Two Uniquely Mosaic Sacrifices
Thus far we have considered three of the five Levitical sacrifices: the burnt, meat, and peace offerings. The two remaining sacrifices are the sin offering and the trespass offering, which are located in the sacrificial legislation of Leviticus as highlighted in the outline below:
1. Sacrificial laws addressed to the children of Israel (Lev. 1:1–6:7)
a. Burnt offering (1)
b. Meat offering (2)
c. Peace offering (3)
d. Sin offering (4–5:13)
e. Trespass offering (5:14–6:7)1
2. Sacrificial laws addressed to Aaron and his sons (Lev. 6:8–7:21)
a. Burnt offering (6:8–13)
b. Meat offering (6:14–23)
c. Sin offering (6:24–30)
d. Trespass offering (7:1–10)
e. Peace offering (7:11–21)
3. Peace offering laws readdressed to the children of Israel (Lev. 7:22–36)
a. Eating of blood and sacrificial fat prohibited (7:22–27)
b. Heave and wave offerings allotted to the priests (7:28–36)
4. Concluding summary (Lev. 7:37–38)
We immediately observe in this outline how the sin and trespass offerings were paired together, both in the first subsection of legislation addressed to the children of Israel as well as in the second subsection addressed to Aaron and his sons. This pairing was not coincidental, for a legal relationship between the two is expressly stated in Leviticus 7:7: “As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them.” This text, in the context of regulating the priestly administration of the trespass offering, expressly appeals to the law of the sin offering, declaring that the two sacrifices are governed by a common rule. Such an explicit comparison between two distinct sacrificial laws is exceptional within the Mosaic legislation, and yet the same comparison is repeated almost verbatim in Leviticus 14:13: “As the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering.”
Knowing that the lawgiver who paired the sin and trespass offerings together is the only wise God, we should expect a theological rationale for their association. Indeed God ordained these two sacrifices to serve a peculiar and vital function in connection with that basic and indispensable role they shared with the burnt and peace offerings as a fourfold, bloody representation of God’s promise to satisfy for the sins of his people. This function was so peculiar and vital that it demands this introductory article before we consider the sacrifices individually.
What function did the sin and trespass offerings serve? This: They were ordained by God to authoritatively answer the question, why the law?
This question has confronted the church ever since Sinai, especially in connection with God’s promise of salvation. The apostle Paul raised this question in Galatians 3:19: “Wherefore then serveth the law?”
The apostle asked this because God had given his promise to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the law. When a promiser swears that he will do something for a promisee, that promise is always about the promiser. A promise does not take into consideration the worthiness or unworthiness of the promisee. A promise does not take into account what the promisee may or may not do. A promise does not depend upon the strength or abilities or works of the promisee. If a promise has any of these things in view, then it is no longer a promise but a contract. Long before the law came into effect at Sinai, God had sworn that he would give to Abraham the fullness of salvation, the blessedness of God’s covenant, and a heavenly inheritance. Abraham received these things by promise.
In addition, the promise was the only explanation for God’s gathering of Israel at Sinai. God had heard Israel’s groanings in Egypt. God remembered his covenant that he had made with Abraham and his seed. God had sworn to bring Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey. And in faithfulness to his promise, God had delivered Israel from Pharaoh’s tyranny, bearing them on eagle’s wings unto himself. Indeed, when God said in Exodus 20:2 “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,” he publicly testified that Israel had been brought into his covenant solely by promise and for his own name’s sake.
But then the law came. God descended upon Sinai with fire and a dark tempest to personally speak his law. God committed his law to writing by personally inscribing it upon two tablets of stone. God commanded Moses to place the tablets inside the ark as a perpetual witness of the immutable standard for his righteous judgment.
What, then, did the giving of the law through Moses mean? Did God add the law to change how he would administer salvation to Israel? Was it now his purpose that the law should stand in the way of covenant blessedness, so that Israel would receive blessings only in the way of her obedience to the law? Did disobedience to the law now place the heavenly inheritance beyond reach, so that Israel would not receive it until she repented for her transgressions? In the words of the apostle, “Is the law then against the promises of God?” (Gal. 3:21). Did the law void the promise?
