No Contradiction

The opening verses in Hebrews 10 state strongly and expressively that it was impossible for a sinner’s conscience to be cleansed by the blood that was spilled in the courts of the earthly sanctuary. On the old testament feast days, wherein the floor of the outer court became a bloodbath and the streets of Jerusalem ran red, all the blood of bulls and goats availed nothing as pertaining to the sinner’s conscience. Though there were millions of gallons of blood collected by the priests over the fifteen hundred years that transpired from Moses to Christ, not one guilty conscience was delivered from the burden of guilt by that animal blood.

But it is not enough to say that the bloody sacrifices of the law never cleansed a sinner’s conscience. What Hebrews 10 teaches is that those sacrifices only aggravated one’s consciousness of sin. For the epistolist—with his eye upon those chief bloody sacrifices offered on the day of atonement—says that “in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” The very performance of those sacrifices left the Israelite with only a greater impression of how terrible his sins and miseries were. Therefore, not only the moral law but also the ceremonial law made abundantly clear to the Israelite that he was an ungodly sinner.

Under the ceremonies of the law, the Israelite was confronted at every turn in life with this reality: I am not a good person. The law made sure of it.

In addition to the sacrifices that an Israelite was required to bring on the annual feast days and the sacrifices that he was required to bring for his many transgressions, the law also demanded that an Israelite bring bloody sacrifices for other events in his life—such as when his wife bore a child, if he was healed of leprosy, if a plague was cleansed from his house, if he contracted some disease that produced a running issue from his flesh, or if his wife experienced some abnormally long discharge of blood. And even if the law did not require the Israelite to bring a bloody sacrifice to the altar, then the law had a host of ways to make him ceremonially unclean and demanded that he wash himself.

Thus the ceremonies of the law only reminded an Israelite that he was a disease-ridden and sin-infested creature. He was the corrupt offspring of a corrupt stock. He was ungodly. The law entered that the offense might abound.

And it was impossible that the blood of bullocks and goats should ease the sinner’s conscience because it was impossible that the blood of bullocks and of goats should avail by taking away such sins.

But does not the epistolist state something contrary to what God told his people in the law? Did not God assure his people that when they presented their animals at God’s altar and placed their hands upon the heads of those animals that those animals would be accepted to make atonement for their sins? Did not God say that “the priest shall make an atonement for him [who through ignorance sinned against any of the commandments of Jehovah], and it shall be forgiven him” (Lev. 4:31)? Or what about God’s testimony on the day of atonement that “the priest [shall] make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord” (16:30)? If words have any meaning, then the ceremonial law taught that bloody sacrifices made atonement for sin.

Furthermore, in last month’s article I asserted that samak—the imposition of hands upon the head of the animal—transferred the sinner’s guilt to the sacrificial victim. That samak effected a transfer of guilt is clearly stated in the law for the day of atonement. The high priest, while pressing his hands upon the head of the live goat, was to confess the sins of Israel, “putting them upon the head of the goat,” so that this goat would “bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited” (Lev. 16:21–22). But if it was impossible for bullocks and goats to take away sin, then was not samak an empty ritual and devoid of any meaning?

Scripture cannot be broken.

In all of God’s words and works and judgments, his lovely unity is always on clear display.

Thus we are obliged to uncover the harmony that exists between the doctrine of the epistolist and the testimony of the Mosaic law.

And the solution is not at all difficult if we keep in mind that the law had “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (emphasis added). We must remember that Israel’s entire old testament economy was a shadow of heavenly realities and patterned after the spiritual. Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt was a shadow. Israel’s passage through the Red Sea was a shadow. Israel’s pilgrimage through the waste-howling wilderness was a shadow. Israel’s crossing of the Jordan was a shadow. Israel’s reception of the land of Canaan was a shadow. So too, the ceremonies of the law were shadows of good things to come.

Therefore, when the ceremonial law speaks of atonement, we must interpret that atonement in light of Hebrews 10. The law speaks of shadow-atonement and not of the very image of things. According to the inspired epistolist, we should read Leviticus 1:4 in this way: “He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make [a shadow] atonement for him.” And we should read Leviticus 4:31 this way: “The priest shall make [a shadow] atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him [in the form of a shadow].” And we should read Leviticus 16:30 this way: “On that day shall the priest make [a shadow] atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord [in the form of a shadow].”

Just as an animal sacrifice was a mere shadow and not the very image of the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, so the atonement received by means of an animal sacrifice was a mere shadow and not the very image of the atonement at Calvary. We may even say that an Israelite received certain privileges on the basis of that animal sacrifice, but those privileges were always and only mere shadows and not the very image of the infinite blessings received in Christ.

But to better understand this idea of shadow-sacrifices and shadow-atonements and shadow-privileges—as well as God’s purpose with them—it would be profitable for us to first study them in connection with the first passover in the land of Egypt.

A Simple Analogy

If we trace Israel’s steps back from the base of Sinai to the eve of their departure from Egypt, we find Moses standing before Pharaoh to announce the last of the ten strokes that would be inflicted upon Egypt.

