Thursday, September 4, 2025

            Here is a question for you.  Where do we find Jesus in the Bible?  The answer is we find Him on every page and in every book of the Bible.  The Bible is a testimony to the person, work, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  He is the center of the Bible and the reason for it.  Did you know that the gospel can be found in Leviticus?  The third book of the Bible might not be as familiar to you as, say, Psalms, Mark, John or Romans but it does bear witness to Jesus.  The offerings and sacrifices that we read about in Leviticus all point us forward to the ultimate atoning sacrifice of Jesus at the cross.
            For example, Leviticus 1 addresses the matter of the burnt offering.  We read, “You are to slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting. You are to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.  You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:5-9).  This burnt offering was to be a total sacrifice—100% with nothing held back.  A whole animal was burned on the altar costing the animal’s life.  It was the costliest sacrifice because no part of the animal was held back for food.  This bull was to be a male without blemish or defect.  And this flawless bull would be given as an atonement for the sins of Israel. 
            Almost immediately, we can see the parallels between this sacrifice and the cross.  Jesus was a male without blemish or defect.  He gave His life fully—body and blood—for the sins of the world.  We can draw a line of connection from the earliest sacrifices and offerings of Israel to the cross itself.  The sacrifices in Leviticus would have to be repeated over and over because the people sinned so frequently and repeatedly.  But the cross of Jesus was the final and perfect sacrifice.  Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
            In Leviticus, we are presented with the matter of atonement.  This word is found in Leviticus more than fifty times.  It literally means to wipe clean, to cover or to remove.  The sacrifices of Israel in Leviticus covered the sins of the people until the final sacrifice was made by the Lamb of God—Jesus Himself.  Jesus died for us and He died in our place.  The cross should have been assigned to you and me.  But God offered up His Son as the sacrifice so He would not have to demand our lives from us.  Scripture teaches us this truth, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). 
            The gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection can be found throughout the Bible if we choose to read and study what God has said.  “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). Jesus’ death on a Friday afternoon on Calvary was decided long before you and I were born.  God providentially worked through the years and generations of the Old Testament to bring everything to history’s greatest moment—the cross whereby the sin debt was paid and the wrath of God was satisfied by the only One who could do both.  As you read the Bible, let every page draw you to the cross!  Have a great Thursday!