As soon as God inscribed that law in stone, God himself answered these questions about the law. His answer came in the form of the sin and trespass offerings. The proof that God ordained these two sacrifices to explain why he gave the law to Israel is found in the brief preamble to each of these laws.
The preamble to the law of the sin offering is found in Leviticus 4:1–2:
1. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2. Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them…
The preamble to the law of the trespass offering is found in Leviticus 5:14–15:
14. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
15. If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance…
If we compare these texts to how the laws of the burnt, meat, and peace offerings are introduced, we notice a significant difference. The law for the burnt offering simply begins with the words, “If his offering be a burnt sacrifice…” (1:3); the meat offering begins with the words, “When any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord…” (2:1); and the peace offering begins with the words, “If his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering…” (3:1). The laws for the burnt, meat, and peace offerings do not begin with the words, “The Lord spake unto Moses…” Neither do these laws specify the specific circumstances when a sacrifice was required.
The explanation for these differences is, first, that the sin and trespass offerings were uniquely Mosaic institutions. They were not instituted as sacrifices until after God proclaimed his law at Sinai. Prior to Sinai Israel had never heard of either a sin offering or a trespass offering.
By contrast Israel already knew about the burnt offering. It was the sacrifice that Noah offered after the flood, that Abraham offered on Mount Moriah, and that Job offered for his children. Although scripture does not explicitly mention the meat offering or the peace offering by name before Sinai, Israel surely was familiar with them. The bread and wine that the priest-king Melchizedek brought to bless Abraham resembled a meat offering, while the sacrifice that Jacob offered after his reconciliation with Laban bore the character of a peace offering. Moreover, all three of these sacrifices appear repeatedly in Exodus before their legislation is given in Leviticus (see Ex. 10:25; 20:24; 23:14–19; 24:5; 29:15–28, 38–42; 30:9; 32:6). Therefore, the laws of the burnt, meat, and peace offerings presumed that Israel already possessed a basic understanding of their respective purposes.
Not so with the sin and trespass offerings. These were new sacrifices delivered to Israel by the Mosaic economy of the Old Testament. For this reason they received a more thorough introduction in their respective laws than the other three sacrifices.
Yet the preambles to the laws of the sin and trespass offerings were not merely to acquaint the children of Israel with new sacrifices, but the preambles also taught God’s answer to the question, why the law?
The law had come thundering to Israel and declaring specific things that ought not to be done. “Do not have any other gods! Do not make graven images! Do not take God’s name in vain! Do not desecrate the Sabbath!” According to these specific prohibitions, the law examined the entire nation of Israel with its penetrating gaze, manifested Israel’s hatred for God and the neighbor, and concluded all under sin.
But as soon as that law sunk Israel under a gross consciousness of guilt and shame, God revealed a more abundant grace. He sent Moses to speak to Israel, saying, “If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them,” and he instituted two new sacrifices, providing more abundant bloodshed to cover an abundance of sin.
Here is the reason that the legislation for the sin and trespass offerings began so differently from the legislations for the burnt, meat, and peace offerings: These two uniquely Mosaic sacrifices satisfied for those transgressions that the law had brought to light. As the sins of God’s people began abounding under the law, these two evangelists testified, “God saves abounding sinners, for his grace does much more abound!” These sacrifices more fully expounded the wonder of God’s grace, so when the law swooped down and killed Israel, God’s promise returned more gloriously than ever before and quickened the elect church by the free forgiveness of all her sins.
Truly a peculiar and vital function!
Let us consider this function more fully, both as to its negative and positive aspects.
Reaffirming the Work of the Law
The importance of the sin and trespass offerings, negatively, was to reaffirm the law’s work when it came by Moses.
