This is the Atonement

I’m glad I kept reading today. I worked through Leviticus 9–11, and for much of it I found myself shaking my head. The instructions are so detailed—what is clean, what is unclean, what can be eaten, what cannot even be touched. One misstep, and you are unclean. 

All offerings had to be brought to the priest, who then presented them to the Lord. Even Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, were not exempt from misstep and consequences. They offered unauthorized fire—disobeying the Lord—and the fire went out from before Him and consumed them. They died on the spot. That account still takes my breath away.

Then I came to Leviticus 12, with its instructions for women after childbirth. I had to keep reading just out of curiosity. I won’t go into the details, but it was the final verse of the chapter where I finally saw Jesus.

The woman was to bring a one-year-old lamb to the entrance of the Tabernacle. The priest would offer it to the Lord to make her ceremonially clean. Verse 8 stopped me short:
“The priest will sacrifice them to purify her, and she will be ceremonially clean.”

And suddenly it became clear. Isn’t this our story?

We are unclean – just being human, we are unclean. Jesus was perfect. He became the offering for our uncleanness—for our transgression, our poor judgment, our sin. The offering now is us, laying our sins on Him. Jesus is both the priest and the sacrifice. He takes what defiles us and consumes it, never to return.

This is the Atonement.