July 30
Leviticus 1: 4: And he shall put his hand upon the
head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement
for him.
Under the old covenant,
the burnt offering, like all the other offerings, was given by God to show a
picture of the atoning work of Christ by the shedding of his own blood. By requiring the sinner to put his hand upon
the head of the burnt offering, God declares the necessity of the sinner coming
to God through faith in Christ, apart from any works of his own. The precious blood of Christ and faith in
that blood are each essential to salvation. God has provided himself a
Lamb! Behold, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, God’s Own well-beloved Son. God
chose him, appointed him, inspected him and found him to be the spotless
perfect Lamb. Then God put all the sins of all his people on Christ. Christ the
Lamb was slain thus Christ satisfied divine justice for all his people. God accepted Christ as a sweet-smelling
savor. One essential thing remains for
every sinner for whom Christ died to do.
Each one must be brought to lay our hands upon the head of God’s
sacrifice. This was an act which typified the believer’s faith in
Christ. What was the sinner saying by laying his hand on the head of the
sacrifice? What are we saying by faith
in Christ?
First, by confessing our
need for Christ to save us we are confessing that all we are is sin. That is what every true believer was
confessing when he laid his hand on the lamb and it is what every true believer
confesses who comes to God through faith in Christ. (Lev 16: 21) God gave his
Son to die as a sacrifice for and to call, none but sinners. Only true sinners
need a sacrifice. If we would be saved
by Christ Jesus, we must come to God, laying our hands of faith upon Christ,
acknowledging our utter ruin in sin. This confession of sin is a confession of
our helplessness: we are confessing that it is by God’s power alone that we
have been made willing to confess our sins and helplessness; we are confessing
we cannot keep God’s law; we are confessing we cannot make atonement for our
past sins; we are confessing we cannot make ourselves acceptable to God by any
future obedience; we are confessing that apart from the blood of Christ we deserve
to die; we are confessing we must have the blood of Christ who we trust made
atonement and covered our sins by his one offering. “If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1: 9)
Secondly, by laying the hand of faith upon Christ the Lamb of God, we
repent from all other vain ways of salvation which we once imagined could save
us. Through faith in Christ we confess
before men that we believe Christ is the only Way of salvation and that all
other ways are vanity. (Rom 5: 12-21) We
believe Christ himself is our salvation: our wisdom, our righteousness, our
sanctification, and our redemption.
Faith is not trusting in doctrine or in a knowledge of doctrine or in
our works or even in our confession—faith in Christ includes repenting from all
other ways to the one true Way, Christ Jesus himself.
Thirdly, when we lay the hand of faith upon Christ we confess that we
believe God has transferred our sin to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to us. It was pictured—only pictured—on the day of
atonement in the ceremony when the scape goat had the sins of Israel laid upon
it ceremonially, took those sins away ceremonially into a land not inhabited
and the lamb’s innocence was ceremonially transferred to the children of
Israel. (Lev 16:21) It was not
the very image of the thing but was given to picture Christ on whom the
iniquities of all God’s elect were really laid and whose righteousness we have
really been made by his one offering at Calvary. (Heb 10: 1-2; 2 Cor 5: 21) God made His Son to be sin for us and made us to be the very righteousness of
God in His Son. By faith, the believer simply accepts this finished work,
adding nothing to it. Faith believes God that this great transference is
complete and thus we are complete in Christ.
Lastly, when we lay the
hand of faith upon Christ we identify ourselves with our blessed Redeemer. We truly behold that Christ’s death was the
death of our old man of flesh, when Christ died to the penalty of the law we
died to the law, we believe when Christ was buried our old man of sin was
destroyed, but when Christ arose we arose in him and sat down at God’s right hand. We confess through faith that the only reason
we now live is because Christ lives in us. (Gal 2: 20) As truly as Christ is accepted of God,
through faith, we identify ourselves with Christ as accepted in the Beloved!
Sinner, the only way God will receive
you is if you lay your hand of faith upon Christ, confessing these things. Do it without delay giving God all the glory,
for it is only by the glory of God that any sinner can.