By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
By God's will believers are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, given once for all time. His offering was voluntary, whole, spotless and infinite, while the repeated animal sacrifices could obtain only ceremonial holiness and could never take away sin or cleanse the conscience. When type met antitype in His death, the divinely appointed shadows that pointed to Him as the Lamb became valueless and were brought to an end. His death did not abolish God's unchanging moral law but vindicated it, showing its immutable character and that transgression required His sacrifice. That complete sacrifice on Calvary is the basis of full sanctification and cleansing from all sin, which no pilgrimage, offering, or human work can secure or replace.
God's Will Accomplished
By God's will believers are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once for all. Unlike the repeated animal sacrifices which cannot remove sins, Christ's single offering deals with sin and fulfills the purpose pointed to by the old sacrifices, so it is sufficient and no further offering for sin is needed. That one offering satisfies for the sins of believers for all time and for all eternity, and pilgrimages, offerings, images, prayers to saints and other human works cannot secure God's grace or favor or replace this sacrifice. His offering was whole and entire and of decisive value, in contrast to the blood of bulls and goats which could obtain only a ceremonial holiness and could not cleanse the conscience, being only a representation of Him.
Salvation is complete because it rests on the accomplishment of the plan laid before the foundation of the world. Christ is the substance of all sacrifices and offerings, and He came to this world as the world's Redeemer to stand at the head of humanity and do God's will by offering Himself, and through Him the Holy Spirit comes to man. Because type met antitype in His once-for-all sacrifice, there can be no second probation for man.
His whole life led to His death on the cross, where the types reached their fulfillment. His perfect obedience to God's law in human life provided the pattern for humanity and redeemed Adam's failure and fall.
Shadow and Substance Fulfilled
The animal sacrifices, priesthood, temple ceremonies, and sanctuary service were divinely appointed symbols, types, and shadows that pointed forward to Christ as the spotless Lamb and kept before people the separation caused by sin and the need for a mediator and Redeemer. The daily sacrificial offerings that made the temple holy pictured His death, and the sacrifices and offerings performed under the law illustrated His atonement as the Lamb of God to whom they pointed. They were foreshadows of the one great offering of His own life and His body offered once for all to sanctify people and make sanctification and salvation possible. Christ Himself established the sacrificial system, gave the directions for the offerings, and is its foundation from Adam's day, as well as the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. He is the Author and Finisher of faith, the originator of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, and the typical offerings were fulfilled in Him as their antitype where type meets antitype. The ceremonial observances were given under His specific directions, and He understood their symbolic value.
When type met antitype in Christ's death, the sacrificial offerings became valueless, ceased, and were no longer acceptable to God. His death fulfilled the purpose of the earlier sacrificial offerings, and His work as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary was the reality that the Jewish priesthood's sanctuary ministry had foreshadowed. The blood of animals and the sacrificial offerings of the Jewish law no longer had value, and the whole system of sacrifices and oblations was brought to an end. The death of the Son of God ended what God had once specified in the Hebrew manner of worship, and God did authorize a change in those specifications so that Christianity was not to remain connected with the Jewish laws and ceremonies as obligatory. The typical sacrifices ceased at the death of Christ and salvation through Christ alone was more fully brought to light in the Christian age.
The light of the cross reveals the true significance of those rites and gives meaning to the Jewish sacrificial system, making clear the salvation plan foreshadowed in them. Not one word from God becomes null and void but stands until prophecy becomes history, which happened when type met antitype in the death of the Son of God. The sanctuary service typified the plan of redemption and the work of Christ, and remains glorious and worthy of its divine Originator even after it was no longer to be observed, still presented in its true position and value with lessons for successive generations. The bleeding victim on the altar testified of the coming Redeemer whose once-for-all offering sanctifies, the cloud of incense ascending with prayer represents His righteousness that alone makes the sinner's prayer acceptable, and the visible token of divine presence shining from the holy of holies points to grand truths to be revealed through successive generations keeping faith alive through age after age of darkness and apostasy until the advent of the promised Messiah.
