Metaphors of the Cross Part 2

Sacrifice - The Substitutory Metaphor

 

In the last blog I introduced the general idea of 'metaphors of the cross'; different  ways in which sin had impacted our lives and how, through the cross, Christ addressed those issues. Now we can start to look at each 'metaphor' in more detail starting with Sacrifice.

  

In general terms sacrifice speaks of loss; we speak of the sacrifice parents might make for their children, or the sacrifices an athlete might make to train and compete in a race. We also talk of soldiers who lay down their life by making the 'ultimate sacrifice' and in this sense we come closer to the biblical understanding of sacrifice. Christ suffered and died on the cross in our place, he experiences loss and pain and indeed death for us and as such this is the over-aching concept of the cross, in many way Christ's full work on the cross can be summed up in this one idea of sacrifice:

 

 

"...he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."  [Hebrews 9:26b]

 

 "And walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." [Ephesians 5:2]

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We call this the 'Substitutory Metaphor' because Christ is substituted for us. Just in the same way as a footballer is substituted and leaves the field so another can come on, so Christ takes our place. We are the ones that deserved to be punished, we are the ones who should have been on the cross, we are the ones who deserved to be separated from God, yet Christ is substituted for us, and takes our place.

 

This is a very strong concept that runs all through scripture, so let us start back in Genesis with the story of Abraham and Isaac, here illustrated by the 17th Century French artist Laurent de la Hire.

 

Abraham sacrificing Isaac by Laurent de la Hire

 

Abraham in obedience to God was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, in the picture he has the knife ready, Isaac is bound to the alter but at the last moment God sends an angel to stop Abraham going through with the sacrifice. And in the background you can see the lamb that God provided for Abraham to use instead. Right back in Genesis we have this idea of a lamb as a substitute for a human. The lamb takes Isaac's place and is killed instead of the boy. This sacrifice back in Genesis was not primarily because of the sin of Abraham or Isaac, it was a test of Abraham's obedience, but nevertheless a model or pattern is set for the idea of sacrifice that will grow and finally be fulfilled by Christ.

 

There are many parallels here; if you look closely in the picture you can see the lamb with its head caught in the thorn bush. Does that remind you someone who came as a sacrifice years later and whose head was crowned with thorns? Mt Moriah on which these events took place is the hill outside of Jerusalem - Calvary, where a far more significant sacrifice took place. Also, Isaac is often depicted as a young boy, in fact he was a young man in his thirties when this event took place. The point here is that he was willing to be sacrificed, if he had not been prepared to go through with this he could easily have overpowered his elderly father, however he went willingly, just as later Christ would go willingly to the cross.

 

 

"Father if you are willing remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but yours be done."  [Luke 22:42]

 

 

These are all a fore-shadowing of the greater sacrifice that was to come.

 

In Exodus Chapter twelve the people of Israel are told to sacrifice a Passover lamb and sprinkle the blood on their doorposts. The night the Lord struck down the first born of each family - the tenth and final plague that was visited on the Egyptians because of their enslavement of God's people, but the Spirit of God passed over those houses that had the sprinkled blood. Again the lamb was a substitutory sacrifice for the people, it died instead of them, and years later when Christ sacrificed himself; there would be another outpouring of blood that enabled God's judgement to pass by.

 Sin, the wrongs things we do, the rebellion to God's laws that we engage in, is something that taints and sullies us. There is a penalty that needs to be paid for that sin, and throughout the Old Testament we see that the way that sin was dealt with was by sacrifice either a lamb or a bull or some other animal and the rules for that are outlined at the beginning of Leviticus. This culminated each year on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest would take two goats one to be the 'Lord's Goat' and this was sacrifice for the sins of the people and the blood sprinkled on the alter. The other was the 'Azazel' or scapegoat would have hands laid on it to symbolise the sins being transferred from the people to the animal and then it was driven out into the wilderness - the sins were taken away.

 

 

"He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." [Leviticus 1:4]

 

The sacrifice was not abstract or distant from the one making the sacrifice, by placing hands on the animal there was a clear identification with it, the sins of one are transferred to another. We can see a parallel with Christ in that he comes as a man, identifying with us rather than just and distant, divorced or abstract sacrifice.

 

St John the Baptist bears witness to Christ
by Annibale Carracchi

 

And so when we get to the New Testament and John the Baptist sees Jesus and cries;

 

 "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world"  [John 1:29]

 

As shown here by the 16th Century Italian painter Annibale Carracchi. It was a very poignant phase, it was prophetic, here was one who would be a sacrificial lamb for us, who would identify with us and die in our place for our sins.

 

We should also stress that Christ takes our place not so much in regard to a physical punishment, but a spiritual one. We can so easily focus on the gruesome physical aspects of the crucifixion; the pain the beatings, the humiliation, but the spiritual suffering of separation from God was, for Christ, far more extreme.

 

 

"My God my God, why have you forsaken me"  [Mathew 27:46]

 

The punishment for our sins was never crucifixion, but separation from God and for the first, and only time, in all of eternity the harmony of the Trinity was broken as God the first person of the Trinity was separated from Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. Our sins were upon his and the barrier between us and God became a barrier between God and Jesus. God's curse was upon him, a curse that should have be borne by us, yet Christ took our place and was sacrificed for us.

 

So if we were to sum up sacrifice as an idea, as one colour in the spectrum of the atonement that we have this:

 

  

How does sin presented?	Our sin leaves us deserving of punishment from God
How does Christ address sin?	Christ takes our place and takes our punishment on himself
What previous examples are there?	Abraham & Isaac Moses and the Passover The teaching in Leviticus
What key verses express this idea?	John 1:29 Hebrews 9:28 Ephesians 5:2
What objections are there?	If we can forgive rather than demanding punishment, why can't God?

 

With regards to this objection the whole idea of killing and of blood is less acceptable these days than it was in the past. Years ago hymns would contain such lines as;

 

"There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilt stains"

 

Probably not the most popular hymn these days and people do object to this fixation on blood and death that sacrifice brings to the fore. God however is a just God and whilst we can very easily ignore certain crimes, God as a perfectly just God cannot. Some once said if we have difficulties in this area it is because we have not fully grasped the absolute holiness and righteousness of God - but that is a whole different subject!

 

An animated explanation of

sacrifice and atonement

 

 

 

Next time we will look at Redemption - the Captivity Metaphor of the cross