“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief;
when His soul makes an offering for guilt… the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.” (Isaiah 53:10)
One of the most effective ways to teach a new concept or principle is with a picture. It comes as no surprise, then, that when God began revealing Himself and His divine will to His people, He used images, types, and pictures.
The most pivotal point in all human history, as well as the most significant truth encompassing all eternity, is that of the Gospel – the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It stands to reason, therefore, that God would give us an abundance of pictures and types to help us understand the truth and power behind the Gospel.
And, of course, He did… primarily using the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. God instituted this system as a way for His people to atone for their sins by sacrificing an innocent animal, usually a lamb. And to further their understanding of who this lamb symbolized, it had to be a spotless lamb – one without blemish of any kind.
Sacrifices were continually practiced throughout the Old Testament in order to drive home the truth that God cannot forgive sin unless innocent blood is shed on behalf of the guilty. Leviticus 17:11 explains why: “the blood ‘makes atonement’ at the cost of the life” (i.e., the animal’s life) and “makes atonement in the place of the life” (i.e., the sinner’s life).
Hebrews 9:11-14 confirms that the symbolism in this Old Testament system was preparing us to recognize the significance of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who “takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29). Hebrews 9:12 clearly explains that the Old Testament blood sacrifices were temporary and only atoned for sin partially and for a time, which is why the sacrifices were repeated yearly. But Christ offered His own blood once – for all people for all time – making further sacrifices unnecessary.
Thus, Jesus’ last words on the cross were: “It is finished!” Symbolism had been replaced with realism. Christ became our sacrifice once, and in so doing allowed God to justly forgive us our sins and reconcile us to Himself forever.
God’s Lamb was without blemish. Had He been a sinner, He could not have been our remedy. He had a human nature to offer as a sacrifice and a divine nature to render it valuable and infinitely meritorious. Stephen Charnock said, “He lacked nothing to accomplish such a great undertaking. If he had not been man, He could not have been a sacrifice; and if He had not been God, He could not have been a remedy.”
In addition to becoming the believer’s sacrifice, Christ was also made “a priest forever,” by an oath from God Himself (Ps. 110:4). As our High Priest, He was to present a sacrifice to God on our behalf. If He offered the blood of animal sacrifices, we would be in the same predicament as those Old Testament saints. The blood of lambs, bulls and goats was insufficient to cover sin once, for all His people.
Rather, Christ offered Himself but once (Heb. 7:27, 9:28), spotless (Heb. 9:14), and pleasing to God (Eph. 5:2). His unblemished “soul was made an offering for sin,” (Isa. 53:10). Being a Priest of another kind, He must present a sacrifice of another kind if we were to be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and restored to fellowship with our Creator.
How we are blessed as His children to be able to worship and adore God, because He “willed to crush Him” (Isa. 53:10) in order to save us from our sins.
