[Pastor Ralph]

Q5. In what sense is God's provision of animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sins an expression of his mercy? Were animal sacrifices actually adequate to atone for human sin?

[Darleen Nelson]

Through the animal sacrifice the Lord mercifully gave sinful man a means of receiving forgiveness. Man was able to substitute an animal for himself. The act of sacrifice demonstarted the acceptanceof God's salvation and signified the obedience to follow His plan wholeheartedly. Sacrifice cuased the people to recognice their sin and focus on living for God. Without obedience the sacrifices were useless.

[Diane Seid]

God's loves us deeply and desires closeness with us even when we have sinned. Sin separates us from God and would forever without atonement. That's why God provided a way for the Isrealites to atone for their sins. An animal is hardly worthy and yet His love allowed it to be acceptable. We are fortunate to live in a time where Christ has atoned for our sins for us and all we have to do is confess our sin and ask for forgiveness.

[Peggie]

Animal sacrifice expresses God's mercy in that the payment for sin is death, but because of God's mercy an animal could be sacrificed instead of the person.

No, animal sacrifices could not atone for sin. Othewise, there would have been no need for Jesus to suffer the cruel death that HE did.

[Omie]

+ In Leviticus we learn that God's reason for sacrifice, (from doves, to the best & purest animals) was to remind them to worship God, and for them to be aware how serious sin was and the need for forgiveness.

+ Animal sin sacrifices were eventually fufilled in Christ. Christ is our High Priest and in this new covenent our Mediator. (Hebrews 8 - 10) <><

[Julie]

Sin is repugnant to Our Heavenly Father, the animal sacrifice was a way of purging ourselves of sin in order to be reconciled with God. This He allowed for sin separates us from Him and this separation He did not want, Oh if we could fully understand the love He has for us. The animal sacrifices were not enough to pay for human sin. but they prepared a way for a sacrifice that was.

[May]

Q5. In what sense is God's provision of animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sins an expression of his mercy? Were animal sacrifices actually adequate to atone for human sin? Exposition


I believe one has to be responsible for his sin but why God choose an animal as an escape for man?! Pity the animals. Got killed for no apparent reason. Why there's no other way for the atonement of sin. But what was commanded and practised in the OT has become a shadow of the NT, whereby in the NT we got a clearer picture and realised that the element of sacrifice was now the Son of God.

Sin is a serious issue. Animal sacrifice is inadequate.

[Bob Wardrop]

Ques 5 & 6: Although costly and bloody, God designed this concept to teach some very important lessons, to wit:
Result of disobedience (sin) is death: the death of each animal being a reminder.
The process of purging sin is a costly and bloody affair.
Access to God's presence without being purged of sin is impossible.
A repentant sinner would be forgiven his sin, if he had faith in the Most High and presented the prescribed offering.
God Himself would-at the appointed time-pay the price of salvation by shedding His own blood in the person of Jesus the Christ.

Animal sacrifices, in my opinion, were at best, a spiritual object lesson to teach about salvation. Actually, the blood of the animals was totally incapable of saving mankind-what was a better solution was that God decided to pay the price Himself.
Shalom, Bob

[Helen Williams]

God's provisions of animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sin is an expression of His mercy because God allowed the sacrifices to purge their sins. The only fully adequate sacrifice for sin was yet to come because animal sacrifice was not adequate for atonement.

[luray mcclung]

God was merciful in that he spared the sinner but through Levitican Law required the sinner's best animal sacrifice to atone for sin. The sacrifice of the female lamb sufficed for one man's sin; however, the sins of the whole world required the shed blood of God's only begotten son, Jesus Christ.
The animal sacrifices actually were not adequate to atone for human sins.
The Word was made flesh and dwealt among men. The God man was the Messiah. Love and prayers, lmc

[gail m]

In what sense is God's provision of animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sins an expression of his mercy? Were animal sacrifices actually adequate to atone for human sin?

1. God wanted his people to be with him, so he made provisions so that we unworthy humans could be close to him. It was merciful and loving on his part to want that relationship with us.

2. I believe in the beginning that animal sacrifies were adequate. Why else would God have made that possible. I think that as the human population grew that God had prepared Jesus for us for the future knowing eventually animals would not be enough. Thankfully too..We are blessed to live under grace..Thank you God..

[photobug]

It all points to the death of christ on the cross. Sin separaed us from god. Yet he loved us so much and desired closesnes with us that he allowed a animals blood to atone us from sins

[Helen Spaulding]

God, in His mercy, provided a way to cover the sins of the people in old
Israel. But, the blood of animals could not truly remove our sins. One
wise man said that "atone" meant covered, and he covered a pen in his
hand with the other hand and said, "now I have 'atoned' the pen". Only
Jesus, can truly remove our sin and give us peace with God! He is the
perfect lamb of God! He loved us so much that He suffered and died so
that we could be with Him forever--forever forgiven! Thank you, Jesus!

[wayfarer58]

God had already told mankind the penalty for sin (Gen 2:17, etc.). He owed us nothing. It is clear that animal sacrifice was insufficient (Heb 10:4, etc.). But God made provision for those who were desirous of resuming their relationship with Him to do so via the sacrificial system. And, of course, this system foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus.

Dave

[Penny]

I think that perhaps the animal sacrifice was a type or a shadow of the coming redemption that would be available when Jesus became our sacrifice. This is in the same way that the blood on the doorposts of the Israelites at passover was a type of redemption. But Jesus sacrifice made all others unnecessary. For which I am very thankful!

