Sunday, January 12, 2020

Unintentional Sin’s Atonement

Leviticus 4:22-35
22 “When a ruler has sinned, and done something unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord his God in anything which should not be done, and is guilty, 23 or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a male without blemish. 24 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the goat, and kill it at the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord. It is a sin offering. 25 The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. 26 And he shall burn all its fat on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of the peace offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.
    27 “If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, 28 or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. 29 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. 30 Then the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. 31 He shall remove all its fat, as fat is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma to the Lord. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.   32 “If he brings a lamb as his sin offering, he shall bring a female without blemish. 33 Then he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill it as a sin offering at the place where they kill the burnt offering. 34 The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and pour all the remaining blood at the base of the altar. 35 He shall remove all its fat, as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering. Then the priest shall burn it on the altar, according to the offerings made by fire to the Lord. So the priest shall make atonement for his sin that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him.

The sin offering is further described for a ruler and for those of the common people who would bring an offering of a goat or lamb, the lamb being an option for the common people and not a ruler.  Note that these are still sin offerings for unintentional sins which violate God’s commands and directions to His people, ones which ignorance of the laws or their details cause the sin, not willing disobedience by those with full knowledge of His commands.  The common theme is that the priest accepts the sin offering and makes atonement on behalf of the sinner before God with the sacrifice.  This is like Christ who acts as our High Priest to sacrifice Himself to atone for our sins before our Father when we were lost in sin as ignorant yet inexcusable enemies of Him (Romans 5:8-10).   He is the priest and the sacrifice whose blood flowed instead of ours who deserve death, and whose one life and death and resurrection seals our eternal salvation from sin’s penalty.  There is no more sacrifice which can be made nor which should be made for us.  It is finished!  

No comments:

Post a Comment