Proverbs 21:3
The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer Him sacrifices.
God gave all the sacrifices and all the rest of the laws in order to teach His people how to humble themselves before God and how to treat their fellow man. Doing the "letter of the law" was to show them God's heart for them.
Most of the people didn't understand that, though. They thought that "going through the motions" of the things God said they were to do were sufficient. And most people today also do not get it.
Jesus fulfilled all the "letter" of all the laws that were established before, that God required the people to perform: He celebrated all the feasts, made all the required sacrifices, and, most of all, He loved others in a way no one else ever had.
And He became the most fundamental sacrifice God had individual people to offer. The first chapter of the book of Leviticus, the very detailed and boring listing of all the laws, begins with this individual sacrifice. The person was to lay his hand on the head of the animal, to confer his sin to the beast, which was then slaughtered in sacrifice, dying in the place of the person for his sin. And its blood was splashed onto the sides of the altar on which it was burned, to cover the person's sins so he could then be forgiven.
Jesus is our Lamb of God, who offered Himself on the altar of His cross, His blood flowing down its sides. Jesus poured out His precious, divine blood for each of us, which does not just cover, but actually washes away our sins. But we each need to figuratively lay our hand on His head, admitting that our own, personal sins deserve death (the paycheck we earn for sin is death), and let Him die in our place. Then, with our debt paid, we go on with our life, along with the spiritual life God gives us as we are "born again" into His own family.
I know that each one of us tries to live our life in the best way we know how to live, we all try to be good people. But we all fall down, not living up to what we know is right. That's because of our damaged DNA we inherited from our fathers, all the way back to Adam. This is called "original sin" or "the sin-nature." It's why we're not perfect. It's also why we need a Savior. Even the best of us has earned that paycheck. And God is not willing that any should perish, but that we all would come to the repentance of admitting that lack of standing before God, and let Jesus die our death on that cross.
If you have never realized that Jesus died for you, then I suggest that you ask God to give you the gift of saving faith, to be able to believe God and trust Jesus to pay that debt for you. Then you will realize how much God loves you.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
