Published: January 25, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Leviticus - The Parable of Leviticus 1 - Part 3 | Scripture: Leviticus 1:1-3:17
Transcript
View Full Transcript →
0:02
and try to uh interpret it rightly we pray that your spirit would guide us and uh lead us into the truth and away from error we pray that as we study Leviticus our understanding and our
0:16
appreciation of the finished work of Jesus Christ would would expand and grow and intensify we also ask father that our time together would be pleasing to you
0:28
that our fellowship would be sweet and our devotion would be increased by your spirit that we might return to you some at least of the love that you have
0:39
overwhelmingly poured out unto us we pray in Jesus name
0:50
amen continuing our general discussion of Leviticus we haven't really gotten into the sacrifices yet and that is uh next week as we begin the general sacrifices the first three
1:00
in Leviticus in Leviticus 1 there are five in the opening chapters of Leviticus um three and they kind of pair up three and two by several
1:13
different the the mechanics of them as well as the literary form of how they're presented to us they they are three and two so we'll be looking at those Lord
1:23
willing starting next week but there are some terms that just uh kind of go with our understanding of of
1:34
sacrifice um and and perhaps the the the main term that uh that we've been taught uh especially in the reformed tradition
1:44
concerning sacrifice is the word atonement so I think there are words like propitiation and experation you know there are number of terms that are
1:56
um kind of bandied about in the reformed literature and they do have um uh a meaning that is accepted there's a
2:08
conventional wisdom with regard to these um terms and and they pertain of course to Jesus Christ and his Sac self-sacrifice which we I think we all
2:19
agree is the Fulfillment of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament so we read in um again in Hebrews 9 that's the chapter that speaks the
2:30
levitical system as a parable but starting in verse 11 but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come he entered through the
2:40
greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this creation and not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood he entered the holy Place once for
2:52
all having obtained Eternal Redemption so there you know there's the um some summary statement would you mind closing that door the summary statement
3:02
that Jesus Christ with his death on the cross fulfilled the the entirety of the Old Testament sacrificial system but with
3:16
that understanding the tendency now and has been throughout the history of the church with few exceptions the tendency is to do what I call a backwards
3:26
exegesis that we we go back to the the Old Testament but we now interpret what we read we read there through what Jesus
3:37
did and I think that probably sounds reasonable but I think we do have to remember that that's not the way God gave it to us we're reversing
3:49
progressive revelation by doing that it's it's almost an anachronism we're going back to the Old Testament now it there's a sense in which we cannot help but doing that because we are on this side of the
4:00
cross and of the empty tomb and there's there's no way we can comp and I'm not even suggesting that we would remove Christ and his work from the equation but I am
4:11
suggesting that when many commentators do this and and go back they they're actually superimposing an understanding uh and an interpretation of the
4:23
sacrifices that isn't in the text itself and that should be a problem to us when we think oh this means such and so and then we go back to the Old
4:35
Testament it isn't there or perhaps it's there but in a completely different and maybe even opposite meaning then maybe our backwards exog
4:47
Jesus is Jesus is wrong that that we're not doing our hermeneutics in the right direction does that make sense anybody have a comment or question on that
5:04
just a clarifying question maybe because I understand what you're saying inic like that immediate meaning and important out through the rest of
5:16
the life of Israel I guess the reason why it's picking in my bra particular is I made an argument for a form of back Jesus when I was doing the J study
5:26
because I think there's a value in acknowleding that you're Examining The Light of Light of Christ re yeah job of course is wisdom
5:40
literature right it's a different it's a it's a different type of of literature granted U what you said there at the end that that you're acknowledging that you're interpreting it in the Light of Christ I think is both unavoidable and
5:53
not a problem we we need to acknowledge the finished work of Jesus Christ what I'm saying I think in in summary and I've been saying this somewhat already
6:03
is that we don't we don't really understand the finished work of Jesus Christ until we understand the Shadows the types the symbols but what we're
6:13
doing is we think we understand the fullness of Jesus's sacrifice and then we just go back and find it in the Old Testament texts and but when we read the
6:23
text and that's what I'm going to try to point out tonight it's it's not there okay our understanding of atonement for example we're going to talk about the conventional
6:34
understanding of understanding of atonement is is actually not present in many times that word is used the word is cfair and it's
6:45
it's a very common Old Testament word um but but our understanding of of atonement is is almost rarely the meaning of the Old Testament
6:59
