Peace,
(Omega) please correct me if i get something wrong:
when God laid down the Mosiac Laws for the Israelites, he set up a simple method of repentence. a sacrifice was to be made...preferably in the likeness of an animal; goat, sheep etc. however other methods were developed, it was widely believed that atonement was best achieved thru blood. reason for the animal sacrifice being the preferred choice was because animals such as sheep and goat were the main source of food and they held great importance to the people, so by offering something that was of benefit to them it showed devotion and sincere repentence to God. it was not the act of shedding blood that pleased him, it was the act of sacrificing something they owned and prized in his name.
over time...the Israelites began to develope that attitude that: "we can do whatever we want because if we screw up we can just make a sacrfice and be okay with God". it was a true in the sense that by making a sacrifice you would have u'r sins atoned, but it was wrong in the sense to think that he would continue accept repentence for the same sins over and over. their sacrifices became meaningless to him...because there is two sides to repentence. 1) the act of repenting and 2) making an effort to not commit the same sins. anyone can simply say their sorry. they were abusing the Laws and they continued to do so.
God was not pleased with man...but more so, he wanted them to return to him in heaven, which wasn't possible if they were constantly sinning. God set aside a servant in the name of Jesus the Christ(peace and blessings be upon him). this Messiah was to bear the sins of man, by becoming a sacrifice himself. he would be the equivalent of the animal sacrifice but only it was far greater than an animal sacrifice and this one applied to all man as opposed to a single person.
how am i so far?
my question is who is doing the sacrificing? i mean, if i miss a movie i want to see so i can help my brother with his homework...i am making the sacrifice. i am sacrificing what i want for something else. how does this apply to the Atonment on the Cross?
if i accept the Atonement, what is left for me to do?
peace.