Those offerings reaffirmed that work of the law over against man’s wisdom. Hearing that Israel had come under God’s law, man will say, “Good for Israel! That law certainly will be of great benefit! Israel now has a clear code of conduct according to which she can regulate herself. Israel now has a clearly marked path of righteousness wherein she can walk and worship God and do what is pleasing to God. Israel now understands what displeases God, which surely will help her avoid the path of destruction.” And what about the work of the law? Man will say, “The work of the law is to help Israel identify and rectify vices. The work of the law is to be a fence that restrains sin and keeps Israel safe. The work of the law is to promote and improve Israel’s life as a holy people unto God. The work of the law is to produce obedience.”
And man applies that same wisdom to every sphere of his life. He says, “I do not want careless and profane children, so I need to multiply rules in the home.” He says, “I do not want careless and profane students, so I need to multiply rules in the school.” He says, “I do not want a careless and profane congregation, so I need to multiply rules in the church.” Laws are man’s solution to make good and holy people who desire to obey.
But laws have never improved a single man, woman, or child. That is not only true of man’s laws, but that is especially true of God’s law. God’s law is holy, just, and good; yet because of the corruption of the flesh, the law has never improved a sinner. At Sinai God put man’s wisdom to naught. The law worked to expose transgressions, shut every mouth, and leave the nation guilty before God.
What the law did, first, was to make Israel’s sins enter the realm of transgressions.
This was reaffirmed in the legislation for the sin offering, which stated, “If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them” (Lev. 4:2). The law testified “concerning things which ought not to be done” so that whenever Israelites sinned, they were exposed as transgressors who acted out of hatred for God and the neighbor. The same thing is repeated in the legislation for the trespass offering: “If a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord” (5:17).
Prior to the law there was no transgression in Israel because, as the axiom goes, “Where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). There was certainly sin in Israel before the law entered. But after the law entered, sin became exceedingly sinful. The law exposed the true nature of sin as a defiant and malicious power of opposition to God.
If an Israelite woman stole a pot from her neighbor, the law did not say, “Oh, she only stole a pot. It is not as if she stole the neighbor’s precious jewelry, so I will let her off the hook this time.” No, the law said, “She is a God-hater and a neighbor-hater. With her entire nature she loathes her neighbor, and she loathes God who did not give to her what he gave to her neighbor.” If an Israelite man, who after thirty years of faithfully dwelling with his wife and cherishing her with all his strength, gave one lustful glance at the beautiful young bride of his neighbor, the law did not say, “You did really well for many years, so I will cut you a break.” No, the law said, “He is a God-hater and a neighbor-hater. With his entire nature he loathes the neighbor who stands in the way of his burning lusts, and he loathes God who did not give more than one woman to him.”
The law did not simply judge sinners as those who had fallen short of the glory of God. But the law judged all who were not perfect in all that they were and in all that they did as impious and profane rebels against the living God.
What the law did, second, was to make sin abound in Israel.
Notice that I said “sin” and not “sins.”
It is true enough that sins abounded under the law. Consider, for example, that when the legislation for the sin and trespass offerings spoke of violations of “any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done” (Lev. 4:2; emphasis added), it included the commandment “Do not covet.” Coveting belongs to the inner life of man. Coveting pertains to man’s purposes and longings and wants. When the law forbade coveting, it passed beyond Israel’s outward walk to demand that every thought, choice, and emotion be motivated by pure and fervent love for God. Anything less was condemned and required bloodshed. Still more, the legislation for the sin and trespass offerings even demanded sacrifices for violations against ceremonial laws. An Israelite could incur guilt by touching what God declared to be unclean (Lev. 5:2–3) or by misusing what had been consecrated to the sanctuary (v. 15). Thus the giving of the law caused sins to multiply exponentially.
