The Picture Of The Sacrifice

Because God wants us to know spiritual truths, He gives us physical, material pictures to illustrate these things. 

The first picture He gave was covering Adam and Eve's nakedness with animal skins. These physical skins showed the covering that the animal blood provided for their sin. God showed them right away that, 

Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).

Adam and Eve's first children, Cain and Abel, knew this, and they both brought their sacrifices to the Lord (Genesis 4: 3-5). We see here the difference between Cain's offering of his agricultural products, and Abel's of one of his lambs. 

There is no blood in fruits and vegetables, as there is in an animal that must die by shedding its blood. In offering an animal, Abel admitted that he deserved to die, letting the animal be his substitute. So Cain wanted God to accept his own work, instead of admitting that he deserved death.

Later God gave the Law to Moses, codifying the sacrifices. The first sacrifice he wanted His teachers, the Levites, to teach the people was the personal sacrifice, in the very first chapter of Leviticus. 

This had the individual person bringing his own animal to the priest. He placed his hand on the head of the lamb or calf, identifying with it, then the priest sacrificed it on the altar, dying in the place of the person. Then its blood was splattered on the sides of the altar, covering the person's sins so he could be forgiven. But animal blood can only cover, never take away the sin.

This is all a physical picture that they acted out, so we could understand the spiritual truth of our deserving death. 

God made it possible that if Mankind sinned, then he would need to die in order for a substitute to die for him so he could still live. Adam wasn't subject to death until he disobeyed God's only rule for him. If he had obeyed God, and eaten from the Tree of Life instead, then he would live forever. As created, Adam had both possibilities, and when his DNA was settled toward death, then God had to keep him from also eating of the Tree of Life, which would forfeit the benefit of Salvation. 

God told Eve that the Savior would come from her "seed" because Adam would be the one to transmit that damaged DNA that would be called the "sin-nature." He had disobeyed willfully, but Eve had been deceived and bore personal sin. 

That's how a virgin could bear God's Child, giving Him a genuine human nature without the sin-part. 

Jesus came to fulfill that personal sacrifice for each of us. We are all born to live; He was born to die. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God, who is our perfect Sacrifice. He had to be God to be the eternal Person who could pay our eternal debt in time; and He is a genuine human being, qualified to die the human death we all deserve, in our place. 

The sacrifice in Leviticus was a picture of what Jesus would accomplish for us, given so we would recognize His work. And His physical body and blood are another picture of the spiritual work He finished there; not just covering the sin, but washing us in His precious Blood completely clean, as though we'd never sinned. 

Now we can be perfectly pure, fit for God to place His Presence in us, putting His Spirit into our spirit, making it alive with eternal life. He had to wash us perfectly clean of every shadow of a trace of sin, so that His very Presence in us would not destroy us. We cannot even look into the Sun without destroying our eyes, and it holds only a small portion of His glory. This is a miracle, as all God's spiritual works seem to be miraculous, not being possible by us in our flesh. 

God has planned it all out ahead of time. He planned for Adam to be able to die if he sinned, but also able to live forever. And He gave us all the pictures of the material stuff of this Earth so we would be able to "see" His spiritual Truths. 

O my Father, You are so good to us, to have planned out beforehand just how You would send Your own Son for us, and how we would be able to recognize Him when He came. And how to realize how He finished all the work He came to do, to fulfill everything that was written about Him. 

We as Your children are in our school of life, learning who You are, who we are, and how to cooperate with Your ways. This is the only way we can enjoy all the benefits You placed in the Earth for us to use. And Your written Word is our nourishment to grow up in Your family as royalty to one Day help You rule Your future creation. 

And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Redeemer, the Lord God Almighty, King of all Creation, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!