24.March.24

Today on Palm Sunday, the Lord entered Jerusalem for us. It is amazing how the different offerings all focus on the ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The purpose of these offerings, all of them, is not just to cleanse our sins and purify us, but through the process it is for us to have communion with God. The whole purpose of the offering is redemption. Why would God want to have communion with sinners like us? That is the very reason why He created us.

Today we will think about the guilt offering in Leviticus 5.

The sin offering dealt with unintentional sins. Sins which we do not intend, sins that we do not know of, especially unintentional violation of the first half of the 10 Commandments which governed man’s relationship with God.

The guilt offering was for matters of uncleanness whether intentional or unintentional, it was for intentional sins against one’s neighbour, and this was more applicable to the second half of the 10 Commandments, which governs man’s relationship to others (neighbours).

All these offerings, and the whole law, centre around the 2 greatest commandments: Love your God, love your neighbour. Therefore if we do not love God, if we do something against the love of God, that becomes sin. When we do not love our neighbours, that becomes a sin.

A sin that will prevent us from coming to God. That is why we need these offerings. The focus and the central message of the guilt offering is that all sin has a cost that needs to be paid.

In the Bible, it is a sin to refrain from speaking the truth, especially when your silence causes harm to other innocent people. If we know the truth of the gospel and do not speak it, that is considered a sin.

Nazarites, the chosen people of God, are not to cut their hair, not to drink wine, not to touch dead bodies. The message to us is, that those who have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, have been transferred from death to life. Don’t bring death to the place of life. What is death? The things of the world. Things that caused us death.

In Leviticus 5:4, He says, do not swear, if one swears or promises, he must keep it and fulfil it. If you make that promise, you have to keep it, if not you are a sinner against that person and against God. It becomes a lie. The 10 Commandments tell us thou shalt not lie.

The proper posture of a true believer is to realise our sins and accept the fact that I have committed the sin when the bible tells us it is a sin, even though I did not know it at the time of committing the sin. Therefore guilt offering is for that, for us to come to realise that I am a sinner, confess it to God, and bring a guilt offering.

According to the law in Leviticus 5:14-15, if you harm the holy things of God, you have to not only replace that thing but also give a guilt offering.

No one can keep all the spiritual laws too. The laws that Jesus gave us in the New Testament, He fortified the 10 Commandments and said in the Old Testament you shall not murder, but in the New Testament if you hate someone you have committed murder too. This spiritual law of Jesus Christ is more difficult to keep. The Old Testament laws say as long as you do not have sex with another person, but the New Testament says if you look at a person with lust you are guilty already.

That is why Romans 3:10 says there is no one righteous, not even one.

Where is the hope? Didn’t we say this law of offering is to bring sinners back to God? Yet the laws show us it is impossible. God is showing us we are not perfect. We need someone or some animal to cover for us constantly because we sin constantly.
According to the law, the burnt offering had to go on 24/7. Imagine how many animals are killed? There is always someone sinning at any moment in time in the nation, and to cover for those sins, the burnt offering has to go on constantly. Who is going to cover for our sins? The only way for atonement for us is for another life to be killed for every one of our sins.

Just so we don’t fall into the fire of hell, God sent a ransom. Ransom means atonement offering. This is good news. This is the gospel. He has already paid the ransom for us all. That is why we follow this law, that is why we love God, and that is why we stay here within the realm of God’s reign.

Jesus came on Palm Sunday today, to fulfil the prophecy in Zechariah, like a sacrifice offering brought into the door of the Tabernacle, once He comes in, from Monday He will be questioned and examined, just as the sacrifice animal would be examined, to make sure it is blameless and without defect. Only the blameless animal will be killed. Jesus was innocent and sinless. We would think because He was innocent He ought to avoid the punishment, but He was killed because He was without blame.

The cross was the altar of burnt offering. He paid for our sins by covering them with the price of His life. Let us remember how heavy our sins were, and what price has been paid by Jesus, that we may rejoice and give thanks because of this ransom.

AMEN.