This is a season of sacrifices, no doubt, as on Saturday, 4 October, 2014, millions of people across the world slaughtered animals as a religious duty demanded by their religious faith. Sermons were preached in places of worship, goodwill messages were sent out through the media to the faithfuls, and the spirit of celebrations was and is still in the air.
However, as this religious obligation was being observed, there were pertinent questions that have over the years, bothered me and have refused to stop pricking my conscience. How can men please God? Can God be pleased with if men sacrifice the fattest of the rams to him? Still, will sacrificing a cow to God be pleasing to God and make Him forgive men’s sins? And what is the significance of a sacrifice in the relationship between God and men? These questions forced me into thinking and searching for answers.
In my effort to find answers to these questions, I read so many collections of religious books that deal with the person of God and his demands from his creatures, that is, those he created. My search only lead me to one source that brought out positive answers to my questions. This only source is the Bible. It was only in the Bible that I found what it means to please God.
From a secular perspective, a sacrifice is seen as a religious duty performed by a person to a deity. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary provides series of definitions of what a sacrifice is. The first definition says sacrifice is: “an act or action of making an offering of animal or vegetable life, of food, drink, or incense, or of some precious object to a deity or spiritual being.”
From this definition, we can deduce that some people see sacrifice as an appeasement to the gods, and that these objects offered as sacrifices could be animals, food, drinks or even burning of incense. This brings to mind some religious practices not only in Nigeria, but also in other African societies, where the pouring of libation and the killing of humans as sacrifices to the gods is an act of ancestral worship. So also, the practice of burning of incense in some places of worship is still being observed and, the sacrifices of animals as was done during this Eid celebrations by Muslims across the World, is being observed to the latter.
In the same vein, the Webster’s dictionary also sees a sacrifice as, “something consecrated and offered to God or to a divinity or an immolated victim or an offering of any kind laid on an altar or otherwise presented in the way of religious thanksgiving, atonement, or conciliation.” This definition too, highlights methods and ways through which sacrifices can be offered; and this can be through consecration process or through immolation, that is the killing of an animal or a person laid on an altar as an offering to God.
The above two definitions were clearly the practices of sacrifices that were obtainable before God’s new covenant with man. In these ancient practices which have refused to give way in spite of the offer of the Ultimate Sacrifice on the mount at Calvary by Jesus Christ, men thought they could please God with material substances.
One last definition which has brought home the point I intend to make in the remaining part of this article, is the third provided by Webster’s dictionary. The dictionary also defines sacrifice as: “the crucifixion of Christ; the voluntary offering by Christ of himself to reconcile God and man.” From this definition we see that because man has sinned and has fallen out of God’s grace and mercies, Jesus Christ had to offer himself as a Sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary so that through his death and resurrection, humanity can be reconciled to God.
This event took place over two thousand years ago, and this GoodNews of God’s New Covenant with man as contained in the New Testament Gospel, has been preached to all of humanity in these past two thousand years. If this is the case, the question may be asked: Why do we still have persons who still believe that reconciliation to God has to be through continuous sacrifices? Is it that man still derives pleasure in shedding the blood of his fellow human being and those of animals with the delusion that this would be pleasing to God and make him a candidate of Heaven? Could this be the perspective through which many Terrorists view God and his relationship to man, hence, their uncontrolled urge to kill without mercy?
Luke, a Writer and a Medical Doctor, while writing about the works and ministry of the Disciples of Jesus, wrote about the encounter Apostle Paul had with philosophers and other religious men in Athens, a Greek city.
“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.” (Acts 17:22-23 KJV).
Paul in one of his mission trips, preached the gospel in Athens. Here he noticed that the people were very religious and because of this they were very superstitious. The people of this Greek city offered sacrifices to the gods and because they were fearful that should they default in offering these sacrifices the gods would be angry with them, and so, of the numerous altars they erected to offer sacrifices, they added one with an inscription, to the unknown God. They did this with the intent to appease this other God they do not know. Paul told them that it is this Unknown God that he preaches about and wants to tell them about him.
Paul’s encounter with the people of Athens is still manifesting itself today in the world. People still offer sacrifices to unknown gods even when God himself through the atonement and sacrificial death of Christ, has offered man salvation, ultimately free, without the trappings of animal sacrifice. So, why do some persons still burry themselves in old traditions that have dead ends and offering no hope except deceptions?
Jesus Christ while speaking about his mission on earth said: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Jesus was quoting the exact words of the Prophet Hosea to the Nation of Israel. God’s message through the Prophet is that he God, desires mercy and not sacrifices. This is what this prophetic message to the people of Israel said: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6). Here Jesus made the religious leaders of the time, who were the Pharisees, know that he is God and what he desires from them and all men is not their sacrifices.
The Writer of the book of Hebrews presses home this point when he said: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” (Hebrews 9:11-15 KJV).
What we glean from this passage is that Jesus came into the world as a High Priest, a priest greater than all priests, and manifested his glory not through an earthly tabernacle and sacrifices of animals, but through his sacrificial death on the cross. Christ’s sacrifice was unblemished, it was a perfect sacrifice made, and which has made all other sacrifices insignificant and unacceptable before God.
The implication of this is that it is no longer demanded of us to offer sacrifices of animals to God. We are commanded to sing praises to God, which is the only sacrifice he desires for his love for us thorough the Ultimate Sacrifice made on the Cross at Calvary. Again the Writer of the Book of Hebrews points this important point out.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13: 15-16 NIV).
What is demanded of us is praises to God, doing good, and sharing with others this ultimate sacrificial love of God as manifested in Christ Jesus. All it takes is to believe in Jesus as the Saviour of the world who has offered redemption to all of mankind.
Apart from the Writer of the book of Hebrews, the Apostle John, a disciple of Jesus also acknowledges the fact that the death of Christ is the ultimate sacrifice which gave the whole world redemption from the wrath of God.
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2 NIV).
John stresses the point here that our sins have been atoned by Christ’s death on the cross. And we therefore, do not need another sacrifice for our sins since Jesus Christ is there as our advocate who speaks on our behalf before the Father. So, all who are in pains for their inability to buy rams to celebrate, I say to you, let go of your pains as your burden has already been lifted up by Christ Jesus.
All it takes is for all, irrespective of where you come from, what ethnic nationality you’re from, what part the world you’re from, know that this ultimate sacrifice is meant for your salvation. The price for your sins has already been paid. Just appropriate God’s love for you by believing in Christ Jesus, and you’re already reconciled to God. Celebrate the love of God for you today by reconciling yourself to Christ Jesus, that is the only sacrifice acceptable to God.
*Minchakpu is a Media Consultant and sent in this article from #6, Noad Avenue, Jos, Nigeria.
Comments