Many worshipers offered sacrifices without understanding their import, not seeing that every offering pointed to Christ as the only perfect Sacrifice. They perverted their meaning into heartless outward form, centered religion in ceremonies making outward forms all-important while losing the spirit of true worship, corrupted the services with tradition and heathenism, and performed the rites without looking beyond the shadow to Christ. The priests and elders failed to appreciate the meaning of the decisive sacrifice symbolized by innocent animals offered in the temple whose blood was shed for the sins of the world, and repeated offerings could not replace humble repentance or obedience. He who was represented by all the ceremonies stood unrecognized and unhonored among them, yet He was the One symbolized by all their service, and the Jewish nation rejected Him when He came, leaving their continued looking for a Messiah after Christ had come useless.
God brought the people into captivity, destroyed the Temple, and suspended the Temple service so outward ceremony would not become the sum of religion. Principles and practice were to be purged from heathenism, ritual service was to cease in order for heart service to be revived, and with outward glory removed the spiritual reality would be revealed. Christ's work was to establish an altogether different worship bound by a living link to God, because spiritual worship was fast disappearing while the offerings were perverted and misunderstood. In Him the Jewish rites and ceremonies that pointed forward to that one fully effective sacrifice for the sins of the world reached their fulfillment and no longer had force, and the ordinance He left for His disciples recalls its lessons and calls them to examine their hearts.
Perfect Sacrifice Completed
The offering of the body of Jesus Christ was voluntary and freely given, whole and entire, true and perfect, spotless and sinless. It was an infinite and priceless gift, complete and of decisive value as the substance to which all earlier offerings pointed. He needed no suffering for Himself, for He was sinless and exalted, and His suffering was proportionate to the dignity of His person as the divine Son of God. By contrast the repeated animal sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats and the many bleeding victims, could not remove sins, take away sin, or cleanse the conscience. They could obtain only a ceremonial holiness, had no saving power in themselves, and could not give holiness or rest, being only representations and symbols that kept before people the separation caused by sin and the need for a mediator.
His one offering of His own life made atonement for sin once for all, dealt with sin, and fulfilled the purpose pointed to by the old sacrifices. It is the sacrifice that satisfies for believers' sins for all time and for all eternity, so no further offering for sin is needed. Because type met antitype in that once-for-all sacrifice, there can be no second probation for man. Those sacrifices and offerings performed under the law pointed forward to the Lamb of God, but they were useless as a continuing way to look for a Messiah after Christ had come.
His work as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary was the reality foreshadowed by the Jewish priesthood's sanctuary ministry, and His mediatorial work surpasses the earthly priesthood. The ceremonial sacrifices were types that pointed forward to Christ, whose sacrifice, priesthood, and sanctuary ministry fulfilled them. The bleeding victim on the altar testified of the coming Redeemer whose once-for-all offering sanctifies. The cloud of incense ascending with prayer represents His righteousness that alone can make the sinner's prayer acceptable to God, and the visible token of the divine presence shining from the holy of holies points to grand truths to be revealed through successive generations, keeping faith alive until the advent of the promised Messiah.
Law Vindicated and Binding
By the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all believers are sanctified, and that death fulfilled the sacrificial offerings without abolishing God's unchanging moral law, for the need for His death arose because people had transgressed that law. When type met antitype at His death on the cross, the animal offerings became valueless and the whole system of sacrificial offerings under the Jewish law was brought to an end, though He Himself kept the law binding up to the hour of His death. The typical sacrifices ceased and salvation through Christ alone was more fully brought to light in the Christian age, yet the ending of that system did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone or the tithing system enjoined upon the Hebrews. Both stand immutable with claims upon man in all ages, to be more fully carried out and extended in the Christian age with duty more especially defined and greater provisions required to sustain the warfare, while the Decalogue and the Ten Commandments which Paul continued to keep in letter and spirit, and the practical obedience taught from the Mount of Blessing, remain binding, and what God has set apart as sacred must ever be respected as sacred. The ceremonial observances given under His specific directions are distinguished from the Decalogue and were to pass away in that one great offering for the sins of the world where type meets antitype, while the Decalogue stands apart from that ending as the foundation of the whole Jewish economy.
That sacrifice as the antitype to which all earlier offerings pointed preserves the honor of God's law while making escape from sin's penalty possible, for the animal sacrifices kept before people that disobedience brings death and taught humility about the fallen condition, repentance, and trust in God alone for pardon through the promised Redeemer. Freely given as the spotless sacrifice bearing the world's sin and the law's curse, His offering vindicated God's justice and showed that God's law is unchanging, and He who established the sacrificial system by His death vindicated God's law and fulfilled prophecy. That perfect, once-for-all sacrifice makes plain the immutable character of the law and declares that disobedience can never be rewarded with eternal life. It was made for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law, not making it of none effect, as the work of Him who is the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the Finisher of faith, the vindicator of truth and the fulfiller of all prophecies and the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system.
