Christ, Our Sacrifice
There are two aspects of sacrifice that shine out in lesson:
the death and the blood. The sanctuary
had three compartments. In each of them something happened that pointed to
Christ as a sacrifice. Let’s enumerate
them,
1.
Outer court – Passover (from an article in
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_sacrifice#cite_note-JE-2
)
a.
The killing took place in the court of the
Temple at Jerusalem, and might be performed by a layman, although the blood had
to be caught by a priest, and rows of priests with gold or silver cups in their
hands stood in line from the Temple court to the altar, where the blood was
sprinkled.
b.
These cups were rounded on the bottom, so that
they could not be set down; for in that case the blood might coagulate.
c.
The priest who caught the blood as it dropped
from the victim then handed the cup to the priest next to him, receiving from
him an empty one, and the full cup was passed along the line until it reached
the last priest, who sprinkled its contents on the altar. The lamb was then
hung upon special hooks or sticks and skinned; but if the eve of the Passover
fell on a Sabbath, the skin was removed down to the breast only.
d.
The abdomen was then cut open, and the fatty
portions intended for the altar were taken out, placed in a vessel, salted, and
offered by the priest on the altar, while the remaining entrails likewise were
taken out and cleansed.
e.
The family would take their lamb home to roast
it and eat it according to God’s ordinance.
2.
Outer court and Holy Place - Daily sacrifice
a.
IN this sacrifice the blood was taken in the
Holy Place to be sprinkled there.
3.
Outer court and Most Holy Place – day of atonement
a.
In this sacrifice the blood is taken into the
Most Holy Place.
In summation, in each event an animal was killed and blood
was shed, and sprinkled in certain part of the sanctuary. Let us
look first as the killing of the animal.
I.
The death
In all of these sacrifices Christ is prefigured. They were a representation of what Christ
would accomplish at the Cross. He is the
lamb that was slain from the beginning to take away the sin of the World*. How did He take Sin away?
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we
might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed”
(1 Peter 2:24, NASB).
This verse is a reference
to Isaiah 53. Here are some excerpts,
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…
Isa 53:5 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.
Isa 53:6 … and the LORD
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isa 53:7 … he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, …
Isa 53:8 … he was cut off
out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he
stricken…
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased
the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him
to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, …
Isa 53:11 … by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their
iniquities.
“Christ was treated
as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for
our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His
righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours,
that we might receive the life which was His. ‘With His stripes we are
healed.’”—The Desire of Ages, p. 25.
It was an exchange: the priceless for the worthless trade. He died, so we would live. Ellen White says,
“Nothing less than the death of Christ could make His love
efficacious for us. It is only because of His death that we can look with joy
to His second coming. His sacrifice is the center of our hope. Upon this we
must fix our faith.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 660.
Simply, in order for humanity to be saved Jesus had to
die. There was no other way. Paul says,
Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every
man.
Christ’s death reconciles to
God. Paul says in Rom 5:10, “For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, …” We are reconciled
to live with him. Let us read Romans
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried
with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection:
Notice the language: baptize into Jesus,
buried with Him, planted together…We were in Him, when he died and
resurrected. And, now we are in Heavenly
places in Him (Ephesians 2: 6).
II.
The Blood
Genesis 9: 4, Leviticus 17: 11, and
Deuteronomy 12: 23 says that the life is on the blood. Thereore any reference to blood signifies
life. When Jesus says in Mar 14:24 “… This is my
blood of the new testament, which is shed for many,” it is His life he is
pouring. We read in Hebrews 9,
Heb 9:12 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.
Heb 9:14 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?
Heb 9:22 And almost all things
are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission.
Understanding then that the blood is a
reference to the life of Jesus which accomplishes our redemption, let us read
the following quote from Ellen White,
The law requires righteousness,--a
righteous life, a perfect character; and this man has not to give. He cannot
meet the claims of God's holy law. But Christ, coming to the earth as man,
lived a holy life, and developed a perfect character. These He offers as a free
gift to all who will receive them. His life stands for the life of men. Thus
they have remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. More
than this, Christ imbues men with the attributes of God. He builds up the human
character after the similitude of the divine character, a goodly fabric of
spiritual strength and beauty. Thus the very righteousness of the law is
fulfilled in the believer in Christ. God can "be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus." Romans 3:26. {DA 762.2}
Let us then allow for His blood to
cleanses us, to purge our Sin away, to transform our minds and hearts after the
similitude of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment