God’s Idea Of Sacrifice

A living sacrifice of our lives.

This is the fourth post from Chapter 4 of Friends With God: Living The Life Of Jesus In Us.

In the first post we saw that God expects us to be a living sacrifice, as Jesus was our example of living that we should follow. This was expressed by Jesus telling us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and is symbolized by the Passover Lamb and the Bread and Wine, which were discussed in the second post and third post in this series.

Not God’s Idea Of Sacrifice

The life that Jesus led was a living sacrifice. (Rom 12:1-2) His sacrifice included divesting himself of his position in heaven and coming down to earth as a human being, in order to provide for us a physical example of how to live in this world. (John 1:1-5)

The idea of anyone giving an animal sacrifice in a religious ceremony today is very strange to our modern way of thinking and talking, let alone eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ as a sacrifice. Yet, Jesus’ life is represented by the Passover lamb:

For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us (1Cor 5:7)

When thinking about sacrifices to gods, we may think of the Aztecs, who were infamous for killing people in sacrifice. Similarly, the pagan worshipers of Molech in the land of Canaan (which later became the land of Israel) sacrificed their own children by throwing them alive into a roaring fire! (Deut 12:29-31)

For this reason God removed the Canaanites from the land and gave it to the nation of Israel. (1Kings 21:26) Such evil practices should never be confused with the sacrifices that God required in the Old Testament. Anyone found doing such vile human sacrifices was to be executed. (Lev 18:21, 20:1-5, Jer 32:35)

Unfortunately, when the Israelites turned away from God, they were so foolish that they also worshiped Molech, and even sacrificed their children in the fire! For this and other reasons they, too, were cast out of the Land of Israel and sent into captivity:

For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the Lord. They have set their abominations (a pagan idol) in the house (of God) which is called by My name, in order to defile it. (They had an idol to worship Molech in the very Temple of God!) They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart. (Jer 7:30-31)

The history of this evil practice is remembered in the doctrine of Hell, for the word most often translated as Hell in the New Testament is Gehenna, or Ge-Hinnom, which is Hebrew for valley of the sons of Hinnom. It’s where they built an altar for the high places of Tophet- which means “burning place”.

By the time of Christ, this notorious valley was deliberately used as a place for dumping garbage, where fires were continually maintained to burn the rubbish and destroy it. At the time of Jesus, this ghastly environment, with its horrific history, was a byword in Jerusalem for evil and destruction.

So, Jesus used Gehanna as an illustration of the seriousness of sin, and the ensuing result that would befall a sinner who did not turn from his evil ways:

And if your hand offends you, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than to have two hands to go into hell (Gehenna), into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43-44)

Here Christ is referring to the fact that dead bodies of particularly despised criminals were thrown into the burning pits in Gehenna until they were consumed. Worms would also grow on any unburnt refuse and would have perpetual food. So, these worms, figuratively speaking, would also not die until their job of eating the garbage was completed. Either that or Jesus was talking about immortal worms?!

In the same way Jude spoke of the “eternal fires” that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah:

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, …are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)

That ‘eternal fire’ is not still burning. It is ‘eternal’, meaning that nothing could put it out until it had done the job of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. These are poetic ways of talking about a fire that destroys what is put into it, and was to do the job without being able to be stopped by anything.

Hell Is Thrown Into The Lake Of Fire!

Jesus is not suggesting that there is a spiritual place of permanent torment for the dead, but is metaphorically referring to the real physical fate of the carcasses of some evil people. Their fate is comparable to the lot of those who do not take sin seriously. Jesus was showing how serious sin is, by comparing the final outcome of sin to being killed and thrown into the despised valley of the sons of Hinnom.

If you realized your sinful way of life would get you thrown into a fire like Gehenna, then perhaps you would be willing to cut off your hand- if that is what was causing you to sin?

Obviously, however no part of our body causes us to sin, except perhaps our mind- but being willing to cut off your own head may have been an analogy just too improbable, even for Jesus to employ!

It’s quite obvious that burning in Hell forever is not a doctrine of the Bible, but was merely a metaphor about the rubbish tip in the valley of Gehenna, some 2,000 years ago.

Jesus used the metaphor of Hell again, when he spoke about the fate of our soul, (as discussed in this previous post): … fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt 10:28) Hell, if it exists at all, is a place used by God to destroy both the soul and the body; it’s not a place of torment for immortal souls, nor a place of enjoyment for immortal worms for that matter!

We do not have an immortal soul. As we have seen in Chapter 1, the scriptures are unequivocal; only God is immortal. (1Tim 6:16) Without an immortal soul then nobody could suffer in a burning hell forever. There is nothing immortal in us. Whenever scripture talks about people being thrown into Hell fire, it is implying that they will be destroyed forever.

