September 1928
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hands upon its head confessing his sin. Then he would withdraw his hands. His sins had been transferred to the animal. Now the animal would be called “ The Sin.” There is no need to read “ The sin-offering.” The Hebrew word means “ The Sin.” And now we are to see what God does with sin. The Sin (or Ram) is slain. “ The wages o f sin is death” (Rom . 6 :23 ). But that is not all. Sin ners are to “ be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess. 1 :9 ). And so, after a very small portion has been placed upon the altar, “ the skin and all the flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his refuse” shall be carried forth without the camp and consumed. There is no room for sin in God’s Presence. It must be banished from Him, and also from the pres ence o f His people. Now look at the burnt-offering. Again you have the ceremony of the laying on of hands. The worshiper lays his hands upon the head of a perfect animal; and, as this animal is to be laid entire upon the altar, and fire is to ascend as a sweet savor unto God, none of it to be ban ished, the worshiper confesses that this is the kind o f life he feels he owes to God, this is the life he would like to bring. But this is the life he cannot bring. But as it repre sents his intention it is accepted for him. F ulfilled in J esus C hrist Now when we come to the New Testament we find that all the language o f Leviticus regarding the sin-offering and the burnt-offering is transferred to the Lord Jesus Christ. “ He hathimadd'Him to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5 :21). And “ He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1 :6). Look at Isa. 53:10 : “ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise H im ; He hath put Him to g r ie f; when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” Literally that phrase is “ when Thou shalt make His soul a sin.” From all this it is a clear road to the Cross o f Christ. “ The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53 :6 ). As we stand at Calvary we want to ask the ques tion: Did God do anything to Jesus? Was something done to Him beyond what the Jews did when they rejected Him and said, “ W e will not have this man to reign over us” ? Was something more done to Him than what came out of the cry o f the Jews, “ Crucify H im ! Crucify H im !” Was something more done to Him beyond what the sol diers did when they nailed Him to the tree? How often the question has been asked: “ If it was necessary for Jesus to be crucified to atone for our sins, why should either the Jews or the Romans be blamed for putting Him on the Cross?” The answer to all these questions comes as we listen to the central cry of all cries uttered by Our Lord from the Cross: “ My G od ! My G od ! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The disciples had forsaken Jesus; Peter had denied H im ; His nation had rejected H im ; the soldiers had mocked Him and scourged Him and pierced Him. And all these things He had felt. But none of these things had caused Him to lose the sense o f fellowship (Matt. 26:39). In Gethsemane He could say “ Father.” On the Cross itself, before the three hours of darkness .began, He said, ‘‘Father, forgive, them” (Luke 23:34). A fter the darkness He said, “ Father, into Thy hands U commend My spirit” (Luke 2 3 :46). Only in the darkness and from the darkness did He say “ My God.” It was an experience unique in the life o f Jesus. It was not an imaginary experience. His question was a real question arising from a sense of real desertion.
I f you want to belong to the kind o f a church Like the kind o f a church you like, You needn’ t slip your clothes in a grip And start on a long, long hike. You’ll only find what you left behind, For there’s nothing that’s really new. It’s a knock at yourself when you knock your church. It isn’t the church — it’s you! Real churches are not made by , men afraid Lest someone else gets ahead. When everyone works and nobody shirks You can raise a church from the dead. And if while you make your personal stand Your neighbor can make one, too, Your church will be what you want to see. It isn’t your church — it’s you ! . , will be made “ that Leviticus, of course, is not on the level o f John’s Gospel.” Such things are said with a show o f learning, but they may possibly display a state of igno rance concerning divine truth. It is a remarkable thing brought out in Dr. Edersheim’s Jewish Social L ife in the Days o f Christ that the^ducation of the Jewish boy, at the age of five, began with the book o f Leviticus, rather than with the book of Genesis. Here is a fact to be borne in mind: There is no book in the Bible that claims to be the Word of God more than this one does. There are* 27 chapters in it. 24 of these claim to be the direct words of God to Moses. 34 times it is said, “ The Lord spake unto Moses saying.” 776 out o f the 859 verses in the book have these words' as their preface. That is, 9 out of every 10 verses claim to be the Word of God. Now if these statements are not true, if the Lord did not say these things to Moses, then you have at least 34 distinct lies in the book. I f they are lies, I, for one, have no time for the book. I should not have patience to read it,«even accepting it as being on a lower level of inspiration than John, if so much falsehood adorned its pages. But if the book is what it claims to be I want to read it and to understand it. T he L essons of L eviticus W ell! Dealing with Atonement what has the book of Leviticus to say to us, or shall we rather ask what has God to say to us through this book? The word atonement occurs more often in Leviticus than elsewhere in the Scrip tures. And these are the things found associated with it, a sin-offering and a burnt-offering. The sin-offering deals with forgiveness, and the burnt-offering with acceptance by G od ; that is, one is negative and the other is positive; the first deals with the putting away o f sin, and the other with the acceptance of the sinner. The two together make atonement. Read chapters 1, 4, 9 and 16, for these things. What was the manner of the sin-offering? A man would bring a ram to the altar. There he would lay his
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