Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1048
“And if any one of the common people sins through ignorance, while he does something against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and is guilty. Or if his sin, which he has sinned, comes to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet sa vor unto the Lord; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.” Leviticus 4:27-31.
VERY much of interesting truth clusters around the sin-offering. The type is well worthy of the most careful consideration and I regret that we shall not have time, this morning, to enter into all its details. The reader of the chapter will perceive that it gives us four forms of the same sacrifice. These may be regarded as four views of the same thing, probably views taken by four classes of Believers according to their standing in the Divine life. Although all men who are saved have the same Savior, they have not the same apprehensions of Him. We are all cleansed, if cleansed at all, by the same blood, but we have not all the same knowledge of the manner in which it is effectual for cleansing.
The devout Hebrew had but one sin-offering, but that was set forth to him under varying symbols. The following remarks may aid you in understanding the type before us. The chapter begins with the sin-offering for the anointed priest, and describes it with the fullest detail. It then proceeds, in the 13th verse and onwards, to give the sin-offering for the whole congregation, and it is most notable that the sin-offering for the anointed priest is almost in every circumstance identical with the sin-offering for the whole congregation.
Is not this designed to show to us that when Christ, our anointed Priest, took upon Himself the sin of all the congregation of God’s chosen as His own there was demanded of Him the same expiation and atonement as would have been demanded of His people had they been reckoned with in their own persons? His Atonement for sins which were not His own, but which were laid upon Him by the Lord on our behalf, is equivalent to the penalty which would have been required of all the congregation of Believers for whom His blood was especially shed. This is a memorable lesson which ought not to be forgotten. We ought to see herein the inestimable value of the Sacrifice of Christ by which the many offenses of a number that no man can number are forever put away.
There was given, in the death of our Lord, as full a recompense to justice as if all the redeemed had been sent into Hell. No, the truth goes far further than that—they could not have made a complete expiation, for even had they suffered for sin for thousands of years, the debt would “still be paying, never paid.” Glory be to the name of our great Substitute! He by His sin-offering has perfected forever them that are set apart. In the case of the sin-offering for the priest we have a fuller picture of the atonement than is offered by the two latter instances, and you will please note that the sin-offering was a victim without blemish.
In the first two cases a bullock was to be slain. Thus the most precious animal the Hebrew owned, the noblest, the strongest—the image of docility and labor—was to be presented to make atonement. Our Lord Jesus Christ is like the firstling of the bullock, the most precious thing in Heaven, strong for service, docile in obedience, One who was willing and able to labor for our sakes—and He was brought as a perfect Victim, without spot or blemish, to suffer in our place.
The priest slew the bullock, and its blood was poured forth, for without shedding of blood there is no remission. The vital point of the Atonement of Christ lies in His death. However much His life may have contributed to it, and we are not among those who, in the matter of salvation, separate His life from His death by a hard and fast line—yet the great point of the putting away of human guilt was the Lord’s obedience unto death, even the death of the Cross.
The victim was slain, and so the atonement was made. Returning to the passage before us, we find that the blood of this victim was taken into the Holy Place which was immediately outside the sacred veil of the sanctuary. And there the priest dipped his finger in the blood and sprinkled the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. So in making atonement for sin there is a perfect exhibition of the blood of Jesus before the Lord. That life has been given for life is openly proven where alone the proof is available.