How Does Jesus' Sacrifice Relate to Animal Sacrifice? Part 2

How Does Jesus' Sacrifice Relate to Animal Sacrifice? Part 2
Sabbath School Q2 2021: The Promise - Week 7

As we covered last week in part one of this two part series entitled, "How Does Jesus' Sacrifice Relate to Animal Sacrifice?", most Christians understand the sacrifice of animals to be a foreshadowing of what Jesus would accomplish on the cross. But why is sacrifice needed in the first place and how exactly is the death of a sacrificial victim supposed to "work" anyway? Well, many are under the impression that it works kinda like this: God decided that all who disobey him - all who sin, have committed a crime worthy of the death penalty. And that in order for justice to be served, someone simply has to die.

As a recap for those who have already watched it, we evidenced from 1 Peter 2:18-25 that for Jesus to "bear our sins" does not mean that He took the responsibility for them, but rather that he endured them for our sake as an example for us, to empower and encourage us to do the same, trusting in the righteous justice of God to vindicate all who live patient, humble, righteous lives just like Jesus.

You see, the price of sin is death (Romans 6:23) - all who sin have that fate hanging over their heads. This price can be paid either by dying for our own sins - in which case death will be our final end and the end of our sins. Or we can allow the death of Jesus to change our hearts so that we turn from sin. Jesus was willing to "bear with" our sins and subject Himself to this sin-sick world so that we could see first hand the horrible effects of sin on an innocent person, and therefore be so turned off from sin - that we would be repulsed by it - and reject every temptation to sin thereafter.

This is the scriptural truth of how Jesus death relates to our salvation. And we hope you were able to see from last week's video that the popular story of why Jesus died and how his death saves us is not scriptural and not true. But this popular story is also the lens through which people commonly interpret the sacrificial system before Jesus came to earth. This brings us to today's lesson. If our common story of sacrifice is wrong, what is the truth about sacrifice before Jesus came to earth?
Like the innocent lambs wrongly sacrificed in the temple, the innocent Jesus was wrongly put to death as well. And this is why the sacrifice of these poor animals is such a fitting type, or foreshadowing, of the death of Jesus. And this is how Jesus' Sacrifice Relates to Animal Sacrifice. We know that the Gospel of John, 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, and the book of Revelation all relate Jesus to a sacrificial lamb. These writings use the lamb as a symbol of an innocent, spotless, sinless, creature that suffered an unjust death at the hands of sinners. We know from the writings in the New Testament that Jesus' death was considered a terrible thing (see Acts 2: 36-37; Acts 7:51-53; 1 Corinthians 2:6-8). The good that comes from the crucifixion isn't the crucifixion itself, it is the lessons we can learn from the crucifixion, teaching us to abandon sin once and for all. It is the same thing with the sacrificial animals. Their deaths were undeserved, unwanted by God, and simply terrible. Yet, if the Israelites had listened to the prophets, God would have been able to use the horrible act of killing these animals as the means of convicting the Israelites of the terribleness of sin. They could have learned that sin destroys not only the guilty, but the innocent as well. Sometimes people think that in order for God to use something as a type or a symbol, it means God must have ordained that thing. But this isn't the case. God used the polygamous family of Abraham as a symbol for the early followers of Jesus and other Jewish groups (see Galatians 4) but that doesn't meant that God ordained polygamy. According to all the prophets we have quoted in this video, God did not orchestrate animal sacrifice and in fact, he hated it. And as we saw last week and in previous videos, God didn't orchestrate the death of Jesus either - and he hated it as well. Jesus really was like a poor sacrificial victim. Yet, God is able to use even the most terrible things to teach us the most important lessons. Let's make sure we don't miss it.

"The Mosaic Torah," by Trent Wilde:

Moral Prophets Denouncing Animal Sacrifice - New Moon 4th Month - Jul 15, 2018 - Trent Wilde:

Why Did Jesus Quote Jeremiah When Cleansing the Temple? MSSBD

The Historical Jesus and the Disturbance in the Temple (New Moon study) – Jun 16, 2018 - Trent Wilde:

Scripture Canon Playlist:

A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson.

[elwalker]

Thwack!! Yo. Did not see that comin.
All through Genesis patriarch are sacrificing...
Do you guys have a very interesting denominational Bible, or just selectively interpret whichever version?
So just for curiosity sake: Sins committed by believers are covered/atoned for (however u choose to call it) by Christ's death, meaning he did bear our sins on the cross, no?