2.  The Nature of Sacrifice 

This original institution of sacrifice probably explains why sacrificial worship has been practiced in all religions, all over the earth.  Though perverted from God’s original pattern, pagan sacrifices are based on two fundamental ideals, namely, worship and atonement.

• Man recognizes that he is under the power of a Deity who has certain rights over him.  In recognition of those rights and as a sign of his self-surrender, man offers a gift or sacrifice.
• Very often, however, becoming conscious that sin has ruptured the relationship, man recognizes instinctively that the same God who made him has the right to destroy him, unless something is done to repair that broken relationship.  The killing of a victim and the shedding of its blood to satiate some Divine requirement for favor has always been part of this ancient belief. 

This raises the question:  Where did all these people learn this?  According to Paul in Romans 1:21, there was a time when “when they knew God.”  Just as fallen man bears the marks of his divine origin, so even heathen sacrifices bear some marks of an original Divine revelation. 

After the incident at the Tower of Babel, where man’s communication was thrown into confusion by many different languages being introduced by God (Gen. 11:1—9), Noah’s descendants scattered to the four winds, carrying with them the true knowledge of God, for as yet there was no record of idolatry on the earth.  What occurred in the course of time is briefly described in Romans 1:19—32.  Nations soon turned from the worship of God and lost sight of Him.  What resulted was spiritual blindness.  And so, instead of seeing God through the wonders of the world around him, man began to worship the world around him.  Instead of appreciating animals as creations of and blessings from God, man would soon start to worship them.  Spiritual blindness led to idolatry. 

In spite of this perversion, man’s worship bore a very dim resemblance to the time he knew better. 

When spiritual darkness covered the nations, as moral corruption had covered the world before Noah’s flood, God made a new start with Abraham as he had done before with Noah.  God’s plan was to make Abraham the ancestor of a nation that would restore to the world the light of the knowledge of God’s glory.  At Mt. Sinai, Israel was set apart from the rest of the world to be a “holy nation.”  In order to direct them in a life of holiness, God gave them a code of laws governing their moral, civil and religious lives.  Among these laws were the laws of sacrifice (Leviticus chapters 1 though 7), which taught the people the right manner in which to approach God in worship.  The nations had perverted worship; God restored to Israel the pure worship. 

The Mosaic sacrifices were offered in worship and communication to God, with the effect of removing obstacles to that communication.  For example, sin was and remains a barrier between God and man.  God made a way to remove sin from man in the sin offering, thus making it possible for man to communicate with Him. 

The  purpose of these exceedingly bloody sacrifices is today fulfilled in Christ, who is the Perfect Sacrifice.  He death is described as a death for sin, as a bearing of sin (2 Cor. 5:21).  God made His soul a trespass offering for sin (Isa. 53:10, literal translation); He paid the debt we could not pay, and blotted out the past which we could not undo.  He is our burnt offering, for His death is set forth asd an act of perfect self-giving (Heb. 9:14; Eph. 5:2).  He is our peace offering, for He Himself described His death as a means of our s haring (or taking part in) the Divine life (John 6:53-56, compare with Lev. 7:15, 20).