To this Pharaoh, God came with the terrors of death, causing Pharaoh to sit for three days in thick darkness. This Pharaoh had also just heard from Moses that if Israel was going to worship God in the wilderness, then God required his people to bring all their cattle with them into the wilderness to serve him. And holding the truth of God down in unrighteousness, this Pharaoh thought within himself, “Who is the Lord?” Then in a fit of rage against God, he screeched at Moses to depart: “Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die” (Ex. 10:28). But Moses lingered for a few moments in Pharaoh’s presence to utter the Lord’s pronouncement of doom:

4. Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:

5. And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

6. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

7. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.

8. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. (Ex. 11:4–8)

Scripture does not record Pharaoh’s response, but in his heart we can hear these words: “So let it be.” For that heart God hardened. That heart God hardened because in his marvelous sovereignty God had raised up Pharaoh for this cause, even to show his power in Pharaoh and to multiply wonders in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh’s rebellion against the word of God was fulfilled and judgment had to come.

And through that judgment God redeemed his Zion: an event so monumental that it would forever determine Israel’s calendar.¹

After Moses and Aaron departed from Pharaoh, the Lord gave to them the institution of the passover. The Lord required that each household of Israel take an unblemished, year-old male from either the sheep or the goats. On the evening of their departure, the Israelites had to slaughter those animals, consume their roasted flesh, and smear their blood around the doors of every house. And when the destroyer passed through the streets and fields of Egypt, slaying the firstborn of every man and beast, he spared the households covered in blood:

12. I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.

13. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Ex. 12:12–13)

Here we arrive at the point of my analogy.

What was the reason for the destroyer’s passing over the households in Israel but entering every last household in Egypt? Was it because Israel was less deserving of death than the firstborn children of Egypt whom God smote? Not at all. The Israelites were by nature no different than the Egyptians, born dead in trespasses and sins. And Israel would soon learn at the base of Sinai how wretchedly sinful she was. Israel had not distinguished herself above the Egyptians and made herself more worthy of deliverance.

Then what was the reason? The passover blood. God told Israel that when he saw the blood on the Israelites’ doorposts, he would pass over them and the plague would not smite them. Blood was the reason that God spared Israel. If any man in Israel was so foolish as to despise the passover sacrifice that God had provided, then undoubtedly he would have watched his firstborn perish that night. But every household covered in blood escaped the sentence of death.

We must admit that the passover blood availed.

But what did that passover blood avail?

By that blood were the Israelites forgiven of all their iniquities? Were they healed of all their diseases? Were their lives redeemed from destruction? Were they crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercies? Were their mouths satisfied with good things?

No. The proof of this is that many in Israel who were covered by that blood in Egypt later would be slain by God in the wilderness because he had no pleasure in them. Three thousand Israelites would perish by the sword under the shadow of the golden calf. Many would be buried at Kibroth-hattaavah because they lusted again for the dainties of Egypt. The earth would swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, while the fire of the Lord consumed their followers. Many others would die from the fiery serpents. Yea, a whole generation of those who passed through the Red Sea would not enter the land of Canaan because of evil hearts of unbelief, and their carcasses fell in the wilderness.

But then what did that passover blood avail?

In the words of Hebrews 10, that passover blood gave to Israel mere shadows of good things to come and not the very image of things. As a shadow-atonement, that passover blood granted the Israelites shadow-deliverance from the destroyer, shadow-redemption from Egypt, shadow-spoils from their tormenters, shadow-passage through the Red Sea, and a shadow-inheritance in the land of Canaan. Everything about that sacrifice and what it availed was a shadow. But true deliverance from death, true redemption from bondage, true spoils of the heathen, true baptism, and a true inheritance could not be received by that blood, for it is impossible that the blood of bullocks and goats should take away sins.

And what has been said about this passover sacrifice can be easily transferred to the Levitical sacrifices.

Everything about the ceremonial law for bloody sacri-fices came in the form of a shadow. The animal that passed un–
der the imposition of hands was accepted to make shadow-
atonement. Samak was a shadow-imputation of guilt. The sending away of the live goat into the wilderness was a shadow-cleansing of sin from the camp of Isarel.

As a shadow-atonement, the death of that animal granted the Israelite certain privileges. Negatively, what that shadow-atonement afforded can be inferred from the penalty inflicted upon those who were unable to be covered by that shadow-atonement,² namely that “that soul shall be cut off from among the people” (Num. 15:30). In other words, that shadow-atonement granted the sinner momentary deliverance from being cut off from the land of Canaan by physical death. Positively, by that shadow-atonement the sinner could continue to dwell in his shadow-inheritance and appear in the courts of the earthly tabernacle. But what sacrifices availed were merely earthly patterns of something old and perishing. And when an Israelite came to the end of his earthly existence, no amount of animal blood could remove true terrors of death.

What then was the real worth of the bloody sacrifices?

They were shadows that went hand in hand with the spoken word of God.