His sacrifice did not lessen the obligation to obey God's law or free people from it, nor lessen human obligation to perfect obedience, nor set men free from the law, nor destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures. It opened the way for them to obey, by which fallen humanity, touching humanity and allied by living faith to divinity, may obey that law and teach others to do the same.
In the light of that law the sinner sees himself a sinner, dies to sin, repents of sins, has faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour, is baptized, becomes obedient to the claims of God's law, and zealously preaches Jesus. The sacrifices offered for hundreds of years foreshadowed His death and He is their antitype, and the Messiah was to come in humiliation as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and to die in fulfillment of the sacrificial system. That humbling truth required receiving Him in sorrow and death rather than only as a victorious conqueror.
Sanctification and Salvation Given
Christ's offering of Himself was the complete sacrifice for the sins of the world, fulfilling what the earlier offerings pointed toward, and this priceless sacrifice is the basis of sanctification. Unlike the repeated sacrifices of the typical system, His offering of His body sanctifies His people once for all as the one effective Offering. His complete sacrifice on Calvary makes full sanctification possible for those who come to Christ, renounce their own ways and works, and receive His imputed righteousness, saved as God works in them while they work out their salvation.
By bearing the guilt and penalty of transgression in His body, Christ the just One died for the unjust and bore the death penalty on their behalf, and through His death and resurrection eternal life is offered. In doing so He made it possible for sinners to obey God's commands and meet the condition of eternal life. Sanctification includes being brought from darkness into God's light, having God's image renewed in the soul, and having character conformed to Christ's perfect character.
His single offering of His body alone cleanses from all sin and gives forgiveness of sins that cling to human beings like foul leprosy, received only through faith in His cleansing blood. His blood cleanses and purifies, bringing redemption and forgiveness of sins for all who will be saved. His atoning sacrifice brings peace and pardon to those who have broken God's law, and opened access to God for guilty sinners. Through faith in Christ, the Lamb who takes away the world's sin, people may have eternal life through His death and resurrection.
His life, mission, and death purchased people with His own blood as the one great sacrifice that saves a soul into eternal life. No giving of human possessions and not even the giving of human life itself could do that work in His place. The greatness of the salvation is measured by the greatness of that sacrifice, so contemplating the sacrifice gives comprehension of the salvation, and Calvary reveals God's love. To turn from it is to do despite to the Spirit of grace and brings disappointment to Jesus who paid that price.
Human Works Rejected
The offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all is the sacrifice that satisfies for the sins of believers for all time and for all eternity, and it is ample for all who will believe. Because believers are made holy through that one offering, pilgrimages, offerings, images, prayers to saints, and other human works cannot secure God's grace or favor or take its place. Entrance into heaven cannot be bought by works.
A merely legal religion is a mistake, a cold, loveless, Christless religion that can never lead souls to Christ. Fastings and prayers practiced in a self-justifying spirit are abominable to God. Solemn assemblies for worship, rounds of religious ceremonies, external humiliation, and imposed sacrifice that proclaim the doer righteous and entitled to heaven are all a deception.
The animal sacrifices established after sin kept before people that disobedience brings death and taught humility over the fallen condition, repentance, and trust in God alone for pardon through the promised Redeemer. The ritual service and its sacrifices were symbols pointing to Christ, and the innocent animals offered in the temple were shadows of Jesus whose blood was shed for the sins of the world and for the life of the world. Those ceremonies and religious services, including the Passover and the lifted-up serpent, had value only as representations of Christ and His death on the cross, but were valueless if people rejected the Saviour they revealed. In themselves they could not give holiness or rest, and repeated offerings could not replace humble repentance and obedience. Multiplying them as heartless service dishonored God and obscured the meaning of Christ's decisive offering, whose meaning priests and elders failed to appreciate, even while the sacrifices directed people to the crucified Redeemer.
Israel's sacrificial ceremonies were sacred because they prefigured the sinless offering of God's Son, and the priests' appointed work pointed to His sacrifice. Treating those ordinances lightly showed failure to reverence the sacrifice they foreshadowed.
