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Among those who believe that the piacular element was present even in the pre-Mosaic
sacrifices, there is a difference of opinion as to the origin of this type of sacrifices. Some are of
the opinion that God instituted them by a direct divine command, while others hold that they
were brought in obedience to a natural impulse of man, coupled with reflection. The Bible does
not record any special statement to the effect that God commanded man to serve Him with
sacrifices in those early days. And it is not impossible that man expressed His gratitude and
devotion in sacrifices, even before the fall, led by the inner promptings of his own nature. But it
would seem that the expiatory sacrifices after the fall could originate only in a divine
appointment. There is considerable force in the arguments of Dr. A. A. Hodge. Says he: “(1) It is
inconceivable that either the propriety or probable utility of presenting material gifts to the
invisible God, and especially of attempting to propitiate God by the slaughter of His irrational
creatures, should ever have occurred to the human mind as a spontaneous suggestion. Every
instinctive sentiment and every presumption of reason must, in the first instance, have
appeared to exclude them. (2) On the hypothesis that God intended to save men, it is
inconceivable that He should have left them without instruction upon a question so vital as that
concerned in the means whereby they might approach into His presence and conciliate His
favor. (3) It is characteristic of all God’s self-revelations, under every dispensation, that He
discovers Himself as jealous of any use by man of unauthorized methods of worship or service.
He uniformly insists upon this very point of His sovereign right of dictating methods of worship
and service, as well as terms of acceptance. (4) As a matter of fact, the very first recorded
instance of acceptable worship in the family of Adam brings before us bleeding sacrifices, and
seals them with the divine approbation. They appear in the first act of worship, Gen. 4:3,4. They
are emphatically approved by God as soon as they appear.”[The Atonement, pp. 123 f.] The
Mosaic sacrifices were clearly of divine appointment.
2. THE SACRIFICIAL WORK OF CHRIST SYMBOLIZED AND TYPIFIED.
The sacrificial work of Christ
was symbolized and typified in the Mosaic sacrifices. In connection with these sacrifices the
following points deserve attention.
a. Their expiatory and vicarious nature.
Various interpretations have been given of the Old
Testament sacrifices: (1) that they were gifts to please God, to express gratitude to Him, or to
placate His wrath; (2) that they were essentially sacrificial meals symbolizing communion of
man with God; (3) that they were divinely appointed means of confessing the heinousness of
sin; or (4) that, in so far as they embodied the idea of substitution, they were merely symbolic
expressions of the fact that God accepts the sinner, in lieu of actual obedience, in the sacrifice
which expresses his desire to obey and his longing for salvation. However, Scripture testifies to
the fact that all the animal sacrifices among Israel were piacular, though this feature was not
equally prominent in all of them. It was most prominent in the sin- and trespass-offerings, less