Our New Altar

Have you ever thought about the purpose of an altar? It is a sacred place for sacrifices and gifts offered up to God, and the word Altar just means “high.” Therefore, it was upon these authorized “high” places where people under Mosaic law would offer up animal sacrifices as a gift to God. But animal sacrifices went away because Jesus’ sacrifice was greater, and He was ushering a new time when our offering to God would have less to do with our guilt, and more to do with serving God through our love for others. Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

But it took Jesus dying. Hebrews 9:28, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” He didn’t need to continue to offer Himself, because He was perfect! (Hebrews 10:1-18) But His sacrifice showed us a purer picture of God’s love, and that helps us know how to walk in a similar way. Ephesians 5:2, “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

It’s interesting to see how God used death as a way to help us show love towards one another. Jesus told His followers in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”

It’s clear throughout scriptures that sacrifices had a deeper meaning than just killing an animal and cooking it (read Malachi 1:6-13). The sin (moral infractions) and trespass (contractual breech) offerings were intended to be eaten by the family and friends of the one offering the gift to God. (Leviticus 6-7). So that, just as Jesus’ death brought life to our lives, the animal’s death brings fellowship to those participating in that sacrifice.

Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is another thing that sets His sacrifice apart from the previous animal sacrifices – death wouldn’t stop Him! In the animal sacrifices, once it was totally eaten, it was finished. But Jesus is the lamb that never dies; therefore we never cease to feast on His grace and mercy. He served us so that we could better know how to serve each other forever. Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

His resurrection conquered sin and death once for all, and therefore those who trust in Christ (Matthew 7:21, Romans 5:1-5, John 14:15) will also share in His power over the grave. Remember the words of Paul to the Romans in Romans 12:1-2 and consider them instructions for our sacrifices today. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”