1. The 27 chapters of Leviticus deal with ritual purity, animal sacrifices and priestly practices. The holiness of God and the reconciliation of man is revealed in this book. It is not simply a unbiblical tradition somehow connected to the divine Word, but it is a biblical tradition handed down to us through the OT that is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. This book is largely ignored by many in the Christian church today, but in it we find the simplicity of atonement and the removal of our sins. The removal of our sins deals with the scapegoat that is given our sins. At the Cross, Jesus was given our sins and He removed them from us. He also removed the wrath of God from us through the Cross. The sins of the people were imputed to Jesus at the Cross as the ultimate scapegoat and His divine righteousness was given to us as the divine purity of the glorious gospel of grace. It is surely unbiblical to say that the scapegoat and atonement have no place in biblical history. It is a biblical tradition or teaching to say that Jesus was the scapegoat that was punished in our place also as the divine Lamb of God.
2. The book of Leviticus deals with God's total, utter and supreme hatred for sin, transgressions and iniquity. We must regard God's holiness as supremely precious. We also see that God's holiness is so supreme that Aaron's sons were killed for offering strange fire in Leviticus 10. God is supremely holy. It is a wrong thing to approach God in an unworthy manner. I hear about the strange fire in the OT but it reminds me of the strange fire of purgatory; however, God is called a consuming fire but there is a counterfeit fire that men offered which was displeasing to God. The Cross is where our unworthiness was placed, accounted or imputed upon our divine Substitute. There is no way for our Lord Jesus to survive the punishment of the Godhead if He was not God in human flesh. That is, He had to be man to visibly take upon Himself the sinful dread of humanity and God's wrath but He also had to be eternal God to endure the divine punishment. The scapegoat is a picture of Jesus being taken outside the city and crucified. He bore the sin of many upon the sacred tree of the Place of the Skull. There is none other who could take upon Himself the full penalty for sin than our Lord and Deliverer Jesus Christ.
3. The high priest had restrictions when He approached the Most High God. It was because of holiness. The message of the OT is that we are unclean people with unclean lips. We need to be cleansed and washed in the blood of Christ. If the priest violated, designated times, proper attire, ritual bath and blood sacrifice the result would be death. The people had to be a holy people unto their God. People sin today with impunity it would seem, but God will judge the ungodly; however, it seems because God is a good God He will judge us less for our sin deserve, but in and through Jesus Christ He poured out the full and immeasurable wrath and punishment of God that there could be. There is no way that anyone could have endured the wrath of the Godhead except God Himself in His Incarnate Son as the Second Person of the Trinity. This is why it is so absurd to say that the Virgin Mary suffered redemptively or meritoriously in our place. She could not bore the outpouring of the wrath of God. Jesus took the wrath of the Godhead upon Himself to make full satisfaction for sins and pay for divine justice. No saint could do this which is necessary to take away our sins. The only credible answer is that the God-man alone took our sin upon Himself and only He could do it.
4. We ought to consider this matter of the "Day of Atonement." The people of God must have wondered if their high priest would emerge alive, because God is a God of holiness. God must be treated as holy. The God of the Bible will never compromise who He is. Hebrews 12:29 says that God is the consuming fire that must punish sin; however, God looks at sin everyday but He also cannot tolerate sin. God's people are a sinful people but we must have the Cross of Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. Chapter 16 speaks of our impurities, transgressions and sins. There is no way to get around the total and radical pollution and corruption of mankind. Some say in our day that man is basically good, but we know that he is not basically good by the mere fact of violations of his mortal conscience and how it troubles the soul. We must realize that we need desperate atonement for our sins. Jesus Christ came to die on the Cross because He loved us with an everlasting love. There is no greater love than when Jesus Christ loved us. He bore our sins upon Himself and it was the ultimate obedience of the Son that brought the joy of the Father in crushing Him. The Son bore our defilement, impurities, sins, transgressions and iniquities. The God-man suffered in our place but He will never change His character; however, we must be willing to change ourselves. The atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in human history. It was the ultimate act of love and removal of wrath from us.
5. We recall that the book of Leviticus speaks of blood sacrifices. This was for the impurities of the people. We see that God in His rich and abounding mercy and grace and love saw a way for sin to be atoned. This by far pictured the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Different animals were used on different occasions but for this study I like to bring your attention to two goats in Leviticus 16. The two goats were presented before the Lord God Almighty. It was placed at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Aaron casted lots for the two goats. One lot was for the Lord and another was for the scapegoat. Aaron offered the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell. He also made a sin offering. The other scapegoat was presented alive before the Lord God Almighty. It was meant to make atonement upon it. It was sent into the wilderness as a scapegoat (Leviticus 16:7-10). There is profound symbolism behind the two goats that should be realized. The first goat was killed. The goat stood as a substitute for the fallen sinner. The blood of the goat was shed. Why was this done? (see Leviticus 17:11). The blood was brought to the Most Holy Place. It was sprinkled on and before the Ark of the Covenant. The glory of the Lord hovered over it. The law says that we are law breakers and God demanded justice. The Ark had the "Mercy Seat." The blood was sprinkled on and before the "Mercy Seat." They made atonement for the sin of the people. It was because of their transgressions and their sins. He removed our sins by the Cross alone. All of the OT pointed to its fulfillment in our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ. The second goat was the scapegoat. Jesus surely died upon the Cross and was crucified outside the city. We still use the term scapegoat. It means someone who bears the crimes of someone else. That is what Jesus Christ did: in behalf of His people He bore their sin and was given their wrath in their place. It was as if Jesus committed these sins but He was the spotless Lamb of God. He committed no sin nor transgression but He was willing to die for His people as if He did the crimes they did. What an awesome Savior!
This blog web site is for the in-depth, sound and basic exegetical study of the Bible in Reformed apologetics; that is, I shall expound upon the inerrant and infallible Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. There shall be biblical studies in world religions and non-Christian cults. I also quote and research reformed writers and I am happy to study from them. May the Lord bless everyone who reads this blog with spiritual riches in Christ which is His imputed merit by faith alone.
