Leviticus 4:11-12 - Homilies By W. Clarkson

Full acceptance with God.

The carrying away of all the offered animal (save that part which had been presented to God in sacrifice) and the burning of it in "a clean place" ( Leviticus 4:12 ), was probably meant to represent the full and perfect acceptance of the offerer by the Holy One of Israel. When the victim had been slain and its blood outpoured on the altar and its richest part accepted in sacrifice, there might seem to have been sufficient indication of Divine mercy. But one sign more was added: the animal which represented the worshipper having shed its blood, and that shed blood having been received as an expiation, it became holy; when, therefore, its flesh was not eaten by the priest ( Leviticus 6:26 ) in token of its sanctity, every part of the animal was solemnly and reverently consumed, in "a clean place" Nothing, pertaining to that which had become holy through the shed blood should be treated as an unholy thing. Looked at in this light, we gain the valuable thought that when sin has been forgiven through faith in the shed blood of the Redeemer, the sinner is regarded as holy in the sight of God. As everything was thus done by pictorial representation to express the thought of the fullness of Divine forgiveness, so everything was stated in explicit language through the psalmists and prophets to the same effect ( Exodus 34:6 , Exodus 34:7 ; Psalms 86:5 , Psalms 86:15 ; Psalms 103:8 ; Psalms 145:8 ; Isaiah 1:18 ; Isaiah 55:7 ). So, also, our Lord, in the "prince of parables," included everything that could be introduced—the robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf—to present in the strongest colouring the precious truth that God does not grudgingly or imperfectly forgive, but that he " abundantly pardons." The subject demands our consideration of two things—

I. THE FULNESS OF GOD 'S ACCEPTANCE . God's mercy in Christ Jesus embraces:

1 . The entire forgiveness of all past sins, so that all our numerous transgressions of his Law, both the more heinous and the less guilty, are "blotted out" of his "book of remembrance," and no more regarded by him; and so that all our more numerous shortcomings, our failure to be and to do that which the heavenly Father looked for from his children, are entirely forgiven.

2 . The overlooking of our present unworthiness; so that the scantiness of our knowledge, the imperfection of our penitence, the feebleness of our faith, the poverty of our resolutions, and our general unworthiness do not stand in the way of his "benign regard."

3 . The bestowment of his Divine complacency; so that he not only "receives us graciously," but "loves us freely" ( Hosea 14:2 , Hosea 14:4 ). He feels toward us the love and the delight which a father feels toward the children of his heart and his home. But to gain this inestimable blessing, let us be sure that we have fulfilled—

II. THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH IT IS BESTOWED . These are twofold. Paul has expressed them thus:

He who inspired Paul has taught us the same truth in his own words ( Luke 24:47 ; Acts 26:18 ). There must be the turning of the heart, in shame and sorrow, from sin unto God, and the cordial acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Teacher, the all-sufficient Saviour, the rightful Lord of heart and life, which he claims to be.—C.