No Sacrifice for Sin?

Has anyone ever told you that the offering of Jesus was made to cover your sins? Has anyone ever suggested that the Old Testament sacrifice for sin is a picture of Christ's sacrifice? However, did you know that there is no sacrifice for most sin in the Old Testament? If you were an Israelite and sinned against God, if you willfully disobeyed one of His commandments, there was no offering available to cover your sin. God's revelation to Moses provides a great deal of instruction and certainly gives directions for a variety of sacrificial offerings, however a relative few actually deal with sin. There are thank offerings, free will offerings, offerings of the first fruits, redemptive offerings for the first born males, specific sacrifices to cleanse the priests along with wave and incense offerings. Leviticus chapter 4 deals with sin offerings. Perhaps it has been a while since you read the chapter. Perhaps in your reading you did not notice a very important word.

It would be helpful if you took time to read verses 2, 13, 22, and 27 of Leviticus 4. The surrounding verses give details as to how to prepare and offer a sin offering. If you have read the verses did you notice each instance of sin has the word "unintentional" preceding it? The Lord knew that His people had just come out of Egypt following a sojourn of over 400 years. They had been slaves for a significant part of that time. They held their own culture, to an extent, but the rules and regulations for life as a slave was dictated by Pharaoh. Thus, upon their deliverance, God graciously gave them instructions and directions as to how to best live. They were not optional. However, they were pretty inclusive as to every aspect of life so it would have been fairly easy to unintentionally violate God's Word. Again, by His grace the Lord provided a way to have those unintentional sins forgiven. However, He offered no sacrifice for intentional sins.

If that is indeed the case there must be no hope for all those Old Testament folks. Well, you might say that Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, took care of that. Except that day was a time of national repentance rather than a personal sin offering. The reality seems to be that many of us are deeply ingrained in traditional Christian or Evangelical thought. We believe we are in the dispensation or time of grace unlike the time or dispensation of the Law. We are saved by grace and free from the Law. Those Old Testament people had to keep the Law as a means of salvation. Grace finally came to us through the cross. The only problem with that way of thinking, is that it does not line up with Scripture. Paul makes it clear that no one keeps the Law. Everyone has fallen short. So does that mean there is no hope for the people before the time of Christ? Does that mean we will not see Moses, or David, or Abraham, Isaac or Israel in glory? What was Moses doing on the Mount of Transfiguration  with Jesus if He did not make it to glory?

Perhaps the story of David's sin can help. David sinned intentionally. He did not accidentally commit adultery with Bathsheba. He did not unintentionally have Uriah, one of his loyal mighty men, killed. He did not bring Bathsheba into his bedchamber unknowingly. He is guilty of intentional sin. There is no Levitical  sacrifice available. In contemporary terms David is toast. He is without hope. The punishment for these crimes is death. But look at what Nathan tells David in 2 Samuel 12:13, "So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die." How can that be? How could the LORD put away David's sin? Why won't David die? The only reasonable answer is grace. Like the grace He extended to Noah. The grace He extended to Abraham when Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Abraham, David, Noah, saved by grace. Hmmmm I wonder how many other Old Testament people were saved by grace after they violated Torah?

We are told that we need to pray and ask forgiveness and maybe confess our sin and and we will be forgiven. It is hard to find that formula in the Bible. The message of John the Baptizer, Jesus the Messiah, Paul, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews was repentance. Forgiveness comes through confession and repentance. Prayer, or speaking, confessing,our sin with repentance may be the avenue we choose to use however, just praying for forgiveness is not a Biblical concept.  Turning away from our intentional sin with a desire to not commit that transgression once again is the pattern we find no matter which Testament we look to. The sacrifice and shed blood of God's Son, Messiah covers sin. It always has. Repentance and believing, faithfully following, trusting that what the Lord has said, gives us a relationship with Him and His Son by the power of His Spirit. It is all by grace. It is now. It always has been.

It seems that the artificial division we place between those Old Testament saints and those of the New is just that, artificial. Moses, David, Hezekiah, and the untold multitudes of the Old Testament repented, had faith in Yahweh and were saved by grace. So were Peter, James, John, Paul and the rest of our New Testament heroes. So was I. How about you?