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Does the blood of Jesus atone for sins?
Animal Sacrifices and the Messiah
According to Asher Norman (26 Reasons why Jews don’t believe in Jesus) animal sacrifices were only permitted during the time when the Tabernacle / Temple stood for unintentional sins. For intentional sins prayer, repentance and charity earn God’s forgiveness. He also says that Leviticus 17.11 is not about the shedding of blood being required to cover sin, but a prohibition on consuming blood. By this method he rejects the teaching that under the New Covenant the blood of Jesus has replaced the blood of animal sacrifices as the covering for sins. He can also justify the present synagogue practice of Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement in which sin is covered by prayer and fasting without sacrifice.
The purpose of sacrifices was to remind people of the seriousness of sin. The consequence and penalty of sin is death (Genesis 3.17-19, Ezekiel 18.4, Romans 6.23). The animal shedding its blood was without sin, but died and was a substitute for the death of the sinner. In the new covenant Jesus the Messiah was without sin and died as a sacrifice for the sin of the world. 1 Corinthians 15.3-4, 2 Corinthians 5.21. If Judaism can show that animal sacrifices were not necessary to cover sin, then there is no need for Jesus to die to cover our sins. This is why Asher Norman and modern rabbis seek to minimise the significance of sacrifices in the Tenach.
1. Intentional / unintentional sins.
Leviticus 4 does speak of unintentional sins. So does Numbers 15.22-31. Nevertheless these remain sins and require the sacrifice with the shedding of blood of an animal to cover them. In context we find that Leviticus 1-7 lists 5 different offerings to the Lord. Burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering and trespass offering. All speak of Messiah.
The sin offering and trespass offering were obligatory. Sin offering involved sin where restitution was not possible. Trespass offering where restitution was possible. Both involved the sacrifice of an animal to make atonement (Lev 4.26, 5.12-13). The trespass offering involved restitution and clearly included intentional sins (Lev 6.1-7).
2. Leviticus 17.11.
Lev 17.11-12 does prohibit consuming blood. However in context of Leviticus 16-17 it is clear that the whole passage speaks of the necessity of blood for atonement. Aaron / High Priest has to offer a bull to make atonement for his own sins and for the sins of his house (16.3-6). He is then to offer two goats, one for the Lord to be sacrificed in the Holy of Holies and one for the scapegoat (l’azazel) to be sent away into the wilderness after the sins of Israel are confessed over it. (16.7-22). The blood of the sacrificed goat is to ‘make atonement in the Holy Place, for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.’ The scapegoat is symbolically to carry away the sins of Israel. Both of these speak of the Messiah who atones for our sins by shedding his blood as a sacrifice and carries them away as we confess and forsake them. Leviticus 17 teaches the sanctity of blood because of this sacrifice which ‘makes atonement for your souls’. Therefore we should not eat / drink blood.
3. Do the Prophets say sacrifices are unnecessary?
Objection. A number of passages in the prophets speak of God being displeased with sacrifices. What God requires is repentance and righteousness. Isaiah 1.10-15, Jeremiah 7.9-10, 21-23, Amos 5.21-26, Micah 6.6-8.
Answer. What the prophets are saying is that God does not accept offering of sacrifices without repentance and forsaking of sin. For a New Testament parallel see 1 Corinthians 11.23-32 – we need to examine ourselves and judge ourselves (i.e. repent and forsake sin) when we remember the Lord’s sacrifice for our sins in the breaking of bread. Would the prophets teach people to abandon a part of the teaching of the Torah without any explanation of why there were doing so? There are frequent references to sacrifices in the historical books (e.g. Joshua 22.26-29, 1 Samuel 1.21, 2.12-17, 3.14, 15.22, 1 Kings 8.62-63, 2 Chronicles 29.20-24, Ezra 6.12-18, Nehemiah 9.32-34). Some are in the context of negative statements about the person sacrificing, but they show that these were an assumed and regular part of the worship of Israel. The Hebrew word for sacrifice (zebach) is the same root as the word for altar (mizbeach) showing that sacrifice was an integral part of worship.
