The offerings in this chapter differ in character from the preceding, being sacrifices made for actual transgressions. Before, we had the offering of Christ as a sweet savor, and the communion of the believer upon it; but here there is altogether a new revelation. The three former were delivered under one revelation, which is marked by the words, “Jehovah called unto Moses, and spake unto him” (Lev. 1:11And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, (Leviticus 1:1)). The formula repeated at the beginning of this chapter. Accordingly we find, that, instead of the Lord Jesus being manifested to us as a sacrifice for a sweet savor unto God, we have Him here typified as bearing our sins in His own body—the sin-offering; Jehovah bruising Him on our account.
The SIN-OFFERINGS were consequent upon positive transgression; the accumulation of guilt was laid upon the head of the victim. We shall find under this class all the forms of man's evil are provided for. There are four different characters of sin-offerings. In chapter 5. to verse 13, sins are mentioned analogous in nature, but different in circumstance, and a trespass-offering commanded for them. In verse 14 of chapter 5. begins another revelation from God concerning the trespass-offering for anything done against Jehovah; and chapter 6. mentions trespass against a neighbor.
In the chapter before us (the fourth) we have instances of defilements of conscience concerning things which ought not to be done, being against the commandments of Jehovah. The natural conscience shrinks from murder and open sins; but there are other things which, although of a different character, nevertheless if committed bring on us defilement before Jehovah. There are things of positive requirement about which a soul may be ignorant, but neglect of which brings defilement; and, again, there are things which we know to be wrong, by means of the spiritual perception God has given us. We learn from these details, that trespasses against Jehovah, and wrongs done to our neighbor, though not all of the same importance, yet all require a sin-offering; all recall Christ to us as taking upon Him our sins. He is our sin and trespass-offering.
The first two cases are, “if the priest that is anointed do sin,” and “the whole congregation sin:” in either case the directions for the offering are the same. Some of the blood must be sprinkled “seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary;” —"and the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before Jehovah in the tabernacle of the congregation.” This was done, that there might be no interruption to the general communion. For the whole congregation being identified with the high priest, his worship in the sanctuary at the altar of incense would be interrupted by their collective defilement: and again, the priest being the representative of the whole congregation before Jehovah, their exclusion was involved in his. Their sin is charged upon the bullock that is slain, which (the fat being burnt upon the altar) is burnt without the camp, and this is the ground of their renewed communion with God. Here is shown to us, not the perfectness of Jesus as presented to God, but Jesus bearing the defilement of our sin; yet we see the fat is still burned on the altar (ver. 8), and that has in it the character of the burnt-offering, showing that, though made sin for us, yet His offering to God therein was intrinsically perfect; but the whole bullock is burnt without the camp, pointing out to us Jesus as cast out and bruised, on account of His having taken upon Him our sin, as in 2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21): “He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin.” Having presented Himself in perfectness to God, He is then made sin for us, and it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him. Marvelous word! Jesus, the Holy One, Who knew no sin, is cast out, and numbered with the transgressors.
If it was merely an individual that sinned, the order of the service could still be carried on, because the communion of the congregation was not thereby destroyed. In this instance, the blood was then only sprinkled on the altar of burnt-offering, because this was the place where God met an individual; for he must be reconciled, that he might have his place in the congregation, to hold communion with God. It is only because Jesus bore our sins individually, that we have communion. But He did it once for all.
Of this sacrifice we find the priest is commanded to take a portion (chap. 6:25-26), the fat and blood only being presented to the Lord on the altar of burnt-offering. We shall see in this the character of Jesus' work for us, and find the blessedness of it.
In many things we all offend, not only having sin in our nature, but doing things which conscience tells us ought not to be done; and in this state we could have no access to God for communion. These offenses render the offender unfit for communion; and while in this state he could not approach God. Observe in this chapter, it is not merely sin, but sins that are mentioned. And here, for a moment, I would speak of the importance of not misquoting. (as is often done) the passage, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world;” it is not said sins of the world, for if this were true, God could have nothing to charge it with.
