Lose all their guilty stains
Jono Chalklin, Wednesday 1 April 2020
With Leviticus 16 still bouncing around in our heads from the Lent Course, I enjoyed reading Exodus 29 recently - partly because I understood it a bit more.
Here we see that Aaron and his sons have been kitted out skilfully as priests for Israel. We can see three offerings:
- the sin offering is put in place (v10-14) for atonement/forgiveness
- the burnt offering (v15-18) for acceptance/assurance of forgiveness
- the peace offering (v19-22, 26-27)
With each one, the head of the animal must be touched (v10, 15, 19) for identification.
On the day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) all the sins of the people are passed onto the animal by the laying on of hands (Leviticus 16:21-22). It is to show the act of substitution; this animal takes the place of the sinner, taking the wrath of God. By laying hands on the animal, the offerer is in effect saying ‘This is I, dying for the wages of sin, holding nothing back from God, consecrating myself wholly to Him’ (Alec Motyer).
There is an old hymn that says:
| My faith would lay her hand |
| on that dear head of thine, |
| while, like a penitent, I stand |
| and there confess my sin. |
And another that says:
| There is a foundation filled with blood |
| drawn from Emmanuel's veins; |
| and sinners plunged beneath that flood |
| lose all their guilty stains. |
The wrath for sin was on the substitutionary sacrifice, the blood made atonement.
For God's people today, all our guilty sins are placed on Jesus. Praise be to God! This Lamb’s blood will never lose its power to save!
Hymn for reflection: There is a fountain filled with blood
Jono