God Turns the Sacrificial System Upside Down

In the ancient world, religious practice centered on ritual sacrifice.  The central purpose of the sacrificial system was to effect reconciliation between the believer and the god in whom they believed when the believer had engaged in some act or omission that violated the relationship between them.  In this system, the believer is the active participant and the god the passive participant; the believer is presenting their offering to god in the hope that god would accept their offering and thereby reconcile with the believer.

In the resurrection of Christ, God turned the sacrificial system upside down.  The image of Jesus as the Lamb of God was deeply evocative for the disciples and other earliest followers of Jesus: lambs without blemish were sacrificed to bring about reconciliation between God and Israel when Israel had violated their covenant relationship with God.  But now it is God who offers up a sacrifice, Jesus, to the world, to bring about the redemption of the world and the reconciliation of the world with God.  In Jesus, God does what God ultimately did not demand of Abraham in the story of Abraham and his son Isaac.

Before we have the capacity to know God, or even speak God's name, God has already begun a good work in us in the hope that we will turn to God and enter into relationship with Him.  And when we sin, God remains willing to forgive and let the reconciliation effected in Christ be manifest in His relationship with us.