If I led a group of believers and I told you we were practicing ancient Jewish rituals such as lamb sacrifices you might have one or more of the following reactions:
“Why on earth would you be doing that?”
Or, if you’re a student of the Bible:
“You know Jesus is the new, one-time Lamb Sacrifice God has provided to replace annual sacrifices in the Old Testament, right?”
Or, most likely,
“That’s weird.”
Totally understandable. Most ancient religious rituals, even the ones we believe were instituted by God himself, we view as being a little bit weird in our day and age. Heck, even the Jews don’t do lamb sacrifices any more.
An old friend of mine, a devout Christian, took his family of 12 to a Messianic Jewish church, which is a Christian church that practices at least some of the Law of the Old Testament or other Jewish customs. I had the privilege of participating in one of their family Seder Meals. My friend struggled to get me up to speed on what was going on but I did get that Jewish rituals are rich in symbolism and Messianic Jews are keen on understanding how symbols point to Jesus as being their Messiah rather than a future Messiah that Orthodox Jews are still waiting for.
The reason I want to bring up the Jewish sacrifices is because I believe how the Jews viewed their lamb sacrifice is a good model for how we should view the sacrifice of Christ. It provides an alternative to the Penal Substitution Theory of Atonement which says that every human being must believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus in order to be forgiven of their sins.
What Was the Cross For?
When we try to answer questions like:
Can a Catholic be saved?
Can a Mormon be saved?
Can a Muslim be saved?
Can a Jew be saved?
Can an atheist be saved?
Can Justin Bieber be saved?
That last one doesn’t seem likely but according to this article he already is!
When we ask that question we naturally rephrase it like this:
What did Jesus accomplish on the Cross? And for whom did he accomplish it?
Here’s the typical answer we come up with: Jesus died on the cross to save us. And by “us” we mean Christians, those who put our trust in him so God now has a viable reason to forgive us for our sins. Without giving God that reason he might love us but will be forced by his own holy nature to reject us at the judgement, it is thought. He died for everyone else too but everyone else doesn’t put their trust in that event so it doesn’t do them any good. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6)
You can continue reading at Did the Lamb Sacrifice Save the Jew
