(Leviticus 1:4 NASB) 'He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.
I will admit that this is not a household verse. We do not quote it every day and have probably ignored it most of our lives. If you are a traditional Christian you have probably understood that there was no way to have sin forgiven before the death of Jesus on the cross. Sometimes His death is called the Substitutionary Atonement. Some insightful people have even asked how the Old Testament saints that greeted Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration made it to heaven. The key is in this verse.
God made provision for forgiveness of sin in the Old Testament. You are looking at one of the verses that deals with this. The key is the word “atonement.” This word means that sin has been paid for. It is a key word in the Old Testament. It was not a New Idea for Jesus or Paul. The shedding of blood for the remissions of sin is the reason for the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God.
The difference was the frequency and duration of the sacrifice. The sacrificing of animals was an ongoing event. The sacrifice of the Prefect Lamb of God was a one time event. That is because the blood of Jesus was powerful enough to reach through eternity. I personally think it went backward in time as well as forward. Thus the sacrificing of the blood of a bull was simply a way of recognizing that the blood of Christ was sufficient. You don’t always need to know how something works for it to be effective. I don’t think doctors know why aspirin works, either, but it does.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.