Published by The purpose of the death of Christ was essentially for the removal of our sins or atonement and reconciliation with God. The New Testament is simply the fulfillment of the Old. In the Old Testament it was necessary for a person to bring an animal without blemish or spot to make a sacrifice to God. Exodus 12:3-6 reads:
“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household: and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man’s eating ye shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old: ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even.” (ASV)
The law required the people of Israel to provide this sacrifice which was referred to as the Passover lamb. All who took part in the Passover sacrifice would be passed over on the coming wrath of God.
John the Baptist, while preparing the way of the Lord, spoke when seeing Jesus coming toward him said “Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” John 1:29 (NIV). This shows what the expectation of the Messiah was for John the Baptist. His understanding of the Old Testament fulfillment was present in this statement. This is the first attestation that the law was given through Moses but grace through Jesus.
The Mosaic laws had in it two types of sacrifices, animal and food offerings, but I will concentrate on the animal sacrifices. Of the animal sacrifices there were four types: Sin offerings, guilt offerings, burnt offerings and peace offerings. The purpose of these offering was to show that the forgiveness of sin requires the shedding of blood and death. The sacrifice provided a substitution for ourselves on the altar. In the end even though we sacrificed from what we had and shed blood our sacrifices would never be worthy enough to atone for the sins we commit but in the law given by Moses the sacrifice is a clear principle for atonement. Hebrews 9:9 clearly teaches that our sacrifices were not good enough:
“which is a figure for the time present; according to which are offered both gifts and sacrifices that cannot, as touching the conscience, make the worshipper perfect, (ASV)”
In Isaiah we catch a glimpse of God’s plan of redemption by providing a sacrifice that with take upon it our sins:
“Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (ASV)”
Peter stated that Christ bore our sins on the tree in 1 Peter 2:24. He understood that Christ was the sacrifice that completed the Old Testament Law and changed everything. By that sacrifice, even though restitution was required by the law (Leviticus 6:1-7) Jesus also forgave our debt of restitution.
Because our sins are primarily against God our sacrifice needs to be for God and to communicate with God. Psalms 51:4 reads:
“Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in thy sight; That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest. (ASV)”
The person is the offender towards God in their sins but no sacrifice is truly suitable for the permanent forgiveness of those sins. Through Jesus, God provided the perfect and unblemished sacrifice that could take away the sins of the world. Hebrews 9:14 teaches that Jesus was with out blemish and that his blood has the cleansing power:
“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 to serve the living God? (ASV)”
The law was only the beginning of Gods plan toward salvation for all people. The flaw of the law was that a person was never completely without sin and had to repeat the sacrifices over and over again. Burnt offering were required twice daily in the temple (Exodus 29:38-42) but were acts of worship and not for the atonement of sins. The Mosaic Law did provide for the temporary forgiveness of sins but after hundreds of years of continually sacrifice no sacrifice was found perfect for absolute forgiveness as reference in Hebrews 10:1:
“For 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. (ASV)”
This is why Christ’s sacrifice is perfect as we become new creations. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17-19:
“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. (ASV)”
The Hebrew author also attests to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus in Hebrew 7:26-28:
“For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people: for this he did once for all, when he offered up himself. For the law appointeth men high priests, having infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was after the law, appointeth a Son, perfected for evermore. (ASV)”
Jesus had to die because we are sinners and no sacrifice that we can offer will ever be acceptable to continually pay the debt. Jesus had to die to fulfill the Old Testament law of sacrifices and complete the covenant made by God to Moses. Jesus had to die for the fulfillment of prophecy and bring about the reconciliation of all people to God’s grace. N.T. Wright wrote “It was the moment when the creator God fulfilled his ancient promises to Israel, saving them from ‘their sins’” (Wright, 145). When Christ died he was our substitute. In the Old Testament law a person who brought the sacrifice was to place their hand on the animal just before it was sacrificed to represent the substitution. Christ’s death brought atonement by being our substation.
Lastly, Jesus died to be our redeemer. In Leviticus 25:47-49, there is a redeemer law. Under this law a man who has lost everything due to debt can be redeemed by another man who had some specific qualifications:
1. He was kin
2. willing to redeem -
3. have the price
First we are made kin to the Lord according to John 1:12. Jesus displayed his willingness to redeem us by choosing to go to the cross and accepting the cup from the Father. Thirdly he had the price through his perfection being a sacrifice without blemish. For these reasons Jesus had to die to save us.
Wright, N.T., The Challenge of Jesus. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 1999
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