Monday: Diverse Kinds of Sacrifices
Jesus’ death provided forgiveness, or remission, for our sins. The remission of our sins, however, involves much more than the cancellation of the penalty for our transgression of the covenant. It involves other elements as important. That is why the Israelite sacrificial system had five different kinds of sacrifices. Each was necessary to express the richness of the meaning of the cross of Christ.
Read Ephesians 3:14-19. What was the prayer request of Paul in behalf of believers?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
The holocaust offering (or burnt offering) required that the whole animal be consumed on the altar (Leviticus 1:1-17). It represented Jesus, whose life was consumed for us. Expiation required Jesus’ total commitment to us. Even though He was equal with God, Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV).
The grain offering was a gift of gratitude for God’s provision of sustenance for His people (Leviticus 2:1-16). It also represents Jesus, “the bread of life” (John 6:35, John 6:48), through whom we have eternal life.
The peace or fellowship offering implied a communal meal with friends and family to celebrate the well-being provided by God (Leviticus 3:1-17). It represented Christ, whose sacrifice provided peace for us (Isaiah 53:5, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:14). It also emphasizes that we need to participate in Jesus’ sacrifice by eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood (John 6:51-56).
The sin or purification offering provided expiation for sins (Leviticus 4:1-5:13). This sacrifice emphasized the role of the blood of the animal — which represented its life — to provide redemption from sins (Leviticus 17:11) and pointed forward to the blood of Jesus who redeems us from our sins (Matthew 26:28, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 9:14).
The guilt or reparation offering (Leviticus 5:14-6:7) provided forgiveness in cases where reparation or restitution was possible. It tells us that God’s forgiveness does not free us from the responsibility to provide reparation or restitution, where possible, to those whom we have wronged.
The sanctuary sacrifices teach us that the experience of salvation is more than just accepting Jesus as our Substitute. We also need to “feed” on Him, share His benefits with others, and provide reparation to those whom we have wronged.
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Today's lesson states that "The remission of our sins, however, involves much more than the cancellation of the penalty for our transgression of the covenant."
There are essentially two main ways you can cancel a penalty. One is to overturn or pay the penalty. The other is to actually address the underpinning phenomenon that is producing the resultant penalty so that it not longer does this. The first option aligns with the legal meaning of remission. The second option aligns with the medical meaning of remission.
Central to the notion of "remission" is Jesus "expiation" (ie, atonement). As the lesson points out, Leviticus 17:11 is a key bible verse that states what it is that actually provides atonement - "the life that is in the blood". So, how does Jesus's blood expiate sin's penalty? Is His death the blood sacrifice that pays a required penalty for sin. We saw in yesterday's lesson that this view aligns with what pagan gods were assumed to require for sin/broken covenant.
What if Jesus expiation was to actually fix the underpinning sin condition that produces the penalty? Does scripture support such a view? What about Ellen White? John 15:13 tells us that laying down one's life (equivalent to spilling of ones "life that is in the blood") is the greatest expression of love. And Philippians 2:3-5 along with 1 Corinthians 13:5 outlines that love is seeking the best interest of others - living to give. And Ellen White goes on to further emphasise that living to give is the law/principle that actually underpins the viability of life and therefore when violated, directly produces death (Desire of Ages pgs 19-21; 11 LtMs, Lt 96, 1896 para 6. 1 John 4:7-10 affirms the link between all of these above elements. Did David recognise this when he prayed for a new heart and right spirit rather than removal of the penalty for his sin (Psalm 51:10)?
I would invite you to consider this for yourself. Is Jesus expiatory sacrifice the cancelling of a penalty or is it instead the actual addressing of the underpinning human problem - the need for hearts to be remitted from self-seeking back to living to give? And if the condition that was producing the penalty is actually fixed, penalty no longer exists (Romans 8:1).
Today's lesson is really excellent in reminding us that
I am, however, having a little trouble with your comment.
You suggest that if Jesus "fixes" our sin condition, there is no more penalty??
Do you mean to say that if a murderer repents and stops murdering, it does away with the penalty for murder? If a thief stops stealing, he can keep the goods and have no penalty for stealing? If a man stops committing adultery, he is not responsible for the baby his partner in guilt conceives? He goes scot-free because he stops committing adultery with the woman?
