READ LEVITICUS. 1. AND 4.
How the New Testament helps us in understanding the Old, throwing light upon the types there; and, in so doing, ofttimes bringing out the truth more vividly than a mere doctrinal statement of the same!
In these two chapters, we have the work of Christ on the cross brought before us in two aspects. In the 1St (the burnt offering), what Christ was in His death for God; in the 4th (the sin offering), what He was in His death for the sinner. God of course begins with that aspect of it which is for Himself, and afterward comes to that which is for the sinner. We, on the contrary, have to begin with what Christ was in His death for us, and so will look first at chap. 4.
" If a soul shall sin through ignorance, etc." (ver. 2). How strikingly this brings out the holiness of God! How ready we are to make excuses, and, if a thing is done in ignorance, to think but little of it. But, dear reader, in having to do with God, we must remember that His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither His ways our ways... and that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts (Isa. 55:8,9). God, in His grace, has made provision for the guiltiest, if they will but hearken to Him, but He will pass by nothing, not even if " a soul shall sin through ignorance,"-for, " GOD IS LIGHT" (I John, 1:5). What then is to be done? On our part we can do absolutely nothing to cancel the guilt, for " without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 9:22). Then the victim for the sacrifice, whether bullock, or kid of the goats (male or female, vs. 23, 28) or a lamb, must be one " without blemish." Where was such an one to be found? Could man produce such? God waited for hundreds of years, but such an one could not be found among the sons of Adam. God then must do one of two things-either visit judgment upon all, or provide the one necessary Himself. Which did He do? " He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but Five everlasting life" (John 3:16), thereby proving that " GOD IS LOVE" (t John 4:8). Jesus, His beloved Son, becomes a man, and John the Baptist gazing on Him once exclaims, " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Then we have the life on earth of/the blessed Lord looked at in four different aspects, in the four gospels. But though He humbled Himself and became man, His people remember that He was never less than The One who did humble Himself-even " Christ who is over all, God blessed forever," Amen. (Rom. 9:5). As He walked this earth God saw, for the first time, a man that answered in everything to the desires of His heart-ever and only doing His will, thereby proving Himself the Lamb without spot. But there was the question of sin to be settled before God, and so " Christ through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God" to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:14).
The 4th verse of our chapter tells us that the animal (which was really a type of Christ) was brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, and the sinning Jew was to " lay his hand upon the bullock's head." Laying the hand on the victim's head expresses identification, as much as saying, " That's me-that animal takes my place." And so when I look at Jesus on Calvary's cross bearing sin's heavy load, faith enables me to say, " That's me-He took my place"-surely in grace-but still He took it. Well, if He took it, He must bear all the consequences of taking it, and so He did. Judgment and death were hanging over my head, for " the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23); and " It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). All that God was against sin Jesus bore on Calvary's cross. Hearken to that cry, " My God, my God, why halt Thou forsaken Me?" (Psa. 22:1; Matt. 27:46); and " He yielded up the Ghost" (Matt. 27:50), having said, " It is finished" (John 19:30). How those words of the Lord Jesus bring before us the contrast with every sacrifice in Old Testament times! If it was the great day of atonement as presented in Lev. 16, it must be repeated every year, for the redemption then accomplished only held good for that length of time; if it was an individual who had sinned, a fresh sacrifice must be brought. Consequently there never could be at that time " perfection as pertaining to the conscience" as mentioned in Heb. 9 Perfection, or otherwise, of the conscience depends upon the character of the sacrifice presented. When the offending one coming to God brought a bullock or a goat-the sacrifice not being perfect, the conscience could not be perfect. But now if a sinner comes to God-just as a sinner and nothing else or he would not be "doing truth" (John 3:21)—on the ground of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary's cross, and rests upon that, and that only, the sacrifice being a perfect one, the, conscience of him who believes the record " God has given of Its Son," is perfect. The redemption that resulted from the atonement made on the cross was an eternal one (see Heb. 9:12). The blood that was there shed did not merely cancel an individual act of sin, for " the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all (more accurately ' every') sin " (1 John 1:7). We get that truth brought out, in type, in our chapter in ver. 6, in the blood being sprinkled "seven times before the Lord"—"seven" standing for perfection in spiritual things.
Dear reader, have you come to God, just as a poor sinner and nothing else, and are you resting, and resting only, on the precious blood of Christ? If so, that blood cleanseth from every sin; God-the God you have sinned against-says so, and so forgiveness flows from it. But the resurrection of Christ is another proof of the question of sin being settled before God-because if Jesus was bearing my sins on Calvary's cross (see Isa. 53:6) how could God righteously raise Him from the dead, if every sin was not fully atoned for? But, blessed be God! if He " was delivered for our offenses," He " was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ " (Rom. 4:25;5. f). Remember then that it is a work done outside of us, even the work on Calvary's cross, that is the ground of our peace, and not the work of the Holy Spirit in us. There is never such a thing as a soul resting on the work of Christ, outside of him, that there is not a work of the Holy Spirit inside him-still it is the former and not the latter which is the ground of peace, and it is important not to confound them. They go together, still they are distinct from each other.
It' is important also to remember that He who bore our sins on Calvary's Cross is not there now; for, " If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:17). In Acts 13, Paul, having given a short outline of God's dealings with Israel, refers to the Lord Jesus as the One in whom the promises found their fulfillment. He speaks of His death and resurrection.
Then, pointing to Him as the risen, glorified Man at God's right hand, he says, " Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all that believe are (not `will be') justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
The Holy Ghost, in Rom. 4:7, says: " Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
DEAR READER, IS THAT BLESSEDNESS YOURS?
( To be continued, D. V.)