context now we work backwards but Paul worked forward his understanding of what God did in did in Christ flowed from his understanding of
7:12
what God had done in Israel I'm saying let's follow his footsteps let let's go back to the Old Testament and read the
7:23
text and let the text inform the terms and then as we move toward the fulfillment in Jesus Christ I think that the understanding of what Christ did is
7:35
going to be expanded we're going to understand more of what he did by doing a backward ex of Jesus our understanding again it's a thinner
7:46
Christ right and and this is really really true in the reformed um camp or the reformed theology and that is you know certain
7:57
things are said certain certain ways and if you don't say them that way then you're looked at a scance um and if you
8:07
keep not saying them in the right way eventually you're you're going to be shut down as heretical okay so that there's a very but I think that's probably true in in
8:17
much of denominational dogmatics is that we again this goes back to the the systematics at the exclusion of the biblical Theology and we become very Matic in a
8:30
very narrow channel um of our understanding and I think there's a great deal great deal of majesty in what Jesus has
8:40
fulfilled that broadens the interpretation of the word atonement and actually gives it in some respects a very different perspective which is where we're kind of heading Abe and then
8:51
Aaron I was just trying to think that word sacrifice and I think it's just our moding the word sacrifice you think it's
9:02
like I get myot chocolate up you know but in Arabic the word sacrifices often has to do with killing
9:13
has to do with blood that word has that connotation so we don't have that connotation sacrifice no the English word I don't know how it is in Hebrew at least in Arabic it's
9:25
always the conations mhm and and and I think we find in in Leviticus especially uh Leviticus um
9:37
17 that the blood is is the life and so yeah that that is going to be at the heart the blood but we also find a number of
9:48
number of atonements that have no blood no blood at all okay grain offerings that are called atonements okay so the word cfair uh like many
9:59
words is much broader than its interpretation has has come to be what we've done is we've we've taken the multifaceted symbolism of the parable
10:12
we've narrowed into one facet one one side of the gem and we've said this is what it means what this is what atonement means but then we go back and
10:23
we look at that word in its context of the Old Testament we realize no that's not what it meant uh this has a completely different completely different context so the blood is Central there no
10:35
doubt about that and and um and we'll we'll get into that because there's there's obviously quite a bit of blood and I think you're right that the Old
10:46
sacrifice um blood was shed even when there were sacrifices that did not shed blood there had been other sacrifices leading up
10:57
burnt offerings peace offer there other sacrifices that have been given that day in the morning or in the evening okay so blood has been shed but for the
11:08
individual Sinner and I think this is this is uh I've made made mention of this so many times that the the individuality of our modern culture has caused us to individualize
11:21
everything God has done and then we go back to the Old Testament and we realize now this isn't actually dealing with the individual this is dealing with the
11:32
community and and yet then it deals with the individual the the first three deal with the community more than the second the last two deal more with the individual so they're both there but
11:42
they need to be there in in Balance scriptural balance Eric
11:56
set where then is the sound doctr against which the law is
12:08
no what is thew set up he says do you sound is there to protect where uh what passage are you first Timothy says
12:25
dis that which is contrary to sound Doctrine um it seems like
12:36
discussing okay give me the verse where that starts that that's where you get but we know that the law okay so he starts out the goal of our instruction Is Love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere
12:48
Faith he's already warned him against paying attention to myths and endless genealogies speculation okay for some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless fruitless discussion wanting
13:01
to be teachers of the law even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions that's kind of what I'm saying okay right there verse seven but we know that the law is
13:12
good if one uses it lawfully realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man but for those who are Lawless and
13:23
rebellious okay immoral man and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and and whatever else is contrary to sound do sound teaching so the law I think what he's saying in
13:34
verses 9 and 10 is similar to what he says in Galatians and that the the law came in because of sin so the law stands against the immoral the homosexual the
13:46
the whatever stands against sound Doctrine which means sound Doctrine must be the be the law that that's what opposes those who
13:57
oppose sound Doctrine okay um and I I I think what he's saying here though I appreciate you bringing up this passage because there are many people who want to be teachers of the
14:08
law but they really don't have any understanding about the things they make confident assertions and I think one of the reasons they don't have any understanding is that they don't start
14:19
with the law they start with an understanding of the law that is often times um derived not from the scripture but from from church doctrine whether
