In my daily Bible reading plan I have been working my way through the Old Testament books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. For those of you who have read through these books before, you know that they are full of the Mosaic and Levitical law as given by God to man through Moses. Readily apparent to me while going through the law and all its requirements, regulations, intricacies, and ceremonies was the abundance of rituals for offerings and sacrifices. On a daily basis offerings and sacrifices were made to bring men closer to the presence of God. These rituals were to be observed in a very specific way, laid down by God for men to atone for their sins and to make themselves acceptable to a holy God. Being a Hebrew priest was a full-time job as spiritual leaders for the nation of Israel. Fully apparent and recognizable is the requirement for the shedding of blood as a fitting and acceptable sacrifice to atone for men’s sins and allow them to approach the Almighty God. At this time, coming up on the observance of Passover in the Hebrew tradition (what most of the Gentile churches refer to as Easter), we pause to consider the ultimate blood sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died on Calvary’s Cross for the atonement[1] and redemption[2] of the sins of all men.

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 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 inheritance.

For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. (Hebrews 9:11-22)

As we read in verse 22, by law almost all things are purified and purged with blood, “and without the shedding of blood there is no remission[3]” of sin. One critical element of God’s holiness is the requirement of justice, of judgment, for man’s sin and disobedience to Him. By the very holy nature of God, He cannot tolerate and will not accept sin in His presence. It must be atoned for to gain access to His holy presence. As we look back on the almost endless multitude of laws that God laid down for men to observe to live a life acceptable to Him, one can see that the possibility of faithfully observing and executing every aspect of the law would be impossible for men to accomplish. However, this was to serve as a constant reminder to the Hebrews that their sinful nature was severe, and the law and judgment to overcome it and satisfy God’s requirements was severe as well.

From the earliest pages of Genesis to the last pages of Revelation, the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ is the central theme of the Bible concerning the remission and redemption of our sins. In Revelation 13:8, John the Apostle writes of those who will worship the Antichrist in the tribulation, “All who dwell on the earth will worship Him, everyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” What we can take away here is that Jesus’s death on the cross was not an afterthought by God put into place after events of the fall of Adam and Eve. It had been foreknown in God’s perfect plan even before the world came into existence. God’s faithful and undying love for his creation of men, even though fallen into sin, included a plan for their salvation from spiritual death from the wages of sin.

The Old Testament is replete with examples of the shedding of blood in the presence of sin. After Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent and sinned in disobedience to God, He made them clothes of the skin of animals. An innocent animal was slain, its blood shed and its skin taken to cover the nakedness and sinfulness of Adam and Eve. The first murder in history occurred when Cain killed his brother, Abel, because God found more favor in the offering of Abel’s lamb than Cain’s offering of the fruits and vegetables he had grown. Why? Not necessarily because Cain’s produce was of poor quality or second-rate, but because there is no sacrificial blood–no redemptive blood–in a vegetable.

By the sixth chapter of Genesis, mankind’s nature had become so evil and corrupt that the Lord repented that He had made man on Earth and his heart was sore with grief. As a result, He decided to destroy all men and living things except Noah and his family and the animals that Noah took with him into the ark. We find that after the waters that had destroyed all men, save a few, abated, that “Noah built an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings upon the altar” (Genesis 8:12). Even after a catastrophic, total annihilation of virtually all life upon the planet, there was the shedding of blood in sacrifice, “for without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission (of sin)” (Hebrews 9:22).

In Genesis 22, we find a clear type of the sacrifice of Jesus in Abraham’s son Isaac, the obedient son, who laid himself upon the altar under the hand of Abraham, whom God had commanded to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to Him. Abraham was trusting and faithful, because he knew if God was able to give him and his wife Sarah a son in their old age, he was certainly able to bring him (Isaac) back from the dead. In verse 8 Abraham told Isaac that “God would provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering,” making a direct reference to the future offering of Jesus himself as the sacrificial Lamb.

In Exodus it laid out the saga of God’s deliverance of the children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Egypt represents the sins of the world and the Pharaoh a type of Satan. God delivers the Israelite nation from their slavery again with the shedding of blood to free them from Egypt and Pharaoh. The Lord commands each household to take a first-born male lamb, free of spot or blemish, slay it and take its blood to place on the doorposts and lintels of the house, not on the threshold (because when they left they were to walk under the blood and not over it). “And the blood shall be a token to you upon the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague (of death) shall not be upon you to destroy you” (Exodus 12:13). Even so for us as believers today in the redemptive power of Jesus’s blood, God will see his spilled blood upon us and will allow the plague of our sin and death to pass over us.

