Why Did The Israelites Have To Make Sacrifices To Atone For Sins?

[rizz_loves_jesus]

Was it just because God said so, or do we know the reason behind it?

[Brother Adam]

I am writing this without by biblical commentaries or notes, so I would be happy if another scholar chimed in. The answer is a long one, and in fact Scott Hahn's texts on Salvation History help explain the Mosaic Law. I recommend a Father Who Keeps His Promises. There is also Singing in the Reign by Michael Barber and The Lord of History by Danielou.

As you are familiar with God established his relationship with us in the Garden of Eden when he created us. God made us for communion with God. Adam and Eve were perfect in the garden of Eden. John Paul II often called us to 'become what we are meant to be". Perfection is being all you are suppose to be before God. Adam and Eve were living their vocation fully and perfectly before the fall. With that perfection they could exist peacefully and perfectly with God.

God himself cannot be in the presence of a sinful being. His perfect simplicity (utterly unchanging nature) does not allow for it. After the fall and the introduction of original sin we have a broken relationship with God and incur the penalty of death - after all only God holds us in existence and gives us life. Since God is perfect and we have, through our own choice, severed our ability to live with God and have a relationship with him, God establishes a covenant with us through a sacred oath, a family bond.

Our relationship with God is restored and we are brought back to perfection only through God's covenant promise and redemption in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament God established a covenant with Moses (Gen 15,17,22) in which sin was atoned for by placing the penalty for sin on the sacrificial animal as a form of restitution. Actual sin could be atoned for through this method of sacrifice at the temple. However we know from the second reading of the law in Deuteronomy that God hates our sacrifice because our hearts are not with God, instead we remain broken by original sin. At the end of Deuteronomy Moses declares the blessings for keeping the law and the curses for breaking the law with the nation of Israel. The curses far outweigh the blessings and there is a planned obsolescence (failure) built into the law. Moses, in Deut 30:1-6 declares that he knows the Israelites will fail to atone for their sins through the law and sacrifice because at the root they have a sinful heart and a broken relationship with God. There must be more than simply making restitution. These sacrifices can only serve to condemn the sinful man, who no matter how much he offers at the temple, must offer faithfulness to God, rather than sacrifice (Hebrews talks about the Law and Gospel extensively, the Old Testament fathers were saved by faith in God rather than the precepts of the law).

Since this mode of restitution through sacrifice left us broken God eventually sends his Son to fulfill the law through the sacrifice of Himself to atone for the sins of the world. There in through faith do we celebrate the perpetual sacrifice of the New and Everlasting Covenant through Christ in the Mass. He becomes the Lamb of God through which restitution for sin as a matter of justice is rectified and our relationship is not only restored, we become a new creation in baptism (1 Peter 3). Not only is our conscious cleansed, but our very souls are and we are brought into newness of life, and it is up to us to cooperate with that grace. No longer to we sacrifice animals for our sin, but Jesus Himself is our sacrificial lamb. Perfection for the Christian now is to die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us. St. Teresa of Avila expressed the heights of perfection in perfect mystical union where the soul is more divine than human as God so completely lives in us again. Pretty amesome if you ask me.