5) Sacrifice as Substitution

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In 1941, a Polish priest named Maximilian Kolbe, was interned in Auschwitz. Some time later, a prisoner managed to escape and the camp commander ordered 10 men to be chosen who would be starved to death as a deterrent against any more attempted escapes. One of the 10, on being chosen, cried out as he was a young man with a family. Maximilian stepped out and volunteered to change places with him. This was allowed and the 10 men were locked in an underground bunker without food or water. Maximilian would lead them in prayer and support as they eventually died one by one. After two weeks, only Maximilian and three others were left alive. They were killed by injections of carbolic acid.

penalty

In this story, one man became a substitute who took the place of another who was condemned. This principle of substitution is important in our understanding of atonement: a sacrificial victim takes the place of a guilty person or persons. Although the word ‘substitute’ is not used in the bible, by putting together the many scriptures we have about atonement, we understand that Jesus became our substitute, paying the penalty due to us for our sins. In Isaiah’s wonderful prophecy of Jesus as the Suffering Servant, we see this principle:

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Christ was punished by God in place of us who had deserved God’s due punishment for sin. Remarkably, this death was also prophesied by the High Priest of that time who instigated the crucifixion of Jesus. This is the account:

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ‘You know nothing at all! You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. (John 11:49-52)

Paul wrote of this substitutionary sacrifice stating:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

And in another of his letters, Paul made clear that this death was because of our sin. He wrote:

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. … God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)

And finally, this death as a substitute was an atonement for sin. The beneficiaries are those who have faith in Jesus. God does not ignore our sin; He deals with it. As Paul said:

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)

scapegoat

The sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament were offered daily. But these sacrifices were not able to deal with the sin problem of people in the same way that the sacrifice of Jesus does. They were a reminder of our sin problem.

But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:3-4)

However, we can understand the principle of substitution by looking at one specific annual sacrifice which was made on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest. It is the special sacrifice involving the scapegoat. This is a long passage of scripture which I have shortened where possible:

‘This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: he must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. … From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ‘Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord … He is to cast lots for the two goats – one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

‘Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, … He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover. ‘He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: he shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.

‘When Aaron has finished making atonement … he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites – all their sins – and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:3-22)

These special sacrifices on the Day of Atonement show us that sacrifice involves three things:

1) Death

The death of the substitutionary animal was in place of the divine penalty of death for sin.

2) Blood

Death was caused by bleeding the animal to death. Blood symbolised life as the Lord taught His people saying:

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. (Leviticus 17:11)

There were other ways of killing animals such as shooting with arrows, strangulation or breaking an animals neck. But none of these ways would cause death by blood loss. In the case of the sacrifices of birds, the head was to be wrung off and death would involve loss of blood. The method of sacrifice was significant because of the connection to ‘life in the blood’. This is why so much is made of the blood of Jesus. Remember John’s observation of the crucifixion in his gospel:

But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water … These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced’. (John 19:33-37)

Jesus was not killed by bleeding, but His blood flow here was the sign of His life having been given. The significance of the life being in the blood was also part of the teachings which Jesus brought. Here He makes it very personal:

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. (John 6:53-54)

3) The removal of sin

The scapegoat took the confessed sins of the people into the wilderness. This signified the fact that there would be no more memory of those sins – they could never be found again or brought back. This removal of sin was prophesied by David in the Psalms. He wrote:

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

covenant

The substitutionary death of Jesus was signified by His blood. It would not be considered a true sacrifice to simply offer blood without the death of the substitute. For instance, if the only thing necessary was to sprinkle blood, then blood could have been drawn from an animal without killing it. The Mongols who invaded Asia and Europe in the 13^th century did this. To keep their conquering campaign going, they drank their horses’ blood and also their horses’ milk. If their troops were out of food, they would slit a non-lethal vein and drink some of the blood of the horse. That horse would not be ridden until it had recovered. But a true sacrifice in the Old Testament meant the death of the animal. The death and the blood of Jesus marked the beginning of a New Covenant. The Old Testament animal sacrifices were part of the Old Covenant rites. They showed the way to God’s New Covenant which would come with richer promises. In Hebrews we read:

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship … the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. … But when Christ came as high priest … He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption. … For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free (Hebrews 9:1-15)

Whenever we share Communion together in bread and wine we remember this sacrifice of Christ and the shedding of His blood in this way:

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them. (Mark 14:23-24)

The spiritual dimensions of the substitution of Jesus in our place are beyond description. But our response to them requires us to love Him with the same zeal He showed in loving us so much that He died in our place.