Forgiven — all of it . . .

 

 

READ Leviticus 1-4

Jesus said that evil comes out of the heart. The psalmist asked God to search his heart and reveal any wicked way that was there. When a person dreams of doing sinful things, is that God’s way of answering that prayer?

I had a dream where I was not doing anything evil, but I was thinking of it, even wishing I could. When I woke up, I felt guilty, as if I had done the awful thing. Thinking of the Cross and what Jesus did there for me helped, but oddly enough, so does today’s reading.

There were seven types of OT sacrificial offerings including sin, guilt, burnt, peace, grain offerings and more. Leviticus 4 focuses on the sin offering and says, “if a person sins unintentionally in any of these things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, and commits any of them,” they must present a sin offering.

The meaning behind this offering could be sinning through ignorance, hurry, want of consideration, or carelessness, but also sinning unintentionally. It is an offering for sins that spring from the weakness of being a sinful human being who means will as distinguished from sins committed in defiance and haughty rebellion against God and His commandments. In contrast, those sinners were cut off from God’s people (see Numbers 15:30-31).

This sin offering was for forgiveness and cleansing from sin’s pollution. It marked the ideas of propitiation and atonement, and presupposed that the person offering it knew they had done wrong. (see 4:14 and 23). The offering included rituals such as the guilty person laying their hands on the offering. This typified that the sin was transferred to the sacrifice and it became sin and suffered the consequences for it. The sprinkling of the blood represented the soul of the sinner brought into fellowship with God’s grace which was required for its atonement. The fat was also burned. According to a Bible dictionary:

“The burning of the fat of the sacrifice upon the altar as an offering made by fire for a soothing aroma unto Jehovah (Leviticus 4:31) was symbolic of the handing over of the better part of the man, the part that is susceptible of renewal, to the purifying fire of the divine holiness and love, in order that the inward man might be renewed from day to day by the Spirit of the Lord and at length be changed into the glory of the children of God.”

The sacrifice offered was regulated by who gave it and the nature of their sin. For instance, a young bull was offered for the sin of a high priest or the sins of the entire congregation. A male goat was offered for the sin of a leader, a female goat for sin by one of the common people, and so on. Without blemish was a common requirement. Regular and special offerings were made in a ritual manner. These rituals also varied with the type and occasion for the offering and included the declaration that “whoever touches them shall become consecrated” and instructions saying what to do with the offering after it was presented.

While an important part of OT covenant, these sacrifices are typology. That is, they point to Christ. The sin offering represents Christ atoning for the guilt of sin. “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” (Hebrews 13:11–12)

 It portrays Jesus burdened with a believer’s sin, standing in the sinner’s place yet being Himself without blemish and the One “who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The theological words describe these sin offerings as “efficacious and substitutionary and in their expiatory aspect vindicate the law through substitutionary sacrifice” meaning they were effective in taking what sinners deserve and making amends to satisfy the wrath of God against sin.

The sacrificial system was never intended to be complete. As the NT says, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” (Hebrews 8:7) and “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Hebrews 9:13–14)

The NT verifies in many places that “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

As for that dream, both Leviticus and the NT declare that even had it been an actual sin committed when I was awake, the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient. He covers all sin — everything that this sinful person might do or dream that is contrary to godliness. I am joyful at the wonder of God’s grace . . . from Leviticus to this present day!