When God told Israel that the animal that passed under the imposition of the sinner’s hands was accepted to make atonement for him, God spoke the truth. That truth was spoken in the form of shadows. That truth was spoken with a view toward and in the light of good things to come. The word of God went together with the shadow to reveal the very image of things—the body of Jesus Christ. That animal’s bearing of guilt, that animal’s suffering of the penalty of physical death, that ceremonial satisfaction received through the animal’s suffering, that right to dwell in the land of Canaan—they all pointed to the work of Christ and the fruit of his toil. 

Only faith could receive this word of God, discerning the dim image of God’s Son through those ceremonial shadows.

And without faith, it is impossible to please God.

What Pleased God

God did not give those sacrifices and ceremonies of the old dispensation so that Israel could lift up herself in worship. God did not give those sacrifices and ceremonies so that Israel could come into God’s presence and say, “I did what you required. I did it correctly. Now you have to bless me.”

But that is exactly what rebellious Israel would always do. Time and again, the Israelites would make their scrupulous observances of the law by which they would be righteous before God. An Israelite would think in his heart, “I brought my sacrifice. I have felt bad for my sin. I have shed some tears. I have confessed my sin. Now I can be assured that all my sins will be forgiven. Now I can know that God shows favor to me.”

And God had no pleasure in such sacrifices. This was his word to such a proud people:

10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. (Isa. 1:10–15)

“Your worship is iniquity!” That is what Israel’s worship so often became. All of the Israelites’ scrupulous observances of the law were wicked. It was all wickedness because it was that by which they would be righteous before God. It was wicked because they did it to be pleasing to God. It was wicked because they did it to be blessed by God.

And the rulers always were cruel in that worship too. “Your hands are full of blood!” By that worship they heaped burdens of guilt upon the people and never removed them. The rulers killed souls. They robbed God’s people of comfort and hope and joy. They shut the door of the kingdom of heaven against men and forbad them from entering.

Thus God’s word to them was, “Repent, ye rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah!”

Compliance to the letter of the law was never pleasing to God. “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering” (Ps. 51:16).

What God always sought was truth. “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6).

Truth.

Truth is the perfect harmony between a man and the law of God. Truth is perfect conformity of a man to that requirement that he must love God and his neighbor.

And God desires truth in the inward parts. Truth is that man must be a God-lover and a neighbor-lover with the totality of his own qualities and powers in body and soul. Truth is the perfection of a man’s entire nature. Truth is that a man is perfectly consecrated to God from the heart.

Truth is what God desires. Truth is what delights God. Truth is that in which God has pleasure. The truth that delights God is not trying really hard and doing your best. The truth that God desires is absolute perfection, not only outwardly but also in your inward parts. The truth that God has pleasure in is perfect obedience out of a perfect nature and from a heart that loves God alone.

“Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22).

“To love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).

And it is only a true man that God will have in his presence for fellowship. God’s presence is the presence of the holy and the righteous God. God’s presence is the presence of the one whose eyes are purer than to behold iniquity. God’s presence is the presence of the one who knows the very thoughts of the heart. Only if truth permeates your entire being, all the way down to your heart, may you stand in God’s presence.

Therefore, there is only one thing that God desires, delights in, is pleased with, and is inclined toward: his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The only true man who ever has existed is Jesus Christ. As the epistolist wrote,

5. When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

6. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

7. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Heb. 10:5–7)

Jesus Christ is truth, as the only man who was spotless perfection throughout his entire being. Jesus Christ is truth, whose obedience to do the will of God was his meat and drink. Jesus Christ is truth, as the only one who obeyed God as God desired.

And how God delights in him! Christ’s obedience was an obedience unto death. For he is the one whom God appointed as head of his elect people to fulfill God’s will concerning those people. Christ took all of their rebellion and all of their wickedness and iniquity. He made atonement for those who are not true men but who are the enemies of God. Christ satisfied God’s justice in their behalf. Christ justified the ungodly. He is the truth.

Thus when God says that he desires truth in the inward parts, what he desires alone is Christ.

And because faith is one’s living connection with Jesus Christ, what God desired when a man brought a sacrifice was not the animal but faith.

Faith only knows the truth. That was true of faith in the old dispensation too, even under the forms of shadows. When faith came to the altar of God, faith knew the truth about God, that God by no means acquits the guilty. That faith knew the truth about oneself, that he or she was not a good person but had grossly transgressed the law of God and kept none of his commandments. And when that faith came to the altar of God, it came as an absolute nothing, empty of all works. That faith came only because it was able to see through those shadows the very image of good things to come: the forgiveness of iniquities and transgressions and sin in the body of Jesus Christ. And that faith pleased God, because God saw in that faith what delights him: the truth of his Son.

And what that faith received was a conscience cleansed by the blood of the true man and the witness of having his righteousness.

Thus the animal sacrifices and their accompanying rituals were not meaningless. But as shadows, they were fleeting. As shadows, they were quick to disappear when God raised up his Son from the dead, and that Son shone forth in all his blazing, noonday glory. And as shadows, those animal sacrifices were insubstantial, for you can never lay hold on a shadow. You cannot embrace a shadow. But you can touch and handle the Word of life made flesh. God gave all those sacrifices and ceremonies in the old dispensation to make Israel nothing and to point Israel to Jesus Christ.