14:31
it's Roman Catholicism through Thomas aquinus where you get a definite perspective of the law or whether it's the Protestant Reformation through either Martin Luther or John Calvin
14:42
where you get other perspectives on the law and then they take that and that's where they do the backward exegesis they're they're not even actually using the New Testament to shine light on the
14:53
Old Testament because as I said if they're going to do that correctly they're going to have to follow the same path that the New Testament writers followed themselves and that is they
15:05
came to an understanding of God's work in Christ through the law again Paul is our Exemplar here and
15:18
we know that he was a Pharisee which means his life was devoted to the study of Torah and yet that is he didn't guard
15:29
that Torah explained to him what Jesus was and what he did and I'm just I think I'm saying that um if we use a backward
15:40
exog Jesus if we interpret the Old Testament sacrifices entirely through the light of our understanding again listen to what I'm saying I'm not saying we're interpreting
15:51
through the Light of Christ we're interpreting through our understanding of the work of Christ but our understanding is is limited because we're not really investigating what it
16:02
is he fulfilled does that make sense does that help any okay so we're we're actually shining a very weak light back because we haven't had our batteries charged as Paul did with an
16:15
understanding of Torah okay so that's what that that's kind of where we're headed tonight is to talk about some of these um these um terms and you know we're going to talk
16:25
about a couple things especially one atonement and meaning of that word cfair in the Hebrew but also also the process of the laying on of hands and this this derives from a
16:39
common understanding of
16:51
atonement so we understand that Christ was sacrificed in our place but much of what the the rituals of Leviticus and exodus
17:03
Deuteronomy numbers the the procedures that were that were specified did not happen to Jesus and I don't mean to be crass or factious but we do know that apart from
17:15
the soldiers no one laid Hands On Christ so that that procedure is not in any way repeated in
17:25
the in the in the passion of Jesus Christ okay um and then there are a number of other other anomalies that we read in the Old Testament and and I don't know
17:36
if that this has ever happened to you but when you're reading these Old Testament sacrificial rituals have you ever asked yourself well how is it that Jesus fulfills
17:48
Jesus fulfills this I mean we know he's the Fulfillment of all the sacrificial system but then we read about for example the grain offering and you're like okay how does
17:59
Christ fulfill the grain offering does that make that a fair question and then we have numerous different um animal
18:11
sacrifices and we go from the animal being completely emulated on the altar except for the hide which is given to the
18:21
to the priest okay and then we have some that that some of it the fatty portions are burn in the Altar and the rest of it is eaten by the priests but they have to
18:33
eat it in the Holy place they can't take it home except for this one that they can take home and that one where the offerer himself and any friends he might have has a
18:43
feast but must eat it all by the next day or maybe the third day how are these things fulfilled in
18:53
Christ is that a fair question you know we say he fulfills everything then we read them like okay he fulfills everything we just say it we say it confidently enough and maybe a little louder next time you know it it sticks
19:06
but we don't really know how he fulfilled these things Aon I I'll
19:25
something because you think well how appropriate and then you that's right that's a very good point and a point that I you know I think many of us have probably thought and that is the day of atonement when the high priest and only
19:38
the high priest went into the holy of holies to present the sacrifice for the people which is exactly what I just read from Hebrews 9 right that we have a high
19:48
priest who has entered into the holy place and then you think but it was
19:59
Passover ho ve okay there are a lot of those things that the the connections that we have made have have been are very tenuous with the actual text but I believe and I
20:10
firmly believe that the text itself will actually deepen our understanding of what Christ did because we don't look at what Christ did as a one for one
20:22
fulfillment we begin to see as the writer of Hebrews alludes to that what God has done in Christ was incapable of even being
20:35
foreshadowed by just one sacrifice that it's the cumulative effect of all these different rituals both bloody and
20:46
bloodless and in that there's also the recognition that very few of these had to do with sin the first three that that we're
20:58
going to look at don't mention sin at all sin is not the context now that right there should shake anybody's foundations in terms of
21:08
a traditional understanding of sacrifice is to realize now we do know that sin is in the background but the word sin is not in the text and the purpose of the
21:22
first three sacrifices in Leviticus the burnt offering the um grain offering and the peace offering do not reference anybody's sin even the
21:34
congregations okay in fact they are free will offering the whole passage starts out saying if any Soul brings this offering this is how he
21:46
shall bring it the word is literally nephesh Soul not not even man okay but if any Soul brings an offering this is how he will do it okay so it's not even
