Did Christ Offer Animal Sacrifices?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth
by Pastor Ricky Kurth
You
wouldn’t think He did, since sacrifices were brought “for atonement” (Ex.
29:36), and He had no sins for which to atone. However, He also had no
sins of which He needed to repent to receive remission of them, and yet He
submitted to John’s “baptism of repentance for the remission of sins”
(Mark 1:4). Of course, we know that He was baptized “to fulfill
all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). That is, in order for us to
be numbered with the righteous, He had to be “numbered with the
transgressors” so He could die for them (Isa. 53:12). So He was numbered
with the transgressors in His baptism, and also when He died between two
transgressors (Mark 15:28). But if He identified with sinners at the
beginning of His ministry with His baptism, and at the end of His ministry
with His death, perhaps He identified with sinners in between
those events as well, with animal sacrifices.
But
here we have to be careful how we say the Lord offered such sacrifices. As
a Jew under the Law (Gal. 4:4) He had to keep the Law, for to transgress
it would be sin (I John 3:4). Well, the Law required men to keep the seven
feasts of Leviticus 23, each of which involved an animal
sacrifice, and we know the Lord kept Israel’s feasts (Luke 22:15;
John 7:2,10). These sacrifices were offered for the people of
Israel as a whole, and He was one of the people, and so in this
way He identified with them with animal sacrifices. But the One who
“knew no sin” (II Cor. 5:21) never brought a sacrifice for any personal
transgression.
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