Il Sacrificio è il concetto base della nostra salvezza. Si basa su cinque principi fondamentali:

1. principio della sostituzione
2. principio dello spargimento di sangue
3. principio del patto
4. principio della completezza
5. principio della liberazione

The Offerings

Part I: introduction

Substitution
Read Is 53:4-6, 11-12.
The well-known chapter 53 in Isaiah presents us one of the main concepts from Gods Word, namely that one can substitute another. In this case in Isaiah anybody can see Jesus Christ suffering for and substituting mankind. This is the principle of our salvation. In the Gospel it is all about the reconciliation that is accomplished by Someone Who took our place. The concept is found throughout the entire Word.
In modern theology this view has almost disappeared. It is denied that Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God has been sacrificed in our place. But without the replacement offering of Jesus Christ we would not have been saved! Rm 6:7 states “because anyone who has died has been freed from sin”. So the person who did not die is therefore not freed from sin.
It could be concluded that, since we live today, we are not justified and are still guilty before God. This conclusion is false for we have died in fact. Because Somebody else died in our place.
To get a better understanding of the concept of substitution it is important to dedicate a study on this subject. The New Testament does not elaborate much on the literal replacement-sacrifice, and for that reason we need to concentrate on passages in the Old Testament; especially on those that describe the principle of offering.

Globally we can divide the Old Testamentic offerings in two time-sections: before and after the Sinai Covenant. In the timeframe before the Sinai we see God having relationships with a few individuals. After the Sinai Covenant we see God establishing a relationship with an entire people.

Sacrificing before the Sinai Covenant
Before focusing on the sacrifices as mentioned in the Book of Leviticus in which we find the Sinai Covenant, we should have a quick overview of the sacrifices from the beginning of times. Successively we will see aspects of the sacrifice such as:

• the principle of replacement
• the principle of bloodshed
• the principle of covenant
• the principle of completeness
• the principle of liberation

All these highlight something of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Eden (principle of replacement)
Already in the third chapter of the Bible, we see the first sacrifice. In Gn 3, that describes the Fall of Man, we read in verse 21 that God made garments of skin to cover the nakedness, which is the sinful nature, of Adam and Eve. An animal had to be killed to keep Adam and Eve alive in the presence of God. In this case it was God Himself who organized the offering and clarified the concept of replacement.

Abel (principle of bloodshed)
The next chapter, Gn 4, shows the first voluntary sacrifice made by men: Abel and Cain.
Here we are taught about the fact that bloodshed is necessary when God is accepting a sacrifice: Abel brought from his flock, while Cain brought from his harvest. Abel’s offering was accepted; Cain’s offering rejected. Why? It was not because of the effort that was put in the act. It was not about the value of the subject that was offered. It was because Abel understood what God did in the Garden of Eden. Bloodshed is the clearest sign that a creature looses life. An innocent animal had to give its life in the place of man. The leafs of trees that Adam and Eve had put to cover their bodies were not tolerated by God since God replaced the leaves by skin and neither did God tolerate the first fruits of Cain’s harvest.

Noah (principle of covenant)
Then we jump to Gn 8 where we see the first time that somebody builds an altar for offering in vs 20-22. Noah had understood that he was supposed to offer from the clean animals that he had taken with him in the ark. As soon as the aroma reached God, He made a covenant with Noah and the entire mankind that He would never again destroy all living creatures. Here we discern that offering is the base for a covenant: God made a covenant with mankind.
Noah probably did not perceive the fundamental principle of this covenant, but he understood that the base for survival could only exist because of the offering.
The promise was not due to the fact that all sin had been destroyed from the face of the earth. As would soon be manifested in Noah and his family sin was still present. No, the only base for God’s covenant promise is the result of the burnt offering offered up by Noah.