21:57
a mandatory thing now there are others that are mandatory the morning and evening they were mandatory the Yom kipor that was mandatory um but many of them were not mandatory and had no
22:10
explicit reference to personal transgression so and then the ones that do have reference to personal transgression have reference to what we
22:20
call inadvertent sin okay we'll talk about that in coming weeks but it it just doesn't it doesn't flesh out the way at least the way I was
22:31
taught through reformed Seminary or through the various systematics and I'm going to we're going to talk about the the idea the idea then um the classical View and I'm
22:42
getting a little bit ahead of my my notes but the classical view in terms of atoning sacrifice so let's look at the I'm going to call it the classical
22:59
reformed and you've you've um I'm sure heard these words before the classical view is that sacrifice is vicarious or
23:09
vicarious or substitutionary okay so the the main
23:26
then is that the sacrifice stands in for the offerer stand in the place of is that okay with everybody all right um it seems quite obvious that somehow that
23:37
animal is standing in place of human beings how it standing in place is not that obvious that's that's going to be
23:47
my point okay so we say Okay vicarious substitutionary yes but yes but how well this will get us to the
23:58
discussion of the laying on of hands because again the classical re reform view is that there is a transferral of guilt from the offerer to the
24:11
victim okay so the answer is it's a transfer of transfer of guilt to the
24:30
very often okay and in the one place where it clearly and explicitly supports it it's a different a different result okay so it again when we get into
24:42
the the the the nitty-gritty we can we can see that there is some type of transfer there is some type of
24:54
substitution between the offerer and the victim but the standard relationship of guilt it's my guilt being laid upon this
25:06
animal is not borne out in the text of these sacrifices okay so that means that the
25:16
Identity or the identification must lie along some other principle does that make sense okay that we're not necessarily
25:29
transferring guilt to this animal I know that's that's probably sounds shocking to some who've you know who who've studied atonement in the
25:39
reformed tradition it almost sounds heretical okay to the people who are yeah um but
25:49
what we do know is again letting the light of the New Testament shine back we do know that he who knew no sin became
26:02
sin okay but was he guilty no he was not guilty of anything right so we we think that the sacrifice
26:14
transferred the guilt of the Israelite but the Fulfillment of it did not transfer guilt God condemned sin in the flesh so
26:24
obviously sin again in Paul's understanding capital S not sins but sin has something to do with all of
26:35
this right but just to get ahead of myself a little bit if guilt is transferred to the animal then the animal then becomes
26:48
unclean it is no longer innocent if Christ received our guilt he was no longer an innocent sacrifice because he was
26:58
guilty guilt implies guilt implies responsibility you're distinguishing between guilt and sin I am distinguishing I think the scripture is distinguishing between guilt and sin
27:09
okay I think that also Bears out in Romans 81 there is therefore now no condemnation there is no guilt guilt and sin are not synonymous and we think that they are
27:21
because we feel guilty for our sins right and we know that we were guilty Paul makes that clear if we needed even needed that we should know that by our
27:31
conscience but when we look at the the ultimate sacrifice to which all these other sacrifices other sacrifices pointed I do not think it was guilt that
27:43
was transferred I think there was a transfer I think it was a transfer of identity but guilt is not actually mentioned in many of these sacrifices
27:54
even the even the guilt offering implies forgiveness and restitution prior to the sacrifice repentance I should say and
28:06
restitution prior to the sacrifice okay we'll get to those uh those are those are in chapter four and five and six so we'll get to those in a couple of weeks but what I'm trying to introduce right
28:17
now I I guess what I'm trying to do is open your minds a little bit to the scripture not beyond that but to the scripture from the standard conventional
28:28
wisdom with regard to atoning sacrifice and allowing the text itself to actually come back and displace maybe
28:39
some ideas that we should not hold with regard to what God did so um to to ab's point there is absolutely a connection
28:52
of blood and I wanted to draw that out and I appreciate you mentioning that that's actually the first section of my my notes in the New Testament again the light shining back in Romans
29:10
3 we read in verses 24- 26 um verse 23 for we have all for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace through the Redemption which is in
29:20
Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance
29:32
of God he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time that he might be just and the justifier of the one who
29:44
has faith in Jesus
30:03
blood that I think to Paul and to any Jewish reader of Romans would remind them of the temple sacrifices which were done absolutely publicly they were done before all
30:15
Israel okay so the blood it was you didn't have a private sacrifice you didn't have a private altar okay you brought your sacrifice to the Tabernacle or you brought your sacrifice to the
