We have all had to apologize for something we did. Maybe it started early when we hit a playmate and were coached to say, “I’m sorry.” Whether we were actually sorry or not, saying “I’m sorry” was the right thing to do.

Later we became responsible for our own actions and learned to say “I’m sorry” without being coached. Sometimes we really meant it, too. We really were sorry for offending another person.

The final stage of making an apology is when we realize we have done wrong and instead of just saying “sorry” we say, “I was wrong; please forgive me.”

It’s then that we recognize that we have the frightening capacity to hurt someone and we didn’t just do wrong, we were wrong. When we realize that something is fundamentally wrong inside us, we want to change our hearts and avoid repeating our offenses.

What I Am v. What I Do

The difference between being forgiven for what we are versus being forgiven for what we do, is the difference between the sin and the guilt offerings.

And the sin and the guilt offerings are different from the burnt offerings we read about yesterday. The burnt offerings had a pleasing aroma to God. They were all about acceptance, fellowship with God and sweet worship. They had nothing to do with dealing with sin.

The sin and guilt offerings, on the other hand,  have everything to do with sin and how it offends God.

Carefully Ordered

The order in which these offerings are presented in Scripture is important. First, we learn about the offerings that please God, that are sweet to him. Then we learn about the offerings that represent what he hates – the sin that separates us from him.

We will see that when people of the Old Testament apply these offerings to actual worship, the order is reversed. God asks them to make their sin offerings first, then he receives the burnt offerings that please him.

Jesus is the reason these offerings are listed the way they are in Scripture.

Seeing Jesus in the Offerings

When Jesus presented himself as our sacrifice, he was perfect and sinless. He was like the burnt offering that was listed first in Leviticus, with the aroma that pleased God. He was unblemished, the finest and the purest of offerings. Everything about Jesus was pleasing to God. When he presented himself on behalf of people who longed to be in relationship with God, his life was the fragrant sacrifice that God received with pleasure.

Then Jesus took our sins upon himself and paid the penalty for our crimes. He went through death and was separated from God just as the sacrificed bull was killed and taken outside the camp.

It was only because Jesus was completely sinless that he was able to become the sin offering for us. If Jesus had ever had a thought, a desire, or an action that was sinful, he would have been a sinful man, disqualified from being the sacrifice for our sins. He would have died in sin just like the rest of us. But because Jesus had no sin, he was able to exchange his sinless state for our sinful one and die in our place.

Jesus is also seen in the guilt offering. It was Jesus’ completely innocent life that made him able to die for the sinful actions of others. He had no sins to confess, so he took ours upon himself, and confessing our sins, he paid the penalty for them.

When Scripture begins with the unblemished burnt offering and then proceeds to the sin offerings, it is pointing us to Jesus.

Seeing Ourselves in the Sin Offerings

We, however, must proceed in reverse order because we are sinful when we begin to approach God. We must start with atonement for our sins and then proceed to the things we have to offer that please God with their sweet aroma.

The Degrees of the Sin Offering

The sin offering was given for unintentional sins. This had to do with how people were. People were sinful and couldn’t help sinning; they needed to atone for their sins as soon as they became aware of them.

There were degrees of offerings. The most demanding sacrifices were for the sins of priests, followed by the sins of the community as a whole, the sins of leaders in the community, and the sins of individual members of the community. The greater the influence of the individual, the more was required of their atonement ritual.

The sins of a priest had the greatest impact upon the community. His sacrifice included laying his hands on the head of an unblemished bull to transfer his sin to it. Then it was slaughtered and another priest carried some of its blood into the tabernacle. He sprinkled drops of blood seven times in front of the curtain that shielded the Holy of Holies, then blood was applied to the horns of the golden altar of incense. The remainder of the bull’s blood was poured out at the base of the bronze altar outside the tent of meeting. The fat, the long lobe of the liver and the kidneys were burned on the altar, but the rest of the bull was carried outside the camp to be completely consumed by fire.

The sins of the community as a whole were atoned for in the same way as the sins of the priest, except that the elders of the community laid their hands on the bull, and only the fat was burned on the bronze altar. The rest of the carcass was burned outside the camp.

When an individual leader sinned, the ritual was reduced slightly to the offering of an unblemished male goat. He laid his hands on its head and slaughtered it. A priest applied some its blood to the horns of the bronze altar and the remainder of its blood was poured out at the base of the altar, and then all of the fat was burned on the altar.

If individual members of the community sinned, they were required to bring an unblemished female goat, lay their hands on its head and slaughter it. Then the priest put some of its blood on the horns of the bronze altar and poured the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. The fat was removed from the body and burned on the altar.

The meat from sacrifices not burned outside the camp was given to the priests as food.

The Fat of the Offerings

The fat of an animal was regarded as a symbol of its good health and God’s blessing. When an animal was offered as a sin sacrifice and its body was burned outside the camp, its fat was offered to God as a burnt sacrifice and the pleasing aroma made the animal acceptable to God.

The Burning Altar

The burning altar was symbolic of God’s unrelenting wrath against sin, as well as his constant willingness to receive atonement for sin and forgive people who offered sin sacrifices. The burnt offerings showed people’s desire to be in relationship with God and they were a fragrant aroma to him.

The fire in the altar was never allowed to go out. It was tended day and night and fresh wood was supplied constantly. The glow from the altar inside the tabernacle courtyard was an ongoing reminder to the Israelites of their need to be in a right relationship with God.

Further Instructions for Offerings

 The rest of today’s reading has further instructions for dealing with different sins through sacrifices. It’s hard for us to keep them all straight, but the priests who guided the people in these rituals learned and participated in all of them. They were busy day and night taking care of people and tending to the tabernacle. Think of the amount of bloodshed involved in atoning for the sins of all of those people, and the smoke from the sacrifices that never stopped rising.

Jesus was completely knowledgeable about the sacrificial system. He never had to participate in sin sacrifices for himself, but he and his family would have made fellowship offerings to God and he knew what it was to see an animal victim take the place of a person at the altar. He saw himself in that innocent creature.

Because our High Priest Jesus brought himself to the altar and became our sin sacrifice, we will never know what it was like to do what the Israelites did to atone for their sins.

How does knowing this affect your view of Jesus today?