There were five main offerings done on the Brazen Altar in the Old Testament Jewish worship. Each is described in the first five chapters in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. The sin and trespass offerings were to restore broken fellowship. The burnt offering, the meal offering and the peace offering were to maintain fellowship.
Now practically these offerings were just types and pictures of the offering Jesus Christ would make for sin. A picture is just that and can do nothing more than remind us of the subject. That is why God wrote in Hebrews chapter 10, “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”
When God tested Abraham and told him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt sacrifice Abraham explained to Isaac in Genesis 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. God did provide a ram for the burnt offering in Isaac’s place. So offering an animal for a sacrifice became a specific part of Israel’s worship.
When Jesus Christ began His public ministry John the Baptist announced, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. Now one would expect that the sacrifice that the Lamb of God would make would follow the same pattern that God had Israel practice throughout their history. However God had a broader scene in mind that just the salvation of the Jews.
I don’t have to go into the scriptures to establish the fact that “there is none righteousness. No, not one”. That is generally the first reason or excuse most people give when condemned of a fault or failure. We are all guilty of sin and have trespassed against God’s Law. Therefore we all deserve to be condemned to death and deserve capital punishment. Burning was not a common form of capital punishment until the Middle Ages, but crucifixion began during the Babylonian empire and continued through the Roman Empire.
If we examine the Bible closely we will know why Jesus Christ was crucified rather than being a burnt sacrifice. The phrase in John 1:29 says, “which taketh away the sin of the world.” Jesus Christ was crucified as a substitute for every person in the world, so he was killed as a common criminal to take the place of every one of us on the cross.
Have you admitted you deserved to die there and accepted His crucifixion as yours?