>. . . a sacrificial system will exist right along side the Person it represents.
Skypair,
The “sacrificial system” of the Law was a system of sacrifices and offerings based on the shedding of lifeblood to atone for the sins of the people of Israel that they might be acceptable to serve God. The coming of Christ and his sacrifice of himself has forever rendered any other sacrifice or offering for sin unacceptable to God, including those of the Law.
I respectfully ask you to read prayerfully Hebrews 9 and 10. Paul goes to great length to explain why the New Covenant is so much better than the Old, and to argue for the supremacy of the blood of Christ over that of bulls and goats. But the gist of these chapters is that the New has replaced the Old, not been added to the Old, but replaced the Old, and therefore the Old was about to pass away, not temporarily, but permanently.
But pay special attention to 10:5-20 where Paul quotes the beautifully poignant Messianic prayer of Psalm 40:6-8 where our Savior recognized that the supreme sacrifice required by God was not the sacrifices and offerings of bulls and goats, but his own body of flesh and blood which God had prepared for him. This was what the ultimate sacrifice which the holiness of God required, and this was the one perfect sacrifice which would replace, not be added to, but replace the sacrifices of the law. But listen to how Paul explains it all . . .
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of those things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not ceased to have been offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins . . .
And then begins the beautiful Messianic song of surrender . . .
“. . . Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepare me: In burnt offering and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God . . .”
And then Paul repeats those beautifully prophetic words of surrender . . .
“. . . Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God . . .
And then Paul boldly proclaims . . .
“. . . He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
God took away the sacrificial system of the law in order that the sacrifice of the body of Christ might stand . . . forever.
Again, the New has replaced the old, not been added to it, or held up alongside it, but replaced it, and the old has passed away.
Which Paul stresses again and again . . .
“. . . by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with [Israel] after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”
Even for those of Israel who are sanctified by the blood of Christ, their sins have been remitted, they are forever perfected, and there is no more offering for sin.
In Christ,
Deborah
raying: