Jesus Christ, the Fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial System

Tonight I want to walk you back through fifteen hundred years of altars, and I want you to see that every one of them was pointing at one Man. Every lamb, every goat, every bull, every drop of blood on that altar was God saying, “Wait, someone is coming.” And then John the Baptist looked up and said it out loud:

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29, KJV)

The sacrifices were a shadow, not the substance

God gave Israel promises, priests, altars, and blood, but none of it was ever the final answer. The law had “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Hebrews 10:1). A shadow tells you something real is coming, child of God, but you cannot live in a shadow. And the Lord Jesus told us whose shadow it was: “they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39).

Why blood? God told them: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls” (Leviticus 17:11). So the animals died, and their blood was brought before God, again and again, year after year (Leviticus 4; Leviticus 16). But hear the limit the Book puts on it: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). They covered; they could not cleanse. They pointed; they could not finish.

And notice where the water was, and where it wasn’t

Now there was water under the old covenant. The high priest washed himself on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:4, 24). But listen carefully: the washing prepared the priest: it never gave the sacrifice its power. The atonement was in the death of the substitute and the blood brought before God. That is the principle all the way through: “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Not without washing, without blood.

Then Jesus came

Why did the sacrifices keep going, over and over? Because the real one had not come yet. Then Jesus came. He is not one more lamb in the line: He is the Lamb every other lamb was pointing to. God did not finally provide one more animal. He provided His Son.

And He is both the Priest and the sacrifice. He did not walk in with the blood of goats and calves, “but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). Once, not every year. “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). He “is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). What the altar could only picture, Christ accomplished.

Jesus Himself tied His blood to your forgiveness

On the night He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus told His disciples exactly what His death meant. He took the cup and said:

“For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:28, KJV)

Do you see how the whole Book lines up, child of God? Leviticus points to the blood. Isaiah points to the suffering Servant: “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). John the Baptist names Him the Lamb. Jesus says His blood is shed for the remission of sins. And Hebrews says it was done once for all. From Genesis to Revelation, one straight line, and it runs right to the cross.

How do you receive what He finished? Believe on Him

Now here is the question that matters to you tonight: the sacrifice is finished, so how does a sinner receive it? And the Lord Jesus answers the same way every time. “Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). “Every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). And plainest of all: “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47).

Why does that matter? Because the New Testament never takes you away from the finished sacrifice of Christ and sends you to baptismal water to get your cleansing. The blood did the work; faith receives it. Be baptized (gladly, in obedience), but do not put your trust in the water. Put it in the Lamb.

The Spirit brings the life Christ bought

And there is more. Jesus stood up on the last day of the feast and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”, and John tells us, “this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive” (John 7:37–39). Christ secured redemption by His death and resurrection; the Holy Spirit gives that life and moves in to stay in everyone who believes. The Spirit does not replace the cross, child of God: He brings the cross home to your heart.

God’s own record: the life is in His Son

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:11–12, KJV)

That is God’s own testimony. And John tells you why he wrote it: “that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). So where does your assurance rest? Not in a ceremony. Not in water. In the Son of God. He that hath the Son hath life.

So let me bring it home. The altars of the Old Testament were never God’s last word on sin. Bulls and goats died, blood was sprinkled, priests served, and it all had to be done again, because the final sacrifice had not come. Then Jesus came. He is the Lamb of God. He is the propitiation for our sins. His blood was shed for the remission of sins. His sacrifice was once for all, and His one offering has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. The shadow is gone because the Substance has come. Come to Him by faith tonight, and you will have life. Glory to God.

Related Teaching

• Study Outline: The Fulfillment of the Sacrificial System
• The Blood of Christ and Salvation