Christology The Objects of the Incarnation Part 2

4. “Ye know that he was manifested to ; and in him is no sin” (). “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 . . . . Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through once for all” (). “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” ().

a. It is God who instituted . Yet all the blood for centuries shed upon Jewish altars never took one sin away. Why, then, was it commanded? It was commanded in order to provide a “” for sins until the blood of Christ would come and “wash” them away. No, animal sacrifices could never take away sin, for the sacrifice must come up to the level of man, for whom it is sacrificed.

b. We agree that a “man must be sacrificed for a man”; animals do not come up to the level of man. Yet one sinful man cannot be offered up as a sacrifice for another sinful man, for if the first sinful man must die, he must die for his own sin.

c. Not only must the sacrifice come up to the , for whom it is offered, but it must come up to the , whom it must satisfy! Jesus, our Lord, fulfilled all! “ in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” ().

The Objects of the Incarnation, Part 2

Gap-fill exercise