Part 3: The Sacrificial Interpretation of the Cross

A. The Central Apostolic Revelation
I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat
it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God…
18 I tell you I will not drink again of the
fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes… 20 This cup is the new covenant in my blood,
which is poured out for you [“for the forgiveness of sins,” Mt. 26:28]. (NIV Lk. 22:15-20)
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in
which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to
you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to
Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one
time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to
James, then to all the apostles [cf. Acts 1:3]. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared
also to me [cf. Acts 9:3-6]. (ESV 1 Cor. 15:1-8)
For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s
gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a
revelation of Jesus Christ…
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who
called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him
among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem
to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to
Damascus. (ESV Gal. 1:11-17)
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for
sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be
made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who
are being sanctified. (ESV Heb. 10:10-14)
B. Blood and the Sacrificial System
If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I
will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make
atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (ESV Lev. 17:10-11

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and
the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live
goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and
put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man
appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the
man shall release it in the desert. (NIV Lev. 16:20-22)
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by
God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we
are healed. 6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the
LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open
his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter…
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him
and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his
offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. 11 After the
suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous
servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (NIV Isa. 53:4-11)
C. Sacrificial Assumptions of the Apostolic Witness
And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by
God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that
everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (ESV Acts 10:42-43)
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of
blood there is no forgiveness of sins…
26 But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of
the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die
once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of
many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting
for him. (ESV Heb. 9:22-28)
“How foolish you are, and how
slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! 26
Did not the Christ have to suffer
these things and then enter his
glory?”
27 And beginning with
Moses and all the Prophets, he
explained to them what was
said in all the Scriptures
concerning himself. (NIV Luke
24:25-27)

A. Attaining the Jewish Eschatological Prize
What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it,
a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not
attained it.
32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They
stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” … 10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for
the Israelites is that they may be saved.
2
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for
God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3
Since they did not know the righteousness that
comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
4
Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (NIV
Rom. 9:30-10:4)
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially
unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
14 How much more, then, will the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our
consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 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. (NIV Heb. 9:13-15)
“What is it, after all, that marks the difference between Christians and Jews? … Jews believe in
the eventual fulfillment of an elusive dream of a perfect world. Christians believe that the world
has already been saved by the crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus. The difference
between the belief in future redemption and realized redemption is the chasm that separates
Jewish from Christian thinking.” (David S. Ariel, What Do Jews Believe? The Spiritual
Foundations of Judaism [Schocken, 1995], 232)
B. Reconciliation by Blood
God was pleased to
have all his fullness
dwell in him, 20 and
through him to
reconcile to himself all
things, whether things
on earth or things in
heaven, by making
peace through his blood,
shed on the cross.
21
Once you were
alienated from God and
were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body
through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (NIV
Col. 1:19-22)
C. Propitiation by Blood
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law
and the Prophets bear witness to it- 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for
all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25
whom God put forward as a propitiation [“sacrifice of atonement,” NIV/NRSV; “sacrifice for
sin,” NLT)] by his blood, to be received by faith. (ESV Rom. 3:21-25)
D. Justification by Blood
Therefore, since we
have been justified
through faith, we
have peace with God
through our Lord
Jesus Christ, 2
through whom we
have gained access
by faith into this
grace in which we
now stand. And we
rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God… 6
You see, at just the
right time, when we
were still powerless,
Christ died for the ungodly.
7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good
man someone might possibly dare to die. 8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9
Since we have now been justified by his blood,
how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (NIV Rom. 5:1-9)
E. Redemption by Blood
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In
love 5
he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his
pleasure and will–
6
to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One
he loves. 7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance
with the riches of God’s grace 8
that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (NIV Eph. 1:4-8)

A. Presumption of the Sacrifice: Intentional Sin
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will
consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the
evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved
by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which
he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? (ESV Heb. 10:26-29)
Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why
am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8
Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying
and as some claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is
deserved. (NIV Rom. 3:7-8)
B. Rejection of the Sacrifice: Self-Righteousness
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus
told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like
other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and
give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to
heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 I tell you that this man,
rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (NIV Lk. 18:9-14)
For before certain men came
from James, he was eating with
the Gentiles; but when they
came he drew back and
separated himself, fearing the
circumcision party [cf. Acts 11:2;
Gal. 2:12; Eph. 2:11; Col. 4:11;
Tit. 1:10]. 13 And the rest of the
Jews acted hypocritically along
with him, so that even Barnabas
was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that their
conduct was not in step with the
truth of the gospel, I said to
Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you
force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet
we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we
also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the
law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I
rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the
law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the
law, then Christ died for no purpose. (ESV Gal. 2:12-21)
Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3
For we
are the real circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no
confidence in the flesh4
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else
thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5
circumcised on the eighth day, of the
people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6
as to
zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. 7
But whatever gain I
had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things
and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9
and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith10 that I may know him and the power of his
resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means
possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am
already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies
behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in
anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we
have attained. 17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to
the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with
tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly
[“appetite,” NASB/NLT; cf. Rom. 16:18], and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly
things. (ESV Phil. 3:2-19)
C. The Cross and Humility
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the
world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and
the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
30 It is
because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our
righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in
the Lord.” (NIV 1 Cor. 1:27-31)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5
even when we
were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved… 8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9
not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV Eph. 2:4-9)