The Ultimate Sacrifice | |
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Starting with the very first human sin (Genesis 2:15-16), the Jewish Scriptures teach that, ultimately, the penalty for even the most minor sin is death. Since none of us meet Gods minimum standard of absolute perfection, that leaves just two possibilities: either we pay the penalty, or someone pays it for us. Animal sacrifice was Gods way of teaching how repulsive sin is, plus showing that an innocent can die in the place of the guilty person. For a guilty person to pay for the sins of another guilty person would be nonsensical; by dying, the person would only be paying the penalty for his own sin. So the sacrificial victim had to be totally sinless. Animals have never been guilty of human sin, yet for an animal to die for human sin is inadequate. It is humans who have sinned, so a human should die. And for the sacrifice to be meaningful, it should be totally voluntary. Only Jesus meets all the criteria. For a glimpse at how the Jewish Scriptures prepared people for the concept of the ultimate sacrifice for all humanity, see A Fresh Look at Messianic Prophecies, a fast moving fictitious account filled with biblical truth.
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