Hebrews 10: 5 – 7 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will O God.’”

I was in one of my cycles of reading through the Bible a few years ago. When I came to the Book of Leviticus that time around, I was really challenged by all the blood and gore of the many different and frequent sacrifices that had to be made. These animal sacrifices were mandated under the covenant that the Lord entered into with the  Israelites while they were under the leadership of Moses. In the process of observing these rituals the law required that nearly everything had to be cleansed by blood, because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (See Hebrews 9:22).

By the time I got to the end of Leviticus Chapter 7, I asked the Lord to help me understand the context of the sacrifices for today. This is the enlightenment that I received from the Holy Spirit:

“The purpose of all these sacrifices is to signify your dedication to me. It is a demonstration of unwavering faith. That is why they had to be repeated. It requires your coming to me again and again to pledge your love and obedience. It is to remind you of my own sacrifice for sin. It cost me greatly to redeem you from sin. The ugliness of sin requires a blood sacrifice, nothing else will do.”

I am eternally grateful that these repeated sacrifices are no longer required and that God found a better way. If not, “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26).

It seems such a small thing then that all God requires is that we believe in the Lord Jesus as his Son and obey and worship him continually as Savior and Lord. What grace!!