In line with doctrine, it was God’s will to sacrifice Jesus (Mark 14:36, Matthew 26:42, Luke 22:42, Hebrews 10:9,10). But this runs counter to everything the Scriptures say about sacrifices: They were tolerated but not demanded by God; besides, it applied only to healthy and unblemished animals, not human beings. God would rather be obeyed than have burnt offerings and sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22; 2 Chronicles 28:3; Psalms 40:6; 51:16; Proverb 21:3; Hosea 6:6). He hated the practices of other peoples who even burned their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods (Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 12:31 and 18:10; Psalm 106:38; Ezekiel 16:20,36). In fact, sacrifices and offerings were to end in the future (Daniel 9:27; 12:11). In other words, God never commanded nor accepted human sacrifices. On one occasion, as one may recollect, wanting to test Abraham, God ordered him to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22:2). The case with Jesus is somewhat similar, but the end result was tremendously different—Isaac was rescued, Jesus was not! It is altogether inexplainable the Son of God being asked to die as a sacrifice to his own Father who for thousands of years had never sanctioned human sacrifices. Also, the fact that Jesus was the Word mentioned in John’s Gospel leads to a singular situation: If Jesus was the Word and the Word was God, thus making him God as well, was not his sacrifice to God in effect an act of sacrifice to himself? Likewise, would not his suffering cause God to suffer, too? (Excerpt from “Search for the Truth in the New Testament”)
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:10:48 +0000
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