After grasping this truth of death freeing us from sin and captivity, we can understand how foolish it is to try to overcome sin by using mere techniques, gimmicks, pills, and programs. Sin is much more powerful. Christians do not “recover” from sin; we die, and rise again!
Victory over sin and freedom from captivity requires death! And in Jesus Christ, all who believe have been crucified with Christ and no longer live. In Christ, we have real victory, and it comes through our death in Christ.
Please examine the following passage of Scripture, and note the foreshadowing of the cross, and the sinner’s identification with the lamb that would die:
“The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. 3 "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 6 Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, 7 and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 And Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; 9 but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 10 "If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, 11 and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar.” Leviticus 1:1-11
Question 4. From Leviticus 1:1-11 (specifically verse 4), how does this passage foreshadow Jesus Christ on the cross? What does this teach us about the believer’s identification in Him?
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As we reflect on this passage, it is helpful to understand the setting and context of Leviticus chapter 1. The Israelites, who God had rescued out of slavery in Egypt, were on their way to the Promised Land. God spoke through Moses to instruct the people how God would interact with them. Every man was required to appear before the Lord at the Tabernacle of worship; however, when the man appeared before the Lord, he was not to come empty-handed: God required him to bring an offering. This offering could not be of the man's own choice but had to be one of the offerings that God Himself had stipulated in the Law. God was teaching them, and us, that the Lord would not accept any man by himself, apart from a sacrifice. None of us, by ourselves, is worthy to stand before God. It was the offering that would be accepted as a substitute and atonement.
One of the acceptable offerings was a one-year-old male lamb without any spot or blemish. The man with the lamb offering would come to the gate of the Tabernacle's courtyard, where he would place his hand on the head of the sacrificial lamb, symbolically laying all of his sin and his guilt upon the innocent lamb. When he placed his hand on the head of the lamb, he was not only symbolically laying his sin and guilt on the lamb; he was also identifying with his sacrifice. In essence, he was saying, "I realize that I am guilty, and as such, I should be dying instead of this lamb. God in His grace allows me this substitute, and I am identifying with this lamb in his death." The sinner laying his hand on the head of the lamb, symbolically transferring sin and guilt to the lamb, is an illustration of 2 Corinthians 5:21:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor. 5:21
Because the sinner knew that the wages of his sin were death, he brought the lamb to the north side of the altar and took a knife, slit the lamb's throat, and killed it. The priest would then sprinkle the lamb's blood around the altar. As the lamb burned in flames (symbolizing God's wrath against sin) on the altar, the smoke ascended as a sweet-smelling aroma acceptable to God.
The lamb was an acceptable substitute, an atonement - the lamb's life for the sinner's life.
This man, who knew the true God, also knew that the blood of sheep could not take away his sin in a lasting way. For if the sacrifice truly removed sin, there would be no need to offer additional sacrifices.
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?” Hebrews 10:1-2
Question 5. According to Hebrews 10:1-2, of what was the law a shadow?
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