RPG Adults
SIN OFFERING – FOR PURIFICATION
LORD’S DAY, APRIL 14
Leviticus 4
James 4:8
“And he shall take
all his fat from him,
and burn it upon the altar.”
SIN OFFERING – FOR PURIFICATION
The sin offering was for the purpose of purification. This could be applied to things and to people. The sin offering had multiple applications including purifying the one who had sinned against God ignorantly. For example, if a woman gave birth or had her monthly menstrual cycle, she was considered unclean. Her sin offering was to make her clean again before the LORD. This allowed her to participate in holy matters again after the cleansing. She had committed no sin by the above two conditions, and yet she was considered unclean like one who had sinned. The sin offering was for such a purpose.
A person in a room where someone died in his presence was thus considered unclean. The sin offering applied in his case as well. He would need to offer the sin offering before the LORD to be cleansed. At the consecration of Aaron and his four sons in Leviticus 8, the first offering to be offered was the sin offering. This was for the purification of the altar of burnt offering to sanctify it so that it would be holy for the rest of the offerings to be offered on it. Things holy could not make an ordinary thing holy by contact; but many things in life could make a holy person become unholy, like coming into contact with the dead or a leper or a woman who had just given birth. The sin offering was to remind God’s people of the importance of living a holy life. It also reminds us today that when God’s people come into contact with the world, there are many things in the world that can make God’s people unclean.
Christ is the only One who can sanctify us. He does so by His precious blood applied to us once again whenever we pray to the Lord for forgiveness of our sins. The Word of God can also sanctify us by the cleansing of our minds as Jesus prayed in John 17:17. We live in a sinful world. Sin makes us unclean through the eye gate, and the ear gate. Our minds and hearts can be corrupted by the things of this world if we are not careful. The need for the sin offering in the Old Testament reminds us of our need to be cleansed before the Lord all the time.
MEMORISATION: Leviticus 4:17
PRAYER: Cleanse me, Father, of all my sins by the blood of Christ Jesus my Lord, for His sake. Amen.