The Origin of “Sacrifice” 

1.  It is ordained in Heaven.  The Atonement was not an afterthought on God’s part.  Adam’s fall did not take God by surprise, necessitating quick steps to remedy it.  Before the creation of the world, the God who knows the beginning from the end had made provision for man’s redemption.  This truth is borne out in many Scriptures. 

• Jesus is described as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Rev. 13:8
• The Passover Lamb was “foreordained” several days before it was killed , Ex. 12:3, 6; and so Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world, 1 Peter 1:19—20.
• He purchased for man eternal life, which God “promised before the world began,” Titus 1:2
• That there should be a body of people sanctified by this sacrifice was announced “before the foundation of the world,” Eph. 1:4
• Peter told the Jews that although they in crucified Christ in their ignorance, they had nevertheless fulfilled the eternal plan of God, for He was “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” Acts 2:23

 And so, it is evident that Christianity is not a new religion that began some two thousand years ago, but is the historical manifestation of an eternal purpose. 

2.  It was instituted on Earth.  From the very beginnings of the human race, God ordained an institution that would both foreshadow the Sacrifice and also become a  means of grace for the truly repentant and believing.  This is, of course, animal sacrifice. 

The first mention of this is in the third chapter of Genesis.  After they had sinned, God made clothing for Adam and Eve out of animal skins.  The skins of animals covered their nakedness after God Himself had sacrificed them.  Here we see an innocent creature dying so that the guilty might be covered; that is the primary purpose of sacrifice—a divinely provided covering for a guilty conscience.  The first book of the Bible pictures an innocent creature dying for the guilty, and the last book of the Bible speaks of the spotless Lamb slain in order to loose the guilty from their sins, Rev. 5:6—10.