Sacrifice

Without a doubt, the crucifixion of Jesus occurred. Jesus died on the cross. Roman authority made sure of that. There was no deception. The Roman soldiers were well trained in killing and the procedures implemented on those who hung on the Roman crosses insured that no one came off the cross alive. The soldiers given the responsibility of executing criminals could give no excuses explaining why a criminal did not die under sentence of Roman law. They made sure the criminal was dead. Without a doubt Jesus was dead.

But, thank God, that was not the end of the story. Jesus was who He claimed to be…the Son of God, the Messiah and Savior of man. He lived a life full of miracles, documented in religious and non-religious writings as well. “The situation with Jesus is unique – and quite impressive in terms of how much we can learn about him aside from the New Testament.“ Assume for a moment that the New Testament writings did not exist. “Even without them, what would we be able to conclude about Jesus from ancient non-Christian sources such as Josephus, the Talmud, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and others?” According to Edwin Yamauchi, Miami University professor and one of the country’s leading authorities on ancient history, “We would still have a considerable amount of important historical evidence; in fact, it would provide a kind of outline for the life of Jesus.” According to Yamauchi, “We would know that first, Jesus was a Jewish teacher; second, many people believed that he performed healings and exorcisms; third, some people believed he was the Messiah; fourth, he was rejected by the Jewish leaders; fifth, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius; sixth, despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed that he was still alive, spread beyond Palestine so that there were multitudes of them in Rome by A.D. 64; and seventh, all kinds of people from the cities and the countryside – men and women, slave and free – worshiped him as God.” This is not only an enormous and impressive amount of independent corroboration but it gives verification to the fact that Jesus’ life can be reconstructed outside the contours of religious literature. And, there is even more that can be gleaned about the life of Jesus from material so old that it actually predates the gospel accounts themselves.

But one amazing piece of evidence still exists regarding the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion. In his book, The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel says, “I was reminded of the assessment by one of the towering legal intellects of all time, the Cambridge-educated Sir Norman Anderson, who lectured at Princeton University, was offered a professorship for life at Harvard University, and served as dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of London. Anderson’s conclusion, after a lifetime of analyzing this issue from a legal perspective, was summed up in one sentence: “The empty tomb, then, forms a veritable rock on which all rationalistic theories of the resurrection dash themselves in vain.”

Remember our study of the tabernacle and temple sacrifices in the previous chapter? All of the High Priest’s cleansing behaviors that preceded his entry into the Holy of Holies were necessary to present himself and the people of Israel to a righteous God who could not tolerate nor look upon sin. Remember Habakuk 1:13 tells us that God’s eyes are so pure that He cannot look upon sin. The “mercy seat” with the blood applied was where the blood would change His “judgment seat” of sinful man into a “throne of mercy”, literally the “mercy seat” of a forgiving God. Because of the sacrifice of blood offered on that mercy seat, God could not see the sin of the people, only the blood of the sacrifice, and allowed Him to offer His mercy through His divine forgiveness.

All the trappings of the "tabernacle" are a symbolic foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ is and what He does for us. Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14) "who performs all things for us" (Psalm 57:2). Jesus Christ is our sacrifice - the Lamb of God sacrificed for our sin (I Corinthians 5:7). Jesus Christ is our "mercy seat". He literally covers all our sin with his pure, spotless, holy, sinless blood. Paul in his letter to the Romans (3:25) uses the Greek word "hilasterion", which the King James Version translates as “propitiation”. However, the word means atoning sacrifice, atonement cover, or the place where sins are forgiven. In I John 2:2 & 4:10, John uses the Greek word "hilasmos", which the KJV translates also as "propitiation". The word means atoning sacrifice, or the means of forgiveness. In both cases, it is applied directly to Jesus Christ. And so, Jesus Christ having fulfilled the law with a perfect, sinless life, is our "mercy seat". Jesus Christ is our atoning sacrifice. The sacrificial blood of Jesus literally covers our sin so the law cannot accuse us. Where there is no law, there is no sin. In the New Testament book of Romans, the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee and a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” having full knowledge of the law, declared “To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law (Romans 5:13). The shed blood of Jesus Christ changes the "judgment seat" of God into a “throne of mercy"; literally, the "mercy seat" of a loving and forgiving God. The innocent blood of Christ was the atoning sacrifice required by God to satisfy His righteous judgment against sin. A price had to be paid. Jesus paid the required price. No one else could pay the price. No one except Jesus was sinless. Jesus’ sinless blood was the price.

So the presence of a Holy God remained shielded from man behind a thick curtain in the Holy of Holies during the history of Israel. However, Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross changed all that. When Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the Jerusalem Temple was torn in half from the top to the bottom (Mark 15:38). Only God could have carried out such an incredible feat because the veil was too high for human hands to have reached it, and too thick to have torn it. The “Holy of Holies” of the Jerusalem temple, a replica of the wilderness tabernacle’s holy place, had a curtain (veil) that was about 60 feet in height, 30 feet in width and four inches thick. Furthermore, it was torn from top down, meaning this act must have come from above.

There is one instance in time that is a mystery only God knows and understands completely. Remember, as Jesus hung on the cross, he uttered the words, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” I do not believe that God had actually forsaken Jesus, but He certainly turned His face away from Him. The perfect Father and Son relationship that had existed for eternity changed for a moment. God was unable to look upon His Son because Jesus had become “sin”. In II Corinthians 5:21, the Apostle Paul writes, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” It is interesting that scholarly research indicates that the verse can and should be translated, “God made him to be “a sin offering” for us so that we might become God’s righteousness.” Unbelievable! It is a truly amazing and profound concept – one that only God Himself could conceive. Jesus took all the evil, hateful, and sinful actions of mankind upon Himself to make us acceptable in the sight of God. The weight of man’s sin must have been the worst pain imaginable…but not as bad as God turning away from Jesus. In God the Father’s holy righteousness, He could not look upon sin – He could not look upon Jesus. His perfect relationship with His Son had been broken…momentarily. Jesus felt abandoned by God who had turned His face from Him. However, Jesus did not lose faith in His Father.