The Necessity of Sacrifice

Animal sacrifice has been an integral part of acceptable worship and approaching God since the very first sin in Eden.

• A lamb was sacrificed to provide coats of skins for Adam and Eve

• Abel offered a sacrifice at the gate of Eden (Cain, who did not offer an animal sacrifice, was not accepted)

• After the flood, Noah made acceptable sacrifices

• Abraham frequently engaged in similar worship, calling on the name of God name in connection with offering the bodies of slain animals.

• During the plagues upon the Egyptians in Egypt, the Israelites were to be spared by killing a lamb and sprinkling its blood on their door-posts.

• In the Mosaic law, the use of the blood of bulls and goats in sacrificial rites is evident throughout..

Without the Shedding of Blood is No Remission

We are told in Hebrews 9:22 “… without shedding of blood is no remission. The significance of the shedding of blood can be found in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls (lives): for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul (life).” And Leviticus 17:14, “For it (the blood) is the life of all flesh … for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.” Here is life as the leading element of blood used in sacrificial ritual and ceremony.

Animal Sacrifices Prefigured the Sacrifice of Christ

In the writings of the apostles, we are directed to look back and understand that all these practices were foreshadows, figurative and symbolic representations of what God intended to achieve concerning us through His Son (Hebrews 10:1-4). Animal sacrifices served as a symbolic institution, allowing humanity to approach God acceptably despite their estranged and condemned state, in the hope of eventual reconciliation through Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice.

God ordained a ritual where individuals would place their hands on the head of an animal, confess their sins, kill it, and takes its blood and offer it to God. The poured out the blood symbolised the offered life. This ritual was the recognition and declaration by the worshipper that they were under condemnation and had no rightful claim to their life. By approaching God in this prescribed manner, they recognized their standing and pleased God by acknowledging his righteousness.

Animal Sacrifices Cannot Take Away Sin

Paul points out that "The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin," Hebrews 10:4-18 unlike the blood of Christ which can. The question arises: Why couldn't the shedding of the blood of bulls and goats take away sin, since it is an act which symbolized the offerer's confession and renouncement of sin, just like a person coming to God through the shed blood of Christ?

The key to understanding this lies in Paul's statement concerning Christ's death in Romans 3:21–22, where he says, "The righteousness of God without the law is manifested in Christ." In Romans 3:25, it is further explained, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus."

In essence, what this means is that God upholds His righteousness and supreme authority even as He forgives us. He requires us to acknowledge and submit to His righteousness and supremacy as a condition for exercising his forbearance and mercy in forgiving our sins. Presenting Christ as the object of faith in His blood, in a propitiatory sense, forms the basis for the forgiveness offered to us.

Only Christ’s Sacrifice Can Take Away Sin

The question arises: Why does the death of Christ serve as a sufficient basis for the forgiveness of sins leading to eternal life, while the death of animals did not? The answer lies in the fact that Christ's death was intended "to declare the righteousness of God" and serve as the basis for God's forbearance in offering us forgiveness and deliverance from mortality.

Looking at Christ's death, we can see the declaration of that righteousness Romans 3:24-26. Conversely, when we observe the sacrifice of a lamb or any animal, we do not see a declaration of the righteousness of God except in a symbolic shadow, type, or figure. The animal has done no wrong and punishing it for someone else's sin would be fundamentally unjust and not righteous. In the death of Christ, however, the purpose was for "God to be just" while simultaneously acting as the justifier and forgiver of the unjust who repent in faith.

Animal sacrifices could only symbolise this truth in a preliminary and symbolic sense. They did not fully depict God's righteousness, except in a prophetic capacity. They were a precursor to the true display of God's righteousness that would be accomplished through the Lamb provided by God Himself. Abraham, under the influence of the Spirit of God, foretold this when he said to Isaac, "God will provide Himself a lamb, my son." And when Jesus arrived, John declared, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

Adapted from “The Blood of Christ” by Robert Roberts