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Jeffrey Price 6OT508 Genesis-Joshua 1

The Gospel of Leviticus - Introduction

The great calling of every man and woman who bears the name of Jesus Christ upon their hearts is to

recognize the grace that has been bestowed upon them and then to respond in loving obedience to the

one who called them. The Book of Leviticus begins with wayyiqra, And he called1, which points

us to the one who calls, our God who has brought us out of the land of slavery and into the land offreedom flowing with milk and honey, and simultaneously to the one being called, Gods adopted sons

and daughters of the covenant. As adopted children we have a clear obligation to the mighty word of

our God the Father and thus we must see the totality of scripture, his word, as constantly revealing thisgreat calling of ours. The word of God then plays a major role in the worship that we offer up to him

and as the Book of Leviticus reveals our worship is always before the Lord. The laws, ordinances

and ceremonies described in Leviticus are more than cultic rituals, God is preeminently present inworship. The laws on sacrifice say repeatedly that the ceremonies take place before the Lord.2 God

is at all times present in and the focal point of our worship which is revealed throughout all of scripture.

We cannot minimize the value of his revealed word to us and this includes the valuable revelation of

Leviticus which lays the foundation of the substitutionary atonement achieved by the promisedredeemer in Genesis 3:15. This promise reveals that the seed of the woman will one day redeem his

people from the curse, and the revelation of how he will redeem his covenantal people is found in the

theology of atonement in the Book of Leviticus. To understand this theology we must examine thenecessity of redemption, the process by which we are redeemed, the efficacy of our redemption, and

finally our true redemption, the fulfillment of the Levitical atonement theology in Jesus Christ. Without

the atonement of Leviticus, we would have no Gospel of Jesus Christ to preach to the world; therefore,

it is plain to see the vital importance of understanding the Gospel of Leviticus, the good news found inthe vicarious satisfaction and redeeming blood of our sacrificial offering.

Covenant BreakingWe must first look at the necessity of atonement, because without understanding why this is required,

we can never appreciate the magnitude of Gods sacrifice in Jesus Christ. As we all fell in Adam and

bear the federal curse of his disobedience we experience the bondage of sin or our utter inability toperfectly obey our Creator. The bondage which sin entails for us is threefold, guilt, defilement, and

power.3 We are stained by the guilt of Adams federal sin and our own actual sin, which makes us

both unclean and profane before the Lord. The guilt and defilement are then coupled with our captivityto Satan as the prince of darkness and god of this world [wielding] his suzerainty and [bringing] us

into bondage.4 The theological underpinnings of Leviticus reveal Israels captivity to sin, guilt and

defilement as the Lord directs the nations attention to the sacrificial system he has setup. The people of

Israel must make atonement for their sins, even when they are unintentional5 and always remember that

they have indeed incurred guilt before the Lord.6 Furthermore, the continuous nature of theirsacrifices reveals both their continual predisposition to sin and the necessity for continued obedience.

All the maintenance sacrifices presupposed a failure to live according to Gods law that had to berectified. The high cost of those sacrifices and the redemption prices from violations and vows

naturally encouraged greater obedience.7 In fact, the call to obedience is how the Book of Leviticus

concludes. These are the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses for the people of Israelon Mount Sinai.8

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While sacrifice was not unique to Israel, [t]he sacrifices make up a major ingredient of the covenant

bond between Israel and God. The ancient Near Eastern nations have nothing comparable.9 Not only is

atonement necessary for Israel to remove the guilt of sin that defiles the nation and holds it captive, but

it is vitally necessary for the Israelites to have a proper relationship with God and maintain thecovenant he has made with the people. Leviticus begins with the necessity of atonement because of sin

and guilt, but the exclamation point at the end of the book is that this is necessary for their covenantal

relationship with God. They must first recognize their state of depravity before the Lord by confessingtheir iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers10, but through the blood of atonement and their

obedience to the Lord, God will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers.11

By the grace of God, he will keep his covenant with his adopted children by making them righteous

through the atoning sacrifice. Those known as the righteous, then, participated in the celebration ofbeing at peace with God through the vicarious atonement of a substitutionary offering. And they

received the promise of future rest and release both physical and spiritual. 12 These are the

fulfillments of Gods covenant promise to not only provide the redeemer to make peace, but also thefruit of that peace to ensure eternal rest. Israel knew that God was the sole author of life and the only

one who could provide peace through atonement,13 and the peoples obedience to his sacrificial system

was a response to the good news and redeemed life they received through his kept covenant promises.

