Leviticus summary 1-7
God gives Moses rules for bringing different types of offerings. The rules in 1:1–6:7 are for the people. Additional rules for the priests are found in 6:8–7:38. Many of the offerings are voluntary. But the sin offering (4:1–5:13) and the guilt offering (6:1–7) are mandatory. Anyone who is guilty of ritual or moral offense must confess his fault, and bring an animal to be sacrificed by the priests. In the sacrificial system of Israel the Old Testament believer was able to confess sins and find forgiveness, to express thanks, and experience intimate fellowship with God.
Richards, L. O. (1991; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996). The Bible readers companion (electronic ed.) (78). Wheaton: Victor Books.
Praise God and rejoice you children of God, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Keep in mind as you continue to read through Leviticus that every drop of blood is screaming and pointing to JESUS AND THE CROSS. Now you and I have the joy of looking back to the Cross and KNOWING...AS WE ARE TOLD IN 1 John 1:9-10 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Confession, repentance, turning from everything and turning to Jesus, dying to self, sin and the world is a must as HE enables us and there we find forgiveness, mercy, grace and intimate fellowship with our heavenly Father, our Abba!
As you read through Leviticus it might be helpful to read through Hebrews 7-10 a few times so that you may keep in the front of your mind that ALL OF THE LEVITICAL CODE IS TAKEN AWAY IN CHRIST...JESUS is the new, better, perfect High Priest, who lives to intercede for us day and night, HE atoned for our sins once and for all...glory to God in the highest! Another great passage that sheds more light on Leviticus is 2 Corinthians 3-4, here Paul compares the old covenant and the new covenant...it is awesome, I especially love to meditate on 2 Cor 4:6-7...when you have full and complete comprehension of those words please enlighten me...to me it is like sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon looking around in astonishment at the beauty and grandeur.
I want to take a moment and comment on the unpardonable sin...I passed it over in Matthew 12, but I was led to comment on it here. It is not uncommon to get a phone call or have someone in my office fearful that they have committed the unpardonable sin. Remember...CONTEXT IS KING...I KNOW JESUS IS KING, but when we desire to rightly understand God's Word you MUST seek to understand the CONTEXT that the words were being spoken.
I have run in several 5k's, 10k's and a handful of triathlons...if you approach me before a race and ask, "Mark how are you going to do in the race," and I respond..."I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I am going to win this race...God said that every promise in HIM is yes and amen, I am claiming HIS promise!" WHAT CAN YOU SAY...BAD UNDERSTANDING OF GOD'S WORD AND HIS PROMISES...CONTEXT IS KING WHEN SEEKING TO KNOW GOD AS HE IS...NOT AS YOU WANT HIM TO BE!
So let's consider the context!
Mk 3:27-30 “On the other hand, no one can enter a strong man’s house and rob his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he will rob his house. 28 I assure you: People will be forgiven for all sins and whatever blasphemies they may blaspheme. 29 But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — 30 because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
The context indicates that Jesus is speaking about a sin that is not simply unbelief or rejection of Christ, but one that includes (1) a clear knowledge of who Christ is and of the power of the Holy Spirit working through him, (2) a willful rejection of the facts about Christ that his opponents knew to be true, and (3) slanderously attributing the work of the Holy Spirit in Christ to the power of Satan. In such a case the hardness of heart would be so great that any ordinary means of bringing a sinner to repentance would already have been rejected. Persuasion of the truth will not work, for these people have already known the truth and have willfully rejected it. Demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and bring life will not work, for they have seen it and rejected it. In this case it is not that the sin itself is so horrible that it could not be covered by Christ’s redemptive work, but rather that the sinner’s hardened heart puts him or her beyond the reach of God’s ordinary means of bringing forgiveness through repentance and trusting Christ for salvation. The sin is unpardonable because it cuts off the sinner from repentance and saving faith through belief in the truth.
Consider Paul's word to the Thessalonians in 2 Th 2:10 and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. ⌊They perish⌋ because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved.
Berkhof wisely defines this sin in the following way:
This sin consists in the conscious, malicious, and wilful rejection and slander, against evidence and conviction, of the testimony of the Holy Spirit respecting the grace of God in Christ, attributing it out of hatred and enmity to the Prince of Darkness....in committing that sin man wilfully, maliciously, and intentionally attributes what is clearly recognized as the work of God to the influence and operation of Satan.?
Berkhof explains that the sin itself consists “not in doubting the truth, nor in a sinful denial of it but in a contradiction of it that goes contrary to the conviction of the mind, to the illumination of the conscience, and even to the verdict of the heart.”?
The fact that the unpardonable sin involves such extreme hardness of heart and lack of repentance indicates that those who fear they have committed it, yet still have sorrow for sin in their heart and desire to seek after God, certainly do not fall in the category of those who are guilty of it. Berkhof says that “we may be reasonably sure that those who fear that they have committed it and worry about this, and desire the prayers of others for them, have not committed it.”?
This understanding of the unpardonable sin also fits well with Hebrews 6:4–6. There the persons who “commit apostasy” have had all sorts of knowledge and conviction of the truth: they have “been enlightened” and have “tasted the heavenly gift”; they have participated in some ways in the work of the Holy Spirit and “have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,” yet they then willfully turn away from Christ and “hold him up to contempt” (Heb. 6:6). They too have put themselves beyond the reach of God’s ordinary means of bringing people to repentance and faith. Knowing and being convinced of the truth, they willfully reject it.
Grudem, W. A. (1994). Systematic theology : An introduction to biblical doctrine (508). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
“we may be reasonably sure that those who fear that they have committed it and worry about this, and desire the prayers of others for them, have not committed it.”?