On the other hand, following the sacrifice of Messiah, the animal sacrifices were no longer acceptable to God (Hebrews 10) and ceased after the destruction of the Temple (CE 70) until the present day.
4. Sacrifices were only required while the Temple stood.
Objection. During the time of exile in Babylon the Jews could not offer sacrifices for sins. Ezekiel 18 and 33 which relate to this period say that a wicked man who repents is accepted by God. In Daniel 6 and 9 Daniel prayed to God and confessed the sins of Israel without offering sacrifices and was accepted by God.
Answer. It is true that during the time of exile in Babylon the Jews could not offer sacrifices in the Temple. It is also true that God accepts the wicked man who repents and has faith in His covenant. Daniel and the faithful Jews in exile recognised that the calamity of the destruction of the Temple was the result of the sins of his people. He prayed towards the Temple (6.10) and prayed for its restoration, confessing the sins of Israel. He had faith in the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple (Daniel 9.2, Jeremiah 29.10-14). Sacrifices were restored after the rebuilding of the Tempe and the post exilic books (Ezra, Nehemiah) and prophets (Malachi 1.6-14) contain positive references to the offering of sacrifices. Sacrifices were taking place during the time of Jesus (Matthew 6.23-24). They continued up to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE right up to the moment when the Romans breached the city walls on 17th Tammuz. Then they had to cease because there were no longer any lambs to sacrifice. 3 weeks later on 9th Av the Romans destroyed the Temple and the sacrifices ceased permanently.
Following the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE Judaism faced a crisis. The centre of worship was no longer there and there was no place to offer sacrifices. Unlike in the time of the Babylonian destruction there was no prophetic word of a future restoration. In fact the only direct prophetic word about this calamity came from Daniel prophesying that it would happen after ‘Messiah shall be cut off but not for Himself’ (Daniel 9.26) and Jesus who prophesied a long period of worldwide dispersion and Jerusalem ‘trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.’ (Luke 19.41-44, 21.20-24).
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai founded the Rabbinic academy at Yavneh following this event and taught that sacrifices are not essential for the expiation of sin, and sins can be expiated by good deeds (mitzvoth). Gamaliel II (grandson of Gamaliel mentioned in Acts 5) taught that the Day of Atonement can atone for sins without sacrifices. This was a development of trends in Pharisaic Judaism which existed before the destruction of the Temple. It became the basis of modern Judaism. The condition of Israel being without sacrifice is prophesied in Hosea 3.4-5.
5. Book of Hebrews and sacrifices.
Hebrews was written before the destruction of the Temple and amongst other things deals with the question of whether Jewish believers in Jesus as Messiah should continue to offer sacrifices in the Temple. The writer shows how through Messiah we have entered into the new covenant by which the blood of Jesus covers our sins and replaces the animal sacrifices. To continue to offer the animal sacrifices after this event is to fail to understand that they are now ineffectual and deny the Lord and the blood of the covenant we have been brought into. The writer anticipated the soon coming destruction of the Temple and end of the sacrificial system as Jesus had prophesied (Matthew 23.37-39, Luke 19.41-44, 21.20-24).
Faith in Jesus as Messiah properly understood offers a continuation from the principle of the Torah’s sacrificial system which is absent in all forms of modern Judaism. Under the Old covenant the believer is to acknowledge and repent of sin and have faith in the offering of the appointed sacrifice to cover sin (Leviticus 16-17). Under the new covenant the same principle is at work, but we have a better sacrifice which has been offered once and for all time in Jesus the Messiah. Those who enter into this covenant can know that their sins are forgiven and that their names are written in God’s book of Life for all eternity.
© Tony Pearce, The Bridge, 54, Bridge Lane, London, NW11 0EH.
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