Standing Before the Lord

It now becomes necessary to delve into the depths of understanding the distinctions between what isholy and common, and what is clean and unclean to see the necessity of the Levitical atonement

structure the Lord provided his covenantal people through Moses. It was the Lord himself who called

out to the people and told Israel to, distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the

unclean and the clean14 in order to understand, teach and pass on to future generations the need forredemption. The sacrificial system taught them that their worship, presented through their offerings,

should be free of blemish for not only was their offering a substitute for them and bearing their

iniquity, but it was necessary for their offering to be acceptable before their holy God.15 For it is the

Lord who repeatedly commands Israel to consecrate itself through their sacrificial offerings to beholy, for I the Lord your God am holy,16 and therefore we see that the sacrificial blood is necessary to

cleanse and sanctify. Sacrifice can undo the effects of sin and human infirmity.17 The effects of sin arereflected in the need for continual redemption, continual sanctifying and continual cleansing. By Gods

repeated ordinances and his constant attention on what, who, where and when were holy and clean it

becomes apparent that there is a relationship between the necessity to be holy and the atoning sacrifices

Israel was instructed to obey. In fact, the relationship is so interconnected to the covenant promises ofGod that he uses these distinctions of holiness and cleanliness to entice the people of Israel towards

obedience so that they will enjoy the land of promise.18 To be a holy nation, Israel had to set itself

apart from all that was unclean.19

Now that we see the necessity for understanding holiness and cleanliness in relationship to sacrifice wewill examine the distinction between these two profound terms as they bear witness to Israels standing

before God. For Israel to be holy it would need to be blemish free, lacking any moral imperfection and

ultimately the people would need to reflect the purity of Gods nature 20perfectly. Subsequently, forIsrael to be clean it would need to keep the covenantal relationship in perfect obedience to Gods word

and all that he had commended the people to do. Obviously, they were incapable of such a task of their

own accord which is why the sacrificial system was set up to show them their inability and to remindthem of their need for Gods presence to make their worship effectual.

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of the Levitical atonement that provides for us the sacramental washing away of our sins by covering

us with the blood of atonement. This is our redemption, our restoration into perfect covenant with our

holy God, who has paid the price for our sins and made us a holy and righteous people.

Salvation Assured

In addition to the regularly ordained sacrifices that continuously directed the worshipper towards their

need for reverence in worship, purity in lifestyle, and [their] need for forgiveness43, the sacrificialsystem culminates in the great Day of Atonement. This was to be a time of holy convocation44 and a

Sabbath of solemn rest45 set apart for the High Priest to make atonement for the tent of meeting and

for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.46 TheDay of Atonement provided a way for the people of Israel to be cleansed from all their sins,47 to

experience Gods forgiveness48and to once again be reminded of His presence amongst them in a

supernatural way, as he appeared in the cloud above the mercy seat.49 Once a year this ritual wasperformed by casting lots over two goats, one would be slain providing the life-blood as a sacrifice to

the Lord and the other would have the sins of Israel placed upon him through the public confession of

sin, the laying of the priests hands upon him transferring the guilt to the animal and ultimately being

sent into the wilderness, outcast and cutoff from the camp into the unclean world.

Israel did not secure its own holiness by obeying the law or undergoing some ritualThey assert not

only that sacrifice must be in accordance with Gods will for it to be effective in the first place, but that

it is God himself who gives the desired result of holiness or cleanness.50 Gods presence is what makesIsraels sacrifice efficacious towards the end result of atonement and it His visible presence above the

mercy seat that makes the Day of Atonement such a holy convocation unto Israel. He makes the people

holy, he makes them clean, he makes them blemish free so that they may enjoy covenant salvation in

the Lord. The atonement is efficacious it accomplishes redemption, it makes purification for sin, itreconciles to God, it secures the salvation of those for whom it was intended.51 The Westminster

Confession of Faith pinpoints the assurance of salvation experienced through the administration of the

covenant at the time of Leviticus by stating, for that time, [the sacrifices were] sufficient and

efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promisedMessiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation.52Even though the

administration of the covenant was by types and shadows it was still real, truthful and reliable for Israelto obey as it was revealed to them by YHWH, who provided life for the people and a means to worship

him. Thus says the Lord, You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the

LORD your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall

live by them: I am the LORD.53Living by Gods standard in responsive obedience to his call willmean covenant keeping and covenant obedience, which reveals ones covenant adoption unto eternal

life. Wenham states, [d]ivine blessing depends on obedience, but disobedience will not result in total

rejection, just continued divine judgment.54 The reality here is that both Israel and the Church are incovenant with God, but only those that experience the light of the revealed shadows from the Levitical

atonement in the vicarious satisfaction purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ are experiencing thedivine blessing of salvific covenant in Christ. Jesus himself described his death as a ransom andcovenant offering and the idea of a vicarious atonement was so obvious in connection with the sin

offerings and the sacrifice of the great Day of Atonement that to the popular mind [of Christs time] it

must have seemed almost unavoidable.55 We must then conclude that though there is a dramatic shiftin the covenant administration, in the New Testament, it is still the very same covenant that requires the

expiatiating and propitiating shedding of blood to secure eternal salvation.

