How deeply important are these two aspects of the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He suffered for sins, “the JUST for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Without the former—clearance—how could the believing sinner be sure of his escape from the punishment his sins deserved? Without the latter—acceptance—how could he be sure of his standing in relation to God?
An illustration may help to make our meaning clear. Suppose a young man is convicted of serious offences against the law of the land. Suppose further this young man was the son of a bosom friend of the Judge. Strict justice was carried out; the sentence—a heavy fine or a lengthened imprisonment—was given. Out of respect for the memory of his old friend, the Judge determined to pay the fine. This accomplished, the young man was cleared of the offence, and no hand of the law could prevent the young man from walking out of the court a free man. Indeed, if the Judge had sought to hinder him by a single step, he would have been guilty of illegal action.
But suppose that as the young man left the court, he met the judge in the corridor. The young man, greatly relieved at his clearance, approached the Judge, and offered his hand. The Judge responded by putting his hand behind his back, and looking severely at the young man, said, “Charles, you are cleared. I cannot prevent your leaving the court a free man, but I am so thoroughly ashamed of you and the dishonour to your dead father’s name, that I have nothing more to say to you.” The young man, cut to the quick, walked away—cleared but not accepted.
But if, instead of acting thus, the Judge had grasped the young man’s hand, and said, “Charles, I feel assured from your behaviour in court today that you deeply repent of your misdemeanours, and seeing this, I determined not only to pay the heavy fine, but to adopt you as my own son. Step into my motorcar, and I will take you to your new home and all its amenities are yours.
How delightful would such a situation be, not only cleared, but also accepted! And yet this is only a very faint picture of the happy position in which the believing sinner finds himself in relation to a Saviour-God.
Scripture itself furnishes in type a wonderful presentation of these two great gospel blessings—clearance and acceptance—through the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We refer to Leviticus 1 and 4—the Burnt Offering, the highest aspect of the death of our Lord, setting forth typically the acceptance of the offerer; and the Sin Offering, typifying clearance. This latter naturally comes first in the experience of those who seek salvation.
The Sin Offering
The Sin Offering typified the death of our Lord from the viewpoint of the sinner’s need. It was an obligatory sacrifice because of man’s sin. There was no other way for God to offer forgiveness of sins and salvation apart from a suitable substitute, taking the guilty sinner’s place, and suffering in his room and stead. “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Hence that bitter cry of intensest anguish, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) uttered by our Lord when hanging on the cross of shame and woe, enduring the utmost wrath of God against sin.
The sinless Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, was treated by God as if He were the sinner. The wrath of God the sinner deserved was poured on His Head in fullest measure, satisfying the claims of Divine holiness on the one hand and the sinner’s desperate need on the other. “For He [God] has made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). In that death the believing sinner has received once and for all a complete cleansing from all sins. What a happy and blessed clearance!
The Burnt Offering
The Burnt Offering typically presents the death of our Lord Jesus Christ from the viewpoint of The Great Offerer—“Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9:14).
Scripture shows in vivid contrast the difference between the Burnt Offering and the Sin Offering. The former was voluntary, the latter was obligatory.
The Burnt Offering was consumed on the Brazen Altar, as being “an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour to the Lord” (Lev. 1:9). The Sin Offering was carried “outside the camp,” and there wholly consumed, showing God’s abhorrence of sin, pouring His wrath to the full on the sinner’s Substitute.
Again, the Hebrew word rendered Burnt Offering is olah, signifying that which goes up to God to His delight as a sweet smelling savour. In the case of the Sin Offering the Hebrew word used is chattath, signifying sinfulness, abhorrence on the part of God, hence His wrath in consuming the sacrifice.
The laying on of hands both with the Burnt Offering and the Sin Offering, setting forth the intimate connection of the offerer and the offering, was carried out with a widely different significance. In the case of the Sin Offering, all the demerit, all the sinfulness of the offerer was transferred typically to the offering; but in the case of the Burnt Offering all the merit and excellence of the sacrifice was typically transferred to the offerer; and in God’s acceptance of the offering the offerer was accepted, as we read, “It shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him” (Lev. 1:4).
Thus never in all our Lord’s life on earth did He stand in greater favour, than when He offered Himself to God in all the perfection of His holy obedience to God’s will. His sacrifice from that point of view went up to God as a sweet smelling savour, securing God’s glory in fullest measure. This aspect of our Lord’s death when understood by us in the power of the Holy Spirit of God leads inevitably to worship, the very highest Christian privilege on earth, to be taken up in glory in fuller measure for ever and ever. That our Lord thought much of this is seen, when He told the woman at Sychar’s well, “The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (John 4:23). May we all respond to this more and more!
The following Scriptures give us the fulfilment of the typical Burnt Offering of ancient times. “Having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself [God], according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6). “For through Him [Christ] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). “Giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12).
Here are our Lord’s own words, breathed into His Father’s ear, just before He went to the tragedy of the cross with all its unutterable woe. We read, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me” (John 17:20-23). How perfectly unbelievable were these words, if they had not proceeded from the lips of the Lord Himself—that we are loved by the Father with the same love wherewith He loves His Son.
It is no wonder that some natives assisting the missionaries in the work of translating the Scriptures into their native tongue, found it impossible at first to believe such high and lofty truth, as is set forth in such passages, as we have just quoted. They declared that the greatest height of privilege would be to lie prostrate before the Saviour, and to be allowed to kiss the soles of His feet. But to be God’s children, to be loved with the same love wherewith He loves His Son, they felt could not be true. It is indeed surpassingly wonderful, but when the missionaries assured the natives that these words were the words of God, with the tears of wonder and gratitude on their cheeks, they translated this wonder of wonders into their native tongue.
How feeble is the response the best of us make to such love! We can indeed wonderingly re-echo the words of the Psalmist: “Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place” (Ps. 66:12).