Blameless
Although the Lord always planned to bring us into a life of Spirit that is unshakeable and eternal, He also desires to meet our present needs in a way that empowers us to know what we believe in a more concrete way. As we discovered with Sinai yesterday, the covenant given there was a veiled spiritual reality that had physical components that could be grasped. Since the time for Christ’s coming was in the future, God was giving His people a sense of what to listen and look for as they awaited fulfillment of their promised inheritance. For this reason, Israel was told they could not approach until the ram’s horn sounded a long blast so that they would be primed to listen for that sound; and they received the law as a provision until the fulfillment of it came in Christ. The law that was given at Sinai also established the Levitical priesthood which, as we discussed earlier in the week, invited Abraham’s descendants to experience five different types of offerings as the basis of fellowship and of blessing.[1] The Lord wanted His people to have this tangible way of being assured of the promises, just as Abram was with the five animals he took to the Lord.
Yet, because the Lord never intended for us to be limited by a felt reality or something within our human ability to perceive, there was a distinction made between the five offerings for our hands-on experience and the Day of Atonement. God’s atonement is a day when no one has anything to take, touch, offer, do, or contribute; it’s a day when the entire community is called to deny ourselves because atonement is made for us by the high priest. Then, before the Lord, we will be clean; and the cleansing is done once a year for all. This means that regardless of how many times we become aware of sin and guilt therefore needing to have a hands-on reminder of how we come to be cleansed and blessed through one of the five offerings described in Leviticus, in God’s sight there is only one cleansing for all. Hallelujah!!!
The Day of Atonement was preparing God’s people for the once for all sacrifice of Jesus that makes us clean in His sight, perfect FOREVER because of the virtue of this One.[2] Now, even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and He knows all (1 John 3:19-20). This is how we set our hearts at rest in His presence: not by offering sacrifices to feel better, but by acknowledging that His Word is our truth, way, and life. This is the Sabbath rest that we are called into as believers in Jesus today: resting that we are clean because of the One sacrifice for all, in spite of how many times we feel the need for personal application of it in our daily life. It is finished.
The Hebrew word for Blameless gives us a picture of what God always had in mind: a continual flow of cleansing life from His covenant, His Cross. Note that the hand is reaching out here to receive not from a physical animal or a felt experience, but one that is entirely by faith. Here is the Hebrew word for Blameless, Tamim, spelled out (Hebrew reads from right to left): Tav (cross); Mem (blood or water); Yod (hand); Mem (blood or water). I chose to show both blood and water in this graphic because both flow from the Cross!!!
This is the Word that God gave in Genesis 17:1 when calling Abram to walk before Him and be blameless - not by doing or feeling anything - but by faith. And in receiving this Word from God, Abram’s entire identity changed from Abram to Abraham, the Father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). This picture of a righteousness by faith is what the Lord was always planning for us, and it is this revelation that made Abram no longer barren and dead, but fruitful and alive. It is the same for all of us who see and receive!
Special Note: In this portion from Leviticus, it says that “the son ordained to succeed His father as priest” makes atonement. Although that successor was already clearly determined to be Eleazar, he is not mentioned by name because this work is not done by any man who would perish or be replaced. The true Day of Atonement is made by the anointed Son, Jesus, who is our High Priest forever and who did not offer a lower form of life but the highest life by offering His very self and His own blood for us.
[1] The law that was given established the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 7:11); the comparison between Abram’s five offerings and the five offerings in Leviticus was the post entitled Yada.
[2] “We have been made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10); and '“For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14).
