“How Am I Doing Lord?”

by Jeff Curtis

Leviticus presents in type a multifaceted view of Christ. He is our High Priest. He is also the sacrifice which is prefigured in the different offerings instructed in the book of Leviticus. Each offering in Leviticus has three parts: (1) the offerer; the Israelite; (2) the priest; the mediator and participant with his brethren; and (3) the offering.

Five different sacrifices are presented in Leviticus. Christ can be seen in His manifold roles in these sacrifices.

He is the offerer (Heb. 5:5-9). Christ came to do the will of God as a man. He is the Priest (Heb.7:24-25). These sacrifices show us how He acts as our mediator. Christ stands as an official and qualifying capacity, after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7:11), and He lives to make intercession for His people. His Offering (Jn. 1:29). We see the work and character of Christ in the actual sacrifice. In the blood sacrifices, the whole concept of using different animals and birds without defect was the idea of the innocent being killed for the guilty. Jesus as the Lamb (Jn. 1:29) was that innocent, sinless One (without defect) who was killed for the guilty party, man (Matt.20:28; Rom. 3:9-23).

The significance (Lev.1:2-14). The burnt offerings were the most common of the sacrifices. The burnt offerings had a history in the generation of the patriarchs such as Noah (Gen. 8:20) and Abraham (Gen. 22:1-14). Leviticus indicates that no day was to pass in the tabernacle without one of these offerings being made (Lev. 6:9-12).

The Cost. (Lev.1:2-14). God recognized some social and economic differences among the Israelites by allowing each one to participate in the sacrifices at their economic level. Each Israelite, however, had to meet strict requirements whose underlying principles taught them some needed lessons.

The Participant (Lev.1:4-6). In this sacrifice, more than any other, the worshiper was heavily involved in making the sacrifice himself. No comment is made in the text as to the significance of the worshiper in doing all of this. But, the one lesson we should draw from studying his participation in the sacrifice is that God always demanded that worship be an act of participation, not a passive one.

The Whole Offering (Lev.1:8-13). The last characteristic about this offering is that the whole animal was consumed in the fire. Not only was the burnt offering the most common sacrifice, in the it was done daily; but it was to burn to the extent that the sacrifice be reduced to ash. Then the ash was to be carried out the next morning by the priest.

Jesus Christ, the Anti-type. The focus of Jesus in this offering – while it suggest the ideas of blood, innocence, and a life offered – is more centered on His wholeness. We need, “⁵ Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
⁶ In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
⁷ Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— in the volume of the book it is written of Me— to do Your will, O God.’”⁸ Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), ⁹ then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. ¹⁰ By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:5-10).

Conclusion. Are we offering God our wholeness? Paul told the Christians in Rome: “Therefore I urge you, brethren, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1).

The Heart of the Matter

by Jeff Curtis

According to Jesus, the heart of the matter of living righteously is the heart of the matter. He said that what really counts is not what goes into a person in terms of the food he eats; rather, it is what comes out of a person in terms of thoughts, words, and actions generated by his heart.

Jesus had been speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. Then He called a crowd together and spoke to them, saying, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand” (Mark 7:14). What He would tell about serving God and living a decent, righteous life was of great significance. He put His thoughts into one sentence: “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man” (Mark 7:15).

Later, when Jesus entered what was likely Peter’s house, His disciples questioned Him about what He had said. They wanted to know what He meant by this “parable,” as it is called in 7:17. Jesus was pointed in His reply to them:

     Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever    

    goes into a man from outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his

    heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated? (Mark 7:18-19).

His conversation had been on a spiritual plane, but the disciples had missed the spiritual nature of it.

At first, Jesus had been questioned about His disciples not keeping Jewish rituals that had nothing to do with physical or spiritual cleanness. The rituals under consideration didn’t cleanse the body or the heart. They were manmade traditions, possessing no spiritual value.

Apparently, at this point in the discussion, Jesus made His primary point: “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man” (7:20). Jesus told them that sin arising in the heart is the real defiling factor.

Each disciple of Christ must weigh carefully the fact that the heart is the chief concern of living. What did Jesus mean when He announced that the matter of the heart is the most important consideration?

1. In our hearts, we originate and organize our thoughts. When God created us in His image, He made us into thinking beings. He also gave us ownership of our hearts, allowing us the freedom to think the way we believe we should think. However, He warned that we must guard our thoughts (Proverbs 3:7-8).
2. In hearts, we formulate and finalize our decisions. The heart is a place of decision-making. With the heart, we make commitments. For this reason, Joshua could say to the nation of Israel, “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve:… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
3. In our hearts, we conceive and carry on our conversations. Whatever is down in the well of the heart will come up in the bucket of speech and be poured out through the tongue and lips.

Jesus on one occasion, told the Pharisees, “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For out the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matt.12:34).

4. In our hearts, we choose and control our behavior. We reach out with our hands. We speak with out tongues. We see with our eyes. Our hearts control our actions, telling our hands, tongues and eyes what to do.

The only way we can be righteous in our actions is by first becoming and being righteous in our thinking. When a person is true and honorable, seeking what is right, meditating upon what is good repute, looking for that which is excellent, and seeking that which is worthy of praise, his actions will follow his thoughts and will reflect the good character of his thinking.