Objection: Old Testament Sacrifices Were Not Made Sick Before They Died, but They Still Covered Sins

Jesus’ permanent sacrifice was far better than any temporary Old Testament sacrifice for a number of reasons.  One reason is that He took our sicknesses in His own body.  He allowed God to “make him sick” (see Isaiah 53) so that we would be judicially free from the punishment of sickness.  This put healing on a grace basis rather than on the basis of, “If you keep my commandments, I’ll heal you.”  We don’t have to be “good enough” to get healed today; we just have to place our faith in Jesus, who was “good enough” and handed us His righteousness.  He was made sick with the sicknesses that we deserved so that we could receive healing.

No Old Testament sacrifices did that.  The shedding of innocent blood covered sins (as opposed to washing them away, which is what the blood of Jesus did), but it did not result in healing being available.

So this objection is a true statement – the Old Testament sacrifices were not made sick, and they covered sins.  It is the implication that is wrong – namely that Jesus had to be an example of an Old Testament sacrifice, so therefore He needed to shed blood but not be made sick.  Jesus’ sacrifice was FAR superior to any Old Testament animal sacrifice.  The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin and the perpetual shame in one’s conscience for having committed it, but Jesus’ blood DID take away our sin and provide for the cleansing of our guilty consciences (Hebrews 10:22).

If we took this objection to its logical conclusion, we would next say, “Old Testament sacrifices never made you a new person or gave you power over sin, therefore we should not believe that Jesus’ sacrifice would do these things.”  Do you see the problem now? Jesus’ sacrifice was in a totally different class from the Old Testament animal sacrifices.  Though some Old Testament sacrifices symbolized Jesus, His actual sacrifice bought us far more than animal sacrifices ever could.  To see how much more, see Who You Are and What You Have!