We Believe In Jesus: The PriestExemplo

Jesus’s Sacrifice: Hebrews 10:10

Old Testament sacrifices benefited the worshipers not on the basis of the sacrifices themselves, but in the ways they anticipated the special sacrifice that Christ would eventually render on the cross. Moreover, the benefit they provided would never be complete until Jesus offered the one sacrifice to which all the others pointed. This is why the sacrifices of the Old Testament were not able to remove sin permanently. They were merely the means by which God postponed his wrath and exercised patience until the time when Jesus died on the cross. 

In this regard, Jesus was not just the substance to which all previous atoning offerings had pointed. He was also the final atonement. Now that the fullness of atoning offerings has been realized in Jesus, there is no longer any reason to offer the shadows. This is why Christians do not present the atoning offerings described in the Old Testament. It’s not because we believe atoning sacrifices are unnecessary. On the contrary, we know atonement is absolutely necessary. The reason we don’t present offerings for atonement is that we believe Jesus’ singular sacrifice has completely fulfilled the need for atonement for all God’s faithful people for all time. And by this one act, he has secured our holiness, making us able to dwell in God’s special, holy presence. As we read in Hebrews 10:10:

We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10).

Jesus’ sacrifice ushered in the new age of the kingdom of God; it was the beginning of the end of the exile and judgment of God’s people. This one sacrifice made God’s forgiveness directly accessible in every nation on earth. But it also signaled the end of God’s patience and forbearance toward many unbelievers. 

As we read in Acts 17:30, prior to Christ’s sacrifice God had been slow to bring judgment against those who were ignorant of the truth. But Christ’s sacrifice announced the truth in a way that made ignorance far less excusable. As a result, God began to bring judgment against sinners with greater frequency and severity when they failed to repent at the preaching of the gospel.

Some skeptics view the death of Jesus as nothing more than the tragic end to a misguided career. But for believers, the death of Christ was intentional, and significant, and redemptive. And part of how we understand the mysterious dynamics of the cross, part of how we understand that, is that it is a fulfillment of the type, or antecedent motif, of Old Testament sacrifice. Now once again there are many people today who are very uncomfortable about any requirement of blood. It seems so primitive, it seems so unacceptable to a more enlightened and civilized people. I think it’s important for us to realize that God is not some cosmic vampire who requires blood to assuage his needs. The Old Testament sacrifice, the Old Testament sacrificial system, was bold, brutal, and bracing, all of this to underscore the seriousness of the sin that it addresses. The Old Testament sacrificial system was a reminder to ancient peoples that sin must be addressed in order to restore, if you will, the moral symmetry of God’s universe. And Jesus Christ comes as the fulfillment of that need in such a way that the requirements of God’s justice and the moral symmetry of the universe are satisfied by an unprecedented act of self-giving love. The Old Testament points to, and is fulfilled in Christ right down to the details of the ancient sacrificial system. – Dr. Glen G. Scorgie