30:25
temple you did not raise up your own high place that was expressly forbidden they did it anyhow but so when Paul says publicly offered as propitiation that
30:37
word propitiation is actually a Greek derivative of The Mercy Seat the helion so it it it has to do with the ultimate sacrifice and that was the
30:49
sprinkling of the blood on the Ark of the Covenant which was covered by the hilasterion The Mercy Seat and and Paul is saying that's Christ but what he's
31:00
saying here is there's a public display of righteousness why because of of of blood because of God's righteousness in
31:11
overlooking sins so that he might be just and the justifier so it all points to what God's doing not to what the priests are doing or even what the offerer of the
31:23
sacrifice was doing Aon so would it be fair to say that atonement is a covering it's if absolutely a covering yeah it's a covering in his blood and actually the
31:33
word that's one of the ways I always could remember the word is cfair which sounded like cover so the Hebrew word one of the few I could remember the other one was tent because the Hebrew
31:45
word is oh hell I never forgot that cuz I don't like camping in tents so there were some that just clicked
31:56
okay and and cfair was one because it means to cover all right but up ultimately what it means and I'm I'm getting way ahead of myself but I think it's necessary what it means within the
32:07
whole ritual is to cleanse and and I don't think we fully understand the importance of
32:18
cleansing and and everything was cleansed by Blood okay it was sprinkled by Blood and by water but it was the cleansing idea cleansing idea is is in Ezekiel 36 you know I will
32:31
sprinkle you will be clean I will clean you okay so the the idea is not that the Israelites they sinned and they brought a lamb they sinned they would not have
32:41
enough Lambs to cover their sins okay the I the the concept is the Israelites were unclean and they had to dwell in the
32:51
presence of a holy God what they needed was cleansing and so in that we're going to see this evening that the word cfair the word atonement in some very remarkable
33:04
instances had nothing to do with sin but it had to do with cleansing okay so we'll get to that in the moment
33:27
yeah yes yes it was very significant um and it is a visual and this is all very very visual so you have two visuals that I've tried to show go together in the in the um especially in the Tabernacle
33:38
years you have the visual manifestation of God in the shikina and then you have the visual manifestation of cleansing in the blood so it's it's one there's God but
33:50
then there's the people and and what this is really ultimately all about is that how can a holy God dwell with a Unholy people and
34:00
vice versa
34:12
Lauren in the levitical and you you're actually in the you're following me to Levi Leviticus 17 because that's what somebody who was reading Romans a Jew especially would think oh oh the blood the blood well for the life of the flesh
34:26
is in the blood and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood by reason of the life that
34:43
atonement now again conventional wisdom reformed teaching when we when we look at the word atonement we almost immediately do this
34:58
atonement equals forgiveness of sins of sins right is that fair again just conventional wisdom do we do we not generally think of
35:08
atonement in terms of forgiveness of sin or of sins what I'm trying to say is it's a lot more than that in felt ultimately atonement which is the word cfair okay comes down to this one Hebrew
35:19
word and how we understand it and what what this backward exog Jesus has done is it's taken one of the understandings and applied it to all of
35:30
the contexts but when we go back to the context we realize that can't be what that word that word means okay it h it's the same word but it can't mean the same thing would it
35:43
serve to talk a little B about theology our English word atonement was it not it not that made that up you know I don't know I've heard some really stupid things
35:54
recently in in the last few decades about what you know that it means at one Min and go and Goofy things no uh no I I don't think that's that's true um
36:05
certainly not true in the sense as comprehensive I I think the truest sense in the Old Testament at least is cleansing well no I me was it what
36:15
wickliff oh what wickliff I don't know where I does anybody know where he got it I I did not study made it up that he was trying to find a word that he that expressed the sense of thought the the
36:28
word means in Hebrew or if he thought the word meant at one me as in as in reconciliation um I I have not read that
36:41
uh but I think that would also would be a a very unfortunate understanding of the word because it does not deal at all with what was necessary for that
36:54
reconciliation okay uh so I I don't know the atmology enough to to Really delve into it um but I think what's more important is the biblical etmy of the word cfair okay I think that's the
37:05
that's the one that you know we are really looking at is what does what does that word mean have to go
37:21
somewhere doesn't disappear no said transfer uh no no um what I said was there's nothing in the text we'll get to
37:31
the guilt offering in chapter five and six guilt will be dealt with but in the first three sacrifices and many of the other sacrifices there is no mention of
37:41
guilt first of all and in the process of laying on of hands there is one mention of guilt that we'll talk about this evening in the in the process of laying
37:52
