A TZADDIK shall live by his faith

(Habakkuk 2:4)
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THE DECEPTION OF SUBSTITUTIONAL SACRIFICE

What is the purpose of sacrifice? Internally, Judaism has asked this question for millennia. Why did God command sacrifice? Did God command sacrifice to teach mankind that He is a just God and that His justice requires satisfaction? If you answer "yes," you might want to examine the following scriptures to "see" a different light shed upon sacrifice. The following scriptures give insight into how God looks at sacrifice and to what really pleases Him.....

"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is no less a sin than divination, and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry.

I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:........(To this I add the question: Does God drink the blood of His Son, or does He eat His Son's flesh? Is that what you think satisfies Him or His justice?)

For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my FIRSTBORN for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

It was obvious that the children of Israel thought that the of use buckets of blood and animal meat as a substitute would appease God and make Him happy with them. God's response was basically telling them it was foolishness to think that somehow His justice was satisfied through sacrifice. The purpose of sacrifice was to turn you from sin, not to satisfy any sense of justice. He let them know, in no uncertain terms, that what satisfied Him was a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and to walk humbly before Him, performing justice and righteousness. Some say it is impossible to make a complete turn from their sin. Rather, this was the exact purpose of Jesus in allowing us to shed His innocent blood. He died so that our sin would go into remission. This means that you have from your heart, from your inner being, turned from sin. Sin no longer can be your master because a Christian now fully realizes the terrible consequence of his sin. If anyone remains in sin, he remains in the state of killing Jesus, and that ultimately will not be tolerated. Killing an animal does not bring about the removal of sin, there just wasn't enough motivation to separate you from your sin through the death of an animal. This is not the case with Jesus. Jesus is your Red Heifer, and the purpose of His sacrifice was the removal of your sin. It was to separate you from your sin (Num 19:9). It took His terrible suffering and death, along with His resurrection (His life) being sprinkled on you, to separate you from your sin. Picture what someone looked like with the ashes of the physical red heifer sprinkled on them. It made them a filthy mess, with the filth of that animal's death was all over them. The same applies to us in the death of Jesus, His suffering and death is upon us all and unless we wash (and that is your pledge to keep a clean conscience before God), we remain in our sin. Jesus did not die so we could be whitewashed by God. Rather, in His death we are being thoroughly cleansed on the inside from our sin. All a substitutional Jesus accomplishes is to whitewash you. A substitutional Jesus does everything for you in your stead so you don't have to be cleansed on the inside, from your sin.

The righteousness we receive through the death of Jesus is not a substitutional righteousness. If you believe that you did sacrifice your sin offering (Jesus), then you have fulfilled what the Law required you as a sinner to do. It was through your sin that you did kill your sacrifice, therefore it was by being a sinner that you did fulfill what the Law required of you. That is the Grace of God, the free gift of righteousness. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, therefore we all have this righteousness, it is just a matter of accepting the fact that Jesus is your personal sacrifice. The reason God gave us this grace (the free gift of righteousness) was so that we would turn from sin and say no to ungodliness.....

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

It is an easy thing for God to forgive us all. It is much easier than telling a lame man to pick up his mat and walk. The only death that God's justice requires is the death of your old man in Christ. The soul that sins, this is the very soul that should die. No where does the scriptures say, "The soul that sins shall have God die in his stead."

The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Scripture cannot be broken...

Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death.

Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

When you stand before God as a murderer of Jesus with His blood on your hands, and then you plead with God to forgive you by asking Him to accept the innocent blood of His Son to satisfy your failed obedience, He will promptly tell you to depart from Him you murderer and worker of iniquity. The scriptures are plain, if a wicked man turns from his sin, none of his wickedness will be remembered. But for the wicked man to turn from his wickedness, it took the shedding of the precious blood of a totally innocent Lamb. Really look into what the scriptures have to say concerning the shedding of innocent blood. It is an abomination to God. No justice can be satisfied with something that is totally abominable. Come to your senses, my friends, and believe the truth concerning the sacrifice of Jesus.

Last Modified: 7/22/2012