Corona Devo 373

Jesus was our sacrificial lamb.  In the old (Bible) days, lambs were the preferred sacrifice.  Different sins, festivals and even socio-economic situations prescribed different sacrifices, but the lamb was preferred.  

And although "sacrifice" makes it sound like it was optional to present something to the Lord, that would not be an accurate assumption.  Many verses fill the early Books of the Bible with specific and required outlines of God-ordained requirements that God's people were to expected to fulfill in order to have a recompense for their sins.  

Give something that has worth or importance to you, and this emotional and physical sacrifice will be acceptable and pleasing to God.  That was the idea.  

That is still the idea of our sacrifices to God, but Jesus changed the requirement when He became our ultimate sacrifice that day on Golgotha.  

Hopefully you know that Jesus became our ultimate sacrifice and required-offering by exchanging His body for ours on the cross and taking on the death that we deserve because we are sinful.  (If you haven't been introduced to this idea, drop me a line because I have some exciting news that will change your life forever.)

God never intended for the knowledge of Christ's Sacrifice to be elitist or to be a hidden secret.  The Old and New Testament make repeated allusions and parallels to it and John the Baptist actually makes a bald-faced declaration referring to it: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

Another example plays out when Abraham is told by God to demonstrate His faith by sacrificing his son Isaac.  God refers to Abraham and Isaac's father-son relationship in almost the same terms that He will later use to refer to the Father-Son love between Himself and Jesus when Jesus is baptized.

God tells Abraham: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Genesis 22:1-2

And in amazing similarity, when Jesus was baptized a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  ~Matthew 3:17

The similarities are no coincidence.  The love that Abraham had for Isaac, and yet He was still willing to sacrifice Isaac out of obedience to the Lord is the same type of deep love that God had for Jesus, and yet God was still willing to allow the sacrifice of His beloved Son for us.

The difference in the two stories is obvious: it's Jesus.  The idea of Jesus becoming the sacrifice-for-all was written into Abraham and Isaac's story.  Abraham was faithful and willing to be obedient to God (even in sacrificing his son), but then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son (Genesis 22:13).

This ram signifies the Lamb who (centuries later) would have his head stuck in a thicket of thorns, and would be sacrificed on a cross for us when "they dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head" (Mark 15:17).  

The sacrifices and "required activities" continued throughout the Old Testament for the Israelites (God's people) because their sin had to be accounted for.  Our sin separates us from God, and they had to offer something physical on the altar as a go-between to satisfy the "holy requirement" necessary that stood between them and God.

Until Good Friday.

Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.  ~Mark 15:37-38

There are much deeper commentaries explaining this, but basically, Jesus ripped the barrier between us and the holiness of God apart, and because Jesus is God, He tore from the top-down.  

The previous God-ordained requirements that God's people were to expected to fulfill in order to have a recompense for their sins had been fulfilled by Jesus becoming our requirement on the cross.  

Before Christ's sacrifice, God's people had to give something that had worth or importance to them and this emotional and physical sacrifice would be acceptable and pleasing to God.  That was the idea.  

That is still the idea of our sacrifices to God, but Jesus changed the requirement when He became our ultimate sacrifice that day on Golgotha. 

Pretty mind-blowing, isn't it?

I hope so.  

Life changing too.  

We can stop "trying" to do enough/be enough/give enough/sacrifice enough to be pleasing the God.

Jesus did it.  “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).  Jesus was our sacrificial lamb.

And the love that Abraham had for Isaac is the same type of deep love that God has for Jesus, and guess what?  That is the same deep love that God has for us.

His love was the seed, root and fruition of His sacrifice for us.

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com