on of hands in the other laying on of hands there is there's no mention of either sin or guilt so all I'm saying is that the that the text is remarkably silent in terms of
38:05
guilt now when it comes to guilt what God does it's beginning in Leviticus 1 and
38:16
then culminating in 17:1 God is dealing it with with it graciously by giving the blood as
38:28
atonement he's making a provision that provision that provision we tend to apply to the individual but it is more often applied
38:40
to the community than to the individual to the people rather than the individuals so our understanding of atonement is very individualized sin based and guilt-based and all I'm trying
38:51
to say is we don't find that when we go back to the actual sacrifices of which Jesus is the Fulfillment is that fair is that so back in Romans when he says
39:06
show because his forar
39:18
unun it seems like if guilt is transferred to the animal and then the animal is killed in place of the person then this would not be correct because their sins paid for were punished by by
39:28
that animal saying no they weren't punished no they weren't punished at that time God we have to leave plenty of room for God's grace he has not rewarded as our sins
39:41
deserve that's Old Testament okay so we we have been we have been uh ingrained with the concept of guilt and and
39:52
frankly guilt is one of the most powerful motivations in religion okay so much has been made of guilt and I don't think it's been made biblically
40:04
that there's just a lot less said about actual guilt and then it it parses even guilt we've talked about this a little bit already sinning with a high hand was
40:16
without any without any atonement that's number numbers 15 30 and 31 so even the sin or the guilt for which atonement could be
40:27
made was very uh closely circumscribed in terms of repentance and Remediation that's Leviticus 45 and 6
40:39
okay so our understanding of guilt is it's it's real in the sense that we do we are guilty I'm not denying
40:50
that we are guilty Paul makes that clear the Old Testament makes it clear but what God does with that guilt is that he graciously covers it with the
41:03
blood does that make sense but he does that as an act of Grace Romans 3 Leviticus 1 Leviticus 17 I have given
41:14
you the blood it's it's from we think of a sacrifice as a gift from The Sinner to God no the sacrifices were a gift of from God to The
41:24
Sinner and and Paul and Leviticus makes that clear in the very first chapter that this is a gift from God he is covering your guilt with this
41:41
Blood why he's doing that is kind of the the ultimate goal of this study is to try to understand what was God's motivation in establishing this Parable to which Jesus is the
41:55
Fulfillment Jesus is the antitype okay and again if we focus on the sin of the individual and his deserving of death which is again where
42:06
most reformed soteriology does start and finish I don't think we actually get the heart of God I think we end up like the older brother in the parable of the good
42:17
of the prodical son we stick it out we're loyal we're faithful but we never understand the heart of the father we never come to understand the heart of the father okay
42:29
and that's what I hope that going back into the Old Testament we can we can come to an understanding that God was not some retributive deity you know flaming lightning bolts
42:40
at Every Act of sin but rather was an incredibly gracious and uh loving God who gave his people provision for the guilt that they undoubtedly
42:52
bore and and they did that he was they were not held held to account for every sin committed but they were also by that not
43:03
absolved from absolved from sin God intervened and again that's that maybe is the ultimate fulfillment or the ultimate aspect of the Fulfillment is
43:14
that Christ is God intervening right but the sacrifices are also God
43:24
intervening original about
43:35
covered only covered no no no the writer of Hebrew makes it very clear that it's been taken out of the way but that was also prophesied in in Psalm 104 that he would remove our sin as far as East is from the west and remember it no more
43:46
blessed is the man whose iniquities are not counted against him so that's that's a different discussion that's actually the discussion of justification I'm trying to draw a distinction between sin and guilt
43:57
okay guilt is always there because sin is there I'm not denying either sin or guilt we are guilty the Israelites were guilty okay but how God dealt with that
44:09
was incredibly gracious he gave them the blood as a covering and yes it was a covering because they had to do it all the time every day and then once a year
44:19
it was no really no more than a covering Christ has removed that guilt and that is actually foreshadowed in the
44:29
day of atonement we'll go ahead and get there it's going to be a little bit just just jointed by the discussion that's fine the only place that we read of guilt being laid on an animal by the
44:42
laying on of hands is the scapegoat and that was the goat not killed now that right there should at
44:53
least ask you know raise up the question the guilt was actually explicitly transferred and then the animal was sent out into the Wilderness showing the
45:04
guilt being guilt being typologically separated and removed from the people but that wasn't the G the goat that was killed it was the other one
45:15
does that not does that not ever bother anybody that you killed the wrong goat according to the the standard wisdom if laying on of hands is a transfer of guilt he killed the wrong
45:27
