Sacrifice as the Answer to the Fall

Psychology professor Dr Jordan Peterson ran a lecture series on the psychological significance of the Biblical stories. To be clear, Dr Peterson is not a Christian. According to him, he went to the United Church till he was about 13 years of age, but otherwise had "rather limited religious education". His approach to the Bible is influenced to a large extent by Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche, and would be unorthodox by theological standards. 

However, in his lecture on Cain and Abel, he provided an interesting insight into the significance of sacrifice, as a means of delayed gratification and a bargain with the future (at 19:03 of the video): 

People watched the successful succeed and the unsuccessful fail for thousands and thousands of years. And we thought it over and we drew a conclusion: The successful among us sacrifice. The successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future.

Reflecting further on the sacrifices of Cain and Abel later in the lecture, he said (at 1:06:56 of the video): 

You think "Oh how primitive! You know, how primitive these people were sacrificing to their God!" It's like you know those people weren't stupid and this is not primitive. Whatever it is, it's not primitive. It's sophisticated beyond belief because the idea, as I already pointed out, is that you could sacrifice something of value and that that would have transcendent utility. And that is by no means an unsophisticated idea. In fact it might be the greatest idea that human beings ever came up with. It's an answer to the problem that's put forward in the story of Adam and Eve... [Emphasis added]

Dr Peterson had his own extensive reflection on the matter and interpretation of the story, which carry much insight in their own right and are deserving of a careful understanding. However, there is a deep truth to the idea that sacrifice is the answer to the Fall. 

Part of the story of how humanity fell into sin was the desire for immediate gratification. Genesis 3:6 writes that, "the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom", and took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband. This is the classic lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life (1 John 2:16) that has plagued humanity ever since. Humanity traded the eternal bliss of Eden for that one moment of immediate gratification.

Sacrifice is the exact opposite of that. As Dr Peterson put it, it is delayed gratification, and a bargain with the future, where "you look into the future and you decide that by making today a little less impulsively pleasurable, shall we say, you'll make tomorrow a little bit more secure and productive" (at 10:44 of the video).

Thus, the answer to the Fall of Man is the ultimate Sacrifice of God. To borrow Dr Peterson's language, Jesus Christ looked far into the future and went through immense suffering, making a bargain with the future to make all our tomorrows completely secure and productive. "Christ was sacrificed one to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him." (Hebrews 10:28)