Under the Old Law, the priest continuously offered animal sacrifices for Himself and for the people. Even so, these sacrifices did not enable true redemption. What then did these sacrifices accomplish? They pointed men toward a coming, BETTER sacrifice, God's only begotten son.

Only two classes -- human and animal -- of God's creation have blood. Under the Old Covenant, God forbade the eating of blood because blood was the atonement for man's soul. " 'And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.' Therefore I said to the children of Israel, 'No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood.' " {Leviticus 17:10-12} Jesus became a man so He could die as a man, thereby offering His blood as the perfect sacrifice (atonement) for the sins of the world.

Under the Old Law, animals' lives were taken in order to make atonement. Jesus willingly gave his life on the cross to atone for our sins. Animal sacrifices cleansed the outward man and purified the flesh. Christ's sacrifice cleanses man's conscience, his inward being. Animals have no moral nature, but those offered had to be physically spotless. Jesus was a sinless, perfect, human sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Jesus' cruel death on Calvary's cross could not have been avoided. Sin made it necessary. Sin came into the world in the beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God (Genesis 3:1-6). The Hebrew writer gives some other reasons.

"And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives." {Hebrews 9:15-17} Before a man's will (testament) can be put into force, the man must die. Before Christ's law could come into force, Christ had to die.

The Old Covenant was ratified with the blood of animals. "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, 'All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.' And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.' " {Exodus 24:4-8} Christ's covenant was also sealed with blood. "And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." {Hebrews 9:22,23} Both covenants were sealed and ratified by blood. Did Christ's blood have any effect on the sins committed under the first covenant?

Jesus death on the cross redeemed the sins committed under that Old Covenant, as well as those committed under the New Covenant. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." {Romans 3:24-26}

In what way was Jesus a BETTER sacrifice? Under the Old Law, once each year, the High Priest took a blood sacrifice into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for the people. This foreshadowed what our High Priest, Jesus Christ, would do with His blood sacrifice. "Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another -- He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." {Hebrews 9:23-26} Jesus went into God's very presence to offer His blood for man's redemption. Jesus offered His blood sacrifice only ONCE, not over and over as did the priests under the Old Law. The Old Testament priest also sacrificed on his own behalf, but Jesus offered His blood for man's sins -- not His own!

The Old Law foreshadowed what would come later. Animal sacrifices were limited in value, because they could not permanently remove the stain of sin. "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins." {Hebrews 10:1-4} In obedience to His Father's will, Jesus shed His blood on the cross.

The fulfilling of God's eternal plan for man's forgiveness eliminated the need for the Mosaical system of animal sacrifices. We no longer need the old system? If so, which part might we need? God intended to take that system out of the way. "Then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." {Hebrews 9:9,10} He perfected forever those who were sanctified and halted the Old Law's system of animal offerings.

If the animal sacrifices under the Old Law could not take away sin, why did God require them? He required obedience to that law's demands. When Jesus died on the cross, God accepted every one of those sacrifices. The blood from Calvary flowed backward to cover what was behind and forward to cover what was to come. Regardless of the dispensation under which they lived, all the saved will be saved because Christ shed His blood, and because they obeyed God's law. What say ye -- was Christ a BETTER sacrifice?