By God's will believers are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, given once for all time. His offering was voluntary, whole, spotless and infinite, while the repeated animal sacrifices could obtain only ceremonial holiness and could never take away sin or cleanse the conscience. When type met antitype in His death, the divinely appointed shadows that pointed to Him as the Lamb became valueless and were brought to an end. His death did not abolish God's unchanging moral law but vindicated it, showing its immutable character and that transgression required His sacrifice. That complete sacrifice on Calvary is the basis of full sanctification and cleansing from all sin, which no pilgrimage, offering, or human work can secure or replace.
God's Will Accomplished
By God's will believers are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once for all. Unlike the repeated animal sacrifices which cannot remove sins, Christ's single offering deals with sin and fulfills the purpose pointed to by the old sacrifices, so it is sufficient and no further offering for sin is needed. That one offering satisfies for the sins of believers for all time and for all eternity, and pilgrimages, offerings, images, prayers to saints and other human works cannot secure God's grace or favor or replace this sacrifice. His offering was whole and entire and of decisive value, in contrast to the blood of bulls and goats which could obtain only a ceremonial holiness and could not cleanse the conscience, being only a representation of Him.
Salvation is complete because it rests on the accomplishment of the plan laid before the foundation of the world. Christ is the substance of all sacrifices and offerings, and He came to this world as the world's Redeemer to stand at the head of humanity and do God's will by offering Himself, and through Him the Holy Spirit comes to man. Because type met antitype in His once-for-all sacrifice, there can be no second probation for man.
His whole life led to His death on the cross, where the types reached their fulfillment. His perfect obedience to God's law in human life provided the pattern for humanity and redeemed Adam's failure and fall.
Shadow and Substance Fulfilled
The animal sacrifices, priesthood, temple ceremonies, and sanctuary service were divinely appointed symbols, types, and shadows that pointed forward to Christ as the spotless Lamb and kept before people the separation caused by sin and the need for a mediator and Redeemer. The daily sacrificial offerings that made the temple holy pictured His death, and the sacrifices and offerings performed under the law illustrated His atonement as the Lamb of God to whom they pointed. They were foreshadows of the one great offering of His own life and His body offered once for all to sanctify people and make sanctification and salvation possible. Christ Himself established the sacrificial system, gave the directions for the offerings, and is its foundation from Adam's day, as well as the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. He is the Author and Finisher of faith, the originator of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, and the typical offerings were fulfilled in Him as their antitype where type meets antitype. The ceremonial observances were given under His specific directions, and He understood their symbolic value.
When type met antitype in Christ's death, the sacrificial offerings became valueless, ceased, and were no longer acceptable to God. His death fulfilled the purpose of the earlier sacrificial offerings, and His work as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary was the reality that the Jewish priesthood's sanctuary ministry had foreshadowed. The blood of animals and the sacrificial offerings of the Jewish law no longer had value, and the whole system of sacrifices and oblations was brought to an end. The death of the Son of God ended what God had once specified in the Hebrew manner of worship, and God did authorize a change in those specifications so that Christianity was not to remain connected with the Jewish laws and ceremonies as obligatory. The typical sacrifices ceased at the death of Christ and salvation through Christ alone was more fully brought to light in the Christian age.
The light of the cross reveals the true significance of those rites and gives meaning to the Jewish sacrificial system, making clear the salvation plan foreshadowed in them. Not one word from God becomes null and void but stands until prophecy becomes history, which happened when type met antitype in the death of the Son of God. The sanctuary service typified the plan of redemption and the work of Christ, and remains glorious and worthy of its divine Originator even after it was no longer to be observed, still presented in its true position and value with lessons for successive generations. The bleeding victim on the altar testified of the coming Redeemer whose once-for-all offering sanctifies, the cloud of incense ascending with prayer represents His righteousness that alone makes the sinner's prayer acceptable, and the visible token of divine presence shining from the holy of holies points to grand truths to be revealed through successive generations keeping faith alive through age after age of darkness and apostasy until the advent of the promised Messiah.
