Subject 12 : The Faith of the Apostles Creed
● Sermon on the Holy Son 2 : What Do the Old Testament’s Laying on of Hands and the New Testament’s Baptism Mean?
(Leviticus 1:3-4)
“If
his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male
without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of
the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD. Then he shall put his hand on
the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf
to make atonement for him.”
The
Old Testament tells us that when the people of Israel gave to God their
offering of the remission of sin, they had to make sure to bring an
unblemished animal and to put their hands on its head. And it is also
written that when priests, on their behalf, killed the animal, drew its
blood, put the blood on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and
poured the rest of it on the ground, then they would receive the
remission of a day’s worth of sins.
On
the other hand, to be forgiven of a year’s worth of sins, Leviticus
16:6-10 states, “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is
for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall
take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the
tabernacle of meeting. Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one
lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall
bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin
offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall
be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to
let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.” In the Bible, this
scapegoat was to be abandoned in the wilderness.
In
addition, Leviticus 16:29 says, “This shall be a statute forever for
you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall
afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own
country or a stranger who dwells among you.”
How
were the people of Israel forgiven of a year’s worth of their sins all
at once? First, they needed the High Priest—in the main passage above,
this was Aaron at the time. To make a year's worth of the Israelites’
sins transferred onto the scapegoat, it was absolutely required to have
the High Priest. Who, then, was the representative of the priests of the
Israelites? It was none other than Aaron. God set aside Aaron and his
descendants as the High Priest.
Aaron
brought a bull into the Tabernacle’s court, passed his sins onto it by
first putting his hands on its head to make atonement for himself and
his house, cut its throat open, drew its blood, and took some of the
blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on
the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the
blood with his finger seven times. This is how Aaron and his house first
received the remission of sin. Atonement of one’s sin could be achieved
only by putting his hands on the sacrificial animal. The vicarious
death of this sacrificial animal is atonement.
The
sinful must die because of their own sins, but when they pass their
sins onto the sacrificial offering by laying their hands on its head,
then this animal is put to death instead. This is how the High Priest
and his house were first remitted of their sins. After doing so, he
entered into the Tabernacle by himself and offered one of the two goats
to God by laying their hands on its head and killing it to take its
blood. On behalf of the people of Israel, he then laid his hands on the
other goat before their presence and thereby passed their sins onto this
goat.
Putting
his hands on the head of the goat, the High Priest therefore prayed,
“Oh, Lord, the people of Israel have broken Your Law, from the first to
the last of Your Ten Commandments, and all the 613 articles of the Law.
Lord, all these tribes have become sinners before You. I therefore pass
all their sins onto the sacrificial goat by laying my hands on its
head.” He then cut the goat’s throat, drew its blood, and took this
blood into the Most Holy, where he was allowed to enter only once a
year. Then he had to sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy
seat seven times (Leviticus 16:15).
The
Ark of Testimony was placed inside the Most Holy. The covering of this
Ark was called the mercy seat, and when this covering was removed, one
would have seen the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the
golden pot that had the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded inside the
Ark. Aaron’s rod that budded refers to resurrection, the two stone
tablets of the Law refers to the righteousness of God, and the golden
pot that had the manna refers to God’s Word of life. On top of the Ark
of the Testimony, a covering called the mercy seat was placed. The blood
of the sacrifice was sprinkled seven times before the covering. As
bells of gold were attached to the hems of the robe worn by the High
Priest, whenever he sprinkled the blood dipped in hyssop, the bells made
sound.
As
Leviticus 16:14 explains, “He shall take some of the blood of the bull
and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and
before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his
finger seven times.” Every time the High Priest sprinkled the blood, the
bells rang, and outside the Tabernacle, all the Israelites heard the
sound of these ringing bells, for all the sins of the people of Israel
could be blotted out only when the High Priest offered this sin offering
on their behalf. Like this, for the people of Israel, this sound of the
ringing bells coming from inside the Most Holy was the blessed sound of
the gospel that told them that their sins were all blotted out.
When
they heard the golden bells sounding seven times, they told themselves,
“I am free now. I had been burdened by all the sins that I accumulated
over the past year, but now this burden has been lifted.” On this Day of
Atonement, the people of Israel won their freedom from all sins, and
then went back to their everyday life in joy. Now, in the present, this
sound of bells is none other than the very sound of blessings that
enables us to be born again of water and the Spirit. The gospel has the
power of dynamite that can blow away all sins once and for all.
We
have been saved by hearing with our ears, believing in our hearts, and
confessing with our mouths our faith in the Word of God, the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. The gospel of the remission of sin enables us
to be born again of water and the Spirit. Leviticus 16:21-22 states,
“Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess
over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of
the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a
suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an
uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.” The
offering that thus accepted all the sins of the Israelites passed onto
it by the laying on of hands then carried these sins on itself, roaming
the sand desert until its ultimate death. This was the Old Testament’s
remission of sin.
It
is written in Jeremiah 17:1 that everyone’s sins are written in two
places before God. One is God’s Book of Judgment, and the other is
people’s own hearts. Like this, to receive the remission of our sins,
our sins should be erased both in God’s Books of Judgment and in our own
consciences. Also, we must receive this remission of sin by believing
righteously before God.
This
is why the High Priest performed the ritual of the sin offering that
atoned for all the sins of the people of Israel by putting his hands on
the head of the goat in their presence—to show them, in other words,
that all their sins were indeed passed onto the goat.
When
people hear this good news of the gospel, some people realize it soon,
while others are slow to understand it. Those who say, as soon as they
hear, “If I had been sinful but my sins were passed onto the goat, then
it is the goat that now has these sins”—these are the ones whose
realization is quick. When our sins are passed onto the sacrificial
offering, then we become sinless. How simple is this? Once one realizes
it, truth is easy to grasp. When the goat disappears from the sight and
the man who sent it off returns, the goat then roams in the wilderness
with neither vegetation nor water, and in the end dies with the sins of
all the Israelites on its shoulder.
This
is how the righteous law of God, that “the wages of sin is death,” was
fulfilled. God, in other words, saved the nation of Israel by
sacrificing this goat, the sacrificial offering, for their sake. God
passed all the sins that all the Israelites had accumulated all year
long onto the goat, and thereby saved them.
In the New Testament, Jesus has given us salvation by being baptized and crucified (Matthew 3:15-17; 1 Peter 3:21).
No comments:
Post a Comment