Abraham was counted righteous first because he had faith in God and then proved it by his obedience (Genesis 15:6, Hebrews 11:17-18; see Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6, James 2:14-26). In the Bible, genuine faith is always accompanied by doing God’s commands, though the works themselves are not what saves — it is God who forgives and saves. Merely repenting and doing God’s commands is worthless unless it is accompanied by faith in God (Exodus 14:31, Numbers 14:11, Deut. 9:23, 2 Chron. 20:20, Psalm 78:22-32, John 3:16-21, John 14:11, Romans 4:11, Hebrews 11:6 — this will be important later).
The sacrificial system was meant 1. to be a way to show one’s faith in God (Genesis 4:3-4, Genesis 8:20-21, Genesis 22:13, Genesis 46:1, 2 Samuel 24:24, Psalm 51:17-19) 2. to remember the Passover (where God was going to rain down his wrath on all who did not have the blood of the lamb — Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 9, Deut. 16, 2 Chronicles 35, Ezra 6:20, Luke 22:7, 1 Corinthians 5:7 [here Christ is identified as the Passover lamb]), and 3. to symbolize God’s forgiveness and ritual purification from sin (Leviticus 4:35 — i.e. the grossness of sin and the graciousness of God).
Notice that none of these reasons say that God must forgive sin because of the sacrifice offered. Rather, if sacrifices are offered they must be offered in conjunction with the repentant person’s faith proven by his works, and if not, God doesn’t want sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22, Isaiah 43:23-27). God does not want merely animal sacrifices — He wants a life in complete submission to His will. He desires the sacrifice of obedience.
To obey is better than an animal sacrifice, but the ultimate sacrifice God desires is a repentant heart in complete submission to His will. Re: Ezekiel 18, you must follow God’s will wholeheartedly (i.e. repent of ALL past sins and do ALL of God’s commands from then on [for proof of this, see Ezekiel 18:24-32). We have to go by what the text says, and it says that if we do ALL of God’s commands and turn away from ALL of our sin, we will be saved. Have you done that? Can you say that you’ve done every single one of God’s commands and forsaken every single sin? No, and I haven’t either. Can anyone do that? Not anyone that I know of. How then shall we be saved (Ezekiel 18:24-25)? Let’s look at the rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
God is not only a perfectly merciful God, but He is also a perfectly just God. He cannot abide with imperfection, and He also does not just arbitrarily ignore sin. God HATES sin, and only a wholly righteous life can atone for it, and/or only God can atone for it. The righteous person atones for Himself by doing every single thing that God commands (Ezekiel 18), but we all know that none of us are righteous in the way we ought to be (Psalm 53, Psalm 143:2, Romans 3). David says that God would have to purify him, not that he could purify himself (Psalm 51:1-5, see other verses: Psalm 65:3, Psalm 78:38, Psalm 79:9). Why? Because he knew he was a sinner who needed grace. David had hope that one day one of his offspring would save his people (see Peter’s Pentecost sermon).
If God already atones for His people, then why do we need an extra sacrifice? Here, we get into an even larger issue — Jesus is divine, and God has postponed the entirety of His wrath against His covenant people (by faith) to be poured out on Jesus (Luke 22:42, John 18:11), and is fulfilling His promise to atone for His people’s sins through Jesus Christ. Paul explains this to the Athenians in Acts 17:30-31: “The times of ignorance [i.e. the OT] God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
In numerous places, Jesus either says about Himself or others say about Him that He will save His people and forgive them of their sins (Matthew 1:21, Matthew 26:27-28, Mark 2:1-12, John 1:29). As we’ve seen, only God can do this (see Mark 2). However, Jesus also taught that unless you perfectly keep the law more than the highest religious leaders of His day, you would not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-20, Matthew 5:48). Why would He/they say this? Because Jesus wanted people to see that because God’s standard is so high, only a perfectly righteous person could offer hope to all. Jesus had come to be the one who perfectly kept the Father’s will, and offer up Himself as the Passover lamb. His sacrifice wouldn’t be an animal sacrifice (because God doesn’t need/want those), but a life lived in complete submission to the Father’s will, with no need for Himself to repent (Matthew 26:27-28).
Jesus is the ONLY one who is wholly righteous, and the Father can accept His life offered up as a propitiation for His wrath against sin (1 Peter 2:24). Now, those who enter by faith (the prerequisite that’s existed from Genesis until today) into God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ, by repenting of their sins and trusting in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, will be saved. You need Jesus because you cannot be perfect, and by His grace He has offered to exchange your sinful, imperfect life for His perfect life: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:21.
The sacrifice God wants is obedience to His will, and Jesus offered His life to satisfy God’s wrath and purchase forgiveness for those who have faith in Him. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8.
Why would God do this? Simply because He is a holy God, and He loves us. That’s the two-side answer — through Jesus, God perfectly maintains His holy perfection by satisfying His wrath against sin, and perfectly shows His incredible divine love. The only two responses to this are either rejecting God’s gift of salvation and forgiveness through Jesus, or humbling yourself and receiving that gift through repentance and faith in Him. Ultimately, God desires Himself to be glorified, and the way He has chosen to do this by saving repentant sinners through Jesus (John 2:11, Hebrews 2:9, 2 Peter 1:16-17, ).
See the beauty of Hebrews 10 — No one can be made perfect through OT animal sacrifice (10:1), sacrifices are instead a reminder of sin (10:3), because animal sacrifices cannot atone for sin (10:4). Psalm 40:6-8 is quoted to show this (and the author could include every single Scripture reference you gave to instead prove his point). Jesus offered to God not an animal sacrifice, but the sacrifice of His perfect, willful obedience to the Father (10:9-10). Consequently, Jesus has now, by a single life-sacrifice of Himself, atoned for sinners and is now seated at the right hand of God (10:12-14). And now, the new covenant has been given through Jesus, so that the entire Old Testament has been fulfilled (Jer. 31:33-34, quoted in 10:15-18). The people of God are now those who have humbly repented of sin and trust in Jesus Christ as their salvation, not in their works alone or in animal sacrifices.
So now the question is, are you going to humble yourself and recognize that you cannot perfectly keep all of God’s commands? Are you going to receive by faith the gift of grace God has offered us in Jesus Christ by repenting of your sins, trusting in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and then proving it by a life lived in obedience to God? “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
-- Adapted from a group chat response to a Muslim friend.
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