Abraham (principle of completeness)
A fourth principle of offering we find in Gn 22. God is not satisfied with a small bit, is not satisfied with a weak or imperfect gift. No, God demands the best, the most valuable. I would like to call it the principle of completeness. Abraham was requested by God to offer his only son. After been waiting for so many years and being promised many descendents, Abraham had to put aside his hesitations and had to offer that which was supposed to be the fulfillment of his life and his future. Abraham was put to the test to see if he really was ready to give all to God. And he passed the test!

Passover (principle of liberation)
Then the last important offering before the start of the Book of Leviticus we find in Ex 12: the institution of Passover. The celebration of Passover is directly connected with the liberation from the slavery of Egypt. God’s people could only go when believing in the power of the blood of the sacrificed lamb that was put on the doorposts. When not putting the blood on the houses they would be confronted with death. Because this is what Passover meant: through the Passover sacrifice the Destroyer of the Lord passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck down the Egyptians. Based on this event they could leave Egypt and enter the way that God had prepared for them in His presence.

Sacrificing after the Sinai Covenant
After the liberation from slavery and the exodus out of Egypt, God started to dedicate His people Israel to Himself. The first rendezvous between the Lord and His people was in the middle of the dessert: Mount Sinai. On that mount God showed Moses His thoughts and plans with His people. On the mount He gave the 10 Commandments and many other prescriptions. This is a very important moment in the relationship between God and His people. He revealed to them His Law. The Law did not exist before the Sinai Covenant. The Law describes the holiness of God and was the base for establishing a covenant between Him and the people. When the people would comply with the Law they would enjoy God’s blessings. If they would sin against the Law they would die. But God offered them the possibility to become accepted by Him again by means of the institution of sacrificial service. Via Moses He precisely indicated the different values and significances of the sacrifices. Also He ordained that from now on priests from the tribe of Levi were appointed to handle the sacrifices.
In Leviticus we see the various aspects about the offering rituals. These are explained in the first chapters:

In Lv 1-5 we find distinguished the next main offerings:

• The Burnt Offering
• The Grain Offering
• The Peace Offering
• The Sin Offering
• The Guilt Offering

In Lv 6 & 7 we find the laws of the offerings, describing how the offerings were to be made.
We will go through the 5 offerings one by one and in the opposite direction as we find them summarized in Leviticus. As we might remember we also reviewed the Tabernacle in the opposite direction.
The Bible describes the Tabernacle and also the offerings from God’s point of view; starting with the most pleasant and loveliest part in the eyes of the Lord. In the case of the Tabernacle it was the Most Holy Place with the Ark of Covenant. In the case of the offerings it is the Burnt Offering that was the most valuable one of all.
To get a better understanding of all the offerings I prefer to start from the basic Guilt Offering and finally end with the notable Burnt Offering.
This sequence of review comprises the logical steps to salvation, seen from human point of view.

We can put the offerings in the next scheme:

In the coming studies we will reflect on these offerings one-by-one.
But before that we need to say something about the offering subject and the offerer.

The offering subject
The subject was the substitute of the human being. The subject to be offered was always to be of the highest quality. This is valid for the animals but also for the flour in the Grain Offering.
The animal could be a bull, a sheep, or a goat, and were all livestock of considerable value. With the exception of the birds the animal must be a male of the flock or the herd. The animal was to be young, not an old, unproductive, useless creature, fit only for soup or for the proverbial “glue factory.” In fact the animals were just at the point where they would begin to “pay for their keep.” It truly would be a sacrifice to offer up an animal which one had raised, which was about to be productive, and was thus valuable.

The offerer
As we read the regulations in Leviticus we notice an interaction between the offerer and the priest. While the offering of the birds was somewhat different (it is not nearly so complicated a process), the offerer generally put the animal to death and cut it up, while the priest handled the sprinkling of its blood and its burning on the Altar of Sacrifice. The offerer was much more involved in the process of sacrifice than we might think. Sacrifice was, for the offerer, a very personal experience. This was intended to make an impression on the Israelite who was making his sacrifice.

