In Leviticus 4:1-7, why was the blood of the sin offering brought to the tabernacle of the congregation and sprinkled seven times before the veil of the sanctuary before God; according to the law of the cleansing of the lepers in Leviticus 14:1-7, the blood was sprinkled upon the lepers seven times?
First, let us pay attention to one thing. According to the entire Bible, who is the One that requires the blood? It is God. Why does God require the blood? When the people of Israel sinned, why did God not forgive them through His mercy? If God had done this, He would have been unrighteous. Could the publican simply ask God to grant mercy and pity him? No. What he actually said to God was, “God, be propitiated to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13). Sin must be judged and punished. Only when you come before God with the blood can He forgive you, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). This is God’s righteousness.
Some pray, “O God, if You want to forgive, please forgive; if it is Your will to forgive, please forgive.” But forgiveness is not a question of whether or not God wants to forgive; neither is it a question of God’s will. Although God is merciful and willing to be gracious, and although it is His will to willingly forgive us, He cannot forgive without the blood. God can only forgive when there is the blood because He is a righteous God.
Bringing the blood before God and sprinkling it seven times satisfies the righteous requirement of God. Then God can forgive the sins of man. When there is a sin, there must be the blood; this is the righteous requirement of God. Suppose someone committed a murder, went to the chief justice of the court, and pleaded for mercy. The chief justice could pity him and forgive him. Later, a second and third person could commit the same crime and also plead for mercy. If they were also forgiven, there would be chaos because murderers could be freed simply by pleading for mercy. Everyone would be able to kill. If there were no punishment for the sins, this would be unrighteous.
The requirement of the law of God is that whoever has sinned must die-blood must be shed. The Lord Jesus has shed His precious blood; this has satisfied the requirement of God’s law. Therefore, we are saved not only because God has grace but even more because God has righteousness. The blood of the sin offering must be brought before God. Without the blood, God could not forgive even if He wanted to forgive. God cannot forgive a “bloodless” sinner because of His righteousness.
In order to understand the meaning of the sprinkling of the blood upon the leper seven times, we need to notice that Leviticus 14:1 through 7 does not say that the leper was healed after the blood was sprinkled. Rather, it says that after the leper was healed, the blood was sprinkled. What does this mean? Although the leper was healed, he was only cleansed before men; in order for him to be reckoned as cleansed before God, there had to be the blood. God’s requirement is the blood. After a leper is healed, he is acceptable before men; but without the blood, he is still unclean before God.
In Matthew 8:1-4, when the Lord Jesus healed the leper, He also commanded him to offer the gift that Moses charged. (At that time, the Lord was not yet crucified on the cross, so He told him to do according to the Old Testament ordinance.) Although the Lord helped him to be cleansed before men, he was not yet cleansed before God. Therefore, he needed the blood. This shows that no matter how excellently one behaves or how moral one is, if he does not have the blood, he is still unclean before God.
The blood satisfies God’s requirement. The blood is shed not only to cleanse our conscience but even more to fulfill the requirement of God’s law. Since we are sinners, we cannot be saved without the blood. We are not saved because we are worthy but because the Lord has shed His blood. We are accepted by God because of the blood. We dare to draw near to God because of the effectiveness of the blood which the Lord Jesus shed, not because of ourselves. Only the blood satisfies God and causes Him to reckon us as cleansed.
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