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Shadow Becomes Light

The Levitical atonement has laid the necessary foundation for seeing Calvary through the properperspective of a necessary sacrifice, securing our standing before the Lord through the presentation of

the great high priest, Jesus Christ, making us holy and blameless by his propitiating blood of love,

mercy and life. He fulfilled the law that Adam could not and he removed our transgression from thesight of the Lord that kept and keeps us from being righteous and obedient before our God. Scripture

regards the entire work of Christ as a fulfillment of Gods law and a satisfaction of his demand.56 God

demands nothing short of perfect obedience and holiness, but he does so in a way that shows theimmensity of his love for the sons of Adam through the person and work of Jesus Christ who wins our

release from the captivity of sin. He secured this release because He Himself fulfilled all the truth that

was symbolically and typically set forth in the provisions of the Levitical economy. These provisions

were but shadows of the good things to come and, when that which they foreshadowed appeared, therewas no need or place for the shadows themselves. 57 By the blood of Jesus Christ we are set free from

the captivity of sin, and at the same time set free from relying on the continual blood sacrifices to

maintain our standing before the Lord. For his suffering was not just a matter of bearing thepunishment but also an act of fulfilling the law; and his work was not only a matter of fulfilling the law

but also an act of bearing its punishment.58Jesus Christ was our substitutionary atonement; he

provided our vicarious satisfaction as both the slain goat blemish free, shedding his blood and makingus holy, and the scapegoat of the great Day of Atonement bearing our iniquity, experiencing Gods

wrath, and being cut off from life by experiencing death.

Jesus Christ himself and the early church understood that the sacrificial system, along with its

culmination in the Day of Atonement, provided the theological models59to understand Christsatoning death. This can be seen throughout the New Testament scripture that [t]he interpretation of the

person and works of Jesus the Messiah in books like Romans, Hebrews and the Petrine Epistles shows

that the foundation of the gospel is here in the Book of Leviticus. 60 Our continued study of Leviticuswill help us to appreciate the depths of Christs sacrifice along with the need for his shed blood and the

power of life that is found within it. Without this book we cannot begin to understand the death of

Christ and his priestly work on our behalf, as the author of Hebrews constantly indicates.61So we shallend as we began, by seeing the Book of Leviticus as a book of calling. And he called out to hiscovenant people to see the power of the gospel that he was securing for them through the atoning

sacrifice of a substitute. God is calling out for his covenant people to obey him perfectly, to be clean,

holy and blameless. Not by their own power, but by the power and blood of the one true sacrifice, thegreat high priest and the tabernacle of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

BibliographyAlexander, T.D. From Paradise to the Promise Land. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.

Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, Volume Three. Grand Rapids:Baker Academic, 2006.

Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer. Encountering the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic,

1999.

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Douglas F. Kelly, Hugh W. McClure, III and Philip Rollinson. The Westminster Confession of Faith:

An Authentic Modern Version. Signal Mountain: The Summertown Company, Inc., 1992.

Eveson, Philip H. The Beauty of Holiness. Webster: Evangelical Press, 2007.

J.I. Packer and Mark Dever. In My Place Condemed He Stood. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2007.

Murray, John. The Atonement. 1976. http://www.the-highway.com/atonement_murray.html (accessedMay 2008).

Packer, J.I. Concise Theology. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1993.

Ross, Allen P. Holiness to the Lord. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.

Tremper Longman III and Rayond B. Dillard. An Introduction to the Old Testament. Grand Rapids:

Zondervan, 2006.

Wenham, Gordon J. The Book of Leviticus. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,1979.

1 Tremper Longman III and Rayond B. Dillard 2006, 81

2 Wenham 1979, 16

3 Murray 1976

4 Ibid

5 Leviticus 4:13-17 ESV

6 Leviticus 5:19 ESV

7 Ross 2002, 56


9 Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer 1999, 119


11 Leviticus 26:45-46

12 Ross 2002, 50

13 Ibid, 56

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15 Leviticus 22:20

16 Leviticus 11:44-47 ESV, Leviticus 19:1-2 ESV, Leviticus 20:7-8 ESV

17 Wenham 1979, 26


19 Alexander 2002, 213

20 Ibid, 211

21 Ibid, 206

22 Wenham 1979, 22

23 Tremper Longman III and Rayond B. Dillard 2006, 89


25 Ross 2002, 44



28 Leviticus 9:22-24

29 Ross 2002, 53



32 Ibid, 220

33 Ibid, 221

34 Ibid, 222

35 Murray 1976

36 Bavinck 2006, 396


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38 Bavinck 2006, 396


40 J.I. Packer and Mark Dever 2007, 48

41 Packer 1993, 135

42 J.I. Packer and Mark Dever 2007, 52

43 Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer 1999, 126







50 Wenham 1979, 27

51 Murray 1976

52 Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 7:5


54 Wenham 1979, 32

55 Bavinck 2006, 394

56 Ibid, 394

57 Murray 1976

58 Bavinck 2006, 395

59 Wenham 1979, 37

60 Ross 2002, 43

61 Eveson 2007, 16)

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