It is indeed true, that the world as a system shall be restored to God: that place over which Satan has now gained such power, shall be redeemed, as it is said in Col. 1:2020And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. (Colossians 1:20), “By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him [I say], whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.” In the hands of the second Adam, the sacrifice is the ground of the restoration of all that was alienated in the first Adam; so that not only His atonement forms a ground upon which every sinner may be addressed, but through it the world shall be restored to blessing. This result, however, is entirely future, as we know from the present dominion of Satan in this evil world; and, in the mean time, many despise and reject the blessing, for whom judgment is reserved; but to the believer present peace comes, though his be not a portion in the result yet.
In the offerings before us, there is not merely this general atonement, but the bearing of sins, the actual transfer of sins to Jesus, the free gift of many offenses unto justification of life. As in Isa. 53 it is said, “He bare the iniquities of many,” as well as “made His soul an offering for sin;” and here not only do we see Jesus presented as an offering to God, by virtue of which any sinner may be addressed, but the believer also finds that his sins are laid upon Him. And the church in anticipating the great result, finds that it is a saved body, and is brought into the knowledge of that which the apostle declares (Col. 1:2121And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (Colossians 1:21)), “And you that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled,” etc. Thus we get full settled peace, for we know that not merely has Jesus borne some of our sins, but we get at this great general truth, that all our sins are laid upon Him and are blotted out. If we believe that by bearing our sins Jesus has justified us, then we must know that all our sins are gone from the presence of God, as He has said, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Jesus has endured the penalty. “He hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling;” and faith is able to look at Jesus as the bearer of all sins for us, and the sin having been charged upon Him, the church is raised out of all the evil it had been in, being by one offering perfected forever. What He did was, that He bore the bruising due to us.
We can look at the work of Jesus in no other light than as thus complete; and we must, therefore, see all the sins of the church laid upon Him, and consequently all put away, and God righteous and just to forgive, because Jesus had already borne them. There can be no enfeebling of this—it would be doing it away altogether. If I say they are not completely taken away, then which of them remain? and where are the sins from which I am not justified? When is each sin to be separately atoned for? If it is not simply as a body He presents the church in perfectness of acceptance, what is forgiveness? If we are brought, by our sense of the need of this blood-shedding, to see the value of it, then we not only come to the mercy-seat, but find all our sins have been put away, and that He suffered the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. It is, of course, only by the Spirit we are brought to know and value this, even that Jesus was our substitute, that “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree;” and that having done so, God is righteous to forgive. Nothing can be more plain than that, if Jesus did indeed bear our sins, then every believer is justified from all things (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)).
We may look at it in all its breadth and compass; Jesus confessed our sins, bore them, and was bruised on their account. If He has opened your heart to believe in Him as bearing sins at all, then all your sins are put away; you must either deny that He was bearing sins at all, or you are justified. Here is the certainty of peace; and we stand justified from all things, and Jesus looks at us in this character, not at any particular time, but in order that He may present us to God. There is no question of past or future transgression, but He bore our sins. Hold fast this. There is, indeed, the frequent consciousness of faults. While faith says our sins are put away, still in looking at ourselves we see evil; and now we find how graciously the Lord provides for this defilement. The priest that offered the sin-offering was to eat it (chap. 6:26). As the worshipper and the priest ate the peace-offering together, representing Jesus as being identified with the joy of communion; so the priest takes part of the sin-offering, showing that Jesus is identified with the sin which hinders communion. Only priests ate it in the holy place, specially was the priest who offered it to eat his portion. Jesus is this priest; that on which the sin was confessed the priest ate, and identified himself thus with the defilement.
