I'd like to know your view of the atonement under the old covenant. What is your understanding of it? Perhaps you can tell me what you think was their purpose, why were the sacrifices offered continually year by year, and so on.
Books have been written to answer these questions, so pardon me for my few paragraphs that are about to follow.
Circumcision of the Heart has been taking place since the beginning. Scripture tells us that even Abel was a prophet of God. How could Abel be a True Prophet of God, yet remain cursed? Impossible. It is impossible to hold the Faith of all those mentioned in the Great Hall of Faith, Hebrews chapter 11, if we remain under the Curse of Adam and Eve. None of those men or women could be considered of Proper Faith if they held the Sinful Nature. No one can be pure, yet cursed at the same time. We are told to have the same Faith as Abraham . . . why? Because his Faith is what is required for Salvation. And that Faith comes from God and none other . . . that Faith includes a Circumcised Heart, the very foundation of the Entire Bible.
Ezekiel chapters 11, 18, and 36 deal with this. Deut 30:6 deals with this. The Old Testament has much to say about Circumcision of the Heart, for without it, there is no reason for the Bible to have been written. Without Circumcision of the Heart, there is no reason for the Lord to create the physical world.
Animal sacrifice points to Christ on the Cross . . . why else would God suggest that burnt animal flesh has a sweet smell? I've been a cremationist and I can tell you that burnt flesh by itself is utterly disgusting. Do you understand? So, those animal sacrifices pointed to Christ, but they also atoned a person for a specific sin, but those sacrifices could never remove, or deal with the Evil Sin Nature. Animal sacrifice cannot raise the dead; those sacrifices cannot bring forth life from that which is dead . . . this is the Faith of Abraham.
Deuteronomy 10:16 KJV - "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked."
Jeremiah 4:4 KJV - "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench [it], because of the evil of your doings."
To Circumcise ourselves to the Lord means to turn to Christ for His Holy Operation. None other can save except for Jesus.
Colossians 2:11-15 KJV - "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with [him]
through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 [And] having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."