In the Old Testament there are many instances of animal sacrifice, in some cases the Lord asks for a sacrifice. To be blunt, what happened to it? Is it common belief now that it is an unnecessary act? Thanks in advance. I am new to the faith and have a lot of questions, (maybe stupid ones) thanks for bearing with me.
The blood sacrifices of the Old Testament were needed to cover the sins of the people until the
Promised One of God Christ appeared to become the only pure sacrifice that God would accept.
In the Old Testament, people were not allowed to talk to God. They could only talk to the High
Priests which then talked to God. Christ came to bring the Gift of Life and fulfill the Prophesy of
The Promised One of God that would bring forgiveness to the world and die giving His Holy
blood to erase - not cover our sins as the blood of animals did in the Old Testament - our sins.
Christ also opened the door to freely talk to God. This is why Jesus said No mam comes to the
Father except through Me. The curtain that was solid stone in the temple where the Priests
could talk to God was torn in half as Jesus died on the cross. God was no longer hidden from us.
Jesus came to be the eternal sacrifice for our sins so offerings are no longer needed. If they were,
Christ died for nothing. Jesus became our Eternal Priest allowing us to talk directly to God any time
we want to.
Christ did not come to abolish the Old Testament Laws. God's Word will never pass away. Christ
came to secure the Laws of The Old Testament. Once you start understanding the New Testament,
you will see that all laws of the Old Testament are still in effect in general. The laws are just
administered differently since we now have the fulfillment of The Promise of Christ.
The Ten Commandments were not sent by God as a set of Laws for us to live by. The Ten
Commandments were sent as a ruler for us to measure our selves by and then realize we could never
live up to God's Standard and turn to Him for help. But man in his infinite wisdom and ignorance
always has a need to prove himself as good and not rely on God. So man created hundreds of
rules that he felt would make him redeemed to God. But God never told man to create those laws.
The amazing thing is, man wasn't able to live up to the standard man set for himself either yet he
never thought to ask God for help.
God's only purpose was to show man his short comings through the Ten Commandments. Man has
tried every way he can for thousands of years to prove he is worthy but God rejected man's rules.
When Jesus was on earth, it was Christ rejecting the religious laws of man and doing what God said
to do that got the religious leaders riled up to put Jesus on the cross.
Man spends his entire life trying to prove his worthiness to God instead of taking 2 minutes to read
God's Word and learn he never can. If man could prove himself worthy, Christ's death would not
have been needed. It is amazing that though man considers God perfect, man appears to think God
did make a mistake sending Christ to die for our sins since man already has laws to accomplish this.
We must always push our earthly desires and thoughts aside to desire what Christ desires and know
the thoughts of Christ.