JESUS, THE GRUESOME, GLORIOUS OFFERING IN BLOOD FOR YOUR SIN

If you want to see Jesus, read Leviticus, Chapter 4-6 about the sin offerings required for the people of Israel. But understand that these sacrifices had their immediate function, but were also a foreshadowing picture, (for all of Israel’s required sacrifice were merely pictures to remind us of the greater reality.)

Read it through this lens …

WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE SINNED
Moses writes of multiple types of sins: ones we commit unintentionally, one’s others point out to us, ones we commit with full intention; small sins and big sins; sins of the leaders and sins of the “common people.”

We realize our sins are daily, massive, and horrific, and the only way we can be cleansed and enter into the presence of God is by a sacrifice given. Realize there's nothing you can do before God to atone for your own sins. Nothing.

CHRIST IS THE ONE SACRIFICED FOR OUR SINS
The bulls, lambs, turtledoves (at different levels that people could afford to bring) all represent Christ. And the altar on which the blood of these animals was placed is horrific and messy. There was much killing and shedding of blood. Much blood around the altar and on the priests who administered it and on the walls, and the floors. Enter the tabernacle, and later the Jerusalem temple, in its height and the sights and sounds will be intense, bloody, and disturbing.

The holy tent was by no means a place for sentimentalists. Its emblematic teachings dealt with terrible realities in a boldly impressive manner. Its ritual was not constructed to gratify the taste but to impress the mind. It was not a place for dainty gentlemen but for brokenhearted sinners. Everywhere the ignorant eye would see something to displease, but the troubled conscience would read lessons of peace and pardon. (Spurgeon)

Our sins provide a gruesome sight to be placed on Christ at the cross. The blood that flowed so freely in the tabernacle around the altar was a foreshadowing of the blood that would flow from the Lamb of God at the cross. The cross was not a pretty steeple or a nice diamond necklace emblem … it was, and is, an intense, vivid reminder of the depth and horror of our sin that would require such a sacrifice—the sacrifice of a pure Lamb, the Son of God—for our sins to be atoned for and forgiven.

WE MUST GET HONEST, CONFESS, AND TRUST
We must confess and acknowledge our sins. Hands were laid on the heads of each of these animals, thereby placing on them the acknowledgement that it was their sins that caused these needed sacrifices to provide atonement for sin. And, in same measure, we must acknowledge that it is ours, and trust in what Christ has done to make us right before God.

It is our sin that led Christ to the cross. Our brutal iniquities caused his death. For us to be forgiven and cleansed, we must stop in the tracks of our arrogance and pride and blatant, filthy sin against the Lord--both known and unknown--and see our transgressions against our Maker, and acknowledge that there is nothing we can do to atone for our sins except look to the One who has done it all.

The tabernacle sacrifices were pictures of the glorious work of Christ. Look inside the tabernacle in full day in full use at the sacrifices slain and see Jesus, slain for you.

WORSHIP AND WALK WITH HIM
Then, worship Him. Adore Him for what He has done for you. Trust His blood as not only the sacrifice, but the sufficient sacrifice for your sins, and realize they are all covered here.

And see the Lord now, resurrected and ascended to the right hand of God. See our eternal Advocate, daily interceding for you. Trust His blood, and only His blood, to make you completely clean and forgiven before the Father and able to be restored to the place He designed for you in His heart before the creation of the world. Realize you will one day be, if you have trusted Him, completely restored to the Image of God and the fullness of His Son, forever joining in the glorious work of a new heaven and earth.

If you wonder why Christians talk and sing endlessly about the blood with grateful, sometimes delirious gratitude, this is why. The blood, His life for ours, His sacrifice and suffering for our forgiveness and cleansing, has brought us knowing, humble, eternal joy!