What Was Pleasing in Christ's Sacrifice?

For centuries, pagans would sacrifice to their gods and seek to appease their conflicted passions as they saw those gods demanding life for a life and requiring of bloodshed. When Israel comes into the mix, this is the culture they were familiar with and the platform they are raised from. Now that they were called out to serve the One true God, He tells them to stop sacrificing to these demons but if they want to sacrifice something then at least do it unto Him. As God knows sacrifice is important to the people, He is willing to accommodate it and meet them at their level. This is an act of love on His part. It was His way of taking something which was perverted but flip it around for something redemptive and good. He is the master at fashioning good out of what was intended for evil. He symbolically foreshadows a greater reality to come. Because He loves the people, He allows them to show their devotion through their offerings. This did not benefit Him like the false pagan deities who were lusting after blood but He allowed His people to express their love through this to Him as to benefit them.

As the sacrificial system continues, it's not long until we see the devotional love the people had when they first brought these sacrifices to God began to dwindle. Now sacrifices were not so much given from the heart, but out of a sense of obligation and requirement. It gets so escalated that we even see Israel begins sacrificing their own children to God! What was a love offering in thanksgiving of animals morphed into murdering children to appease God as if He was some evil deity. It was heartbreaking. The very thing God permitted in love as an offering of thanksgiving turned into desperate attempts to receive and appease from a twisted view of His deity. God, by way of the prophets, begins to address these issues and bring in correction. As we begin to see the heart of God continue to unfold, a shift begins to take place.

As with any change, you don't overturn a structure in a day but slowly apply changes till you get the required result. As with an infant, there are certain foods a grown up can consume that are good and healthy for him, but the same food for that infant can be deadly. It's not that the food is bad, but the infant is not ready for it. In a sense, God does a progression through the words of many prophets and is setting the stage for the climax of the incarnation. The food is chopped up so they can chew! Not that God is hiding anything but this is our human perception beholding God through a glass darkly that is not seeing the full picture. So while we see the pagans in their being wronged from someone taking revenge and slaughtering their offenders entire family to get even, we see things now like eye-for-an-eye or tooth-for-a-tooth. That is revolutionary. It is a huge improvement over the culture of the day where you would go haywire destroying your enemy. We are beholding some light but our minds haven't wrapped around the fullness. This is far short of the full disclosure that He wants us to walk in. This is merely a shadow and a shadow sometimes can be distorted.

More and more we see the intention of God revealed in further light. Remember this is not the full blown image yet but it does give you a idea of what to expect. We begin to see God desiring mercy and faithfulness over sacrifices. We see God not desiring sacrifices in that blood benefits Him in no way. We see that He is rather looking for the heart behind the deed and not for required-payments of obligation which lacks the essence of love. We see Him forgiving people without any sacrifices being made. We see rather the sacrifice He wants is for people to love one another and take care of each other. He wants people to be faithful to one another and treat each other with respect. He wants people to live at peace and be generous to their neighbors as this pleases Him.

Eventually we hit the climax as we come to Jesus in the gospels. And here we see the fullness, the real thing, God in the flesh. Here we witness the full unveiling of the invisible God. No more shadow games. Now we get the meat! Now we see eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth is not to resist an evil person and turning the other cheek. Now we see loving our neighbor is loving everyone, even our enemies! Now we see the desires and purposes of God come into full bloom. We witness the heart beat of the One true God in open view. We see Jesus walk in total innocence and faithfulness. We see Him taking no reputation of Himself, emptying Himself and spending time with the low-lives. We see Him helping the poor and bringing restorative justice to people, liberating the oppressed and healing the captives. We see a life that matches and surpasses the sacrifice God always intended as echoed in the prophets, a life that loves others and does good. We look at Jesus and we see that perfect sacrifice. This is what God always longed for and this reveals what God is like. It was never about getting blood shed or the killing of the innocent. As the early church fathers would say, "His whole life was a sacrifice!"

We get to Jesus' death and we see He never diverts from this perfect and narrow Way. While God is not pleased with the anger and injustice of evil men condemning and torturing an innocent man, He is pleased with Jesus that He freely gave Himself and when He could have easily demanded death on the head of His enemies, He instead spoke forgiveness for His persecutors and false accusers. He is pleased in the blood of Jesus shed without retaliation which cries out forgiveness and declares innocence. He is pleased that while He was in-justly wounded, He heals, while He was killed, He gives life, that while He was falsely accused He opens not His mouth. He is pleased that He puts others before Himself and seeks not His own. That He does not love His life even unto death and that He overcomes evil with good. He gave Himself for us and not for Himself. That is self-less and self-giving love! That is beautiful, that glorifies Him and is also the manner in which the sacrifice was pleasing to Him!

Jesus is the one we were created in the image and likeness of. He is the model of what it is like to be truly human. He represented us and showed us the Way for He is the Way. Jesus took our enmity of mind and crushed it by self-giving love. He destroyed principalities and defeated darkness by shining the light. Jesus is divine love in action. His life is the heart beat of God. His life was lived in God's delight and satisfaction. His whole life was the sacrifice. He never diverted from the Way, He was faithful unto death and when He arose again, He still spoke peace and forgiveness. The power of God looks like this. It looks like the cross. It looks like self-giving love without retaliation and payback. That is godly, that is righteous, that is merciful and a sweet aroma unto God. That is the faithfulness He wants. The righteousness He wants. That is what is deemed just to Him. Love and forgiveness is the kind of life that He delights in. This love is the sacrifice He always sought for in the land. We all had went astray. We all were lost but One came and redeemed us. One came and showed us who God is, who we are, and the Way to follow.