Leviticus 17:11-14 “for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.' … (14) For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
The Old Covenant was given to us as a type and shadow of that which is to come (Hebrews 10:1). And so as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, under the Old Covenant God gave the children of Israel the blood of animals to make atonement for their souls, i.e. for their sins. So why did God use the blood of animals to atone for the sins of the Jews? God tells us in this passage that the life of the animal is in its blood. And so the reason God could use the blood of an animal was because the animal, unlike men, was not contaminated with sin, and therefore an innocent life with innocent blood could be offered as the atoning sacrifice for those who were guilty of sin. Nevertheless, even though the blood of animals was free from sin it was not possible that their blood could take away the sin of mankind; it could only be used to cover their sin.
Romans 3:25 “because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us the truth that under the Old Covenant, that in God’s forbearance He passed over the sins that the Jews committed. In other words, God refrained from exercising His righteous judgement in holding the Jews accountable for their sins, by choosing rather to overlook their sins. The reason God could do that was because the innocent blood of an animal was used to cover over their sins. Nevertheless, even though the sins of the Jews were covered by the blood of animals, their sins still remained. And so the real reason God could overlook their sins at the time, was because God knew that their sins would ultimately be accounted for through the blood of the Lamb. The Passover account in scripture is very descriptive for us regarding this concept, for on that first Passover night the Jews had to place the blood of a spotless lamb upon the lintel and doorposts of their homes, so that the angel of death would pass over them and not kill the firstborn in the home. All of this pointed to the New Covenant that was to come.
Leviticus 16:21 “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.”
The above quoted passage of scripture reveals the mechanism that God used under the Old Covenant, to transfer the sins of the Jews onto the body of the animal that was to be sacrificed. God instructed the priest to lay his hands on the animal and confess the sins of the people over the animal, and in that manner God could then transfer their sins onto the animal. Although this passage refers specifically to the scapegoat, the same principle also applied to the goat that was to be slain for their sins (Leviticus 4:24). And so this practice also pointed to the New Covenant that was to come, for under the New Covenant God transferred the sin of the world onto His Son, as it is written “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Hebrews 10:4-5 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (5) Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”
Our Lord Jesus taught us that God is a spirit, but just as God is spirit so the Lord Jesus is also a spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17). We know that Jesus is the Word of God, for the scripture teaches us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, speaking of the Lord Jesus (John 1:1-14). And so in order for the Lord Jesus to have become flesh, He obviously did not have a body of flesh before He came to the earth. So why did God deem it necessary for His Son to receive a physical body when He came to the earth? There are a number of reasons, but the main reason which we will concentrate on in this section is the one mentioned in the above quoted passage of scripture. In speaking about the body that God the Father had prepared for Him, our Lord Jesus links it to the fact that God had no pleasure in the offering of bulls and goats, as was required under the Old Covenant. So why is that? The Holy Spirit answers that question for us by telling us that it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins, thus implying that it was only the blood of Jesus that could accomplish that. That is why John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus was the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), nevertheless because God had prepared His body for Him, the blood that flowed through Jesus’ veins was pure and holy, uncontaminated by sin and death, because His blood came directly from God and not through Adam, for Jesus was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:23).
Romans 3:24-25 “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (25) whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood.”
We saw in an earlier quoted passage of scripture, that the apostle Peter taught us that Jesus bore our sins in His body. So why was it important for Jesus to bear our sins in His body? It was necessary because the life of Jesus’ body was in His blood and the blood of Jesus was pure and holy. And so when God made Jesus to be sin with the sin of the world, that sin was ultimately transferred to the blood of Jesus. The law clearly states that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). And so when Jesus gave His life for the sins of the world He also gave up His blood for our sins. And so as revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture, the reason why God prepared a body for His Son was so that the shed blood of the Lord Jesus could be used to make atonement for the sin of the world, and in that manner Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). What that means is that when Christ died on the cross that His blood was at that stage, carrying the sin of the world.
Michael E.B. Maher
Commentaires