Many worshipers offered sacrifices without understanding their import, not seeing that every offering pointed to Christ as the only perfect Sacrifice. They perverted their meaning into heartless outward form, centered religion in ceremonies making outward forms all-important while losing the spirit of true worship, corrupted the services with tradition and heathenism, and performed the rites without looking beyond the shadow to Christ. The priests and elders failed to appreciate the meaning of the decisive sacrifice symbolized by innocent animals offered in the temple whose blood was shed for the sins of the world, and repeated offerings could not replace humble repentance or obedience. He who was represented by all the ceremonies stood unrecognized and unhonored among them, yet He was the One symbolized by all their service, and the Jewish nation rejected Him when He came, leaving their continued looking for a Messiah after Christ had come useless.
God brought the people into captivity, destroyed the Temple, and suspended the Temple service so outward ceremony would not become the sum of religion. Principles and practice were to be purged from heathenism, ritual service was to cease in order for heart service to be revived, and with outward glory removed the spiritual reality would be revealed. Christ's work was to establish an altogether different worship bound by a living link to God, because spiritual worship was fast disappearing while the offerings were perverted and misunderstood. In Him the Jewish rites and ceremonies that pointed forward to that one fully effective sacrifice for the sins of the world reached their fulfillment and no longer had force, and the ordinance He left for His disciples recalls its lessons and calls them to examine their hearts.
Perfect Sacrifice Completed
The offering of the body of Jesus Christ was voluntary and freely given, whole and entire, true and perfect, spotless and sinless. It was an infinite and priceless gift, complete and of decisive value as the substance to which all earlier offerings pointed. He needed no suffering for Himself, for He was sinless and exalted, and His suffering was proportionate to the dignity of His person as the divine Son of God. By contrast the repeated animal sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats and the many bleeding victims, could not remove sins, take away sin, or cleanse the conscience. They could obtain only a ceremonial holiness, had no saving power in themselves, and could not give holiness or rest, being only representations and symbols that kept before people the separation caused by sin and the need for a mediator.
His one offering of His own life made atonement for sin once for all, dealt with sin, and fulfilled the purpose pointed to by the old sacrifices. It is the sacrifice that satisfies for believers' sins for all time and for all eternity, so no further offering for sin is needed. Because type met antitype in that once-for-all sacrifice, there can be no second probation for man. Those sacrifices and offerings performed under the law pointed forward to the Lamb of God, but they were useless as a continuing way to look for a Messiah after Christ had come.
His work as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary was the reality foreshadowed by the Jewish priesthood's sanctuary ministry, and His mediatorial work surpasses the earthly priesthood. The ceremonial sacrifices were types that pointed forward to Christ, whose sacrifice, priesthood, and sanctuary ministry fulfilled them. The bleeding victim on the altar testified of the coming Redeemer whose once-for-all offering sanctifies. The cloud of incense ascending with prayer represents His righteousness that alone can make the sinner's prayer acceptable to God, and the visible token of the divine presence shining from the holy of holies points to grand truths to be revealed through successive generations, keeping faith alive until the advent of the promised Messiah.
Law Vindicated and Binding
By the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all believers are sanctified, and that death fulfilled the sacrificial offerings without abolishing God's unchanging moral law, for the need for His death arose because people had transgressed that law. When type met antitype at His death on the cross, the animal offerings became valueless and the whole system of sacrificial offerings under the Jewish law was brought to an end, though He Himself kept the law binding up to the hour of His death. The typical sacrifices ceased and salvation through Christ alone was more fully brought to light in the Christian age, yet the ending of that system did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone or the tithing system enjoined upon the Hebrews. Both stand immutable with claims upon man in all ages, to be more fully carried out and extended in the Christian age with duty more especially defined and greater provisions required to sustain the warfare, while the Decalogue and the Ten Commandments which Paul continued to keep in letter and spirit, and the practical obedience taught from the Mount of Blessing, remain binding, and what God has set apart as sacred must ever be respected as sacred. The ceremonial observances given under His specific directions are distinguished from the Decalogue and were to pass away in that one great offering for the sins of the world where type meets antitype, while the Decalogue stands apart from that ending as the foundation of the whole Jewish economy.
That sacrifice as the antitype to which all earlier offerings pointed preserves the honor of God's law while making escape from sin's penalty possible, for the animal sacrifices kept before people that disobedience brings death and taught humility about the fallen condition, repentance, and trust in God alone for pardon through the promised Redeemer. Freely given as the spotless sacrifice bearing the world's sin and the law's curse, His offering vindicated God's justice and showed that God's law is unchanging, and He who established the sacrificial system by His death vindicated God's law and fulfilled prophecy. That perfect, once-for-all sacrifice makes plain the immutable character of the law and declares that disobedience can never be rewarded with eternal life. It was made for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law, not making it of none effect, as the work of Him who is the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the Finisher of faith, the vindicator of truth and the fulfiller of all prophecies and the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system.