[bjcollin]

Pastor Ralph, on Feb 9 2003, 03:26 PM, said:

Q5. In what sense is God's provision of animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sins an expression of his mercy? Were animal sacrifices actually adequate to atone for human sin? Exposition

God has every right to demand our death for the sin that we committed, but instead in His mercy He allowed the animal sacrifice to substitute for us. Animal sacrifices were not actually adequate to atone for human sin because the animal being killed wasn't of as much value as a human.

[Laurie]

I believe God's mercy was allowing the Jewish people to temporarily purge their sins through animal sacrifice until the appointed time of the perfect atonement, that was adequate for completely taking away human sins, which was in the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ.

[leo]

Though an animal sacrifice was hardly a sufficient substitution for us human beings, much less as a means of atonement for our sins, the Lord was merciful enough to allow us to sacrifice animals as a substitution of our own selves. Why did the Lord allow it? Because the Lord knew that the price of sin is death. From the very beginning when Adam and Eve sinned, we have already been paying for their sins with death. And yet, even after all these years, we cannot seem to make the connection that we die because we sin. If we did, we would've been afraid to commit a sin in the first place.

Nowadays, sin is all around us. And the sad fact is, some of these sins are being advertised and endorsed by big celebrities. In some countries, advertisements about alcohol and cigarettes are rampant. Movies that focus on the nude body of a woman is considered as an art, as long as it's "tastefully done." And recently, it's bad to shoot and kill a neighbor and yet it's ok to destroy and kill hundreds of lives in a nieghboring country. All in the name of pride and freedom.

This is the sad fact that we're facing nowadays. A thousand years after Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the sake of mankind, the world still is in a state of chaos. In fact, we've become worse than what we were during Christ's time. And the amazing thing is, even if that's the case, the Lord is still merciful enough to honor the sacrifice that His only Son made on the cross a thousand years ago. Christ's sacrifice was so complete and so perfect that His blood still substitutes for ours in the heavenly temple. Now if we could only find a way to make the world repent for their sins...

[Mike Dickinson]

Q5. In what sense is God's provision of animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sins an expression of his mercy? Were animal sacrifices actually adequate to atone for human sin?
‘Grace’ and ‘Mercy’ are the very keys of our entire Christian Faith. That is, the ‘Grace’ and ‘Mercy’ our loving Heavenly Father God affords us. Without them there would be no opening of our hearts to receive all the love and blessings He has for us.

Allow me to illustrate it this way. A father arrives home to discover his teenage son has had his friends around and between them they have trashed the house. The parent may undoubtedly feel angry and after evicting his son’s friends, grounds his son and sends him to his room as a further punishment. Now imagine the scenario differently. The father, on discovering the trashed home, encourages his son and his friends to clean the place up. He even helps them! [This is ‘Mercy’ – NOT giving them the punishment they deserve] After the house is cleaned up, the father takes them all out for a meal at their favourite burger joint. [This is ‘Grace’ – giving them what they don’t deserve] And that, my friends is exactly how God deals with us. We deserve to be punished for our sin “For the wages of sin is death . . . . “ however, praise God it doesn’t end there. “. . . but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23) God’s expression of His mercy in the Old Covenant or, agreement, was accepting the blood sacrifice as an atonement for the people’s sins. This was a forerunner, a direction to what was to be. The problem with the animal sacrifices lay in the fact that they had to be fetched to the tabernacle over and over again. All the sacrifices provided was a temporary respite from the people’s guilt. God, in giving His only son as the atoning sacrifice, was offering to the world the ultimate price for their sin. That is why Jesus could say “It is finished”. No more sacrifices would ever be needed again. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for ALL the world's sin.

God has already accepted the sacrifice of His beloved son for our sin, once and for all, however, we still have to face up to our part in this new covenant. This agreement between God and man. Just as in the Old Covenant, we must [a] Confess our sin to God repent – turn away from our sin [c] Sacrifice our worldly lives, die to self (Romans 6:6) and in so doing we share in the crucifixion and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.(1 Peter 2:24)

Sorry if I’ve gone on a bit. It’s the evangelist coming out in me and well, one never knows who may be reading this! So, I may as well finish it. If you are a visitor reading this and you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour, today is the day of salvation. It’s as simple as [b][a] [b] [c] but it is so profound it will change your life forever. By all means email Pastor Ralph or me if you want to know more.

[Heather Lindwall]

Hello Everyone

When man first sinned in the Garden of Eden, his punishment was separation from God. It also meant a daily struggle just to survive and eventual death.

When the great flood, a new beginning, didn’t change man’s natural bent to sin, then God created the laws given to the Israelites. These laws included the laws of animal sacrifice and the idea of personal atonement. These wayward people would now have to be personally accountable to God for every sin. Living under the Law hopefully would bring the lessons of sin, holiness, forgiveness , the cost of sin, and the awfulness of sin into each person’s life and experience.
God was showing His mercy to these people in not exacting the FULL penalty of their sins, which would have been death.

As Hebrews 10:4 says, “For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” It would take the Son of God, the Son of Man, as a perfect and holy sacrifice, to represent all mankind on the cross. Once and for all, with the shedding of His blood, Jesus made atonement for all men.
I believe this to be God’s final offer of reconciliation. There can be no greater sacrifice than His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God. There is a way for me to have eternal life!

Thank you again, Mike Dickinson, for your insight and evangelism. My words are very plain........you have a way with words.

Love in Our Lord.................Heather