Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 4:27-31

27 And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty;

28 Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.

29 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.

30 And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar.

31 And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour unto the Lord; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.

Now we come to how the sin offering was performed for the common Israelite, following the same basic pattern as for the leader, the congregation, and the priest. Today let us focus on an element that has been in all of these repeated descriptions, but that we have not yet had time to touch on.

Notice in verse 27 how it says these offerings are for those that “sin through ignorance,” and it has said the same thing for each other instance. So that would mean ways that people trespassed against God’s law without knowing or meaning to. Perhaps they overlooked a ritual, or forgot a commandment, or were unsure of the moral rightness of an action and later regretted their decision.

This, of course, would be different from deliberate and serious sin. Later, in the book of Numbers, we will hear about “high-handed sin,” which means an act of willful defiance against the Lord. For these people, they were what Paul called “under the law,” meaning subject to the penalties of crime. Whether that meant exile, curses, or even death.

Thus, we are meant to understand that the tabernacle ordinances were meant for those who were actively trying to follow God. Yes, those that brought a sin offering had sinned, but they were still oriented towards doing what was right, and they just needed to correct the minor indiscretions common to life. However, if a person were living a deliberately sinful lifestyle, then they would not be taking part in rituals and sacrifices. They would first need to repent, return to the path of goodness, and then would take part in the rituals, now that they were sincerely trying to follow the Father.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Sin offeringBullock, young goatSacrifice for sin
The same performance for an individual, community, priest, or leaderAn equal path to God for all
Hands placed on head, slaughteredAnimal takes the place of us
Blood placed on horns of the altarA heartfelt plea to the Lord for mercy
Fat and kidneys burned on altarCleansing our behavior and desire
Skin, dung, and flesh burned beyond the campThe sinful behavior purged out of us

Full table.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 4:1-4

1 And 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:

3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.

4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the Lord.

This chapter is dedicated to the ritual of the sin offering, something that we already heard of in Exodus, from which we have populated the table down below. The account here in Leviticus 4 confirms what we already heard in Exodus, though here it is given in longer detail.

The sin offering is arguably the most foundational of all the offerings. Sin is the greatest and most universal obstacle of all humanity. It is sin that divides us from peace, more than any affliction, misfortune, or disaster. In fact, the universality of sin is pointed out in verse 3, which reminds us that even the priest who had been set apart to be the holy servant of the Lord, would be besmirched by it and would require restitution, the same as any other Israelite.

Even our priests and vessels of purification require purification themselves. Our cleaning agents need cleaning. This shows a pattern of regress and suggests to us that there must be an endpoint somewhere. Sooner or later, for any of this purification to have any effect, it must be founded upon a purifier who is himself never soiled. The offering of Jesus, who was the perfect High Priest, would sanctify the entire temple enterprise, which would sanctify the priests and vessels, which would sanctify the common Israelite.

SacrificeEligible oblationStepsExplanation
Sin offeringBullockSacrifice for sin
Hands placed on head, slaughteredAnimal takes the place of us
Blood placed on horns of the altarA heartfelt plea to the Lord for mercy
Fat and kidneys burned on altarCleansing our behavior and desire
Skin, dung, and flesh burned beyond the campThe sinful behavior purged out of us

Full table.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Threat of Good People- Justification for Evil

Yesterday I spoke about how children who are socially insecure can try to tear down those who are confident, because they hold up a mirror to the insecure children’s flaws. But as the years go by, what might be nothing more than teenage angst, gradually evolves into something deeper. Even, something evil.

Selfishness and Sin)

Most of us come into evil by simple selfishness. A neighbor is looking for help with some yardwork, and we discreetly make plans to be out of town that morning. Upon seeing a traffic lane slowing down, we might swerve into the next, cutting off the driver behind. We disparage the “other side” for their idiocy, enjoying the moral superiority that that brings. We want what they want, and we only deviate from our predetermined path when it serves our own interest.

