Many are still wondering what studying the sacrificial system of Leviticus has to do with us today, whether we are believers (Christians) or not. The answer to this question is significant, and I pray it becomes the foundation of your Christian life...because it should.
I. Application for All People
At the very least, studying the sacrificial system of Leviticus reveals to us the great cost of our sin and the great mercy the Lord has granted us. Again, as sinners we deserve instant death. We have committed high treason and become the source by which God's perfect creation is destroyed and marred. Yet, in His great mercy, God provides His law by which man can walk in relationship with Him, even if just in a limited way.
Our world likes to think that they can simply come to God, show Him a resume of good works or comparisons, say they are sorry and be restored to right relationship with Him. This is nonsense, and the Levitical system clearly demonstrates such. In reality, the people of our world (at the very least) should be running to Home Depot to begin construction of an altar while buying stock in grain to feed their sacrificial livestock. Fellowship with God demands a sacrifice of death!
Yet, as we also learned, even through this complicated and consuming form of worship, the effects of the reconciliation are limited at best. The intentional sins we commit daily (and were the cause of the catastrophe in the Garden) are not atoned for; thus, the separation remains.
II. Application for Believers
For those found in the saving work of Jesus the Messiah, our study should have infinite meaning and significance. First of all, we see through the very complex and costly sacrificial system that Jesus' life and death was more sufficient and gracious than any blood of bulls or goats. He has fulfilled all of the ceremonial law, granting us restoration as the image bearers of God (Hebrews 10).
Additionally, by examining the Levitical system, we witness that the OLAH (burnt offering of Lev. 1) was not for the sins of Israel but instead served as a constant reminder and offering of praise to God on behalf of a saved people. While it is true that Jesus' life and death fulfilled the entirety of the Law, it is also true that His ministry ushered in a new and greater Law. While the notion of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins is fulfilled in Jesus, the law of sacrifice solely for the worship of God remains in effect. Now, instead of offering a bull as a pleasing aroma to God, the Believer (who has been made spotless and pure through the baptism of the Holy Spirit) is to offer his/her life daily in sacrifice to God.
Romans 12:1-3
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
So, are you a pleasing aroma of worship, or do you bear the stench of sin?
