A Better Sacrifice ! Part 2 Series

Today we are going to look at the Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but we will also be touching on the sacrifice that Christian’s are expected to make as we follow Jesus. Sometimes we need to be willing to lose our own life on behalf of another. Sometimes that is the only way to go on living and those who live only for themselves find that they have nothing.

Mt 16:26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Last time we looked at Chapter 9 – mainly verse 14, which says: 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? From this we saw that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross at Calvary was:

• A necessary sacrifice – there was no other way for us to be forgiven and saved

• A willing sacrifice – the Father did not force Jesus to die in our place, He went willingly

• A Trinitarian Sacrifice – the whole of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, played a part

Truly Jesus is The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 and these two chapters, 9 and 10, have so much more to teach us about how much better Christ’s sacrifice was than the OT sacrifices. Next notice that He was:

Our sacrifice

This sacrifice was for our sins and lawless deeds 10:17. In the OT it was generally the person offering a sin offering, not the priest, who killed the sacrifice. Eg in Lev 4: 27 if any one of the common people shall sin through ignorance … 28 Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, shall come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering … 29 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.

This was probably God’s way of bringing home the consequences of sin. Sin is not to be treated lightly. Its consequences are death, either of the sinner or an innocent substitute. This OT ritual foreshadowed what happened when Christ died. As Peter declared you, by wicked hands, crucified and slew Him. Acts 2:23. He said this to the Jewish people in Jerusalem although they hadn’t actually nailed Jesus to the cross –the Roman soldiers that. The Jews were responsible, though in that their leaders had conspired to have Him executed and they went along with their leaders.

And we are responsible too. It’s just as though we took the hammer and nailed Jesus to the cross ourselves, a blow of the hammer for every sin. It is as though we took the spear and plunged it through His side into His loving heart. Yet it was His great love that took Him to Calvary and kept Him on the cross.

And yet He prayed for the Roman soldiers, and for us today too, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing Lu 23:34. Did Christ died in your place, the just for the unjust? Have you been forgiven because of His great sacrifice? If Jesus didn’t die as your substitute then you will have to face God’s judgement for your sin yourself.

Is 53: 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgement, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked––But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will 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 He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.