Now, in passing through the world we get disqualified by sin for communion; even though we know it not, we cannot take our blindness as the measure of God's holy requirements. The blindness of our consciences is not the blindness of God's eye, as man is apt to think. But the riches of divine mercy has provided a way, in which, although God sees it all, yet He sees us free from it, because He sees the sins all upon Jesus. He bowed His head under the weight, saying, “My sins are too heavy for me to bear.” But in His resurrection we see they were actually and effectually put away, having been borne in His own body; so that we are justified from all things, perfected forever. He rose again, God having accepted the work by which we are justified, and thus bearing testimony to it. There are things which our consciences tell us ought not to be done; but of the sins of ignorance it is said, “Though he wist it not, he is guilty, he shall bear his iniquity.” There is no folly like that of taking the blindness of our hearts as God's estimate for sin; but let evil and defilement be what they may, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin, and grace restores communion.
In Num. 19 we have a special case of a sin-offering. There is this difference between Leviticus and Numbers. In Leviticus, we have the sacrifices in their great distinguishing characters; in Numbers, we have the particular application in the trials of a walk of faith, meeting the case of individuals falling into evil, or contracting defilement. In Num. 19 there was a red heifer taken, and burnt as a sin-offering, according to the description in the chapter now before us; “the ashes were kept for a water of separation, a purification for sin.” Any man unclean by touching death was sprinkled with it. This shows the power of the sin-offering, as brought by the Spirit to the conscience; it is not a fresh sacrifice, there is no shedding of blood, but merely the ashes sprinkled.
There are but three instances of blood being sprinkled on individuals, which are these: Aaron and his sons on the day of their consecration (Lev. 8:23, 3023And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. (Leviticus 8:23)
30And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him. (Leviticus 8:30)); the. leper on the day of his cleansing (Lev. 14:77And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. (Leviticus 14:7)); and the people on the giving of the covenant from Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:88And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. (Exodus 24:8)). There needed, in fact, but one sprinkling, for, looked at in its whole character, “the worshippers being once purged, had no more conscience of sins.” But for the daily defilements there was the water of separation, the application of a past thing with present power to the conscience, as the case required. The sacrifice of Jesus is an act done long since. But when the believer, once cleansed by faith in His blood, contracts defilement in walking in this world, for this there is no fresh offering, but the sacrifice is brought to his remembrance by the Spirit. It is the blood that cleanses us from sin, and gives us our portion as sons by adoption; but, as regards the conscience in communion, it is the Spirit of God bringing to recollection what Jesus has done (as the ashes of the red heifer), so as to give peace and restore communion. These are the truths brought out in the sin-offering.
Since the whole church is concerned, Jesus is presented unreproveable and unblameable in God's sight; and being sanctified by the offering of His body once for all, and perfected forever by the same, the worshipper has no more conscience of sins. Thus the believer is introduced at once to the knowledge that all the church's sins were transferred to Jesus, and that in His resurrection the saints are completely justified. Let the sin be of whatever character it may, though you wist it not, yet whatever cannot accord with the holiness of God's sanctuary shall not come into it. His holiness never varies from itself; and the more we know of the value of the blood-shedding of Jesus, the more we shall see the impossibility of communion with God in sin. But if our conscience condemn us, what have we to do? We have the blessed perception through the Holy Ghost of that of which the ashes are the memorial, even the remembrance of that which has been done by Christ, bringing us again into holy communion.
The perception that Jesus has taken the defilement maintains the standard of holiness in spite of our sin. Nothing but Jesus charging the sin upon Himself could do this; and if we do not see the holiness maintained, we shall be making excuses for our sin, and thinking we can still have communion with God in it; and our estimate and standard of sin must of necessity be lowered. If my conscience cannot know the sin absolutely put away, I must give up communion, or seek it on some other and lower ground; but seeing Jesus a burnt-offering and a sin-offering, we see Him made sin and ourselves made the righteousness of God in Him. And we see that He loved us, and gave Himself for us, not for anything in us, but because of the prevalence of His love over all. What blessed thoughts must we have in this knowledge of the perfectness of His love! and what must he the blindness of those who count God to be such an one as themselves, seeing that He has given Jesus!