It surely doesn't work that way on this planet, and please don't suggest that it works that way in God's "higher ways." (Isa 55:9) That statement is given in the context of asking us to approach God with humility, knowing we can never fully understand Him because we are finite, and He is infinite.
Jesus said that his blood is shed "for the remission of sins." The definition for remit/remission is to do away with, to release from the guilt or penalty, to give relief from, forgive. All the meanings fit the sacrifice of Christ.
Peter refers to belief in Christ for "remission of sins." (See Acts 2:38, 10:43) And Paul specifically writes "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Romans 3:25)
So it seems clear that just to stop sinning does not do away with the guilt of sins of the past. That takes "remission," which both Peter and Paul say the sacrifice of Christ provides.
And, yes, Seventh-day Adventists believe and teach that Christ actually "fixes" what causes us to sin. He gives us a new heart. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17
Well meaning students of Scripture attempt to redefine sin as disease and forgiveness as healing, but Jesus made plain the issue in legal terms in Matt. 25:46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” John 9:41 defines sin in compassionate terms, as does Romans 2:14 revealing the love of God who does not punish out of anger.
I can find no Scripture supporting your suggestion.
In 1992 Carmel and I did the big European tour. It was a sort of present to ourselves for having paid our house off. Among other things we visited Pisa in Italy and of course the reason for the visit was to see the leaning Tower of Pisa. At the time it was closed as the authorities thought it was leaning a bit too much and was unsafe. At a small distance from the tower there were hundreds of tourist trinket shops. We could have bought porcelain, terracotta, pewter, brass, and plastic, representations of the Tower - they cost many more lira than I thought they were worth and I steadfastly resisted the patter of the sales people.
For me, as a scientist, the Tower of Pisa is the location where Galileo is reputed to have shown the church officials that light objects and heavy objects took about the same time to drop from the top of the tower to the bottom. It was the first inkling of the principle of gravitational attraction and was also part of the battle for establishing the importance of experimentation and observation.
The Tower of Pisa is an interesting architectural oddity but more importantly a special location in the history of science. I wonder how many tourists shelled out their money for a representation of the Tower and who took it home, not understanding the significance of the discovery of gravity, or the importance of scientific observation. Their plastic imitation will sit in their travel cabinet until they die, saying, "I have been to Pisa!" I don't have a plastic tower in my house, but I have the knowledge that I understand a lot more of what went on in Pisa than most of the purchasers of the imitation.
This week we are looking at some of the representations of salvation. I am not saying that they are unimportant, but I think that the big message that the author of Hebrews is trying to get through to us is that the representations are not the real thing.
It is a sad thing that so many people go to Pisa simply because it is a "must see" tourist destination and never understand the big ideas associated with gravity and scientific observation. It is an even sadder situation if we become hooked on the representation of salvation rather than salvation itself.
That's a nifty analogy, brother Maurice. I suppose it's also like if you went to buy a car and the salesperson showed you a shadow of the car and you felt satisfied purchasing just the shadow. Or if you were buying a house and went to the closing having seen only the shadow of the house. It would be a good thing to see the shadow, because it means that the real thing actually exists there as the source of the shadow, but no one can live in a shadow house or drive a shadow car! (Hebrews 10:1-10)
God's ways and thoughts may be higher than ours but He has revealed as much of them that we need to understand His character if we read and study the whole of the Word of the LORD.
Deut 29:29 NLT
The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of His instructions
What I believe:
I trust the gospel preached by Jesus, Paul, John, Peter, and affirmed by Ellen White, that Jesus Christ took our sins on himself as the atoning sacrifice so that His righteousness could be imputed to us and then imparted to us to transform us into His likeness.
Matt 26:28; 1Cor 15:1-4; 1John 2:2 NIV; 1John 4:10 NIV; 1Peter 2:24; 2Peter 1:1-4
The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,—just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,— perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized. SC 62.1
Steps to Christ 62.1
Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned. SC 62.2 More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. SC 62.3
Steps to Christ 62.2-3
It suddenly caught my attention that Paul was praying to the "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"... His Father is also our Father! Paul's appeal goes out through our mediator, which is our brother! It is yet difficult for me to have Jesus as my brother! But I'll get there! Thanks, Paul!
