The Gospel of Jesus Christ (5) Animal Sacrifice

​“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith” (Rom 3:25)
 
Review
We’ve been talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday, we focused on what sin is along with its consequences and God’s providence of salvation revealed in the Scriptures.
 
Because the essence of sin lies in the desire to make ourselves like God by dragging Him down from His position as our Creator and Lord, sin inevitably severs our relationship with God, which consequently results in eternal death since only God has eternal life. And by doing so, we make ourselves slaves to sin and Satan without even knowing it. These are three consequences of sin that everyone in the world faces.
 
But the good news is that God didn't just leave us to die in our sins. He planned to save us from our sin and death through His one and only Son right after sin first came into the world through Satan’s deception and humans’ disobedience.
 
That’s what we see from Genesis 3:15, in which God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15)
 
This verse is called the protoevangelium, which means the first gospel. This is the first gospel proclaimed by God Himself in the Scriptures.
 
Here, the woman’s offspring refers to the virgin birth of Jesus, the serpent’s offspring striking His heel refers to the death of Jesus, and the woman’s offspring crushing the serpent’s offspring represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
 
So, what we know from this verse is that God planned our salvation through His Son’s incarnation, death, and resurrection from the first time human beings sinned against Him. In fact, the main story of the Bible is the story of God saving all human beings from their sins and reconciling them with Him again.
 
Even though the Old Testament never uses the words ‘Jesus’ or ‘the gospel’, it is filled with a lot of signs, symbols, figures, and prophecies that point to Jesus Christ and His ministry of salvation through His blood, death, and resurrection.
 
That’s why Paul said, “[God] promised the gospel beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son” (Rom 1:2-3)
 
And Jesus said, “These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (Jn 5:39)
 
What we know from these verses is God’s providence for our salvation. Jesus didn’t come abruptly or randomly. Jesus came to the world at the perfect time that God had set according to His plan and His will. As we discussed, the plan of salvation didn’t begin with the New Testament.
 
Even though it started in earnest with the coming of Jesus Christ, God’s salvation actually began long before Jesus came to the world in human form. And this shows us God’s amazing wisdom, grace, and love far beyond all our imagination and knowledge.
 
Animal Sacrifice
So, starting today, I want us to explore some Bible passages that point to Jesus’ ministry of salvation. I hope we get to know more about who Jesus is through this time so that we may have stronger faith in Him.
 
We know that Jesus Christ came to the world to save us from our sins and He did so by shedding His blood and dying on the cross. Then the question we may ask is, how did people solve the problem of sin before Jesus came to the world?
 
Even before Jesus was born, something was needed to solve the problem of sin and recover people’s relationship with God because the effect of sin was so powerful that it had a huge impact around the world.
 
So, God gave His people a way to atone for their sins in the form of a law in the book of ‘Leviticus’. Even though Leviticus is not easy to read, we should try to read and study it since it contains a lot of important principles about the forgiveness of sin and how to live holy lives as God’s people.
 
Now, let’s read Leviticus chapter 1 verses 1-9 in turn and read the last verse together.
 
(Lv 1:1) The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said,
(Lv 1:2) “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.
(Lv 1:3) “‘If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord.
(Lv 1:4) You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.
(Lv 1:5) You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
(Lv 1:6) You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces.
(Lv 1:7) The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.
(Lv 1:8) Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar.
(Lv 1:9) You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
 
Six Steps in Animal Sacrifice
Here, God explains the procedure of a burnt offering to make atonement for the Israelites’ sins. This procedure can be divided into 6 steps.
 
1) To bring the animal without defect to the entrance of the tent of meeting
 
The first step was to carefully select an animal without defect and bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting which God had designated as the place of sacrifice.
 
God said, “…Bring as your offering an animal… you are to offer a male without defect. You must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord.” (Lev 1:2-3)
 
What is important here is that the animal used as the sacrifice had to be without defect. Animals which had defects or wounds couldn’t be used for sacrifice. Only animals without any defect were adequate for sacrifice. We’ll see the reason for this in the second step.
 
2) To lay a hand on the head of the animal
The second step was to lay a hand on the head of the animal that the person brought.
 
Verse 4 says, “You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you” (Lev 1:4)
 
This is a very important step. God said that laying a hand on the animal makes atonement for the person. In other words, without this step, without laying a hand on the head of the offering, there was no atonement. Why was this act so important in animal sacrifice?
 
Here, laying a hand meant exchange. By laying their hand on the animal, people ascribed their sins to it. When they laid their hand, their sins went into the animal.
 
