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I am seeking a biblical answer to the following objection:

"Since God clearly prohibited human sacrifices in the Pentateuch, why would He choose to atone for the sins of humanity seemingly in the form of a human sacrifice?"

Now granted it wasn't just a human sacrifice, but Jesus was also fully human so why did God the Father accept a human sacrifice even though it was against his law?

Examples from the Scriptures:

"There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer" Deuteronomy 18:10

"You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord." Leviticus 18:21

"And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger." 2 Kings 21:6

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  • @user47952 I guess but I think by saying 'did He...' I am questioning the premise of the objection. Because if I outright said God broke the law by accepting an unacceptable sacrifice and hence sinned that would be blasphemy in my opinion. – kangistaja Nov 27 '20 at 12:57
  • @user47952 Because Jesus was truly and fully God. If he was merely a human He would not be and could not be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. – kangistaja Nov 27 '20 at 13:06
  • @user47952 I know but in the end God did not go through with that sacrifice so He didn't receive that human offering. I don't think that answers anything. – kangistaja Nov 27 '20 at 13:09
  • That’s weird because God cannot die, but if only the human Jesus died, then it’s not really God dying anyway. John 8:40 he said he was a man, never said he was God anywhere. – user47952 Nov 27 '20 at 13:21
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    The first question to be answered is "Is it really a 'human sacrifice' if it's done voluntarily by the human in question?" Would it be against "the law" to throw yourself in front of a person being shot so you take the bullet instead of them? – DJClayworth Nov 27 '20 at 14:23
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  1. Jesus was not 'burnt'.

  2. Jesus was not offered to Molech or any other god.

  3. Jesus offered himself, voluntarily. He was not 'offered' by another.

  4. The "commandment of the Father is everlasting life" (John 12:50) ergo, the sacrifice was not a contradiction of Deity in any way, as that sacrifice was the only possible way to fulfill that commandment.

  5. The events in the garden of Gethsemane, and the involvement of the Father in those events, clearly demonstrate that the will of the Father was being fully satisfied by the course that Jesus took.

  6. In the gospel (not in the law) the righteousness of God is revealed (Romans 1:17). The righteousness of God far exceeds the law that was delivered to men to keep. His righteousness is a justifying righteousness. And justification is through redemption (Romans 3:24). And redemption is through (and only through) the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22).

  7. God's name was not profaned by this, nor his name dishonoured. Much to the contrary, in all of this, God is greatly glorified, and that for all eternity.

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  • "3.Jesus was not offered by another." go against the scriptures, as Jesus Himself said ""And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."(John12:32). The redeemed must lift up or offer Jesus, like this prayer "Eternal Father, I offer thee the body, blood,soul & divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world." – jong ricafort Nov 30 '20 at 20:56
  • @jongricafort who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, [Hebrews 9:14 KJV] – Nigel J Dec 1 '20 at 13:40
  • Correct, the eternal Spirit was present at the Foot of the Cross but She need an instrument, why? Only a priest can offer a pleasing sacrifice to God, And since Jesus is the victim or the sacrifice himself, we need a Priest who can offer Jesus at the Foot of the Cross to Eternal Father. Who is the Priest at the Foot of the Cross, there were one Apostle and four Mary's ? That's a mystery that only St.Pius X in 1905 knows. – jong ricafort Dec 1 '20 at 15:51
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Christ was the fulfillment of a prophecy made thousands of years earlier by Abraham during the sacrifice of Isaac, his son.

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. Gen 22:8

Circa 27 CE this was fulfilled.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29

About three years later, this was also said.

Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Acts 3:25

Paul informs us that the singular seed is Christ Jesus.

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Gal 3:16

Besides all of that God ordained prophecy and fulfillment, the context of the various Law prohibitions was not to do what the heathen nations were doing.

Offering to false gods

Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. Deut 12:31

The whole point is a contrast to people offering something they think is sufficient over and over, but it isn't versus as scripture says "God will provide".

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Heb 10:10

To answer the OP, no God did not violate the Law of Moses.

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Did God ever accept a sacrifice that was against His own law?

The short answer is no if offered to pagan gods which are none other than demons.

The Scriptures are quite clear on this!

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. - Exodus 20:3-5

We should likewise keep St. Paul words in our minds:

…19Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.… - 1 Corinthians 10:20

Yet even Pagans seem to do God’s bidding at times, as when he spoke about the unknown God at Athens.

According to the book of Acts, contained in the Christian New Testament, when the Apostle Paul visited Athens, he saw an altar with an inscription dedicated to that god (possibly connected to the Cylonian affair), and, when invited to speak to the Athenian elite at the Areopagus, gave the following speech:

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” - Acts 17:22-31

Now the OP mentioned the following:

Now granted it wasn't just a human sacrifice, but Jesus was also fully human so why did God the Father accept a human sacrifice even though it was against his law?

The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross was in compliance with the Divine Will of since it was made in order to bring salvation to mankind. It was not offered to a pagan god! So Jesus (God) did not violate the Law of Moses.

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  • I have added this as a comment because it it not also supported with scripture included...when Satan accused God in heaven prior to the fall, after the fall event took place, God needed to demonstrate that he was not a selfish God. He offered himself in place of the death of his creation in order to disprove that claim made by Lucifer that God is selfish. Jesus dying on the Cross was an irrefutable proof against the charges made by Lucifer. – Adam Nov 30 '20 at 4:20

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