Usually when people look for Jesus in the Bible, the first thing that comes to mind is not the Old Testament Law. They may think of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) or they may think of His second-coming in Revelation. The Bible however is designed to show us Jesus from every angle and in every way – including the Old Testament. Every part of the Bible has the main purpose to show us Jesus, and we should never be afraid or intimidated to look at an area of scripture when we have this mindset.
So today we will be examining some pictures of Jesus from the book of the law in the Bible. And as we see Jesus in this Old Testament book, we will come to have a new and greater appreciation for it, and it will open our understanding to other Old Testament books as well.
Before we begin, let us first lay the foundation that was stated in the opening, indeed every area of the Bible is about Jesus and every area of the Bible is designed to show us Jesus. Indeed, this was demonstrated by Jesus Himself in Luke 24:25-27:
“Then he said to them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
In this context, “Moses” is the name for the first five books of the Old Testament in your Bible, and is still called that today.
Notice in verse 27, that Jesus began with the first five books and continued on through all the other books of the prophets and He expounded (taught thoroughly) to the people in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. The fact that He thoroughly taught them also tells us that these were not merely slight references, but deep truths of Jesus contained in these scriptures.
So now let’s take a look at some of these things about Jesus found in the Old Testament. Let’s read Leviticus 5:14-16:
“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass to the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with your estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering.
And he shall make amends for the harm that he has done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it to the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.”
The first thing to notice here is that this sin is in regards to the holy things of the LORD.
Do you realize that we can sin even while we are in the middle of doing something holy? Even when we worship God we can get distracted during worship and start thinking about ourselves or some other person or some other thing instead of focusing on God. The truth is my friends, that even our most righteous efforts or our holy things are not free from our own infirmities and defilement. You can be serving the LORD but still entirely focused on yourself or something other than Him, and God calls it a sin. These things don’t just happen in church, they could happen in our day-to-day lives as well. If God has been speaking to us about something and we fail to heed Him, that is a holy thing that is defiled because of our ignorance as well.
Knowing this then, what should we do? Notice the second-half of verse 15: when such a sin is committed, then must a ram without blemish be brought to the priest, along with the priests’ estimation of an amount of silver. Now the ram without blemish is Jesus Christ today, our perfect trespass offering; and always when you see silver in the Bible it is a type that speaks of redemption. So we have a picture here of Jesus and the redemption which He brings as an atonement for our sins. Jesus is the perfect answer to all of our violations that we have committed.
Continue on to verse 16, and the one who committed the sin will make amends for the harm that he has done in regards to the holy thing and he will add one-fifth to it and give it to the priest.
I find the phrasing of this verse very powerful. When someone commits sin there is harm done. Sin is not something to toy with or shrug-off, there is damage being done to people and lives every day because of sin. Furthermore, sin is an offense to God. When we commit a sin we are the offender and God is the offended. Man has done God wrong. So the offender must bring this ram without blemish, because we ourselves cannot sacrifice for ourselves – we are not without blemish.
Furthermore not only must the offender bring this spotless ram (in which case for us Jesus took our place by becoming the ram), and then whatever the person defiled, Moses would estimate the cost of it and then add an additional one-fifth to the cost, so altogether the offender must repay above and beyond the damage that he has done; he must pay back 120%.
So now what did Jesus do at the cross for us? God had been violated, we defiled God’s laws and broke His commandments. Jesus took our place and suffered as though He had been the one that wronged God, and then He paid with His blood so that we would not be punished… and beyond that, He gave back to God 120% of what had been defiled. Even taking the full punishment of our sin and enduring all of the pain, torturing and suffering that was due to us, Jesus was still alive on that cross. in the end He had to lay down His own life, because the payment was greater than the debt. And in so doing, He also paid the price of the law of sin and death for us.
In Leviticus 6, this same system is used for sins between one person and another person. So we can see that God’s perfect system of trespass and restoration is that the person being offended actually gets back more than they’ve originally lost. Let’s read Leviticus 6:1-7:
“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie to his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or has deceived his neighbor;
Or have found that which was lost, and lies concerning it, and swears falsely; in any of all these that a man does, sinning therein:
Then it shall be, because he has sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he has deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found,
Or all that about which he has sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it to him to whom it appertains, in the day of his trespass offering.
And he shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with your estimation, for a trespass offering, to the priest:
And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he has done in trespassing therein.”
Notice here in verse 2 that even sins committed against another person are still counted as a trespass against the LORD. Sometimes we as humans try to justify sins against people and lessen their seriousness in our own reasoning, but this verse makes it clear that all sins are ultimately against the LORD. Take note also that the one-fifth addition there in verse 5 indicates that the one committing the offense still has to repay 120% of what was stolen or damaged, and that the injured party again becomes a gainer in the end.
We see in verse 6 again the ram without blemish, which we recognize as Jesus Christ. Notice that He is the payment both for sins committed directly between man and God, and also man-to-man.
This is important because we all have people who have injured us. Sometimes we think that Jesus is only our sacrifice when the sin is in relation to man and God, but that when another person sins against us, we must then take vengeance for ourselves or “defend our own honor”. My friends, this is error.
Also there are times when we sin against others as well, and this erroneous thinking leads us to believe that there is no real recourse, and so we punish ourselves or take extreme actions because of guilt.
The truth however which we can see from these verses is that Jesus, the perfect ram is still there, and there is a principle here for us to learn: Jesus came to take our place. Both for the sins against God and also for our sins against other people. He has taken the place of the offender and injurer both against God, and also for man.
So today this is why we can forgive freely one to another, because God has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32). If you have always heard that said but never fully understood why or how it is possible, then now you know why and how, and it is because you have seen a picture of Jesus from the Old Testament.
Now here is another wonderful benefit: The 120% restoration comes when we put this into operation. Most people don’t want to forgive others because they feel that if they forgive, then the offender goes free. Yet if you understand and see what Jesus did as our offering from these verses, then you will recognize how wonderful it is, and how truly Divine it is: Forgive the sins of the offender, and restore 120% to the offended.
This is our God! This is what He wants to do for us today! Yet if we do not forgive others, we are not holding them in bondage but we are in-reality holding ourselves in bondage, and stopping our 120% restoration from flowing.
My friends, you have now seen what Jesus has done for each and every one of us and in every way. If we bring our unblemished ram (Jesus), then forgiveness and restoration is ours for the taking, yet if we clench our fist and tighten our own grip out of bitterness, resentment or pride, then there can be neither forgiveness or restoration. I encourage you today, trust Jesus, let your pride go, let your forgiveness go, and let sin go.
Let Jesus forgive, restore and redeem your entire life, and receive everything which He has paid to give you.
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