In the first seven chapters of Leviticus, we have the law which regulated the various offerings for the priest, the rulers, and the people. Concerning the latter, Moses is directed to "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord; and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord; and the priests, the sons of Aaron, shall bring the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation," &c. -- (Leviticus 1:2-9). The same arrangement on the part of the people held good in respect of peace offerings, offerings for sins of ignorance, and for sin offerings in general.
We are here taught that he who brought the offering was the offerer, it was his sacrifice. And that he had to offer it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. It was the man, not the priest who killed it. After it was slain, the priest received both the blood and the animal, and it was accepted for the man to make atonement for him. In the case of voluntary burnt offering, the offering had to be wholly burnt; but in the case of a sin-offering, the law was, "The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it, in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation." -- (Leviticus 6:26). And the reason for this is stated in chapter 10:17: "God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them before the Lord." Paul says "It was not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." So we find that, under the law, it was used to transfer sin from the sinner to the altar, and through the flesh of them, to the priest. In laying his hand on the head of his offering, it became sin for him, for he must, of necessity, tell the priest what he had brought it for. After this confession, he shed its life's blood and gave it to the priest along with the carcass. The priest presented the blood at God's altar; but he ate the flesh in the holy place, and thereby did eat up the sin of God's people, and bore it for them in his own body. As the Lord had said to Aaron, "Thou and thy sons, and thy father's house with thee, shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood."--(Numbers 18:1.) "I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing."--(verse 8) It was "by reason of the anointing" that the priests did eat the flesh and bare the iniquity of the children of Israel.
Aaron was anointed with the holy oil God had directed Moses to make (Exod. 30:23-33), after he had been washed in the laver, and dressed with the holy garments and mitre described in Exod. 28. This mitre had upon it, fastened with blue lace, a plate of gold, on which was engraved, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD." 'And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord."--(verse 38.) And concerning the garments of both Aaron and his sons, it is said (ver. 43) "They shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die; it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him." These anointed holy garments were, therefore, a sin covering, whereby the priests could bear the iniquities of the nation before the Lord without them, they would "bear iniquity and die." With these on them "the holy things of Israel would be accepted before the Lord."
From all this it will be seen that for the priest, God required a human sinbearer, who should be clothed with anointed holy garments. He bore the sins in his own body through eating the flesh of the sacrifice, to which sin by a figure had been transferred; and he made atonement for the sinner by presenting the blood of the flesh shed by the sinner at the altar. The law was, "The priest shall make atonement for him, and his sin shall be forgiven." The blood being the life, it was offered as an atonement for the sin of the sinner; that is, through the blood and flesh of the offering being made sin for the sinner; by the laying on of his hand, its blood was reckoned as his life's blood; and as "he that is dead is freed from sin" (Rom. 6:7), he thereby became free from the condemnation of the law. The blood had all to be poured out at the bottom of the altar under the fire; the fat had to be burned by the fire of God upon the altar, and the flesh had to be eaten by the priest that offered it for sin in the holy place. By eating the flesh, the priest put it under the sin-covering garments. By pouring out the blood under, and burning the fat upon the altar, the sinner became representatively dead to the law, but alive to God through the life of the priest. His sin was forgiven, therefore, through the atonement made by the priest, so that he might, in his real flesh and blood, live acceptably in the sight of God.
God arranged the yearly atonement, in order that the priests might put away from themselves the accumulated sins and iniquities of the nation. Here again the imperfect and typical blood of bullocks and goats had to be offered to God, the former for the priests, the latter for the people.--(Lev. 16.) Aaron had first to offer for his own sins and then for the people's, and also with the blood of both offerings, he had to make atonement for the holy place, the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar; "because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions in all their sins." This done, he took the live goat, laid both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and then sent him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness; and the goat bore upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited (margin, a land of separation)--(ver. 21, 22). These "iniquities," "transgressions," and "sins" Aaron had taken unto himself as the nation's sinbearer during the year; hence he had to lay on hands and confess; and accordingly he had to kill both sacrifices. Thus sin bearing and sin putting away went on from year to year, because of infirmity and death in the priesthood, "The law made nothing perfect."
A perfect arrangement for the putting away of sins was accomplished in Jesus the anointed. Of him Paul says in relation to the yearly atonement under the law, and its insufficiency as a permanent means of putting away sin, "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, 'Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me" (Heb. 5:5). Paul had already shown what the nature of that "body" required to be. Under the law God required, and provided a human sin-bearer, covered with holy garments and anointed with oil. Both garments and oil were made according to His directions, and were not to be used for any other purpose on pain of death. So it behoved Jesus to be qualified in the same for his priestly work. He must be human, and provided with a sin-covering from God, with which He shall be satisfied.
