Let’s continue on with our discussion from yesterday about the relationship between spilled human blood and atonement.
So we’ve established that once human blood is spilled (whether intentional or unintentional), it pollutes the Promised Land requiring a remedy for the defilement.
And this is where we ran headfirst into the Scriptural principle that the only purpose for blood is atonement, spiritually speaking that is.
The spilling of blood, even if it happens accidentally, is a grave crime because…
“…the life of every creature — its blood is its life. Therefore I said to the people of Isra’el, ‘You are not to eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it will be cut off.’”-Leviticus 17:14
Since God and His Laws do NOT change, the only acceptable atonement for the killing of another human being (even if unintentional) is the death of the killer.
However, as I mentioned yesterday, the killer’s own death was NOT an atonement for himself but for the land.
Why?
Because, again, the land had become defiled due to the spilling of human blood.
Yet, Hashem in His grace allowed for the creation of off-limits sanctuary cities where the one who committed an accidental killing could flee to.
Let me break it down real simple for you.
If blood is spilled, it is sin, period, and needs to be accounted for.
And we also know the Levitical Sacrificial System provided forgiveness for sins because we’re clearly told so countless times.
When the Book of Leviticus says over and over again “And you shall be forgiven” that ain’t a lie man.
It’s talking about true and authentic forgiveness from the Lord.
However, and it may seem like I’m contradicting myself here, but even though the Levitical sacrificial system provided atonement and forgiveness, there was a strand of guilt that remained on the one who had sinned.
The Scriptures use various terms to describe this element of guilt that sticks to us like a bad stain on a shirt that can’t seem to be washed out no matter what kind of high powerful detergent we use.
Sometimes it’s referred to as the “sin nature”, the “guilt nature”, “the guilt of the mind” or “the guilt of the spirit”.
King David referred to it when he said..
…“Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time
my mother conceived me.”
-Psalm 51:5
Even the apostle Paul had difficulty explaining it because it was vague concept but vague or not, nevertheless it existed.
Bottomline, the Scripture seems of speak of two kinds of righteousness.
It speaks of an earthly, practical right-here-right-now kind of righteousness that the Levitical sacrificial system provided…
…but it also speaks of a kind of other worldly so-to-speak righteousness that man is incapable of achieving on his own merits.
This kind of righteousness has to be imputed into him (to use a 2 cent seminary term).
Don’t get me wrong.
The Lord wants us to have the physical or practical kind of righteousness that was available to the ancient Israelites under the Levitical sacrificial system but he also wants us to have the other kind of righteousness as well.
The Lord wants to literally erase any guilt hiding in even the deepest recesses of our souls.
This is a type of righteousness you cannot attain no matter how perfect your Torah obedience is.
It’s a kind of righteousness you also can’t purchase.
You can’t get it on the black market where a lot of so-called “spiritual teachers” are peddling their wares.
In fact, it’s a righteousness so perfect that only one man in the history of mankind ever exhibited it.
I think you know where I’m going with this.
That’s right.
Enter the Messiah, Yeshua from Nazareth.
By trusting in him we no longer have to rely on our righteous.
Man, I’ll tell you, I’m in big-time trouble with the Lord if I have to rely on my own righteousness which amounts to nothing really.
But Baruch HaShem!
The righteousness that Yeshua provides is eternal and limitless!
The Scripture uses the analogy that it’s like a pure white garment that when we put it on, it covers every conceivable sin we have committed in the past, we are committing now or that we will ever commit in the future.
This is the spiritual heavenly righteousness that Paul was so ecstatic about he was literally jumping for joy once he really understood what Yeshua’s death and resurrection had accomplished.
He understand that the seemingly un-erasable stamp of guilt on our souls, our iniquity could now be removed forever and we could stand in confidence before an awesome and holy God without fear of retribution.
The Psalmist said it well:
“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’
saith the Lord.
“Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.”
So to sum everything up, BEFORE the advent of Yeshua, all the Israelites could hope for was the first kind of earthly righteousness I mentioned (this is good to have)…
…but AFTER Yeshua’s death and resurrection, all unfinished business between man and God has been fulfilled, the veil of the temple has been torn down and now Israel can attain the righteousness that comes from God and God alone.
Now that we’re living n the age of the New Covenant, as the Apostle Paul prayed…
“May ALL Israel be saved”.
Amen.
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