THE EFFICACY OF SACRIFICES
THE EFFICACY OF OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICES
Historically the Levitical element was as essential to the religious life and development of Israel as the prophetic. It formed the framework, as it were, without which the continuity of the religious life of the Jewish nation would have been impossible. No valid distinction can be made between the Levitical (or ceremonial) and prophetic (or moral) elements of the Old Testament, since each was divinely instituted to serve its proper purpose. Such a separation is unbiblical and foreign to Old Testament thought.
Throughout Israel's history the moral was taught through the ceremonial, the ceremonial being the necessary vehicle for the expression of the moral. The Jewish sacrifices were, by divine intention, to reflect the moral truths of obedience, self-sacrifice, self-dedication, love for and devotion to God, recognition of sin, repentance, and many other spiritual conceptions.
Throughout the Old Testament the moral interprets the ritual and the ceremonial gives meaning to the ethical. It is indeed a narrow view of Old Testament sacrifice to fail to see in its institution moral, ethical, and spiritual elements.
There was pervading the idea of sacrifice a principle of righteousness.
There was pervading the idea of sacrifice a principle of righteousness.
Sacrifice was the divinely appointed means of securing a right standing before God in the Mosaic dispensation, and it is faulty hermeneutics to interpret Old Testament sacrificial concepts in terms of New Testament theology alone. By HOBART E. FREEMAN, TH. D..
THE EFFICACY OF THE SACRIFICE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST
SEE FOLLOWING MY PAGES ON SACRIFICES
It cannot be overemphasized that the interpreter of Old Testament thought, practices, and theological concepts must constantly remind himself that the Old Testament Hebrew did not have at his disposal the Epistle to the Romans and its revelation of righteousness without the law
"Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin
But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe.
For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done before, in the forbearance of God; for the showing of his righteousness at this present time; that He might Himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. for the showing of his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith "even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ ... " (Rom. 3 :21-22)' nor did he have the Hebrews' Epistle and its testimony to the nature of Old Testament sacrifice as being typical and a shadow of the good things to come. This of course is not to deny the necessity of faith on the part of the Israelite, but to emphasize the proper importance and place of divinely instituted sacrifice and Mosaic worship in its dispensation.
THE LAW: A SHADOW OF THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS CHRIST
The New Testament teaching, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, is very emphatic in its declarations that " ... the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh." (Heb. 10:1) These were sacrifices, he continues, " ... which can never take away sins." (Heb. 10:11) For they" ... cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect," (Heb. 9:9) since the blood of goats and bulls availed only to " ... sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh," (Heb. 9:13) but "how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works ... (Heb. 9:14), "for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." (Heb. 10:4)
Here would appear to be two apparently opposite views of the efficacy of the Levitical sacrifices. But the reconciliation of the difficulty lies, not in a denial of either the Old or New Testament teachings, but in a harmonization of both. This is accomplished through a study of the two different aspects under which sacrifice IS regarded in the Mosaic economy and by the Hebrews' Epistle respectively. Reconciliation of the Problem From the worshiper's standpoint the Levitical sacrifices were, in a sense, efficacious in a two-fold way: (1) they healed the breach of covenant relationship which resulted from either ceremonial or moral transgression, and kept secure their civil and ecclesiastical privileges; and (2) they procured also, when offered with unfeigned penitence and humble faith, actual forgiveness for the sinner in that it is clearly stated the sacrifice " ... shall make atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned, and he shall be forgiven." It is dishonoring, it seems, to God's word and promise, which is repeated over and over, to contend that the sins under the first covenant were only symbolically, but never really, forgiven.
This is to fail to comprehend the meaning and purpose of Old Testament sacrifice and to reduce it to vague and meaningless ritual. This does not really deal with the problem. It simply raises another one-how can we explain the divine promises of forgiveness in Leviticus? To be sure, the Levitical sacrifices were but shadows of the true, and most assuredly the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins, but this is looking at the matter both from the New Testament's and from God's viewpoint.
That is to say, it is one thing to view the matter from the Old Testament worshipper's viewpoint, who actually participated in the objective ritual of the animal sacrifice, and to whom there was not a word spoken as to these sacrifices being simply objective symbols of inward spiritual truths, for on the contrary, it is expressly stated "he shall be forgiven."
It is another matter, however, to look at the question from this side of the cross, in the light of full revelation, and too, to view it from the standpoint of God's intended purposes with regard to sacrifices.
