Ramadan has just finished and Eid al Adha will take place on June 7.  It is called “The Festival of Sacrifice.  It is where a ram or goat is sacrificed and it commemorates the sacrifice that God provided to Abraham instead of sacrificing his son.

Sacrifice is a theme throughout the Bible.

God sacrificed an animal to cover the shame of Adam and Even in the garden and used the leather to make clothes.

God provided an animal sacrifice for Abraham so that he would not have to sacrifice his son.

Moses instituted sacrifices in the temple to teach that sacrifice, blood and death was needed to cover sins.  And in his time, that sacrifice was an animal in the temple.

But it all pointed to one thing.  But first, there’s the problem:  The blood of animal sacrifice was only temporary.

Our sins can never be resolved through good works and animal sacrifices and the like.  Our sins are too great.  And a just God requires justice.  Our sins must be punished.  But the punishment is death.

Moses, the Law and the Prophets all predicted a Messiah that would come and die on a cross, becoming the ransom for our sins (Deut 18:18, Psalm 22, 53).  Every Jew knew this.

So when Jesus came to the river where John was at, John rightly identified him.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

This is the language of sacrifice.  It is the language of fulfillment of the Torah, the Psalms and the Prophets.  This is the bittersweet reality that Jesus would be the perfect sacrifice, dying for our sins once and for all.

His death is our life.

His death means that for those who put their trust in Christ, we receive his gift of the forgiveness of sins.  He was perfect and took our sins upon himself.