Recently Bry and I have been learning about sacrifices and their purposes and honestly, it has blown my little mind. In a nutshell, sacrifices were used to bring a person near to God. Bc God is holy and other than us, we cannot enter His presence in and of ourselves and survive.

Holiness is dangerous to the unholy.

So, God created a way for His people to enter His presence safely. Through a covering or a substitution – a sacrifice. During the offering the person bringing the sacrifice would lay his (or her) hands on the sacrifice and through this give his identity to the sacrifice. The sacrifice was then killed and burned. And in the smoke rising to heaven it was seen that the giver of the sacrifice was rising to heaven to be in God’s presence in some unique way.

Sacrifices were a way to safely draw near to God and be in His presence.

Now, that was simply the blood of bulls and goats. God designed those sacrifices to work in a specific way, to allow His people to draw near to Him for a short amount of time. Mainly while the sacrifice was occurring in the physical temple. And what a blessing this was! This was a great thing God did for His people.

God so desires to be with His people that He created a way for them to safely enter His presence.

But as good as that was, there is something that’s even better. Let’s look at what Jesus’ sacrifice accomplished. His sacrifice also allows us to draw near to God safely. But, not only are we allowed to draw near to God for a time, we now have so great a covering, so strong a substitution that it allows us to live in the presence of God.

If the sacrifice of bulls and goats was a great thing (and it was) allowing people to enter the presence of God, how much better the blood of the Son that allows us to live in the very presence of God.

There truly is no one like Jesus. There truly is no sacrifice like His. Rejoice, believer, in your Savior and the amazing sacrifice He was and is.