Atonement, Sacrifice and Salvation in the Old Testament

Atonement in the Old Testament:  (top)

It is a common misconception that the means of salvation is different in each of the Testaments: New Testament religion is grace, while Old Testament religion is law. This is simply not the case. Salvation in the Old Testament is by grace as it is in the New Testament:

   Israel's relationship with God and her hope of salvation resulted from God's electing grace:  (top)

• Deuteronomy 7:6: "For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession."
• Isaiah 41:8-9: God said: "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, `You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you"

   God's grace in choosing Israel called for a response of faith and trust shown through obedience, which allowed the Israelites to remain within God's covenantal blessing:  (top)

• Genesis 22:16-18: [After Abraham was prepared to offer his son as a sacrifice to God] "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

   Therefore God expected His people to live in accordance with His holy character:  (top)

• Exodus 19:4-6: [God said:] "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

It appears that this truth was only partially grasped within the Israelite community before and during Jesus' time, as the existence and extent of legalism recorded in the Bible and other sources indicates that a common belief was that observance of the law earned a right standing with God.

Sacrifice in the Old Testament:  (top)

There were several classes of sacrifices within the Old Testament: gift offerings (to express homage and thanksgiving), burnt offerings (usually on behalf of the community as a whole), and sin and guilt offerings (to deal with unintentional offences against God for which the worshipper sought pardon). Central to the whole sacrificial system was the shedding of blood of a ritually clean substitute, which through trusting in God's grace, brought appropriation of the covenant blessings to the offerer. The need for the shedding of blood also ingrained an understanding of the holiness of God, and the consequences of sin.

The Old Testament clearly recognises that offerings in themselves do not atone for sin, it is only through the grace of God:

• Psalm 51:16-17: "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
• Hosea 6:6: [the voice of God:] "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
• Micah 6:6-8: "With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Salvation in Old Testament Times:  (top)

For believers in the Old Testament period as for believers in the New Testament period, salvation is by the blood of Christ:

• John 8:54-56: "Jesus replied [to the Jews], 'If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.'"
• Romans 3:25-26: "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
• Hebrews 9:15: "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."
• Hebrews 10:11-12: "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God."
• See also Rom 4:1-25.