Jesus Christ, The Supreme Sacrifice

Brian Reid

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781635252057
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Bibles

This book contains a wealth of background information that will help you deepen your understanding and appreciation of all that Christ did on behalf of His people by His sacrificial death on the cross. It will take you through the Old and New Testament with an in-depth detail, step-by-step procedure of the old covenant worship and sacrificial system prescribed by God and its rich cultural significance. Some of the topic are the following: the ritual of the sacrifices; daily, weekly, and monthly sacrifices; the feast of Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, and others.Also how offerings and sacrifices differed from each other, understanding the role of the priest in the sacrificial offerings and worship of God, understanding why God required the bloody killing of sacrificial animals.This book provide a unique insight of the limitation of each one the those blood sacrifice, individually and collective in the bible, then will show the supremacy Jesus sacrificial death, which fulfill every one of these sacrifice to the minute detail. We will see in the book among many other things how the death of Jesus the Christ provide what the Levitical could not provide for us. Some of the benefits discuss in the book is which is made available, not only to the Jews, but to all mankind are eternal life/everlasting life, forgiven and washed of our sins, redemption from the transgression, partaking in a New and Better Covenant, no more need for animal blood.Hebrews 9: 12 states, "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."

Introduction

Jesus Christ is not just a good, moral person as some may say. Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the world, manifested Himself in flesh and offered up Himself once for all men as the supreme sacrifice for mankind. This was far more effective in its outcome than all the Old Testament sacrifices, even if they were all combined together as one big sacrifice because of their individual limitations.

The Bible contains many prophecies, concerning the birth, life, and ministry, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah. All these Messianic prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus Christ, which was impossible to be filled by any one person but the Messiah. Now, Jesus Christ is not just the Messiah of the world, but the One Indivisible God that revealed Himself in human form. This is also called the incarnation of God. The incarnation of God was necessary so that Jesus Christ could die (the flesh or His humanity) on the cross and shed His blood, as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Some may say it was not necessary for this supreme sacrifice because there were so many different sacrifices that were offered up continually by men to God. We will, however, see that those many sacrifices could only fulfill their limited purposes but were not sufficient to take away sin or even purge the conscience.

The Bible says, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure” (Heb. 10:1–6).

Hebrews 10:11–12 states, “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; the phrase “this man” in the text refers to Jesus Christ.”

(Unless otherwise specified, all Scriptures quoted in this thesis are from the King James 1611 Version of the Bible.)

The Bible Prophecies of
Jesus Christ

Someone may ask, what is a prophecy, and why should I care?

The general definition from the dictionary for prophecy are the following:

1. an inspired utterance of a prophet;
2. the function or vocation of a prophet, specifically the inspired declaration of God’s divine will and purpose;
3. a prediction of something to come.

In the New Testament, the word prophecy appears sixteen (16) times while the word prophesying appears three (3) times (altogether, nineteen times).

The biblical meaning of the word prophecy from the Greek propheteia is “the gift of interpreting the will of the God.”

Other important meanings of the word prophecy:

1. It is considered a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God, whether by reproving and admonishing the wicked, or comforting the afflicted, or revealing things hidden; especially by foretelling future events, it is used in the New Testament in reference to the utterance of Old testament prophets.
2. The prediction of events relating to Christ’s kingdom and its speedy triumph, together with the consolations and admonitions pertaining to it, the spirit of prophecy, the divine mind, to which the prophetic faculty is due.
3. The endowment and speech of the Christian teachers called prophets.
4. The gifts and utterances of these prophets, especially of the predictions of the works of which, set apart to teach the gospel, will accomplish for the kingdom of Christ.

The prophecies written in the Bible about events that were to have taken place by now, everyone was fulfilled with 100 percent accuracy. The Old Testament books in the Bible (all of them written between 1450 Bc and 430 Bc) contained hundreds of prophecies about an “Anointed One” (“Messiah” in Hebrew) who would arrive in their future.

We know that David (the author of Psalm 22) lived about 1043–973 Bc and Isaiah lived about 740–680 Bc. Both passages, written far ahead of the time of Christ, are strong proofs that help you believe that the Bible was literally inspired by God.

Prophecies of Jesus’s Birth and Birthplace

Some of the more interesting and surprising statements about the Messiah in the Old Testament are those concerning His lineage. Contrary to what some might claim, there are very specific prophecies about this, each of which Jesus fulfilled.

In reference to the bruising of the serpent’s head in Genesis 3:15, the Messiah will be the offspring (descendant) of the woman.

Provided below are a few examples of specific prophecies:

He is the seed of a woman.

Genesis 3:15 declares, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

He is a descendant of Abraham.

The Messiah will be a descendant of Abraham, through whom everyone on earth will be blessed. Genesis 12:3 declares, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Genesis 26:4 states, “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Read also Genesis 18:18).

He is a descendant of Isaac.

Genesis 17:19 declares, “And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”

Genesis 21:12 declares, “And God said unto Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

He is a descendant of Jacob.

Numbers 24:17 states, “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”

The word sceptre used in the text is taken from the Hebrew word shebet (shay’-bet); from an unused root probably meaning: “to branch off; a scion, that is (literally) a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.) or (figuratively) a clan: KJV—correction, dart, rod, sceptre, staff, tribe.”

(Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.)

From The Online Bible Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon the word sceptre in OT SC 7626 means “shebet—a rod, a staff, a branch, an offshoot, a club, a scepter, a tribe a) a rod, a staff b) a shaft (used of a spear and a dart) c) a club (used of a shepherd’s implement) d) a truncheon, a scepter (a mark of authority) e) a clan, a tribe.”

He is from the Tribe of Judah.

Genesis 49:10 states, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (read also Micah 5:2).

He is to be born of a virgin.

Isaiah 7:14 declares, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

The prophet Isaiah lived in Jerusalem in the eighth century Bc.

The Messiah will be the begotten ...