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The Voluntary Sacrifice of Jesus, July 12
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of
me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my
heart.
Psalm 40:7, 8
.
The children of Israel were anciently commanded to make an offer-
ing for the entire congregation to purify them from ceremonial defile-
ment. This sacrifice was a red heifer and represented the more perfect
offering that should redeem from the pollution of sin. This was an
occasional sacrifice for the purification of all those who had necessarily
or accidentally touched the dead. All who came in contact with death in
any way were considered ceremonially unclean. This was to forcibly
impress the minds of the Hebrews with the fact that death came in con-
sequence of sin and therefore is a representative of sin. The
one
heifer,
the
one
ark, the
one
brazen serpent, impressively point to the
one
great
offering, the sacrifice of Christ.
This heifer was to be red, which was a symbol of blood. It must be
without spot or blemish, and one that had never borne a yoke. Here,
again, Christ was typified. The Son of God came voluntarily to ac-
complish the work of atonement. There was no obligatory yoke upon
Him, for He was independent and above all law. The angels, as God’s
intelligent messengers, were under the yoke of obligation; no personal
sacrifice of theirs could atone for the guilt of fallen man. Christ alone
was free from the claims of the law to undertake the redemption of the
sinful race....
Jesus might have remained at His Father’s right hand, wearing His
kingly crown and royal robes. But He chose to exchange all the riches,
honor, and glory of heaven for the poverty of humanity, and His station
of high command for the horrors of Gethsemane and the humiliation
and agony of Calvary....
The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet, plead elo-
quently for fallen man, whose redemption is purchased at such an infinite
cost. Oh, matchless condescension! Neither time nor events can lessen
the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice.
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