Did Christ Offer Animal Sacrifices?

Posted on July 15, 2018 by

You wouldn’t think He did, since sacrifices were brought “for atonement” (Ex. 29:36), and He had no sins for which to atone. However, He also had no sins of which He needed to repent to receive remission of them, and yet He submitted to John’s “baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4). Of course, we know that He was baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). That is, in order for us to be numbered with the righteous, He had to be “numbered with the transgressors” so He could die for them (Isa. 53:12). So He was numbered with the transgressors in His baptism, and also when He died between two transgressors (Mark 15:28). But if He identified with sinners at the beginning of His ministry with His baptism, and at the end of His ministry with His death, perhaps He identified with sinners in between those events as well, with animal sacrifices.

But here we have to be careful how we say the Lord offered such sacrifices. As a Jew under the Law (Gal. 4:4) He had to keep the Law, for to transgress it would be sin (I John 3:4). Well, the Law required men to keep the seven feasts of Leviticus 23, each of which involved an animal sacrifice, and we know the Lord kept Israel’s feasts (Luke 22:15; John 7:2,10). These sacrifices were offered for the people of Israel as a whole, and He was one of the people, and so in this way He identified with them with animal sacrifices. But the One who “knew no sin” (II Cor. 5:21) never brought a sacrifice for any personal transgression. source

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