What Is Sacrifice?

Geerhardus Vos nicely synthesizes different moments of sacrifice: 

“to the prospherein, ‘offering,’ belongs more than the self-surrender in death; its culminating part is the self-presentation in heaven. It is not merely necessary that a sacrifice be slain; it is equally necessary that the sacrifice be brought into the immediate presence of God as He dwells in the heavenly tabernacle. The sacrifice is not completed until this is done. This is not a result of the sacrifice; it is an integral part of the sacrificial transaction itself . . . [T]he two acts of self-surrender and self-presentation . . . together constitute one God-ward movement” (Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation, 142).