Here's the one I was talking about making. If you think something should be changed or added, you know what to do.
Goodbye Sacrifices, Hello Christ
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” That's what Hebrews 13:8 tells us. He does not change His mind. He does not wait until the last moment to make up His mind. He will not go back on His word. However, the churches of the world, non-Christians of the world, and even our own church accepts an idea that appears to show that God changed His mind on something. Does that make Him a liar? How does it affect our lives as Christians? Let's begin by understanding what it is that could make God look like a liar.
In Genesis 4:4, we read “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Able and his offering”. Here we read of the first account of sacrifices to God. In Exodus 29 we read of the directions God gave about how to kill the animals, and throughout Leviticus, He gives specific directions on how to sacrifice the animals for different occasions. Parts of Exodus and Leviticus go into detail about how the priests were to dress, how to take care of the tabernacle, and other duties. So how come we don't do those things today? Why did God spend so much time and put so much detail into setting up the sacrifices and the priestly duties, only to do away with them later? Did God change His mind? How can God claim to not change after doing away with something that He had set up?
Let's understand why we don't keep the sacrifices anymore. The sacrifices were instituted as a way to commemorate the Holy Days, to ask God to forgive sins, and to ask God to cleanse physical impurities. We're more familiar with the sacrifices being used as a way to ask God to forgive sins. Christ came as our sacrifice, to forgive us of our sins. We know this because in Hebrews 10:12, it says “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” With Christ as our sacrifice, we don't need to kill a goat when we sin. We can come to God in prayer, and ask Him to forgive us. As great as that is, how can He go from wanting us to sacrifice animals, to wanting us to pray to Him?
Hosea 6:6 shows us what He thinks about sacrifices. While talking about Israel's sins, God says “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Again we read in Psalm 40:6, as David talks to God, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.” He really didn't want Israel sacrificing to Him. Of course He would prefer that they didn't sin at all, but He needed a way for them to ask for forgiveness. So why didn't He have them pray to Him from the beginning? Why wait four thousand years before mankind could ask for forgiveness through prayer? Because God had to show the difference between the physical and the spiritual. An example of that is in Matthew 5:28. Christ says “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” We can't commit adultery, and we can't even have the spirit of adultery. We can't have the spirit of murder either. Christ expounded the law to the point where we had to “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
So Christ's death brought on a spiritual aspect to our lives that we didn't have before. He raised the bar on how we are to live our lives. He became our sacrifice, and He knew He would become our sacrifice. That is shown in Revelation 13:8. “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Before the earth was created, God knew that He would have to sacrifice His own Son for our sins. This is explained in better detail in 1 Peter 1:18-20; “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last time for you.” He was foreordained, chosen before the creation of the earth, to be the one who would die for us.
When we see that Christ knew He would be sacrificed for us, and the things that happened after He died, it becomes clearly evident that God had this planned all along. It was His plan for mankind to sacrifice to Him first, and then be able to pray to God after Christ's death. It was His plan to replace the physical with the spiritual. That's why He didn't lie, He knew that things would change. So what else changed? What other things happened after Christ's death?
We can better understand one point that was already talked about in Matthew 6:9. Christ gives us an outline of how to pray. He shows us one of the biggest changes that took place after His death in the first line; “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your Name.” We could begin calling God our Father. God became someone who we could draw close to, and build a relationship with. Our life as a Christian gained a more personal aspect, among other things.
The sacrifices were also used when someone had a physical impurity. Today we can ask God to heal us. We can claim His promises, and God can heal us if He chooses. Instead of having priests kill a couple doves for instance, we can ask God anywhere and anytime, to restore us. We can even have a minister from our church pray over a cloth to heal us, rather than sacrifice an animal.
Prayer existed before Christ. David wrote the Psalms to ask Him for such things as healing, help to make the right decision, or to praise God. James, after talking about the effectiveness of prayer for healing, talks about Elijah. In James 5:17-18, he says “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” We shouldn't forget that people prayed for many things before Christ gave His life for us, but we need to remember that the sacrifices held them back from reaching that next level in their prayer life. We should be thankful that we have the opportunity to come to God every day, and thank Him.
It was said earlier that the sacrifices were done away with to show the difference between the physical and spiritual. Sacrifices aren't completely done away with. We can give God spiritual sacrifices. How do we do that? In Romans 12:1-2, Paul says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” By not following the ways of this world, and living God's way of life, we become a living sacrifice. In 1 Pet 2:5, we are told “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Our sacrifices have to be acceptable to God. We read in Leviticus 10:1, “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.” In the same way that they offered up an unacceptable offering, we can offer up unacceptable spiritual offerings if don't conduct ourselves properly.
We must constantly offer up sacrifice to God. In Hebrews 13:15, we are told “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” There are other examples of how we can offer up spiritual sacrifices. In Philippians 4:18, Paul thanks the Philippians for helping him and showing concern during his journeys. “Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.” Their care and concern for a fellow Christian was as good as offering up heartfelt prayers.
Christ's sacrifice is more than all the physical and spiritual sacrifices. In Hebrews 9:13-15, we read “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal sacrifice.” Christ was perfect and blameless, and His death meant more than anything we can ever do. As we read in the last verse, His death also brought us under the new covenant, that we may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
His sacrifice also cleansed the new covenant. We read more about this at the end of Hebrews 9. After Paul describes how the first covenant was purified with blood, we read in verses 23-28: “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into the heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another -- He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” As the old covenant pictured the physical things on earth, the new covenant pictured the spiritual things in heaven.
Christ's death served many other purposes, such as fulfilling prophecy, helping us examine ourselves at Passover time, showing us how much God loved us, and opening the door for us to enter His Kingdom by dying and becoming the first of the firstfruits. Through study and our own understanding of the Bible, we can see other affects of Christ's death. We must not forget what His death means to us. We must strive to offer up the best sacrifices we can. We are told in Philippians 4:19 that by pleasing God with our sacrifices, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” May we please God, and may He bless us for our good works!
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