Levitical Sacrificial Law is a Public Symbolic Expression of Faith in Christ
The sacificial laws were symbolic expressions of gospel faith just as baptism is a symbolic public expression of gospel faith.
1. Just as in baptism there is direct redemptive language "for remission of sins" "for sins"
2. Just as in baptism the public sacrificial act is to be taken symbolic not literal
PROOFS:
1. Hebrews 11:4
2. Hebrews 10:1-4
3. Isaiah 53
In Hebrews 10:1-4 and 11:4 the first explicit altar sacrifice approved by God in Genesis 4 was not an act in order to obtain righteousness but was an public expression of faith in Christ:
Heb. 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Abel did not make the offering in order to be righteous, but the sacrifice gave witness "he was righteous." He made the sacrificial offering as an act of faith because he believed in the gospel of Christ that was symbolized in the public offering of a lamb. We know this is true because Jesus says that Abel was the very first "prophet" (Lk. 11:50-51) and Peter says that "all the prophets" preached remissions of sin through faith in Christ (Acts 10:43).
Heb. 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
A "shadow" is a LIKENESS cast upon the ground due to the Sun standing behind the literal object casting that shadow but is "not the very image" - that is the Biblical definition of symbolism. This "shadow" sacrifices could never "take away sins" literally but only symbolically.
Isaiah understood the sacrificial system to be nothing more than a public expression of faith in the Messiah.
"he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,.....an offering for sin" - Isa. 53:7,10
Before the cross, John the Baptist declared the sin offering of a lamb was a symbolic expression of the gospel of Christ:
"Behold THE LAMB of God who TAKETH AWAY THE SIN of the world" - Jn.1:29
The writer of Hebrews says the very same gospel he preached was preached unto Israel in the wilderness (Heb. 4:2). The sacrificial system was designed to be a symbolic public expression of faith in Christ as redeemer.
Israel at the time of Christ had literalized the sacrificial offering for remission of sins just as the Campbellite movement literalized the act of baptism "for remission of sins."
The sacificial laws were symbolic expressions of gospel faith just as baptism is a symbolic public expression of gospel faith.
1. Just as in baptism there is direct redemptive language "for remission of sins" "for sins"
2. Just as in baptism the public sacrificial act is to be taken symbolic not literal
PROOFS:
1. Hebrews 11:4
2. Hebrews 10:1-4
3. Isaiah 53
In Hebrews 10:1-4 and 11:4 the first explicit altar sacrifice approved by God in Genesis 4 was not an act in order to obtain righteousness but was an public expression of faith in Christ:
Heb. 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Abel did not make the offering in order to be righteous, but the sacrifice gave witness "he was righteous." He made the sacrificial offering as an act of faith because he believed in the gospel of Christ that was symbolized in the public offering of a lamb. We know this is true because Jesus says that Abel was the very first "prophet" (Lk. 11:50-51) and Peter says that "all the prophets" preached remissions of sin through faith in Christ (Acts 10:43).
Heb. 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
A "shadow" is a LIKENESS cast upon the ground due to the Sun standing behind the literal object casting that shadow but is "not the very image" - that is the Biblical definition of symbolism. This "shadow" sacrifices could never "take away sins" literally but only symbolically.
Isaiah understood the sacrificial system to be nothing more than a public expression of faith in the Messiah.
"he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,.....an offering for sin" - Isa. 53:7,10
Before the cross, John the Baptist declared the sin offering of a lamb was a symbolic expression of the gospel of Christ:
"Behold THE LAMB of God who TAKETH AWAY THE SIN of the world" - Jn.1:29
The writer of Hebrews says the very same gospel he preached was preached unto Israel in the wilderness (Heb. 4:2). The sacrificial system was designed to be a symbolic public expression of faith in Christ as redeemer.
Israel at the time of Christ had literalized the sacrificial offering for remission of sins just as the Campbellite movement literalized the act of baptism "for remission of sins."