It seems to me that the purification sacrifice not only points us to Christ dying for our sins, but also prompts us into repentence. The reparation or restitution: Leviticus 5:16. I do believe also facilitates repentence.
Seeing what our sins have done to Christ, if we don't resist the drawing of Christ love for us, makes us sorrowful for our sins(repentant). The opposite would be arrogance to God. Thus back to Sundays lesson, God can't look the other way otherwise the reason for the flood would happen. And yes as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when Christ returns again. But that is no excuse to practice chaos(sin). Rather it is a reason to ask for forgiveness, repent, concecrate ourselves to God, grow into Christ, and practice discipleship, through the power of Christ.
Now we can say:
For (we are) not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16 KJV
We are adopted(in this case adopted means, choose to follow Christ).
Jesus counsel in Matthew 18:15-17 is a counsel that I have yet to see demonstrated by the SDA Leadership or even preached about by SDA Evangelists or Pastors or Teachers as having any importance in living for Jesus. We SDA's seem to just go on and claim that we have greater light than Jesus did here and go on to claim that "Grace" is way better than this counsel of Jesus in dealing with those who we feel are in the wrong or that we have wronged. We go on to form committees to see and deal with these wrongs rather than go and counsel to follow Jesus counsel strictly and start with step one of this counsel that has "Three Steps" to it.
Pete, I have heard it preached and seen this counsel from Jesus put into practice.
I am sorry to hear that you have experienced churches/leaders that do not put it into practice.
What can one do when the community of faith to which they belong do not put it into practice?
Maybe one can go individualy to such a leader and discuss it with him as Jesus recommends?
Ah, yes, Shirley, following Christ's counsel ourselves is the first step in dealing with church situations that are out of harmony with Christ's counsel.
I, too, have seen this counsel followed - sometimes better than others. In one church, where we had a problem with two unmarried people engaging in activity appropriate only for married couples, I was the one who saw the woman involved (the man was not a member) and was blessed to witness how the Holy Spirit worked. It is a delicate work and should be thoroughly bathe in prayer. In my case, the prayer included prayer together with the woman involved.
Here's a little more about the Burnt Offering which I find meaningful in symbolism.
This was a CONTINUAL offering. It burned around the clock (Numbers 28:10; 29:16). This was the daily evening and morning sacrifice, so there was always a sacrificial animal on the altar (Lev. 6:9). The morning sacrifice symbolically atoned for sins committed during the night, and the evening sacrifice symbolically atoned for sins occurred during the day. So an Israelite who had just offered sacrifices for his family and returning home, who then sinned on the way home, would not need to turn around and return to the Tabernacle/Temple and start over again. A person was always "covered" before God, even before they confessed. Jesus' blood covers us all the time, even before we recognize a sin or repent of it.
Another important thing about the Burnt Offering was that because it was continual on a national level, it was a part of every other offering. It was the most comprehensive sacrifice and combined elements of all the other offerings. (It was also the first type of sacrifice mentioned in the Bible: Noah after the flood in Gen 8:20; Abraham and Isaac in Gen. 22:2; Job mediating for his children in Job 1:5.) The Burnt Offering was paired with other offerings made by individuals too. Therefore, this adds to the "all-consuming" aspect of the symbolism. "Holding nothing back" is who Jesus is and the most important part of His ministry: He was fully surrendered to the Father. The application for us is that with every type of offering - thanks, fellowship, reparation, etc. - we offer back, God created us to be fully surrendered too. No offering is acceptable if a portion is kept back from God for myself. (Think of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11.
And lastly, the person placing their hand on the head of the animal was to "lean their weight" onto the animal, symbolizing a complete dependence upon and substitution for. Luke 18:9-14 ...which person was leaning in and which was just going through the motions?
Hello Esther,
You stated "The morning sacrifice symbolically atoned for sins committed during the night, and the evening sacrifice symbolically atoned for sins occurred during the day." I have always looked at the burnt offering as one that shows complete devotion to God. That it was "continual," symbolically represented Israel's continuous devotion to God.
Would you please provide some scriptural references to show that it was a sin offering?
Thanks.
Richard
Hi Richard,
Thank you for having this conversation with me. I encountered this idea about the morning and evening sacrifices in the SDA commentary for Leviticus 1. Can’t give you a page number right now because I’m on the road and don’t have the volume with me.