Yet I emphasize that the law made sin abound. Ultimately, there is only one sin that matters—the sin of Adam. Prior to the law someone may have thought, “God was a little harsh with Adam; after all, he only ate a piece of fruit!” But when the law entered, every mouth was stopped because Adam’s sin was manifested as idolatrous, image-worshiping, blasphemous, Sabbath-desecrating, rebellious, murderous, adulterous, thieving, lying, and entirely covetous.
Furthermore, the law made sin abound by exposing how ferocious of a beast sin is. As to its nature, sin is an insatiable and relentless power to corrupt everything that God made good. And Israel quickly discovered that the coming of God’s law became sin’s opportunity to advance its lawlessness. Sin immediately went on the offensive, tearing down that law at every point and transgressing it in any possible manner. Sin was so stimulated by the law that it began producing lusts as it had never done before. When the law said, “Do not make an idol,” sin stirred up Israel’s thoughts about how to corrupt God’s glory. When the law said, “Do not blaspheme,” sin presented a host of profanities to Israel’s mind.
Finally, the work of the law was destruction.
“I was alive without the law once,” says the apostle, “but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Rom. 7:9). So it was with Israel. The law came to ungodly sinners, and that law became nothing but a goad to provoke the Israelites and to make them energetic sinners. Yet Israel not only waxed worse and worse under the law, but Israel was also slain by the law. “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56).
The law does not know pity. The law can only say this: “As long as you continue in what is written in me, I will let you live. But the moment you deviate in the slightest from my rigorous demand of perfection, I will kill you.” And since the Israelites stood before the law as sinners, that law descended from Sinai like a mighty army to mow down Israel. Is that not what happened to Israel? Beginning at Sinai the law began its awesome and terrifying campaign of death. It scattered ten tribes to the wind. It carried Judah off into captivity. It razed Jerusalem to the ground twice. It slew Israel’s children with the sword and pestilence and fire. And that destructive work of the law culminated in its hardening of the nation to crucify the Lord from glory.
Dispelling All Ignorance of Sin
After the law entered all Israel knew exactly who she was. Every mouth was stopped, and the whole nation became guilty before God, for “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20).
That Israel knew sin by the law must inform our understanding of the “ignorance” mentioned five times in the legislation for the sin and trespass offerings. This ignorance is first mentioned in Leviticus 4:2: “If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them” (emphasis added). In Leviticus 4:13 this ignorance is also related to the idea of something hidden: “If the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty” (emphasis added).
By using both of these words in connection with sin against God’s law, the sacrificial legislation conveys the idea of erring unknowingly. Indeed both words are contrasted with knowledge in Leviticus 4:14: “When the sin [through ignorance], which they have sinned against it [a commandment] is known” and in 5:3: “And it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty” (emphasis added).
We must not misunderstand the idea of ignorance. Any interpretation that minimizes sin committed through ignorance utterly corrupts its meaning. Ignorance does not reduce sin to a mere outburst, carelessness, or negligence. An Israelite who sinned through ignorance could never say, “Oh, I just made a mistake” or “I simply forgot.” I do not deny that a “sin through ignorance” could include something inadvertent, such as if an Israelite borrowed a tool from his neighbor, forgot he had it, promised that neighbor he no longer had it, and then discovered that tool months later. If this happened, Leviticus 6:1–7 required the man to make a trespass offering. But the idea of ignorance is not bare inadvertence. Neither is the idea of ignorance that Israel did not want or desire to sin, though a sin through ignorance could be an unwilful act like touching an unclean animal.
Rather, the term “ignorance” in sacrificial legislation must stand in contrast to the knowledge that came by the law. It is an ignorance without the law.
We encounter this ignorance whenever we put the law out of mind. Without the law sin lies low, almost dormant. The apostle explained it this way: “I was alive without the law once” (Rom. 7:9). And without the law you and I will swear that we are not that bad and are well progressed in holiness. You and I will convince ourselves that this or that sin in our lives is a little thing, so that we can carve out a place for it in our lives. You and I will become righteous by our own self-imposed standards that approve us and condemn all our neighbors. That is ignorance without the law.
