The Expositor's Bible: The Book of LeviticusKellogg, Samuel H. (Samuel Henry)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Leviticus
Kellogg, Samuel H. (Samuel Henry)
Bible. Leviticus -- Commentaries; Bible. Leviticus -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
There is, then, in these regulations which emphasise the peculiar
holiness of the sin-offering, nothing which is inconsistent with the
strictest juridical view of the great atonement which in type it
represented. On the contrary, one can hardly think of anything which
should more effectively represent the great truth of the incomparable
holiness of the victim of Calvary, than just this strenuous insistence
that the blood and the flesh of the typical victim should be treated
as of the most peculiar sanctity. If, when we see the victim of the
sin-offering slain and its blood presented before God, we behold a
vivid representation of Christ, the Lamb of God, "made sin in our
behalf;" so when, in these regulations, we see how the flesh and blood
of the offered victim is treated as of the most pre-eminent sanctity,
we are as impressively reminded how it is written (2 Cor. v. 21) that
it was "Him who knew no sin," that God "made to be sin on our behalf."
Thus does the type, in order that nothing might be wanting in this law
of the offering, insist in every possible way on the holiness of the
great Victim who became the Antitype; and most of all in the
sin-offering, because in this, where, not consecration of the person
or the works, or the impartation and fellowship of the life of Christ,
but expiation, was the central idea of the sacrifice, there was a
special need for emphasising, in an exceptional way, this thought;
that the Victim who bore our sins, although visibly laden with the
curse of God, was none the less all the time Himself "most holy;" so
that in that unfathomable mystery of Calvary, never was He more truly
and really the well-beloved Son of the Father than when He cried out
in the extremity of His anguish as "made sin for us," "My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
How wonderfully adapted in all its details was this law of the
sin-offering, not only for the education of Israel, but, if we will
meditate upon these things, also for our own! How the truths which
underlie this law should humble us, even in proportion as they exalt
to the uttermost the ineffable majesty of the holiness of God! And, if
we will but yield to their teachings, how mightily should they
constrain us, in grateful recognition of the love of the Holy One who
was "made sin in our behalf," and of the love of the Father who sent
Him for this end, to accept Him as our Sin-offering, set forth in the
consummation of the ages, "to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself." No more are offered the sin-offerings of the law of Moses:--
"But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood, than they."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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