Also, if we consider that all blood offerings are sin offerings then that makes sense. We see that it was a burnt offering that Abraham offered when God spared his son Isaac’s life (Genesis 22:2). We know that event symbolized God giving up his own Son for our sins as our substitute.
On 3ABN Sabbath School, I heard that the burnt offering was atonement for non-defiant sins, the sin offering was for unintentional sins, and the restitution offering was for misusing holy things. The restitution offering could also be used for a guilt offering for intentional sins (Lev. 5:1, Lev 6:1-7, Lev 19:20-22, Ezra 10:18-19.)
Hope this is helpful. May God continue to bless as we dig deeper into His Word.
Esther
Hello Esther,
It is unclear to me how all the animal sacrifices could be sin offerings. Leviticus does not teach this because it specifically identifies the offerings that deal with sin and guilt, in contrast with those that show devotion, gratitude and fellowship. It is very difficult for me to see how devotion, gratitude and fellowship are sins that require an animal sacrifice.
I look forward to digging deeper into this with you, so that I can gain a better understanding.
Richard
Hi Richard,
For me, the fact that it was a burnt offering sacrifice that was made in place of offering Isaac, is enough to show me that the burnt offering was an atonement offering.
Here is some more info from Gotquestions.org, an online Bible commentary….
Leviticus 1 and 6:8-13 describe the traditional burnt offering. The Israelites brought a bull, sheep, or goat, a male with no defect, and killed it at the entrance to the tabernacle. The animal’s blood was drained, and the priest sprinkled blood around the altar. The animal was skinned and cut it into pieces, the intestines and legs washed, and the priest burned the pieces over the altar all night. The priest received the skin as a fee for his help. A turtledove or pigeon could also be sacrificed, although they weren’t skinned.
A person could give a burnt offering at any time. It was a sacrifice of general atonement—an acknowledgement of the sin nature and a request for renewed relationship with God. God also set times for the priests to give a burnt offering for the benefit of the Israelites as a whole, although the animals required for each sacrifice varied:
Every morning and evening (Exodus 29:38-42; Numbers 28:2)
Each Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10)
The beginning of each month (Numbers 28:11)
At Passover (Numbers 28:19)
With the new grain/firstfruits offering at the Feast of Weeks (Numbers 28:27)
At the Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hashanah (Numbers 29:1)
At the new moon (Numbers 29:6)
The ultimate fulfillment of the burnt offering is in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. His physical life was completely consumed, He ascended to God, and His covering (that is, His garment) was distributed to those who officiated over His sacrifice (Matthew 27:35). But most importantly, His sacrifice, once for all time, atoned for our sins and restored our relationship with God.
God’s blessings to you!
Hello Esther,
The burnt offering had a broader variety of meanings until the sacrificial laws were given through Moses. At that point, the sacrificial rituals were made more specific to provide a fuller understanding of the coming Messiah's work. As you point out, the focus of all the sacrifices was atonement.
The last sentence of your last paragraph is on point. All these rituals were nothing but "shadows" of the good things to come through the Messiah: restoration of relationship with our God and by that with our "neighbours." The life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Saviour are all about eliminating (blotting out) the barriers and obstacles of sin to accomplish this goal of restoration that we may be remade in his image.
Thanks for the clarification.
The animal sacrifices of the sanctuary rituals were instituted by God to preach the Gospel to Israelites. The clearly stated objective of these sacrifices is atonement (at-one-ment) with God and through that restored relationship, restoration of relationship with fellow mankind (our “neighbours”). These rituals teach that only by identifying himself with the One whom the sacrifice represented and trusting completely in that One’s saving work, could the supplicant:
1) Be completely devoted to God (burnt offering),
2) Have peace and fellowship with God and mankind (peace/fellowship offering),
3) Be assured that unintentional sin (unintentional words and actions that were not in accord with God’s principles of love) was forgiven (sin/purification offering),
4) Be assured (after confession and reparation to God and one hurt by the sin) that intentional sin was forgiven (guilt/reparation offering).
Unlike sacrifices to pagan gods, these offerings were not to appease God or buy his favour. Offerings made to appease God and buy his favour were abhorrent to him because this is the basis of heathen worship. This is the kind of worship that Satan and his demons demand, not God.
Beautifully and succinctly summarized, Richard!
Thank you so much!