Levitical Law and Jesus

Leviticus 5:15

“If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering."

Leviticus 16:30

"For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins."

1 John 1:9

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

When reading Old Testament law, it is easy to get caught up in all the specifics of it and wonder why it matters to us, today. Most know that Old Testament law can be broken down into three categories, that can be very helpful in our reading of it. The first category is Civil. These laws governed how the Israelite people were meant to deal with each other day to day, and also how to handle various disputes such as if a cow is stolen. The second category is Ceremonial. These laws governed how the Israelite people were to conduct their temple worship. In some ways, Civil and Ceremonial laws overlapped, such as after the restitution of the cow, there needed to be an atoning sacrifice for the sin. The last category is Moral. The Moral laws are the ones that Jesus and New Testament writers re-established and even re-emphasized in the New Testament. For instance, Jesus took the law "do not murder" and explained that it was more about hatred in the heart and less about the action. These categories are very helpful, mostly because scoffers would argue that we are not bound by the moral laws of God by stating that we as Christians do not abide by the Civil or Ceremonial laws--as if we were meant to continue in all the Old Testament laws altogether. We are by no means meant to carry out the Civil laws given to Israel. We can use them as an example (and we do) when creating our own laws, but we are not bound by them. Nor are we meant to continue in Ceremonial laws of sacrifice. Christ is the fulfillment of all the sacrificial laws. In the above verses we find this connection very clearly shown. In Leviticus we find that if someone sinned unintentionally and then it was made known to them, they would bring, "a ram without blemish out of the flock." In another case, each year the high priest would bring the atoning sacrifice for all the peoples' sin. In both cases, this was a physical sacrifice of an animal to make the Israelites clean in the eyes of God, so that they could continue to have relationship with Him. We know that Christ's crucifixion was in such a way that He fulfilled all the Old Testament conditions for an atoning sacrifice--which is the significance that His legs were not broken. We by faith lay our hand on Him, and He takes our sin upon Himself and dies for it. In 1 John 1:9 we find that when we confess our sin, we are not only forgiven for the sin that we have committed and confessed but also of all the things that we have not even remembered (all unrighteousness). In this way, we see that Jesus is both the atoning sacrifice and also the unintentional sin offering. We cling to Him as the fulfillment of all Levitical Law.