The Burnt Offering (Leviticus 1) and Jesus

What does the ritual of the burnt offering tell us about the person and work of Christ?

First, it pictures for us his dedication as the true Burnt Offering who voluntarily dedicated himself to fulfil all that was required of him in order to meet the demands of God. We see his dedication as he came into the world, described in the words of Psalm 40:7-8: ‘Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’

Of course, his dedication continued throughout his earthly life. He expressed it even when he was twelve years old when he informed Mary and Joseph when they found him interacting with the scholars in the temple in Jerusalem: ‘And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”’ (Luke 2:49). His dedication was revealed at his baptism, when he identified himself with sinners in obedience to his Father’s will. It was also revealed when he set his face as a flint to go to Jerusalem, and when he resisted the temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane to avoid the cross. And it was shown in his determination to continue through the sufferings on Calvary.

Second, the necessity that the burnt offering should be without defect depicts for us the purity and perfection of Jesus in his holiness. Peter takes up the language of the requirements of the burnt offering when he writes: ‘… you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

I suppose we could imagine an occasion when even an eagle-eyed priest would fail to see a minute blemish in an animal. Yet we can say in truth that the omniscient eye of God, who knows the entirety of every detail, scanned the life of his Son and pronounced that he was well pleased with him, and one of the reasons for that assessment was the inner and outer perfection of Jesus. He never sinned in his thoughts, words or deeds. He was always without blemish, even when on the cross paying the penalty for our sins.

Third, we can see depicted in this offering the violent nature of the death of Jesus. While the animal was already dead and therefore it did not have any awareness of what was happening to its body, Jesus in his agony was fully conscious as he endured in his person the awful wrath of God against sin. We get some insight into his distress as we listen to his cry on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Although his experience was awful when he became the sinbearer, we must always recall that he remained totally dedicated and perfectly pure through it all.