The Dignity of Causality
In the beginning, God chose to be relational with human beings and establish a partnership of dominion with them (Gen 1:27-28). He gave us the “dignity of causality” as Blaise Pascal wrote. Meaning that God bestowed on humans the ability to construct the world and its societal structures in any way they chose. It is within these structures, no matter how corrupt, that God works out his purposes.
Contrary to popular belief, the Bible does not describe God as the one who initiated the sacrificial system. This system was a human invention. The first to bring sacrifices to YHWH were Cain and Abel (Gen 4:3-4), who did so not out of instruction, but out of their own intuition.
“We’ll work with it”
The sacrificial system was ubiquitous to Ancient Near East (ANE) culture. This system would be the framework God would use to set the stage for the sacrificial lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. God worked within this sacrificial system but He also adapted it for his purposes. He taught His people about the consequences of sin and their need for atonement. God’s instructions to Israel regarding animal sacrifice for sin set the stage for the coming of Christ.
In a dramatic climax, God himself became a man, Jesus Christ, and demonstrated the ideal sacrifice in his death and resurrection. Through Christ, we see clearly now the sacrifice God always desired (Psalm 50:7-15). Today, we no longer lay animals on the altar to atone for the sins that Jesus already has. Instead, we ourselves crawl on the altar and offer our lives to God (Rom 12:1).
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Romans 12:1
