Thursday, March 29, 2012
Hebrews 7:27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
PERFECT PRIEST ... PERFECT SACRIFICE ... PERFECT SAVIOR
God demanded animal sacrifices for sin -- premeditated sins, sins of ignorance, specific sins and sin in general. No sinner was exempt -- rich or poor, Jew or Gentile convert, priest or Levite. Every human being who sins -- and that's every human being -- is accountable before God and (God said with every sacrifice) there will be no forgiveness without the shedding of the blood of an innocent substitute.
While every animal sacrificed on Old Testament altars was by nature innocent of any human sin, God emphasized that and went one step further by demanding that these animal sacrifices be perfect. No animal with spot or blemish, disease or crippled limb was acceptable. But still these sacrifices needed to be repeated again and again, year after year. Clearly they were not THE perfect Sacrifice.
Similarly, the priests who killed these animals and presented them to the LORD also -- as intercessors between the holy God and sinful people -- were made to be pictures of perfection. God required them to wear white robes, take ritual baths and make sacrifice for their own sins before offering sacrifice for the people.
Just as animals could only picture the Sacrifice that would actually remove human sin-guilt (hence the repetition), sinful men could only picture the Mediator we sinners needed -- the One who would finally offer Himself once for all time for all sin. It took thousands of sacrifices and thousands of priests to portray the perfect substitutionary Sacrifice for sin Jesus would be: "Himself the victim and Himself the priest."
Clearly God considered the cost of all those animal sacrifices to be worth it, if we through their portrayal might see our Savior. Just as -- wonder of wonders -- God considered the substitutionary sacrifice of His own Son to be worth it that you might be redeemed for time and for eternity.