That the "body prepared" was human, Paul says in the 2nd chapter and 14-17th verses: "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy that having the power of death, that is the diabolos....Wherefore it behoved him to be made in all things like unto his brethren: that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." No argument can explain away the force of these words, Jesus was of the seed of Abraham, and because he was so, necessarily partook of the same flesh and blood as his brethren who were of the same "stock." And it behoved him to be so under the law, else he could not be a merciful and faithful high priest, nor could he be otherwise, a sin-bearer. One only point of difference existed, and that was in having the God of Abraham for his Father. But that was in addition to the other points. He had all the other "things like unto his brethren." True, he was not a personal transgressor; but this does not interfere with his being in all things made like his brethren; for transgression is an act an not an element of the constitution. The one peculiarity he had besides was his relation to the Father in his conception and anointing. This was an addition. The Renunciationists curiously make subtraction of it, and argue that it subtracted from his flesh its relationship to Adam and Adam's sin, inherited through his mother. If that were so, Paul's argument that it "behoved him to be made in all things like unto his brethren" loses its force; because it was the sin of Adam that brought sin and death into the world; and our relationship to him brought us all into the position of requiring to be delivered from sin and death. This relationship to Adam is the "likeness of sinful flesh:" out of which all the various characteristics of the race have been developed. This "likeness," says Paul, "it behoved" the Son of God to have, in order to fit him for being a priest, and "to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." His brethren were under the law of Moses as well as under condemnation through Adam. So Jesus "was born out of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law" (Galatians 4:4).
The fact that Enoch and Elijah, though of the race of Adam, did not die, proves that a way of escape from the penalty of Adam's sin was possible. The law of Moses provided that "he that doeth it shall live by it." This Jesus did; "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." On that account he claimed life for himself. "He asked life of Thee, Thou gavest him, even length of days for ever and ever" (Psalm 21:4). So "God loosed him from the bonds of death (his voluntary death) because it was not possible that he should be holden under it" (Acts 2:24). His perfection was not that of a free life, free from any law, but a perfection wrought out by obedience to God under the law of his brethren in the flesh. "For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings." "Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him" (Hebrews 2:10; 5:8-9). This perfection accomplished through suffering was obtained by doing the will of God. "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once" (Hebrews 10:7-10). The faith of Jesus laid hold on the will of God, for the doing of which he was anointed with Holy Spirit and power. His anointed obedience, up to his death on the cross, was accepted by God as a sin-covering to sanctify, or separate from their fellow-men all who should come under it. His blood having been shed under this covering of righteousness, it availed as an atonement for all who were under it through the faith of him (Romans 3:22-25). The blood of Jesus is, therefore, not a payment of the penalty of sin--death; but for a reconciliation on behalf of the living, in order that, with its accompanying sin-covering, they might render acceptable service to God, to fit them for the life of the age that will come to them through the resurrection of Christ. "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10). So Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself in behalf (huper) of me" (Galatians 2:20). The death of Jesus had to fulfil the law of the sin-offerings for the people, and that of the yearly sin-offering made by the high priest for the putting away of the people's sins from himself. For the latter, Jesus offered himself to God "That the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:15). For the former, the people of Israel, the priests, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Roman soldiers, laid wicked hands upon him, crucified and slew him (Acts 2:23; 4:27,28). In condemning him to the death of the cross, they placed him passively under the curse of the law of moses, which cursed every one who hangeth on a tree. Jesus gave himself up to God. And then God delivered him up to these wicked hands, to crucify and slay him through his determined counsel and foreknowledge. As Jesus said to Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were give thee from above." In this position, under the curse of the law, God laid upon him the iniquities of the nation (Isaiah 53:4-8). Under that load he died, and with his death, the law, its curse, and its curse, and its transgressions, all came to an end together (Dan. 9:24; Gal. 3:10; Eph. 2:14,15; Col 2:14). He was the Lamb of God who bore away the sins of the kosmos, or Mosaic arrangement. His death occurred at the time of eating the Passover lamb. Paul said, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, wherefore let us keep the feast," &c. (1 Cor. 5:7,8). All Israel had to partake of the paschal lamb, so it was necessary to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man (the Lamb of God) in order to obtain the life of the age. The sense in which this is to be done, Jesus explained in John 6:63, "It is the Spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you are Spirit, and they are life. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end" (Heb. 3:14). But not the Christ according to the flesh. "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more" (2 Cor. 5:16). And why? Because "dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is RAISED FROM THE DEAD, that we should bring forth fruit to God" (Rom. 7:4).
The Gentiles were not under the law, and therefore, not under its curse, and did not need redemption in the same sense as the Jews. The "redemption" that Gentiles need is "the redemption of the body."--(Rom. 8:23.) But we become partakers of "the redemption that is in Christ" for the Jews, by being united to him, and thereby becoming "Jews inwardly" (Rom. 2:29; Eph. 2:12-19); and, therefore, Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29).
The Christadelphian (1874)