WE proposed in a paper upon page 109 to look into some of the specific acts performed by the Levitical priests in their service of the altar, and then to seek information as to the acts of the “masspriests” (as our forefathers termed them) of our own day.
In sacrificing to God both the offerer and the priest performed certain acts.
“The rabbis mention the following five acts as belonging to the offerer of a sacrifice:
The laying on of hands,
Slaying,
Skinning,
Cutting up,
Washing the inwards.
These other five were strictly priestly functions―
Catching up the blood,
Sprinkling it,
Lighting the altar fire,
Laying on the wood,
Bringing up the pieces,
and all else done at the altar itself.”
We may learn a great deal from the laws of the rabbis, provided we hold the Scriptures in our hands.
There is nothing whatever in the “sacrifice of the mass” which corresponds in any way with the five acts of the offerer. And if these were left out, the offering of the living victim to God as a sacrifice was ineffective.
The laying on of the hands upon the offering was the first great act of the offerer. Thereby he identified himself with it. He bore his weight heavily down upon his offering. The act was a graphic illustration of that faith which presses all the weight of every need and sense of sin upon the spotless victim. Leave out this first essential, and the offerer is disconnected from God. Need we say that in the sacrifice of the mass there is no figure whatever of this primary essential.
The foundation act of faith in sacrifice by the partaker of the mass is missing, hence the erection is built upon the sands of tradition.
The other four acts have no manner of answer in the recipient at the sacrifice of the mass. All that the recipient does is to receive the wafer from the priest. There is no idea of slaying; no idea of Christ’s death being for the offerer: no such notion as “He died in my stead” ― “The Son of God . . . gave Himself for me.” While as for the figures of cutting up and washing the inwards, and the disposal of the skin, the gross idea of the sacrifice of the mass allows not one of them. The skin is the beauty of the creature; that in certain cases belonged to the priest. The perfection of Christ as the Holy One on earth pertained to the priest who offered up the burnt offering in its sweet savor to Jehovah.
The cutting up, figured the laying hare of the actions and motives of the creature offered, and the washing indicated the purity of all the parts. Here was the tribute of the offerer to the virtue of the offering in the sight of God, and to the effect of the water of the Word, according to which all was holy and undefiled in the sight of God. The glory of our Saviour in His walk and thoughts, and in His absolute obedience to the Word of God, are here presented.
Where in the sacrifice of the mass is there one shadow of such thoughts? The receiver is never the offerer. The offerer offered in obedience to the Word of God, and in faith. The receiver of the mass is absolutely shut out from such faith. He has neither part nor lot in such faith and obedience.
If the sacrifice of the mass be not on the Jewish model, it must be either on a heathen model or a new thing on the earth. We shall show that it is not on the Jewish model in any particular. Is it, then, heathen? or is it an invention of that which calls itself “the Church”? Be it either one or other of the two latter, it must be an abomination to God, while, if it were on the former, it must be in distinct disobedience to His Word; for He taketh away the sacrifices which are offered by the law.
The action of the offerer is so important that we add a few words respecting it. In some cases the offerer’s sin led him to the altar; in others, his love for Jehovah. If he had sinned, he was obliged to come to the altar with his sin-offering―he had no alternative. By that sin-offering his sin was “forgiven him”; without it, he remained unforgiven. If the man refused obedience to the command, he remained without the sin-offering. “He shall lay his hand upon the head” of his offering. Now this cannot be fulfilled in type or in fact save by our coming to God by Christ, who was made sin for us, who knew no sin. Only let the sinner truly come to God by Christ, own how verily his sins required the death of Christ as his atonement, and his sin “shall be forgiven him.”
We think of our gracious Saviour as a sacrifice for our sins, and our hearts go forth in all the force of love to Him. God forbid that He should be misrepresented, denied, rejected in the bloodless bread with which men are daring enough to approach the Holy God. Let us make more and more of Christ our Passover, who was sacrificed for us, and let us keep that feast with joy unspeakable until He Himself come and call us home.
On a future occasion we shall pursue this important subject.