goat right I mean I'm being a little bit phous but is that not a fair statement that he let the one go he's like God let your sins go no he he removed
45:40
them that's the one done on the day of atonement on the day of atonement that is the the scape we get the word scapegoat okay but that again that's the only place I could find where the
45:51
connection of laying on of hands is explicitly linked to the transfer of guilt let's go ahead and look it Leviticus 16 pardon me I just read
46:02
it well hopefully we can come to more of an understanding okay let's okay so um let's see where does it
46:21
start all right verse 20 when he finishes atoning for the holy place the tent of meaning in the altar he shall offer the live goat then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over all the iniquities of the sons of
46:32
Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins and he shall lay them on the head of the goat there's that transfer of of sin and guilt and
46:44
send it away Into the Wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in Readiness and the Goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land and he shall release the goat Into the
46:57
Wilderness okay that that right there just should at least cause us to question just just How firm a grasp do we have on our understanding of of all
47:08
that Christ accomplished in his atoning work on the cross because by our conventional wisdom by what we've been taught concerning the laying on of hands
47:19
and the transferring of guilt to the sacrifice it's the first goat that Aaron should have transferred the transgressions of Israel on because that was the one that he then took and slew
47:31
but it's not that one it's the other one and nowhere else is the transfer of guilt mentioned with regard to the sacrificial animal okay which means that cfair
47:44
atonement in fact this is done after the atonement has been made okay he's made the atonement now he comes out and lays the guilt the transgressions of Israel upon the other live goat sends it out in
47:56
the wilderness now theoretically that goat doesn't come back it becomes a wild goat living out in the wilderness which was also symbolic for lawlessness and and
48:09
ungodliness the sin has been removed from Israel very visual visually very graphically okay makes a big deal of you know with both hands and confessing over
48:20
it all of the iniquities and then publicly taking it out into the Wilderness and releasing it Che in my translation I have the new
48:30
King James and the end of verse 21 ran reads and and shall send it away Into the Wilderness by the hand of a
48:40
suitable man yeah I um it's probably going to be one of the priests um that the word I think the
48:54
word in the new American standard is probably it he says it says a man who stands in Readiness um it's just not to be the high priest that see the high
49:05
priest does do some of these things sometimes and he changes his clothes and he goes out and then he comes back and he takes a bath and he changes his clothes and you read about what the high priest can do this was not to be done by
49:15
the high priest I think that's the point is that the high priest has done what he needs to do he's laid upon this goat the iniquities of Israel now he's out and someone else who's standing by takes the
49:27
goat out in the wilderness and releases it I think that's all that means I don't think it's it has to do with um anything I don't think it's anything deeper than that I think it's more this
49:37
is not to be done by the high priest someone else does it now because now that that goat is Unholy and unclean and needs to be removed from the precincts
49:48
okay so the The Point again being this evening is that again this is not our our common understanding of of what Lang lay on of hands means laying on of hands I think biblically is fairly clearly a
50:00
transferral of transferral of something when when the you know when the when Samuel laid hands on on David there was a transferral of of uh unction
50:11
really anointing for the kingship so yes the process of laying on of hands does involve a transfer I think we've jumped to conclusions as to what that transfer
50:24
was we've been taught and we believe it it's guilt but that's not in the text so we are actually not number one we're going
50:34
beyond what is written and number two the only example we actually have where guilt is explicitly transferred to the animal the animal is not killed be drawn out
50:47
from Isaiah's from Isaiah's Vision where the angel touches the C to his lips and
51:05
um I think there there is in that the coal would have been from the altar um and so I I do think there uh I think the ultimate sense of that vision is that only God can make us clean uh he
51:17
said I am a unclean man I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips and so the vision is of the the coal from the altar being touched to his lips to cleanse them but
51:29
there there again the idea is cleansing I would be interested to see I need to I would need to look it up but I wouldn't be surprised if the word there is cfair
51:40
okay so our conventional understanding is um is um again uh derives from reformed writers such as Robert Lewis Dabney and I want
51:52
to read a quote from his um his book Christ Our our penal substitute so I didn't put this up here yet but in addition to Vicarious and substitutionary there is also a very
52:04
strong aspect of penal that this is the payment of penalty this is judicial and forensic and that that lies at the very heart of
52:15
the reformed understanding of both sacrifice soteriology but the the heart of justification is that we are we are guilty and condemned and Christ blood
52:26
