Ancient Israel’s system of sacrifices was a very different way to worship. There were altars and priests and doorways and sacrifices. And there was atonement – the fact that when the sacrificial procedures were followed properly, God provided a covering of protection for His people, saving them from His wrath over their sin and also from their enemies in the world. This atonement took place once a year and was an effective, although temporary, covering of their sins until Christ’s death finally provided forgiveness for them.
The covering provided by the Day of Atonement also made available certain privileges and responsibilities to God’s people, most of them expressed by a number of voluntary sacrifices that could be brought to God. Leviticus 6 describes one of them, the whole burnt sacrifice:
8 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
9 Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.
…
12 And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.
13 A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.
The whole sacrifice was placed on the altar; not part of it, but all of it. And the fire of the altar was kept stoked so that the sacrifice burned up completely, leaving nothing but ashes.
So how did it feel to bring this offering? What was it like to bring an offering to God that signified a willingness to die for God, that signified that one’s life was completely in God’s hands? I can’t imagine anyone doing that without feeling at least three things:
- Awe over God’s greatness and the privilege of being part of His plan. This God allows and even desires people to interact with Him.
- Humility at the recognition that one’s life in God’s hands, with all of the safety and all of the risk that implies.
- Deep desire to give one’s self completely to God.
This sacrifice must have been an act of love for God. It must have caused feelings of great personal loss as well as great personal satisfaction to see one’s heart’s desires displayed through the symbolic giving of everything to God. Folks who brought this sacrifice thoughtfully and with understanding certainly must have felt driven to give themselves wholly to God.
Now consider the New Testament equivalent of the whole burnt sacrifice:
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
As a part of what He has done on the cross, Jesus has made available to every believer the privilege and responsibility of bringing ourselves, all of us, body and mind, to God as a sacrifice. He makes this possible while we are yet living – we don’t have to wait for heaven. He makes it possible for us to present ourselves to Him in a holy fashion. He makes us acceptable to God, not someday in heaven, but right now in this life. He gives us power to be different and not conformed to the world. He gives us the privilege of a new and changed mind. He empowers us to do our reasonable service, bringing ourselves as sacrifices to God, and proving though a new way of living that His will is good and acceptable. He allows us to bring to God that which is His, and that which is ours, because we recognize that it is His, too.
The whole burnt offering is a sacrifice of consecration and service that acknowledges God’s right to consume all of the worshiper if He wants to. And your reasonable service does the same thing. Have you brought yourself, body and mind, to God as an offering? Has Jesus’ work on the cross reached beyond your sins and engulfed everything that you are and everything that you have? It’s your responsibility and your privilege to place your all on the altar.
Irv Cobb