But by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law does not give this knowledge: “I only have a few areas in my life that need some improvement” or “Now I know what I can do to better my marriage.” Neither does the law give this knowledge: “I know now that it is possible for me to sin” or “I now know what I need to do and what I need to avoid” or “That person over there is no good.”
The knowledge by the law comes after the law digs into the depths of your existence and brings to light what motivates your every thought and desire and deed. The knowledge of the law comes after the law pries open a whitewashed sepulcher and discovers a pile of dusty bones. The law gives this knowledge: “I am a vile, rotten person to the core of my being. My entire nature is the blackness of hell.” That is always the knowledge by the law. After scouring all the paths of your feet and prying into the inner recesses of your nature, the law always tells you exactly who you are: an ungodly sinner, incapable of attaining the law’s approval, inclined to all evil, and worthy of everlasting condemnation.
Thus after the law comes, man must admit, “I sinned through ignorance. I was ignorant of the true wretchedness of sin. I was ignorant of how treacherous and rebellious sin is. I was ignorant of how sin permeates my every thought and word and deed. I was ignorant of how eager and energetic sin is to corrupt all that is holy and just and good. I was ignorant of my sinfulness ever present in me. I was ignorant that I deserve to be destroyed without pity and made eternally miserable.” This is the meaning of “ignorance” in the sacrificial legislation.
By the time Israel received this legislation, she understood very well what it meant to sin through ignorance.
Not long before, Israel had arrived at Sinai. There God told Israel to “obey my voice,” and Israel responded enthusiastically, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” (Ex. 19:5, 8). Do you know why Israel could say that? Because she was without the law and ignorant of sin. The Israelites said, “We can obey all that God gives us” because sin did not have a noticeable presence in their lives. But then God came in a dark tempest and thundered the commandments of his law to Israel. Terrified, the Israelites told Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (20:19), and Moses departed and went up into the mount to speak with God.
Now, what did that law work? Did that law work a holy reverence within Israel? Did that law inspire an eager anticipation for Moses’ return so that the people could hear God’s word? Did that law keep Israel from going astray while Moses was gone? Here is what the law worked. Knowing that they had said before God, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do,” the Israelites willfully transgressed and requested of Aaron, “Up, make us gods, which shall go before us” (Ex. 32:1). And sin abounded. Sin abounded to the building of a molten calf and offering of sacrifices to the same. Sin abounded to the drunken revelry and naked dancing before their god. Moses had not even begun to descend with the stone tablets of the law, and Israel had already transgressed the whole law.
And what destructive power the law brought! When Moses smashed those two tables of stone before the eyes of Israel, the fury of the law was unleashed upon Israel, and it began its ministry of death. The law slew three thousand by the sword of the Levites. Then the law struck the camp with a plague. And finally the law brought a separation between God and that guilty nation, so that Israel was left in the desert for dead.
After this the Israelites would have confessed, “We sinned through ignorance. We thought we could keep God’s commandments. But we are not ignorant anymore. Now we know sin. Now we know our wretchedness. We deserve to perish.”
And when there is no more ignorance, God’s purpose with the law has been accomplished. The law entered because of transgression, made sin abound, and became a ministry of death.
Oh truly, it is a terrible thing for the reprobate to be brought under the law. When God puts the reprobate under his law, they quickly fill their cup of iniquity. He sets them in slippery places to destroy them.
But that is not the end of the matter for the elect. God does not send the law to his elect for them to despair. When you come to know sin truly by the law, you must not say, “Could a child of God think what I think or do what I do?” When sin becomes exceedingly sinful, you must not conclude, “God could not possibly love me.” Do you think God is surprised by how wicked his people are whom he must save? Nay, he gave the law to bring that wickedness to light. He gave that law to show his elect that they are, indeed, an ungodly people. And it was not God’s pleasure to improve your flesh. He willed that you remain your whole life so perverse that you are incapable of doing any good and inclined to all evil.
Why?
