SACRIFICE 3 - Jesus, the Final Offering for Sin

Sacrifice 3 - English files

Opferbereitschaft 3 - German files

By the way, the picture at the left shows "The Gospel in a Nutshell", the finished craft project belonging to this lesson. Complete instructions are included.

 Devotional Thoughts about Sacrifice in the Bible

The words sacrifice and offering come up a total of 942 times in the Bible. As might be expected, well over half of those occurrences are in Exodus through Deuteronomy, where God introduced and instituted the Jewish sacrificial system for dealing with sin.

Other occurrences show the role that sacrifice played in everyday life. Looking through the passages, I noticed several in which sacrifice is contrasted negatively with other things.

In 1 Samuel 15:22, for instance, King Saul stated his intention of sacrificing to God the animals plundered from a battle. But that didn’t justify his disobedience when he failed to follow God’s instructions.

In the Psalm in which David repents for the incident with Bathsheba, he writes that God prefers a broken spirit and a contrite heart to a burnt offering (51:16,17). Outward symbols and deeds such as sacrifices can easily come to replace the attitudes and values they’re supposed to represent.

The Prophet Hosea wrote that God values mercy and knowing Him more than sacrifice (6,6). Jesus referenced this passage twice in Matthew (9:13 and 12:7), urging His hearers to ponder and apply it.

The Book of Hebrews goes to great lengths to show how Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice atoned for sin and fulfilled the Law, doing away with the need to repeatedly sacrifice animals (10,11-14).

Lord, thank You for Your incomprehensible sacrifice for me! Help me to give You everything I am and have as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

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