And then, inevitably, that same selfishness leads to doing something objectively wrong. The commission of a mortal sin. Something truly damning, which far more than the teenage awkwardness discussed in yesterday’s post, is something that we tend to shrink from, to try and not face up to in our own heart.

And to soothe our conscience on the matter, we tell ourselves that everyone is “looking out for number one.” Everyone takes the advantage when it is presented to them. Everyone holds a grudge. Everyone is selfish. Everyone has a serious sin hidden inside. We become suspicious of those that appear to defy these universal assertions, assuming that the so-called good are really just hypocrites and liars, pretending to be holier-than-thou, but secretly just as selfish and compromised as the rest of us.

An Unbearable Reality)

Which then makes it very difficult when someone shows an undeniable act of kindness. When someone is doing good, even when they think no one else is looking. When someone is giving, with no possibility of return. When someone forgives another, even though they have every right to demand vengeance. When someone openly confesses and renounces their sins.

Moments like these threaten the wicked, because it holds up a mirror, showing us that we don’t have to be the way that we are. That person was willing to forgive his enemy, so why don’t I? That person gave with true charity, so why don’t I? That person admitted his sins and forsook them, so why don’t I? These questions remind the sinners that we do what we do because we choose to, not because it was inevitable. The sinners see what we really are, and how what we still cling to is inexcusable. We see that we are deserving of hell.

The good people therefore become hateful to us for no other reason than that they are sincerely good. They become an unbearable burden. They are a threat to the illusion that everyone is guilty, so we’re no worse than anyone else. They are a threat because they show us that change is necessary, but we are still unwilling to change.

Then, the good people have to be crushed so that there is no longer a standard to be measured against. Society redefines morality, so that even thinking or believing or speaking “incorrectly” is now deemed violence. Then the destruction of the good is considered justified and even called right.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Loving Relationship with Christ- Conclusion

Summary)

In this study I have considered those that excuse sinful behavior with their testimony that Jesus loves us all, which is used to imply that he will accept even those who live in a manner that is condemned by the scriptures. I have strongly disagreed with this statement, though I have also emphasized that the claims of Jesus’s universal and radical love for us is true. Those assertions I have no dispute with at all.

But as I have pointed out, being loved by Jesus is not one-and-the-same as being saved. Jesus’s own words make clear that not everyone who calls on his name and invokes his love will be able to join him in the kingdom of heaven. Some of those that he loves will not be found acceptable in the day of judgment. This is a sober statement, and not popular, but the scriptures are abundantly clear on the matter.

I made clear in this study that what actually does save us is a real and living relationship with Christ. And while half of that relationship is defined by him knowing and loving us, which is a gift that is given to us freely, the other half requires us to know and love him back, which requires deliberate action on our part. Specifically, the scriptures say that they require us to follow the commandments.

Only those who are willing to stop living in sin as a way of life, and who earnestly seek to obey Christ, and sincerely repent when they fall short, are going to genuinely develop a loving and knowing relationship with him. And only those that genuinely develop a loving and knowing relationship with him will be saved.

In my last post, I also made the point that living in a state of sin generally comes from a dearth of feeling the love of Christ, not an abundance. People habitually sin as a coping mechanism, and usually what we are coping for is how unworthy and fundamentally unlovable we feel. Even if we believe Christ loves us in our head, deeply feeling the reality of that in our hearts is necessary for us to stop coping and sinning as a way of life.

Words of Hope)

Thus, the call to surrender our sin and become holy is not a call of forced perfectionism. It is not a call to white-knuckle our way through life. It is a call to break down the walls we’ve built inside, let the love of Christ flow in, genuinely feel it in our hearts, and then love him back by following his way.