In Exodus 29:10-12, we find reference to the sacrificial offering of animals by the Levitical priests. “And you shall cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock. And you shall kill the bullock before Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And you shall take the blood of the bullock and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.” Thousands of animals were sacrificed in this way as a blood offering for the sins of the Hebrew people, but Hebrews 10:11-12 reads that all these sacrifices could never take away sins, but merely rolled them forward to the time of Jesus, when His Precious Blood would cover all sins once and for all. “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this Man (Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). Jesus didn’t need to remain standing offering endless sacrifices, as the Old Testament priests. His sacrificial blood paid the debt of sins once and for all, as He cried from the cross, “It is finished.”

Jesus is the only one who could have died for the sins of all men. Being born of a virgin, He was free of the blood of Adam, and the curse of sin that came with it. In his veins coursed blood like that of no man before or since; not the blood of mortal men, but the pure undefiled blood of God himself. So although Jesus inhabited a mortal body, His life was in the blood of the Father, and as such incorruptible. Jesus was not the son of a man. He is the son of God.

When Adam yielded to Satan’s temptation and sinned against God, he gave up the dominion God had given him in the garden and handed it over to Satan. In return, he traded it for slavery and bondage to sin and death. Because of his original sin, all his descendants inherited this curse as their birthright. All men live under the bondage of sin because of Adam.

Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12).

For since by man (Adam) came death, by Man (Jesus Christ) also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

Because of Jesus’s sinless life and perfect sinless blood untainted by the blood of Adam, He is the only one who could have purchased remission of our sins by the shedding of His blood. If it had been any other way, there would have been no hope for the remission of the sins of all mankind, and for one Man to pay for all the sins passed down from one man to all. Jesus was the only man who ever lived who chose to die. We as humans cannot choose to die, we can only choose the time of our death.

We all will die, it is a given. Jesus did not have to die because he was sinless and free from the bondage of death. He chose to willingly and lovingly give up his life for us, who in no way deserve it. “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes 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 command I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17-18)

We cannot choose to escape our mortal death, yet we can escape from eternal, spiritual death and separation in Hell. The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, which paid our debt of sin and death, allows us to accept this free gift by virtue of God’s grace and mercy. By His blood our blackest sins–all our sins–are washed white as snow and we truly become children of God as God intended from the dawn of time.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (1 John 3:1)

All one needs to do is repent of their sins, confess them openly and freely before God, and ask for forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is His promise that if we do this and call upon the name of the Lord in this way, we will be saved.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ( I John 1:9).

As Christ died once and for all, forever, so shall we be saved once and for all, forever and ever. God warns us not to despise or treat as foolishness the sacrificial act of Jesus’s death.

Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:28-29)

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).

God demands judgment for the wages of sin. Our debt must be paid and has been by Jesus, but we must ask for it.

 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

God is faithful to keep His promises to us, and He desires that all shall come to salvation and live in His eternal presence and glory forever.

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). Our Lord and Savior put everything aside and allowed Himself to be tortured, ridiculed, humiliated, beaten, and then suffered even more as His body was nailed through His hands and feet to a rough and horrible cross of wood, so that He would suffer even more in one of the most agonizing of deaths. Moreover, on Him was borne all the sins of men of all time. He took that sin burden upon Himself and He became our sin so that for the only time in His entire existence He was separated from His Father who could not bear to see His only Son murdered while covered in all the evil, filthy, rotten, detestable, corrupt and shameful sins of us all. He did that and He did it willingly. He could have called legions of angels to come and rescue Him from His painful ordeal, but out of His love and His obedience to His Father who loves us in spite of all our corruption, guilt and shame, He remained upon that cross until He breathed His last painful and agonizing breath.

As Jesus said, ” Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”(John 15:13).

The majority of men through the ages could have cared less about Jesus, His love and sacrifice, and yet in spite of that He laid down His life for us all. It is all too easy to let the full impact of this magnanimous act of mercy, grace and love take its full effect with all the honor and respect and devotion it truly deserves. However, if we let God’s incredible love for us, in that while we were yet sinners–hopeless of redemption and salvation–Christ died for us, really sink in, it is mind-boggling and almost beyond comprehension! We were purchased at a valuable price!

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 times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21)

Let us daily, and especially at this special time in our Christian lives, praise our God and Savior, thankfully, humbly and respectfully, giving all the glory within our power to do so. Let us also share our wonderful gift of salvation through God’s grace, mercy and sacrifice with others so that they may know of our joy as well.

Holding fast,

Mark

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

[1] Atonement: Reparation for a wrongdoing or injury.

[2] Redemption: Involves deliverance from bondage based upon the price paid by a redeemer. Christ’s redemption has freed us from the guilt of our sins and has placed us into a state of righteousness with God.

[3] Remission: The cancellation of a debt, charge or penalty (as in of sins: forgiveness, pardoning, absolution).

 

^{Photography by Andre Hunter}