His sacrifice did not lessen the obligation to obey God's law or free people from it, nor lessen human obligation to perfect obedience, nor set men free from the law, nor destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures. It opened the way for them to obey, by which fallen humanity, touching humanity and allied by living faith to divinity, may obey that law and teach others to do the same.
In the light of that law the sinner sees himself a sinner, dies to sin, repents of sins, has faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour, is baptized, becomes obedient to the claims of God's law, and zealously preaches Jesus. The sacrifices offered for hundreds of years foreshadowed His death and He is their antitype, and the Messiah was to come in humiliation as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and to die in fulfillment of the sacrificial system. That humbling truth required receiving Him in sorrow and death rather than only as a victorious conqueror.
Sanctification and Salvation Given
Christ's offering of Himself was the complete sacrifice for the sins of the world, fulfilling what the earlier offerings pointed toward, and this priceless sacrifice is the basis of sanctification. Unlike the repeated sacrifices of the typical system, His offering of His body sanctifies His people once for all as the one effective Offering. His complete sacrifice on Calvary makes full sanctification possible for those who come to Christ, renounce their own ways and works, and receive His imputed righteousness, saved as God works in them while they work out their salvation.
By bearing the guilt and penalty of transgression in His body, Christ the just One died for the unjust and bore the death penalty on their behalf, and through His death and resurrection eternal life is offered. In doing so He made it possible for sinners to obey God's commands and meet the condition of eternal life. Sanctification includes being brought from darkness into God's light, having God's image renewed in the soul, and having character conformed to Christ's perfect character.
His single offering of His body alone cleanses from all sin and gives forgiveness of sins that cling to human beings like foul leprosy, received only through faith in His cleansing blood. His blood cleanses and purifies, bringing redemption and forgiveness of sins for all who will be saved. His atoning sacrifice brings peace and pardon to those who have broken God's law, and opened access to God for guilty sinners. Through faith in Christ, the Lamb who takes away the world's sin, people may have eternal life through His death and resurrection.
His life, mission, and death purchased people with His own blood as the one great sacrifice that saves a soul into eternal life. No giving of human possessions and not even the giving of human life itself could do that work in His place. The greatness of the salvation is measured by the greatness of that sacrifice, so contemplating the sacrifice gives comprehension of the salvation, and Calvary reveals God's love. To turn from it is to do despite to the Spirit of grace and brings disappointment to Jesus who paid that price.
Human Works Rejected
The offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all is the sacrifice that satisfies for the sins of believers for all time and for all eternity, and it is ample for all who will believe. Because believers are made holy through that one offering, pilgrimages, offerings, images, prayers to saints, and other human works cannot secure God's grace or favor or take its place. Entrance into heaven cannot be bought by works.
A merely legal religion is a mistake, a cold, loveless, Christless religion that can never lead souls to Christ. Fastings and prayers practiced in a self-justifying spirit are abominable to God. Solemn assemblies for worship, rounds of religious ceremonies, external humiliation, and imposed sacrifice that proclaim the doer righteous and entitled to heaven are all a deception.
The animal sacrifices established after sin kept before people that disobedience brings death and taught humility over the fallen condition, repentance, and trust in God alone for pardon through the promised Redeemer. The ritual service and its sacrifices were symbols pointing to Christ, and the innocent animals offered in the temple were shadows of Jesus whose blood was shed for the sins of the world and for the life of the world. Those ceremonies and religious services, including the Passover and the lifted-up serpent, had value only as representations of Christ and His death on the cross, but were valueless if people rejected the Saviour they revealed. In themselves they could not give holiness or rest, and repeated offerings could not replace humble repentance and obedience. Multiplying them as heartless service dishonored God and obscured the meaning of Christ's decisive offering, whose meaning priests and elders failed to appreciate, even while the sacrifices directed people to the crucified Redeemer.
Israel's sacrificial ceremonies were sacred because they prefigured the sinless offering of God's Son, and the priests' appointed work pointed to His sacrifice. Treating those ordinances lightly showed failure to reverence the sacrifice they foreshadowed.