The call to repentance is not one of shame and burden, it is one of love, freedom, and hope. Does it involve surrender? Does it involve change? Does it involve following rules? Yes, but it isn’t really about the surrender, it’s about not needing to harm oneself anymore. Not really about the change, but about being restored. Not really about the rules, but about reciprocating our Savior’s love. It is a glad message, even the most joyful one the world has ever known.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Loving Relationship with Christ- Missing Love

Discovering Jesus’s Love)

I have already discussed how Christians that defend sinful habits by an appeal to the love of Jesus Christ are incorrectly conflating being loved with being saved. But actually, I think there is an even more fundamental confusion than that. When they say, “well Jesus loves me anyway,” I suspect that most of them don’t actually believe that.

My reason for this is personal experience. For much of my life I was a slave to a sinful addiction, and through it all I would have adamantly insisted that Jesus loved me. But it was not an excess of Jesus’s love that gave me license to do evil, it was a dearth of it. For while I truly believed in Jesus’s love in my head, I did not feel it whatsoever in my heart.

Indeed, it was as I managed to break down my walls and actually start feeling his love that my behavior became more holy also. I could never feel the beautiful reality of his love and continue living in sin. That’s not say that I’m perfect, to say that I don’t still do wrong things from time to time, but I can say that I don’t live in sin like how I used to. What was once a way of life are now only slips were, and it was his love was what made that change possible.

A Recurring Pattern)

And I’ve been to enough 12-step meetings to know that this isn’t only true for me. One of the most common refrains I’ve heard in these stories is a severing of the connection to the love of Christ, and the resultant increase in sin. I’ve heard many of these men say something like, “I knew that Jesus loved everybody in the world…just maybe not me.”

For many people, sin is used as a drug to try and dull the sense of being fundamentally unlovable. They do what they do from a starvation of love, not an excess of it. Those that are truly secure in Christ’s love are freed from the spiritual pain that leads to wrongdoing. Those that are truly secure in Christ’s love, and know that he died for their sins, feel less compulsion to hurt him, not more.

I understand why people who are not ready to let go of their sins would look for a divine excuse to not change their ways. I think invoking the love of Christ is not only inaccurate, though, I think it is tragic, because admitting that they don’t feel any love is one and the same as hard as admitting that they’re not doing okay. They have my sympathy, not by disdain, but sometimes the kindest thing is to speak the hard truths that sting…and then heal.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Elements of a Spiritual Journey

If your spiritual journey does not include a time of
Guilt
Shame
Failure
And being saved
Then you don’t have a spiritual journey

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:19-20

19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

At the start of this chapter I mentioned that Moses up in the mountain with God and the Israelites down in the valley with their idol was an allegory for all mankind. Today, we see those two opposites meeting again. The elevated and transcendent has touched back to the fallen earth.

The first thing that Moses does is break in pieces the Lord’s invitation to Israel to build Him a holy house. The people were not worthy of it. They had not only violated the principles etched upon the tablets, but also the earlier law that was the prerequisite to receiving the latter tablets. Of course, we know that ultimately Israel would build the tabernacle as planned, but only because God would restore that privilege. First the people had to lose everything. They had to be condemned before they could be redeemed.

Next, Moses similarly broke the people’s sin. He took their perverse calf and destroyed it in the most complete way imaginable. First burned, then ground into powder, then poured into water, then drunk. It’s hard to think of a way he could have decimated it any further!

Also, there is an obvious symbolism in Moses having the people drink the very essence of their sin. They were drinking the consequences of their own wrongs. No one can pervert the ways of the Lord and not be soiled within. Many the man has tried to have his secret vice on the side while still maintaining that he is a “good” person, but it never works. The sin does not live outside of the man. It begins external, as the influence of temptation, but by engaging with it the man ingests its evil, and then it churns within him.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:5-6

5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.

6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

The idolatry of the Israelites bore yet another similarity to God’s tabernacle in that both required animal sacrifice. We have already discussed the symbolism of the offerings to be made to the Lord in the tabernacle and how they represented the people giving up their sins, devoting their passions to the Almighty, and submitting their lives to His purpose.

