Did Jesus Have to Sacrifice?

This morning my wife asked me the following question: “Did Jesus ever sacrifice?” She was not asking if He sinned and needed to sacrifice. She was asking the question because He would go to the Temple every year and observe the Passover. I remember having wrestled with this question several years ago, and don’t think that I ever came to a solid conclusion. Jesus received circumcision, the sign of the covenant that represented the need for the filth of the flesh to be removed in bloody judgment. We know that the cross was also said to be circumcision for Jesus (see Colossians 2:11-13). We know that Jesus was baptized with a baptism of repentance though He needed no repentance for personal sins. We know that His death on the cross was baptism (Mark 10:38), the washing away of the sins of the world in His death on the tree. But how do we explain why He was circumcised and baptized? Well, the cross provides the solution to this question. Jesus came as the representative of His people. As God, manifest in the flesh, He bore in His body our sins on the tree. He stood in our place. So, as the representative of His people He had to undergo everything that God ordained, first for Old Covenant Israel (circumcision) then for the New Covenant Israel (baptism). Jesus’ death was a sacrifice for sin. Though He needed no sacrifice for Himself, He nevertheless brought the sacrifice of Himself for us. When He went to the Temple every year to worship, did Jesus participate in the sacrificial system? In all likeliness He did, not for His own sins but for the sins of His people. Praise God for such a Savior, who represents us in everything that God requires of us.