But that’s not the only thing that happened during the process. While people’s sins were entering the animal, the offering’s purity and flawlessness also came into the people. That’s why this is the process of exchange. By laying hands, people’s sins were exchanged for the blamelessness of the animal. And that’s the reason laying a hand was necessary for making atonement. And, that explains why the animals used as sacrifices had to be pure and without defect.
 
3) To slaughter the animal
The third step was to kill the animal after laying a hand on it. It had to be killed because it bore people’s sins and the consequence of sin is death.
 
What’s important here is who killed the animal. Verse 5 says, “You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord.” (Lev 1:5)
 
Here, ‘you’ refers to the very person who brought the animal and placed a hand on it. Priests didn’t kill the animal for the person.
 
It meant that if you sinned and if you laid your hand on the animal, you had to kill it yourself. No one could help you. Imagine killing an animal yourself. It wouldn’t be easy at all.
 
It would be very hard because we’re not experts in killing animals. It would also take a long time to kill it. We may have to stab the animal again and again, watching them die. How would you feel if you had to kill the animal and watch it die?  You would feel sorry for the animal because you would know that it was dying solely because of your sin.
 
The animal didn’t do anything to deserve the death. It was free from blemish or defect. The only reason for the animal’s death would be because we attributed our sins to it by laying our hands on it.
 
What’s also important in this step is that the animal shed its blood.
 
Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, … it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Lv 17:11).
 
Shedding blood played a very important role in sacrifice because God put the life of a creature in the blood. That’s why only blood makes atonement for one’s life. Hebrews 9:22 also says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
 
This is important. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. This is how the Israelites solved the problem of sin. When they sinned, they brought animals without defect to the tent of meeting, attributed their sins to them, killed them and shed their blood. There was no other way to be forgiven. It was the only way God set for human beings to be forgiven of their sins.
 
4-5) To skin the animal and cut it into pieces
The fourth and fifth steps were to skin the animal and cut it into pieces. Verse 6 says, “You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces”. (Lev 1:6)
 
Here, the word ‘you’ still refers to the one who offered the sacrifice for his or her sin. If we had lived in the Old Testament era, we would have had to do these things as well, which would’ve been very hard for us to do.
 
6) To burn all of it
The last step was to burn everything. Verse 9 says, “the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” (Lev 1:9)
 
This was the last step of the burnt offering. The priest would only be involved in this step.
 
That was the way God gave His people to atone for their sins. For their sin to be forgiven, they had to bring an animal without defect, and after they had attributed their sins to it by laying their hands on it, the animal had to be killed, skinned, cut in pieces, and finally burned completely.
 
Imagine you’re doing the whole procedure. It was cruel. You would see blood everywhere. You would smell all of the animal’s pieces being burned. It definitely wouldn’t be a pleasant experience.
 
But Scripture says that the smell was like a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Why did God love the smell? Is it because He likes cruel things? Certainly not. God liked it not because He liked the smell itself but because to Him, it was the aroma of sin being removed from His people. What God sees through the procedure is how the sins of His people, whom He loves, are washed away and they become holy and righteous. That was what God really loved.
 
So, we just talked about the six steps of animal sacrifice as described in the Old Testament. And from these steps, we find some important insights into Jesus’ sacrifice as well because He came into the world as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).
 
In today’s passage, Paul calls Jesus “a sacrifice of atonement” (Rm 3:25). By calling Him that, Paul is equating Jesus’ sacrifice with the animal sacrifice we just talked about. We can find some common features between the two.
 
1) Without blemish or defect
First, just like how the animals used for a burnt offering were without defect, Jesus came to the world as the only person who is without sin. The apostle Peter said,
 
“You were redeemed from the empty way of life… with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Pt 1:18-19)
 
Only Jesus is without defect. Only He is holy, pure, and innocent. There is no one on earth who has no sin, except Jesus, because He is the Son of God, whose very nature is God.
 
But He laid down all the privileges and authorities He had in heaven and made Himself nothing. He took on human flesh. The Creator became a creature. More than that, He died on a cross to save sinners like us. Just like how animals without defect were killed, skinned, and cut into pieces, so was Jesus. We can’t even imagine the depth of His love shown on the cross.
 
And we also need to remember that Jesus’ righteousness was transferred to us as well. When the Israelites laid their hands on animals, not only did their sins go into the animals, but the animal’s purity also came to them.
 
That’s exactly what happens when we believe in Jesus. Here, laying hands refers to faith in the New Testament. When we believe in Jesus’ death for our sins, we not only attribute our sins to Him, but also receive His righteousness.
 
