Was Jesus's sacrifice our sacrifice too?

[laohaire]

With the sacrifice of a lamb, obviously the lamb gives the ultimate sacrifice - of its very life.

But I think the sacrifice was also (or perhaps even primarily, from the viewpoint of humans, though certainly not from the lambs) on the part of the humans. If I understand it, the point of the sacrificial lamb was to offer it to God, and so humans would not partake of it. So the humans who made the sacrifice could not eat its meat or take its wool, etc. The value of the lamb was given to God.

So, Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice and died for all of us. But I wonder if the analogy extends to the loss that humankind had when our Teacher left the earth. Of course his Word lives on - but, did humankind also sacrifice when He died?

[doubledutch]

only a burnt sacrifice would have been completely, i don't want to say wasted, but consumed in the process of offering the sacrifice. normally the animal was eaten, not left to rot or something. not sure about the wool - were sacrificed animals never shorn?

on jesus as the ultimate sacrifice, well i guess my perspective is one of seeing this as theoretical, not the perspective of a believing christian, but i still have an opinion. . . the crucifixion doesn't very well mirror an individual or a family willingly offering a sacrifice to god, according to god's instruction, in a temple or at least on an alter built specifically to honor god, does it? we can't say god offered jesus as a sacrifice back to himself; we can't say humanity offered jesus as a sacrifice; i guess it could only be said he offered himself on behalf of humanity. i don't see the loss for humanity, on a gain (again, in theory). i don't think it makes sense so say humankind made a sacrifice.

[genifer]

Thats an interesting question. I dont think we sacrificed anything when Jesus left this earth. I think we gained. We gained the Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ is still alive today. He said he had to go so that we could send the Helper/Holy Spirit. I think the sacrifice does come on our part in offering up our lives into His hands. We, instead of living for our selfish desires learn to live like He did, sacrificing our 'flesh' (sin) and becoming more like Him every step of the way. Thats the sacrifice to me. I lay down my old life, the worthless life I used to live to please myself and gain HIS life, the glory that I dont deserve. this is my understanding. The interesting thing is that I never used to think I was all that selfish until I began to understand Christ's selflessness better.