Approaching God
All of this has become clear to the New Testament believer, to us, but it was obscure to the ancient Israelite, who only knew that God was at work in some mysterious and unknown way. Until the time when this purpose was made known, the Israelite offered up his offering, so that God’s wrath could be avoided, and so that God’s blessings could be received.
Read Hb 10:1-10.
As God did with Adam & Eve, with Cain & Abel, with Noah, with Abraham and with the Passover lamb He wanted to show the people something that would appear in the future. The sacrifices were just fore-pointing to a new reality. They were a fore-shadow of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice to come. The Old Testamentic sacrifices had no value for God in themselves; only the real Sacrifice had. All the previously mentioned aspects on the offering are fully applicable on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ: replacement, bloodshed, covenant, completeness, liberation. We will reflect on these in the next studies.
The Old Testamentic sacrifices were not wanted by God as Hb 10:5 says. But it was the only way to approach God. Man was not capable to come in God’s presence. Only via a substitute sacrifice it became possible, although under strict rules and defined rituals.

We must agree with the theology of Hebrews (in particular) and of the New Testament (in general) that now that Christ had come as the Lamb of God and died “once for all” there is no longer any need for the offering. We must conclude that the offering is no longer relevant, since the future meaning of that sacrifice has now been realized in Christ.
There is a sense in which this conclusion is absolutely correct. There is another sense in which this conclusion can be carried too far.
The offering was not only symbolic in the sense that it represented and portrayed, in advance, the ultimate Burnt Offering, Jesus Christ. The offering also symbolized the Old Testament believer’s faith in God’s provision for his sins and his access to God. It also symbolized his intention to obey and love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself.

The real principle of sacrifice
The Israelite’s worship often deteriorated to mere ritualism when the sacrifices were offered, but then the faith and obedience that they symbolized did not follow. When this happened, the prophets rebuked the Israelites for their hypocrisy.

The making of a sacrifice had to be a matter of the heart. The Lord disliked and also dislikes today formal religion.
David, the man according God’s heart, after his sinning with Bathsheba, understood that making a dutiful sacrifice is not that what satisfies; it is only the true repentance of the heart.
He expressed this in Psalm 51: 16-17:
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

As we saw a very valuable animal was given up wholly to God. Neither the offerer nor the priest gained much from the offering. The ultimate benefit was to be found acceptable by God.
This kind of sacrifice is seldom practiced, and even when it is we may wonder at the wisdom of such waste.
The widow who gave her last two mites might be criticized today for her lack of prudence in failing to plan and prepare for the future. The woman who poured out her expensive perfume, anointing the feet of the Lord, was accused of wastefulness.
And so we tend to give our worn-out old things to God, while we keep what is new and best for ourselves. We know little of giving our best to God, and surely anything beyond His approval.
But this kind of sacrifice is what God calls for from those who would be true disciples: to give up all to follow Christ. They are to count the cost of discipleship, and then to gladly pay it. When we give ourselves to God, as living sacrifices, we are to do so totally, without reserve, so as to be pleasing to Him. Not only the first time when we convert to sonship of God, but after that in every day life!
May God enable us to practice this kind of sacrifice in our own lives.
Rm 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.

Questions
1.What is the main concept for our salvation?
2.Why were the leaves with which Adam and Eve covered themselves, not sufficient?
3.Why did God not accept Cain’s sacrifice?
4.What was the base for God’s promise that He would never destroy the world again?
5.How was Abraham’s faith tested?
6.What did the Israelites have to do before they could leave Egypt?
7.Why was the Law given to the people of Israel?
8.Do you remember the 5 main offerings?
9.Why was the sacrifice to be perfect?
10.Does the blood of sacrifices really eliminate sins?
11.Since Jesus Christ has given Himself as a sacrifice, do we still need making offerings?
12.What is the sacrifice that we have to make today?