Assuming that the animal offerings to this golden idol carried the same symbolism, then they were giving their passions, their energies, and their very lives to something evil. Anyone that has dabbled in a life of sin knows that you cannot just have it on the side, totally separate from the rest of your life. Many have tried, but to maintain the course of sin we must progressively lay on its altar the very best of ourselves, including the love and energy that we had intended to withhold from it.

It is interesting that the Israelites would be so forward in admitting that this was the aim of their idolatry. I think most of us are caught unawares by the cost of sin, having only entered into vice because we assumed it wouldn’t take so much from us. Not for the first time, it appears to me that the Old Testament takes all that is subtle, invisible, and spiritual today, and makes them immediate, real, and physical.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 29:10-14

10 And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.

11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

12 And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.

13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.

After being properly dressed, washed, and anointed, the priests were further prepared by sacrificial ritual. First came the bullock, which we hear in verse 14 was being offered up as a sin offering. This was for the priests to make atonement for all that they had done wrong. Like the rest of us, each of them had violated the ideal at one point or another. They had pursued self over others, they had betrayed their own consciences, they had entered misalignment with truth.

The symbolism of having the priests place their hands on the head of the bullock is clear. This placing of the hands upon the head is repeated with just about every sacrifice and is a clear representation of the animal being made to stand in place of the person. The people are choosing the animal as their representative, and witness as it receives the punishment in their place. That punishment is death, because “the wages of sin is death.”

It is worth noting, the laying on of hands is also a common practice when a disciple is ordained to a particular responsibility in the church. This makes sense, as once again that person is being selected to stand in for the other people, to make a sacrifice of his time to do the responsibilities in place of all the others.

Let us consider the meaning of what is done to the separate parts of the bullock. First, its blood is placed upon the horns of the altar. Later in the Bible we hear how the guilty would cling to these horns when seeking mercy for their wrongs, so perhaps the blood upon them represented coming to the Lord in desperation and moral anguish, casting yourself upon His mercy.

Then, the fat and the kidneys are burned upon the altars. The significance of giving the fat to the altar should be immediately clear. It was giving one’s passions, one’s indulgence, one’s reserve of energy to the Lord. No longer would the repentant give his indulgence to his carnal appetites, but to His maker.

Then, all of the bad parts: the skin and the dung, and also the very flesh of the beast, were burned without the camp. This means exiling the sin and the self, taking it out of the camp that it doesn’t belong in and destroying it. From this point on the sinner is not to be those parts anymore.

And so, atonement for sin is made. The old man of sin is destroyed, his passion and energy are dedicated to the Lord, and he casts himself upon God’s mercy. This is the same offering that we all spend our entire lives making over and over again.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 19:14-15

14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

Moses relates God’s instructions for the Israelites to prepare themselves to witness His presence and hear His voice. Specifically we are told that they are to wash their clothes, and to refrain from any sexual activity.

There has, of course, been a history of sexual shame in certain sects of Christianity. Not just immoral acts of sexuality outside of the marriage covenant, but even suggesting that every child is born in sin because of the act that brought them into existence. However, it is worth noting that this passage is not at all evidence that any such view is appropriate.

Let us consider the other imperative given to the Israelites: that they wash their clothes. Certainly we can all appreciate how nice and fresh it feels to be clean, and how we want to present our best to those we respect and admire, yet would we say that we are sinful if we come home dirty from a long day of manual labor? Certainly not. Could we not have the same nuanced view towards sexuality within the marriage covenant?

Also, the command for husbands and wives to keep their distance calls to mind the practice of fasting, whereby we forego food and/or drink for a period of time. No one thinks that we are sinful because we have to eat food, but we appreciate that a period of self-denial can help to cultivate the spirit within. Could it not be the same with sexuality within the marriage covenant?

Therefore it is logical to assume that the instruction given to the Israelites for temporary sexual abstinence between husbands and wives was one of preparing themselves spiritually, an act of self-denial that would focus their energy inwards. That is not at all the same as saying that any sexual activity, even in a committed marriage between a man and a woman, is sinful.