Even Hell is thrown into the Lake of Fire, so it won’t exist forever:

Then Death and Hell (Hades) were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:14-15)

So all wicked people, and Hell itself, are destroyed in the Lake of Fire.

Satan and all those who rebel against God will be thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:10-15, 21:8) This is most probably the Hell that Jesus was referring to, which can destroy both the body and soul within it. (Matt 10:28)

Fire is a metaphor for destruction, and eternal fire is complete and irrevocable destruction of those who have not chosen to live the way of eternal life. As we are mortal, we cannot inherit eternal life unless we are changed to become the Children of God:  

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1Cor 15:53)

The Sleep Of Death

What then happens after we die? In scripture, death is most often seen as a type of sleep, from which people would be awoken at the time of the resurrection. (Deut 31:16, 2Sam 7:12, Job 7:21, Psalm 13:3, Dan 12:2, John 11:11-13, Acts 13:36, 1Cor 15:51, John 5:25, 11:25, Acts 24:15, 1Cor 15:12-42, Heb 6:2, Rev 20:5-6)

There is no mention of people being woken from being in a burning hell- it would certainly not be a very pleasant sleep if that were the case! They are woken from the grave, or the sea, or wherever they died.

We should not fear death, as it is common to all mortal beings. And nobody is suffering in death now, nor will they be in the future. They will either be immortal, having accepted God’s way of life, or non-existent having rejected God’s way of life, and having been thrown into the Lake of Fire.

There is no indication in the scriptures that anybody is to suffer the supposed torments of Hell after death, except perhaps Satan. (Rev 20:10) This doctrine of burning in hell is therefore most probably a Satanic doctrine, added to worry mankind. (1Tim 4:1) Yet it is the fate of Satan himself, not of man.

Eating A Family Meal With God

The animal sacrifices which God required of Israel in order to relate with Him, could not be further from the vile events that happened in the valley of the sons of Hinnom.

God’s sacrifices at his festivals were generally for those giving the sacrifices to eat and rejoice before him. It was to enable them to celebrate the blessings provided by God and to honour God for doing so.

When Israel made the Old Covenant with God, there was a covenant meal with seventy elders of Israel in the presence of God. (Exo 24:9-11) This covenant meal was indicative of God’s having a personal relationship with all Israel, as represented by these elders.

Animal sacrifices were very important at the times of God’s annual festivals, when there were to be many sacrifices to provide much of the food to rejoice at the festivals. (Lev 23:1-44) Most (though not all) sacrifices offered to God were actually eaten by the person offering the sacrifice and his family, while a portion was given to the priest and his family to also eat and rejoice before God. (Num 18:6-19, Lev 6:17-18, Deut 12:5-18)

To give a sacrificial offering to God, was a time of great feasting and happiness for all concerned. The sacrifice was first presented to God at the Temple, so that they could then symbolically eat their meal in the presence of God. (Exo 18:12, 24:9-11, Deut 12:5-18, 14:23-26, 15:20, 27:7)

As discussed in the previous post, Passover recalls the time Israel was freed from Egypt by ten mighty plagues from God. In the New Testament the Passover lamb pictures Christ. (John 1:29) The metaphor of Jesus being the animal sacrifice of the Passover lamb, was therefore clearly something that people were meant to partake of in a spirit of rejoicing, feasting and remembering God’s deliverance.

We are delivered from sin by partaking of the Lamb of God, just as Israel was delivered from physical Egypt if they partook of the physical Passover lamb.

The image of drinking his blood and eating his flesh as a sacrifice, is not meant to be terrifying. It’s just another simple analogy, not to be taken literally.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Church teaches that the ‘sacrament of Holy Communion literally turns into the blood and body of Christ’. Such outrageous nonsense is another example of literalism gone to a ridiculous extreme, and demonstrates their total ignorance of the meaning of these symbols, and subsequently the meaning of the sacrifice of Christ.

Having an animal sacrifice at the Temple was most often a time of celebration and the sharing of a meal with God and with one’s family and friends. This is God’s idea of sacrifice. It’s meant to represent Jesus as our living sacrifice, as we partake of his life in us, as discussed in this previous post.

The idea of giving a sacrifice was to produce great joy and happiness in our lives. It is the same today, when giving ourselves as living sacrifices.

Being a living sacrifice shows how we rejoice with God in our relationship with him, as we share his righteousness by living a life of love for God, and love for other people.

In the next post in this series we will examine the idea of drinking blood, why it was forbidden in the Old Testament, and its spiritual significance when Jesus said to “eat my flesh and drink my blood”.