That’s the only way we become righteous. No one can become righteous through their works. Only those who have faith in Him can be righteous solely because of the righteousness Jesus gives us and His precious blood that covers and purifies all our sins. As Paul said,
 
“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith…  Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” (Rm 3:25, 27-28)
 
2) Who killed Him?
Second, the fact that the one who brought the animal and laid their hand on it had to kill it also gives us an important lesson.
 
When answering the question, “who killed Jesus?”, we may think of people such as Jewish religious leaders, Roman soldiers, Judas Iscariot, and Pontius Pilate.
 
It’s true that all of them directly or indirectly contributed to Jesus’ death. It seems that Jesus died because Jewish people were jealous of Him, Judas betrayed Him and sold Him out, Pontius Pilate sentenced Him to crucifixion, and Roman soldiers whipped, nailed, and speared Him.
 
But, the more we think about the purpose of His death, we can’t deny the fact that it was actually us who killed Jesus. That’s because had it not been for our sins, He wouldn’t have had to come to the world in human form and die on the cross.
 
So, we should remember that the cross where Jesus bore our sins along with God’s curse and wrath was actually our place. It was us who killed Jesus since He died on the cross, in our place, on our behalf.
 
3) The nature of sin
Third, we also see the nature of sin, especially how it’s hard to get rid of it. When we see each step of animal sacrifice, we might feel like it’s too cruel. That’s true. We may ask, “isn’t it enough just to kill it?” “Are the steps of skinning it, cutting it into pieces, and burning it really necessary?” “Why was the sacrifice so cruel?”
 
But we also see the cruelty in Jesus being crucified. He didn’t die instantly. It took a long time. Nowadays, the cross is depicted as something beautiful in many paintings, but in Rome, crucifixion was actually the maximum sentence for the worst sinners. It was the cruelest punishment.
 
I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ but it depicted how brutal the crucifixion was. And I still think the reality was much crueler than the movie illustrates.
 
And I think the cruelty of how animals and Jesus died explains the power of sin. We often overlook the influence of sin, but it has a great impact in our lives. As King David confessed, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Ps 51:5)
 
It means that sin doesn’t simply go away from us, but rather, it constantly sticks to us.
 
So, why did the animals used as sacrifices have to be killed, skinned, and even cut in pieces so cruelly? Simply because they bore sin. It shows that sin should be killed, skinned, cut into pieces, and burned to be entirely removed. I believe that’s the reason Jesus didn’t just die, shedding His blood. He had to undergo brutal suffering because He bore our sins.
 
Then, if we know this, we also know how hard it is for us to fight against sin. I think today’s Christians have a tendency to overlook their sinful nature. They don’t like it, but they don’t really try to fight against it. And if we treat our sinful nature like that, we will never be victorious over it. We’re to remember that even though Jesus washed all our sins away, we still need to fight against our sins with the grace and power that God gives us in Christ Jesus.
 
Hebrews 12:4 says, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb 12:4)
 
This must be how we should fight against our sins if we really believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and make atonement for them.
 
Today, we talked about the animal sacrifice for atonement in Leviticus chapter 1 and its relation to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. He came to the world as a sacrifice of atonement like the animals sacrificed in the Old Testament. On the cross, He bore all our sins and offered Himself as a ransom for our sins. And by His wounds, all our sins were forgiven and we were healed.
 
Today, I want us to remember His great, noble sacrifice for us so that we can give thanks to Him more and have stronger faith in Him.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Closing Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this great opportunity to think about who Jesus Christ is and His amazing sacrifice for us.
 
We don’t deserve it as sinners, but You still decided to sacrifice Your most precious One to save us and to give us life. Even though we can never fully know Your mercy, love, and grace because they are beyond our understanding, we still see them in Jesus’ sacrificial act on the cross.
 
We give thanks to You for what He has done for us. We thank You, Lord, for willingly dying in our place where You were mocked, cursed, and underwent the wrath of God because of our sins. We confess that dying on the cross was what we deserved, but You willingly died in our place even though we didn’t deserve Your love at all.
 
Now Lord, we want to know and experience the power of Jesus’ sacrifice and His precious blood. Please touch our hearts and continue to work in us so that we can overcome our sinful nature with the righteousness You’ve given us through Jesus Christ and follow Your will as Your holy people.
 
We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. When have you experienced God’s mercy in your life? When have you experienced the power of the blood of Jesus Christ? How has it changed your life?
 
2. Laying a hand on an animal in animal sacrifice in the Old Testament is the equivalent of having faith in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Do you have such faith in Him? If you do, how did you come to believe in Him? If you don’t, what are some obstacles that prevent you from believing in Him?
 
3. The author of Hebrews challenges us to resist sin to the point of shedding our blood. What does this mean to you personally? How would you apply this in your life?