There is a great importance to the Sacrificial System in the Old Testament. One importance that comes up immediately is that there is a guilt which man possesses.
This guilt must be paid by a price. The price is the sacrifices that were brought before God. These were to be animals which were without blemish.
The most interesting thing about the sacrificial system is that it was futile. One brought a sacrifice one was forgive and made clean. One sinned and was unclean necessitating a future sacrifice.
The sacrificial system is interesting because it could bring no ultimate peace with God. In the opening scene of Jesus’ ministry John the Baptist filled with the Holy Spirit cried out “Look the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the word.”
In the first moments of Jesus’ ministry he is pictured as a sin offering for the world. The Lamb reference is about the essential aspect of Jesus’ ministry, he is here to pay the price of sin.
Jesus did pay the price for sin after fulfilling all the righteousness that is expected of men. And his death was vindicated in his resurrection in that the powers of the grave could not hold him.
Really the ministry of Jesus is not separate from the Old Testament law but a fulfillment of it, once and for all since his sacrifice was so great that no other sacrifice was needed.
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