has paid that price for us there is an element in which that is true but again the penal aspect is not found in many if not most
52:41
of the Old Testament sacrificial texts now that that has long Disturbed me because again if Christ is the Fulfillment of all these texts and these
52:54
were to point point and be as school Masters to Masters to Christ then there needs to be some connection between our understanding of what Christ did in
53:04
fulfillment and what they foreshadowed but much of what we say Christ did is not actually in the types would be fair to point out
53:16
there are some things in the prophets that are clarified and revealed that you would not clear in the I thinking of
53:30
isah would as unless Psalms told you so but in similar fashion is Isaiah 53 serving that function here to talk about
53:43
when he makes his soul offering for guilt and that brought us Etc right right is it just a matter of progressive re it it is a matter of progressive re
53:55
progressive revelation progressive revelation but the further progression of Revelation always contains the former it never changes Direction so
54:07
Isaiah 53 is actually quite broader than just I mean part of it obviously is his death and that the the iniquity of us all was laid upon him um but it also
54:21
speaks of us as as a people who have gone astray so there that that's there are other elements there are other facets of this that come out of the Old
54:33
Testament Revelation if it's followed through as a Jew a believing Jew like Paul would have done he he would he would not have simply jettisoned all
54:44
that he had learned at the feet of gel and adopted some new religion surrounding this this Galilean Rabbi who was crucified but he raised from the dead so wow let's let's do something
54:55
with this no it flowed out of the Old Testament okay so yes the prophets will shed light and we will you know they'll be talking about for example Isaiah 65 I
55:07
think it is where he says your your sin has made a separation between you and God and that idea as we talked about before the idea of presence and yet
55:19
separation okay what is God's desire in all of this it is to call to himself self a people for His holy name to have a people okay
55:31
it it is it is not to forgive everybody's sins okay it's to have a people and he is the one who's creating that people so
55:43
a process of creating that people requires the Forgiveness of sins because no Unholy people can dwell in the presence of a holy God there cannot be that intimacy that God desires and has
55:55
had in the garden but now in Christ he has it in the church but we're still wrapped up in individual sins and guilt we don't we
56:05
don't see how he has torn down the separating wall that divided Jew and Gentile how he tore down the veil he tore down the priesthood that stood between his people and himself you see
56:17
all the things that Christ did are foreshadowed in some aspect of the Old Testament but I think we have narrowed it down to individual sin being forgiven
56:28
by Jesus and when we die we go to heaven I mean that's kind of in a nutshell the modern gospel okay modern evangelicalism is when we die we go to
56:39
heaven you always well
56:57
guilt no no I have made a I don't think of myself no because we don't think of ourselves biblically no because we don't think of Christ's work in the fullness of its Majesty we think of it
57:09
in terms of our understanding of sin and guilt and very individually it's it's very much it's it's very narcissistic yes it is um and but that's our culture
57:20
it's it's it's almost uh uh quintessentially American to focus on your Naval right and that's what we do in in Christianity and I I think it's a Pity because it it just when you when
57:31
you read God's revelation of himself through as I said in Sunday school you know it's mediated through a people it's not an a narrative story or a fiction it's
57:44
God interacting revealing himself by interacting with humans first creating them in His image and then interacting with them even in their sin and so when it comes comes to guilt there has to be
57:56
covering because there you know the if if we would be like Sodom we would be like gamor you know if God what is that in Isaiah
58:12
1 let me read it because it I mean we talk about you know sin being or guilt being uh
58:29
now here it is unless the Lord of hosts had left us a few survivors we would be like Sodom we would be like gorah I mean we we have enough examples in the scripture of what God does when he deals with guilt it's just utter
58:40
destruction but that's not God's purpose that that's not his that's not his preferred work in fact the Old Testament calls that his strange work okay his his preferred work is Grace and that is how
58:52
he's going to be manifested to all of the creation as through his grace so I think at the very beginning we have to understand the sacrifices in Leviticus
59:03
from chapter 1 verse4 we have to understand them as gracious and he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering that it
59:14
may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf okay now again it is God who is accepting it he's saying this this is what you do lay
59:25
hands on it and it will be AC accepted that is Grace there's nothing inherent in the sacrifice and there's nothing explicit here in terms of what
59:36
the laying on of hands does there is an identity transfer of some sort but the bottom line is it is accepted as a cfair as a covering so
59:48
there was there was constant covering by the blood until the perfect blood of Jesus Christ Christ not only covers it removes it cleanses that's really the