Troublesome Topic: A SUMMARY OF HOW JESUS FULFILLED FIVE OF THE SACRIFICES
Jesus Is Our Peace Offering
Isaiah’s prophecy indicates that Jesus would be the Prince of Peace and Jesus was announced by the angels in Lk. 2:14 as the one who would bring peace. He offered peace to all people.
Jesus was announced as the peace offering even before He got on that cross; He was announced as our peace even at the time of His birth. He makes true peace with God available, but only those willing to seek God will experience it. Although God’s kind intentions reach out to all people, we have to open our minds and our hearts to receive what His kind intentions offer us.
We know God accepted the peace offering of Jesus because God had already said He would accept His offering, “This is my son, the one I love, I am fully pleased with Him” (Mt. 3:17). The Father was saying, among other things: “Because I am pleased with him, whatever he offers me, I will accept.” When we apply that concept to the peace offering it would sound like this: “If He gives me Himself as a peace offering for mankind, I will accept Him as such.”
In the Former Covenant, after the peace offering had been sacrificed the priest and the offerer ate together. In those days eating together was a sign of peace because they never ate with someone they had a conflict with. When the worshipper and God’s representative (the priest) shared a few bites together after the peace offering, it was considered proof that God had accepted their request for peace and the relationship had been restored. After His resurrection, Jesus came back to His disciples and ate with them, confirming that He was the peace offering and that the request for peace had been granted. He offers to eat with us too. See Rev 3:20. If we accept the invitation of Jesus we will have peace with God, we will have a close relationship with God, and there will be open communication and unhindered fellowship.
Jesus Is Our Thank Offering
Jesus was the portion of grain that was mixed with frankincense (frankincense was associated with the birth and burial of Jesus) and burned on the altar as a sweet-smelling aroma. Remember, what smells good to God is self-sacrifice.
Just like the drink offering was poured out, the very life of Jesus was poured out. As the fulfillment of the drink offering Jesus is the proof and assurance of our future happiness in heaven.
Jesus is also our way of saying “thank you” to the Father. He did not say “thank you” to the Father for us with His words, but by reenacting the grain offering and the drink offering on our behalf.
Isn’t it amazing that the one being the sacrifice also said “thank you” because the ones benefiting from the sacrifice are incapable of adequately expressing such thanks? What a picture!
Jesus Is Our “Oops” Offering
By the oops offering I am referring to what is usually called the sin offering.
Jesus atoned for our unintentional sins. He grants justification and atonement for the ways we displease God or offend His holiness without even knowing it.
Jesus Is Our Restitution Offering
The reparation offering was usually called the guilt offering.
One could say that the reparation offering has three main components: Expiation, Restoration, and Addition.
Expiation was intended to remedy the guilt of sin; another word for it would be atonement. Atonement was required because God considered an offense against another person as an offense against Him. Therefore a sacrifice had to be offered.
Restoration was intended to repair the damage done to a relationship with another human being. The payment of reparation or restitution began the healing of the damaged relationship.
The idea of addition comes from the fact that God required that the person paying reparation add 1/5th (20%) to the value of the item lost or damaged.
Jesus fulfilled all three of these components of the reparation offering.
His sacrifice on the cross offers us expiation, or atonement for our sins. It restores our relationship with God. Beyond that, after we have come to Him in repentance, He often restores our lives to a level of fullness in every sense. He restores what sin had stolen from us. Jesus also adds to our lives much more blessing, power, joy and peace than any of us deserve.
Jesus Is Our Burnt Offering
Although the body of Jesus was not burned up, He was still our it-all-goes-up-in-smoke offering.
Jesus dedicated Himself to God completely and gave His all for us.
It was in conjunction with the burnt offering that the phrase “a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God” was most often used, although it was used of other offerings as well. Jesus was the sweet-smelling fragrance offered to God. Self-sacrifice was the thing that made something smell good to God, therefore, the sacrifice of Jesus was the best thing God ever smelled.
The next lesson in the Midsize Series on Covenants is: Jesus Is Our Sacrifice for Defiant Sins