A LIVING SACRIFICE by Uriah Smith

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Nov 1, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 44.

A LIVING SACRIFICE.

By Uriah Smith

A Peculiar Feature of the Christian System—Of Divine Appointment—The More Excellent Sacrifice—The Jewish Economy.

THERE are peculiar features found in the Gospel system, which are not only not found in any other form of religion, but which clothe the Christian scheme with a glory that even its friends are too apt to overlook. One of these is seen in the unapproachable superiority of the sacrifice which it provides. Sacrifices are of divine appointment, and are designed for a most important purpose. When the plan of redemption was formed, and there was involved therein, as its central act, the gift of Christ for the world, the offering of blood as an act of worship was instituted, to set forth this great fact in figure before mankind. From this has come the practise, found even among uncivilized tribes in the remotest corners of the earth, of erecting altars which should send up smoking incense to heaven, and causing blood to flow from some living thing. No class of men can be found so low in the scale as to give no evidence of some religious instinct implanted in their bosoms. They bear in their inmost nature a painful consciousness that they are guilty, and that in some way expiation must be made for their sins. This is why smoking altars and bloody knives of sacrifice have written their lessons upon all the ages, and in all lands.

Taking advantage of this feeling in man's heart,—the impression of that first lesson burned into the conscience of humanity, when its representatives first turned their backs upon God and heaven, what havoc has the enemy of all righteousness wrought in the world! To what a senseless farce and cruel mockery has he degraded the sacred service! What God at first instituted as an object lesson, to keep before the minds of men the central thought in the great scheme of human redemption, that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission, he has perverted to a colossal evil. He has ever tried to hide from men's minds the true God, introducing divinities fashioned after the evil conceptions of the human heart, vengeful and abominable, deceiving them as to the end to be accomplished by sacrifices, loading the service with cruelty, and fouling it with loathsome lust. Thus has he turned it into a dark and appalling curse. What was first given to men to meet a necessity of their nature, and open a channel through which faith could lay hold upon a living Saviour, was turned into a most potent engine of corruption, destruction, and despair. It was to foster and vitalize true faith in the human heart, which Satan has tried to thwart, that the offering of sacrifices was ordained in the beginning.

Of the first offering of which a record remains, we read these words: "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Heb. 11:4. Turning back to the record, in Gen. 4:3-9, we learn at once what it was that made Abel's sacrifice more excellent than Cain's. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground; but Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock.

What Cain brought may have been, in itself considered, more pleasing to the eye than the offering of Abel, and surpassing it in beauty, abundance, and value; but the essential feature of a heaven-ordained sacrifice, such as God could accept, was lacking; that is, there was in it no blood. It was only the fruit of the ground, fair, and ripe, and perfect, and costly, no doubt, but containing no blood to signify faith in One to come, who was to shed His blood and give His life for the salvation of men. But Abel selected an animal without blemish from the firstlings of his flock. He poured out its blood. Such an offering was the appointed type of the coming Redeemer. It proclaimed the solemn truth that without the shedding of blood is no remission, and that the offerer, acknowledging that his life was forfeited and could be redeemed only by the life of another, was willing to accept of pardon and life on that condition. Abel's offering showed such faith in a coming Saviour, and, being in accordance with God's own arrangement, God could consistently accept it, and give Abel proof of His pleasure, by letting the fire fall from heaven and consume the sacrifice. Cain's offering showed no such faith, but was rather a subterfuge of unbelief, and God could not accept it. Had Cain desired to show faith, as Abel did, he could easily have obtained a fitting animal from his brother, as God in His scathing reproof reminded him, when He said that "sin [a sin-offering] lieth at the door." Hence Cain's offering, being without faith, was without merit; for without faith the whole ceremony became a hollow mockery; "for whatsoever [religious service, no matter with how much care and elaborate show performed] is not of faith, is sin." It is changed by the alchemy of evil into an offense against God.

In the Jewish economy, the system of types and shadows, sacrifices and offerings, was elaborated into its greatest perfection. In the ages before this, men had shown their faith in a coming Redeemer by their family sacrifices, offered according to the lesson handed down from Eden. But the time had now come for a more complete and definite object lesson to be set before the world. The family of Jacob, which went down into Egypt a mere pigmy household of seventy souls, had there grown, under the watchful eye and fostering care of God, notwithstanding all their afflictions, into a great company, a mighty nation; and with them God was then able to organize a theocracy in the world, and set among the nations a visible kingdom of His own, to maintain His name and truth before the people of all lands. The sanctuary was given them, with its beautiful and impressive service. There, in glowing figure, was set forth the way of pardon and life. There, by visible ceremony, was shown the method by which sin is transferred from the burdened penitent to a vicarious substitute, and finally put away, and destroyed forever. In the glorious sanctuary was seen a permanent exhibition of the glory of God, in the dazzling Shekinah; and by this unique and captivating service of the sanctuary, man was molded by his religion, and brought near to God.

For such a people, called to such a service, God could do nothing less than to offer them the headship of the nations, and to place them above all people as the depositaries of His law, and the representatives of His truth and Himself in the earth. Such an offer He did make them (Ex. 19:3-8); but they grievously failed by falling under temptation and sin; and so they never became all that God desired and intended them to be. Besides this, their system, glorious as it was (2 Cor. 3:10), was inadequate, and hence only designed to be temporary; because the best sacrifices they had to offer could not take away sin. The apostle puts it in these words: "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Heb. 10:1, 4. But in the New Testament dispensation all the imperfections of the old are fully remedied. That was the bud; this, the flower. Here the overwhelming wonder of the great scheme flashes out in all its glory. The earthly sanctuary disappears, and the true sanctuary in heaven comes into view. Before an astonished universe the sacrifice for us took place on the cross. Rising from the dead, and ascending up on high, He who had died entered that sanctuary not made with hands, not with the inefficient blood of animals, the best that man could offer, but with His own precious blood. Drop the plummet into this divine fountain of saving grace, and see if you can sound the profound depths of its wisdom and love. The Majesty of heaven becomes the sacrifice; but death can not hold Him. Emerging from the tomb, He ever liveth to plead His own blood, and make intercession for us. In the act that led Him to consent to undertake the work, in the act of laying down His life as our sacrifice, in the act of presenting His blood in our behalf as our living Mediator, the same feelings of compassion for us must rule His heart, the same love animate His bosom. Could faith have firmer ground on which to rest? Could our souls have greater assurance of the help they need? Who has devised such a plan as this? Who would try to furnish for us such a foundation for full assurance of faith and hope? Powers of darkness would not. Human beings could not. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

"With joy we meditate the grace Of our High Priest above; His heart is made of tenderness, His bosom glows with love." URIAH SMITH.