacrifices were offered over and over again, and how that stood in stark contrast to the work of Christ. We read that Christ "has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice" (verse 26).

Moreover, the thought continued into the following chapter. We read there: "The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, 'You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer. You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’ First, Christ said, 'You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them' (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he said, 'Look, I have come to do your will.' He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time." (10:1-10)

Hence, we see that the sacrificial system within the Old Covenant pointed to the work and person of Jesus Christ, and that it finds its ultimate fulfillment in him! Under the terms of the New Covenant, only one sacrifice/offering was required - that of Jesus Christ himself. It is a sacrifice which is sufficient to remove all of the sins of humankind and reconcile the entire world to God!