4. The Sacrifice on the Altar.
MODERN infidelity may well wish to blot out the book of Genesis from the Holy Scriptures, for by so doing the earliest revealed testimonies to the sacrifice on the altar would be removed. Thus also the enemy would be able to drive into silence the witness of Abel’s faith, by which “he being dead yet speaketh. (Heb. 11:44By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (Hebrews 11:4).) Further, “the blood,” “that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (12:24), would lose the witness accorded to its saving character by the contrasted cry for vengeance, which that of the first martyr lifted up to heaven. The blood of Jesus speaks peace for guilty sinners on earth, the blood of Abel called to heaven for judgment on the murderer Cain.
Almost the earliest testimony of Genesis directs us to the atoning sacrifice of Christ while warning us against approaching God as sinners save in God’s appointed way. “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,”―for Abel brought the slain lamb to God, ―while “Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.” Of the ground God had said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” hence Cain’s offering was the result of the cultivation of the soil cursed by God for Adam’s sin! A tribute to God of what human skill could affect with that which He had laid under the sentence of judgment! Consequently, a daring impiety and a deliberate denial of man’s sin, witnesses to by the earth laid under the divine curse because of human disobedience.
Abel “brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof,” and he did so “by faith.” Faith is not human imagination, but obedience to divine revelation. God had clothed Adam and Eve “with coats of skins,’ covering their nakedness with the beauty and the glory of creatures that had suffered death. Though not told in so many words how God first instituted the altar for man’s benefit, and how He first commanded the sacrifice upon it, we are told that,” by faith Abel offered unto God,” and hence we know, that he obeyed the definite word of God. Our faith, let us remember, relates to what God is, and what He says. God communicates His mind to us by His word; we believe Him by being obedient to that word.
Jude, in speaking of “the common salvation,” exhorts believers to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints;” “for,” says he, “there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,” who “speak evil of those things which they know not.” “Woe! unto them,” he continues, “for they have gone in the way of Cain.” (vv. 3-11)
These wolves in sheep’s clothing know not the preciousness of the atoning blood of Christ. They do not believe God’s testimony relating to the sacrifice of God’s Lamb, and Cain-like, in defiance of the sacrifice on the altar, they bring to Him offerings of their own pleasure―fruits of their own evil natures, which evil nature is forever laid under condemnation by the death of Christ. Such religion is the way of Cain―it is hateful to God. To these men God’s revelation as to the atonement of Christ is distasteful; both the religious magazine and the pulpit, witness to “their hard speeches” which they “have uttered against Him.” There can be no union between the religions of Cain and Abel―between that of offering unto God according to our own notions, and that of faith and obedience to His word; and in the end the way of Cain will be the persecution of the children of faith and absolute departure from God. The real spirit of modern infidelity and its source are made manifest by its hatred against the witness of the Scriptures to the sacrifice on the altar, and to this all Christians should be alive, and, in loyalty to God, they should shun every pulpit and periodical that makes light of the atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The witness of blood runs through all the Bible. Redemption through the slain sacrifice on the altar is taught alike in Genesis and Revelation, and the suffering confessors of the truth on earth sing in heaven the praises of the blood of Jesus. By the blood of the lamb. Israel was delivered from Egypt’s slavery; by the sacrifice on the altar whosoever would do so of the people of Israel, could approach God and be at rest before Him; by the sacrificial blood brought into the Holiest of All, and sprinkled upon and before the mercy-seat, the high priest of Israel effected atonement for the sins of the whole nation. Further, after the land of promise had been reached and the Temple was built, the king and all the people sacrificed sheep and oxen before the ark, which was then brought to its place in the house of God. Its wanderings over rest being attained, its staves were drawn out and the temple was filled with praise and glory On this occasion, as the song of the trumpeters and singers arose as one, to make one sound in praising and thanking Jehovah, “the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Jehovah; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of God.” (2 Chron. 5:13,1413It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; 14So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. (2 Chronicles 5:13‑14).) The chain from the altar to the glory is present to the eye of faith in the Old Testament, as it is in the New.
Each gospel tells us of the cross of Jesus, and by so doing, bears witness to the Old Testament truths of the sacrifice on the altar “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” May we devoutly attend the Lord’s teaching, as “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:26, 2726Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:26‑27).)
The epistle which so marvelously teaches the gospel of God, addresses the sinner in his sins to Jesus Christ, as a mercy seat on high, set forth by God through faith in the sacrificial blood, to declare Divine righteousness, both in forgiving the sins that were committed before Christ’s death, by believer of olden days, and in justifying every sinner who believes in Jesus in our own times. (Rom. 3:24-2624Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:24‑26).) God now reveals His righteousness through the blood, which His Son, now exalted in heaven, shed on earth for guilty sinners. The blood of the sacrifice on the, altar and Jesus who shed it, a mercy seat in the presence of God in heaven, are he clear shining of the light of the New Testament through the figures of the Old.
Do we ponder over the Epistle to the Hebrews, with what glory are the types of Leviticus resplendent there! In our Ritualistic day this epistle should be largely studied by the devout Christian, who would discover more and more preciousness in the blood of Christ, and who by such discovery would remove further and further from the dishonor done to Christ’s sacrifice by Romish doctrine. Do we view the varied “burnt offerings and offerings for sin” (Heb. 10:88Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; (Hebrews 10:8)) under the law, all their typical meaning is concentrated as it were, in these words, “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (ver. 10.) They all point to the sacrifice of Christ, while their very inherent weaknesses address us by contrast, to the perfections of His one offering of Himself.
We open the last book of the Bible; we see a door opened in heaven, and we enter in to hear the songs of glory and to behold the radiant multitudes on high. The theme of praise is God and the Lamb; the keynote to the songs is Jesus’ love and His redeeming blood, wherewith He has loosed His people from their sins. These glimpses into the eternity of bliss fill the heart with anticipation of the glory that follows the sacrifice on the altar, and the fruits of the atonement of our Lord. The curse is removed, sorrow and sighing have fled away, death is no more, and the throne of God and the Lamb prevail in absolute peace and perfect joy forever.
As we consider these glad scenes let us once more look around and observe what is developing in Christendom. Infidelity is pouring scorn upon the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Ritualism is substituting for the sacrifice on the altar its bloodless sacrifice of the mass.
Reader, the word of God is everlasting, and He has said of the dwelling-place of His people in glory, “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:2727And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Revelation 21:27).)