Because God always will be glorified as the God who justifies the ungodly. He delights in raising the dead. And God will not have his beloved people be hypocrites before him or to live ignorantly of how great a salvation he has accomplished for them. His purpose is that they live humbly and joyfully before his face, confessing, “My soul thirsts for thee, O God!”
As Israel sat under the gloomy shadow of Sinai, God swooped down in the resplendent glory of his promise and instituted the sin and trespass offerings to answer the crisis that the law itself had exposed.
Witnessing to the Work of Grace
The importance of the sin and trespass offerings, positively, was their mighty testimony concerning the wondrous work of grace that comes by Christ.
Never forget: Grace is always a wonder!
The work of grace is not to reverse the law’s verdict by lowering its standard. The work of grace is not to accept imperfect obedience instead of perfection. The work of grace is not to alter the law so that it becomes doable. The work of grace is not to enable man to become a better person. The work of grace is not to lift man beyond total depravity so that he can begin working for greater glory in heaven. These things are not wonders. These things stir no one’s soul or resonate in anyone’s heart while he lies in the midst of sin and death. These things only blaspheme grace.
Grace is God in all his wondrous beauty. And grace is God as he breaks into this world to work wonders. Grace conceives a Son in the womb of a virgin. Grace is God’s uniting himself to our flesh to come under his own curse and to satisfy his own law. Grace acquits ungodly people. Grace raises dead people. And grace bestows salvation and eternal life freely without works. The wonder of grace is this: God’s elect do nothing for salvation, and God does everything for salvation. God’s elect only ever sin, and God only ever forgives them. God’s elect only ever increase their debt, and God only ever draws them up to be with him in heaven.
This wonder of grace was represented in the abundant blood of the sin and trespass offerings. There was no limit to that blood. Whenever an Israelite sinned through ignorance, he had a sacrifice that would cover his sin. What does the legislation for the sin and trespass offerings say? If any sin through ignorance and become guilty, he shall bring an offering, lay his hand upon it, kill it, “and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him” (Lev. 4:31).
What is the spiritual reality of that Old Testament sacrifice today? When you sin and the law swoops down to testify of guilt in your conscience and to bring death, you confront the law and say, “As impossible as it is for you to barge into heaven, to impute guilt to Jesus Christ, and to bury him back in the grave, so impossible is it for you to condemn me. Go away. I am forgiven freely for Christ’s sake and am righteous before God and an heir of eternal life.” No matter how many times you sin, you must say that to the law. For where sin abounds, always does grace much more abound.
Grace is always a wonder. And only those who know the work of grace will labor to be big sinners before God, for always does grace much more abound.
Belonging to the peculiar and vital function of the sin and trespass offerings was also this peculiar and vital ritual recorded in Leviticus 6:24–26:
24. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
25. Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord: it is most holy.
26. The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.
As soon as the sin offering (or trespass offering) was slain and its fat was burning upon the altar, the priest had to eat its flesh. He had to eat it right in the temple. He could not take the flesh outside the temple. He had to eat the flesh in the presence of the Israelite who had sinned, but who was spared because the animal became the embodiment of his sin. And the priest, then, devoured that Israelite’s sin. And what faith saw beyond that priest was Christ, devouring down that sinner’s sin and drinking the cup of God’s wrath at Calvary until it was entirely gone.
That is Christ yesterday, today, and forever. Of such saving efficacy is his satisfaction at the cross that he continually devours down our sins—second by second, minute by minute, day by day, year by year. And that knowledge and confidence you possess by faith and not by works. You have it by promise and not by law.
Here then is the relationship of the work of the law to the work of grace: The former serves the latter. The law makes man a sinner, so that man’s only way out is Christ. Moses was the lawgiver. Christ is the deliverer from the law. Moses made men transgressors. Christ became a transgressor in the place of his people. Moses made sin abound. Christ did much more abound in forgiveness. Moses bound in death and woe appalling. Christ frees from sin, death, and the law.
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