Alec Motyer in an article, "Preaching From the Old Testament" imagines a conversation between a typical Old Testament believer and his son. The believer has been to the altar of God with his sin offering, and has come home.
His son asks, "Where have you been?"
"I've been to the tabernacle."
"What did you do?"
"I brought a sin offering."
"What did you do with it?"
"I laid my hand on the head of the beast."
"Why did you do that?"
"Because that is the way that you appoint a substitute."
"What did you do then?"
"I plunged the knife into it and the blood was caught by the priest."
"Why?"
"It is symbolic of a life laid down in payment for my sin."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that God has accepted the animal in my place and my sins have been forgiven."
"How do you know that your sins have been forgiven?"
"Because that is what the Lord has promised."
Motyer argues, rightly I believe, that this imaginary conversation accurately represents Old Testament thought regarding salvation. The people of the Old Covenant, like the people of the New Covenant (Us), were justified by faith, resting on the promises of God as those promises were expressed to them.
Now, keep in mind, when they offered sacrifices they probably weren't looking forward, as if saying to themselves, "This is a picture or shadow of the true; the perfect sacrifice is yet to come." That is, God's promises were given to them in relation to the sacrifices they were told to offer (Lev 1:4; 4:20, 26, 31, 35).
However, in the course of time, a prophet named Isaiah was inspired by God to see that ultimately only a Person could fully substitute for persons (Isa 52:13-53:12)--because only a person brings to the transaction a consenting will, matching the defiled will (Isa 53:7-9; Heb 10:5-10).
Consequently, when the Lord Jesus offered the one sacrifice for sins for ever (Heb 10:12), he was bringing the reality of the sacrifices to their full reality.
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