Daily Devotions
He Bore Our Sins
Reading for January 28th: Leviticus 1-4
He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering... Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD...
Leviticus 1:4-5
Galatians 3:24 says that the old law was to prepare us for Christ. Among other things, it was a teacher to help us understand what would happen to Jesus on the cross. I want you to consider one very important thing we learn from the animal sacrifices that help us to appreciate Christ's sacrifice.
The law made it very clear that only priests were to offer sacrifices before the LORD (Leviticus 1:5, 7, 11; 2:2, 9; 3:2, 8; 4:7). In other words, you couldn't set up an altar in your back yard and make sacrifices for yourself. It had to be in the place God designated once they entered the land (Deuteronomy 12:5) and it would be the priests to offer the sacrifices for you on the altar.
However, though the priest offered the sacrifice for you, he would not kill it for you. That was your job. You did that for yourself. After placing your hand on the head of the burnt offering (which probably symbolized the fact that the animal was taking on the guilt of your sins - see Leviticus 16:20-22), you would then take a knife and slit the throat so all of the blood would be drained out (for the life of the flesh was in the blood, Leviticus 17:16).
What was the purpose of that? It would appear that what God was teaching them (and us) was that the priest was not responsible for the death of that innocent animal, nor was God responsible. You killed the animal. It was your fault that he died. Your sins resulted in his death.
Christ Jesus "bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24). No less than 10 times in Isaiah 53 a direct connection is made between the suffering of God's Servant (Jesus) and our sins. He did not die for his own sins but for ours. It is as if we placed our hand on the head of our Lord and took the nails in our hand and drove them through. He shed his blood for our sins, every last drop.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.
