Well, summer usually is the time where libraries encourage everyone (especially kids) to begin reading even more; by God’s grace I’ve found a LOT of grace in doing just that.  The book I recently finished has had an immediate effect (and by God’s grace an enduring one) about grasping the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for sinners like you and me.  And ironically, this is the book that most Christians “find it easy to fall asleep to”.  It’s the book where God’s laws about cleanliness is vividly described, about what is “clean” and “unclean”, the prescribed actions to take for testing leprosy, what to do in cases of bodily discharges, and many other laws.  Yes, I’m talking about Leviticus.

But the book of Leviticus doesn’t open up with a list of do’s and don’ts.  Rather, the book opens up with different types of offerings: burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.  Moses goes on in detail about what is required for the worshipper in terms of what to bring to the priest, maintaining a state of cleanliness, and the procedure of handling these offerings.  Very bloody was it in the tabernacle, and eventually the temple!  Think about it – a priest would go home smelling like the carcass of a bull, goat, bird, sheep, and/or a ram!  They would be informed by the Holy One about how many were animals needed to be killed and in what way, if hands were to be laid on them, how its blood was to be used, and if they were allowed to eat any portions!  This is what God requires for a burnt offering for birds (to which I almost gagged in disgust, thinking about what that must have looked like!):

“If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. He shall tear it open by its wings, but shall not sever it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:14-17, emphasis added).

What must it be like to witness such gruesomeness?  Grain offerings weren’t so bad as far as blood goes, but the requirements God places upon the priests!  But the longest “offering guidelines” the Lord talks about is the sin offering, what to do if anyone sins unintentionally (4:2), if the whole congregation sins unintentionally (4:13), when a leader sins unintentionally (4:22), if a common person sins unintentionally (4:32), and if anyone sins deliberately (5:1)!  Listen, we need an atoning sacrifice, without which no one can be in right relationship with the Lord, the Holy One who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16).  And the book goes on!  Talking about how the priest is to handle these offerings!  Sadly, Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons, offer unauthorized fire in the tent before the Lord, and pay for such a costly mistake with their very lives consumed by the fire they offer (10:1-2).  As concerned as God is with sin, so he is more concerned about what we try to do with it.  There is no offering we can make in our own ability to assuage God’s holy wrath towards our sin.  Only God can provide that remedy!  And that’s what God has helped me to see and glory in through this obscure book of the Bible.  No human can offer anything that would for all time satisfy God’s holiness; only God can do that, and he did.  Leviticus is all about how a holy God and sinful man can live in right relationship – through a substitutionary sacrifice that would satisfy God’s holiness and also display God’s incredible love!  Leviticus is all about Jesus Christ; the one who would be the priest offering the sacrifice, the tent where the sacrifice was made, and the sacrifice itself!

By God’s grace, two years ago I memorized the book of Hebrews, which is an incredible book about the superiority of Christ!  Though I’m light years away from Luther’s brilliant mind, I hope that I can say that to some degree, Hebrews is my “Katherine” (Luther’s wife’s name).  I love it – no other book has captured my heart more than Hebrews.  “So why make that side note?  Big deal!” you may be thinking.  True, but I hope to bridge the gap and be used by God to encourage you to worship Jesus!

As I read Leviticus about the sacrifices, the tent, and the priest that would offer these sacrifices, the phrase that would keep ringing in my ears is this: once for all.  Nowhere in Leviticus do you find it, for “the Law (and thereby the sacrifices) made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19).  The theme of “once for all” is communicated several times in Hebrews, and I hope and want you to leave this post more aware of the supremacy of Christ, leaving you to worship the One who satisfied the Father’s wrath in your place!  Here’s a small bit of the “once for all” concept in Hebrews (emphasis added); please as you read those words, let those three words sink in!

·         “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself” (7:27)

·         “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (9:11-12)

·         “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (9:25-26)

·         When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:8-10)

·         One of my favorites: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (10:11-14)

And the best news about this new covenant relationship with God is this in a closing summary: “where there is forgiveness of these (sins that you and I have committed against God), there is no longer any offering for sin” (10:18)!  That’s it; it is FINISHED!  We don’t have to bring anything because Jesus Christ brought EVERYTHING in himself!  The blood of animals offered symbolizes its life, which God has given to make atonement for our souls; it is its blood that makes atonement by its life (Lev. 17:11)!  And as Hebrews 10:4 says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins!  But the blood of Christ, his perfect blood, makes perfect atonement for us.  God has indeed provided the remedy for our depravity!  Jesus Christ offered the sacrifice; indeed, he was the sacrifice! 

So what are we to do because of what this great High Priest has done for us?  I’ll leave you with Hebrews 10:19-25, then by God’s grace apply what his word says (emphasis added)! 

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

Now step away from the computer and let's worship Jesus Christ for his subsitutionary life and death on the cross for sinners like you and me!