FEBRUARY 24.—MORNING. [Or April 18.] “He bare the sin of many.”

LEVITICUS 16:1–10; 15–22

AND the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died; And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
The death of Nadab and Abihu became the occasion of fresh instruction to Israel. We should always learn from the Lord’s judgments upon others. Aaron was taught that even he could only come to God as the Lord led him into nearness of access.
3, 4 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. (He was to wear his plain ordinary garments, and his washing was meant to show his purity: even thus, in making atonement for us, our Lord Jesus laid aside his glory and became like unto his brethren, yet without sin.)
5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
See how superior is our Lord, for he had no need to offer for himself.
7, 8, 9, 10 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. (Atonement is by substitutionary death.) But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
Thus our great substitute bears away the sins of his people into oblivion.
15, 16 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
17, 18, 19 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel. And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. (Do we not see here our Great High Priest, alone, without a helper, making atonement for us.)
20, 21, 22 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: (The laying of the hand is very important, it represents faith which accepts the substitute. Have we this faith?) And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. (The first goat showed the Saviour suffering, and the second typified the effect of that suffering in the complete removal of Israel’s sin. Sin is gone, gone for ever, from the man who rests in Jesus.)

  I lay my sins on Jesus,
     The spotless Lamb of God:
  He bears them all and frees us
     From the accursed load.
  I bring my guilt to Jesus,
     To wash my crimson stains
  White in his blood most precious,
     Till not a spot remains.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1964). The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible (p. 109). Baker Book House.

FEBRUARY 22.—MORNING. [Or April 14.] “He hath finished transgression.”

THE laws which the Lord gave to Moses in reference to sacrifices are all deeply instructive, and every detail deserves earnest study: we select for present reading the law of the sin-offering in

LEVITICUS 4:1–12

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them:
3 If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock, without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering. (The case is put with an “if,”—if a soul shall sin, and if the priest do sin; but indeed, it is all too certain that they do sin, and it is most gracious on the Lord’s part to ordain a sacrifice to meet the case. The victim must itself be without blemish, or it cannot be an accepted substitute. How well the Lord Jesus answers to this type.)
4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head, and kill the bullock before the LORD. (By an act of penitential faith we must accept the atoning sacrifice as available for us. But the victim must die, and pour out its blood, for the blood is the very life of the expiation.)
5 And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock’s blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation: (Everywhere the blood was conspicuous, for it is the essence of atonement.)
6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary.
7 And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
8, 9, 10 And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away, As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. (When our Lord Jesus was made sin for us, and so became forsaken of God, he was nevertheless dear unto God—hence some part of the sin offering was laid upon the altar of acceptance.)
11, 12, And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. (As a thing unclean the sin-offering was put away, and even thus Jesus was made sin for us, and in token thereof he was made to suffer outside Jerusalem.)

HEBREWS 13:10–14

10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. (Of our spiritual altar formalists cannot partake.)
11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12, 13, Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. (Calvary was outside Jerusalem.) Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Our holy faith makes us a separated people, because our Lord in whom we trust was separated, and covered with reproach for our sakes. Mere going out from society is nothing, going forth unto him is the great matter. With joy do we follow him into the place of separation, expecting soon to dwell with hint for ever.)

     My faith would lay her hand
     On that dear head of thine,
  While like a penitent I stand,
     And there confess my sin.

     My soul looks back to see
     The burdens thou didst bear,
  When hanging on the cursed tree,
     And hopes her guilt was there.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1964). The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible (p. 105). Baker Book House.

Morning, February 2 | “Without the shedding of blood is no remission.”—Hebrews 9:22

This is the voice of unalterable truth. In none of the Jewish ceremonies were sins, even typically, removed without blood-shedding. In no case, by no means can sin be pardoned without atonement. It is clear, then, that there is no hope for me out of Christ; for there is no other blood-shedding which is worth a thought as an atonement for sin. Am I, then, believing in him? Is the blood of his atonement truly applied to my soul? All men are on a level as to their need of him. If we be never so moral, generous, amiable, or patriotic, the rule will not be altered to make an exception for us. Sin will yield to nothing less potent than the blood of him whom God hath set forth as a propitiation. What a blessing that there is the one way of pardon! Why should we seek another?

Persons of merely formal religion cannot understand how we can rejoice that all our sins are forgiven us for Christ’s sake. Their works, and prayers, and ceremonies, give them very poor comfort; and well may they be uneasy, for they are neglecting the one great salvation, and endeavouring to get remission without blood. My soul, sit down, and behold the justice of God as bound to punish sin; see that punishment all executed upon thy Lord Jesus, and fall down in humble joy, and kiss the dear feet of him whose blood has made atonement for thee. It is in vain when conscience is aroused to fly to feelings and evidences for comfort: this is a habit which we learned in the Egypt of our legal bondage. The only restorative for a guilty conscience is a sight of Jesus suffering on the cross. “The blood is the life thereof,” says the Levitical law, and let us rest assured that it is the life of faith and joy and every other holy grace.

     “Oh! how sweet to view the flowing
     Of my Saviour’s precious blood;
     With divine assurance knowing
     He has made my peace with God.”

Spurgeon, C. H. (1896). Morning and evening: Daily readings. Passmore & Alabaster.

January 12 | THE HIGH COST OF FREE GRACE

“In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood” (Eph. 1:7, emphasis added).

✧✧✧

Redeeming grace is free to us, but its cost to God is inestimable.

Sin is not a serious issue to most people. Our culture flaunts and peddles it in countless forms. Even Christians who would never think of committing certain sins will often allow themselves to be entertained by those same sins through television, movies, music, and other media.
We sometimes flirt with sin, but God hates it. The price He paid to redeem us from it speaks of the seriousness with which He views it. After all, we “were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold … but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19).
In Scripture the shedding of blood refers to violent physical death—whether of a sacrificial animal or of Christ Himself. Sin is so serious that without bloodshed, there is no forgiveness of sin in God’s sight (Heb. 9:22).
The sacrificial animals in the Old Testament pictured Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. That’s why John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The Old Testament sacrifices were necessary but incomplete. Christ’s sacrifice was perfect, complete, and once for all (Heb. 10:10). No further sacrifices are needed other than the “sacrifice of praise to God” for what He has done (Heb. 13:15) and our very lives in service to Him as “a living and holy sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1).
By His sacrifice Christ demonstrated not only God’s hatred for sin, but also His great love for sinners. You could never redeem yourself, but Christ willingly paid the price with His own precious blood. He “gave Himself up for [you], an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph. 5:2). His sacrifice was acceptable to the Father; so your redemption was paid in full.

✧✧✧

Suggestions for Prayer: Worship God for His wonderful plan of salvation. ✧ Worship Christ for the enormous sacrifice He made on your behalf. ✧ Worship the Holy Spirit for applying Christ’s sacrifice to your life and for drawing you to Christ in saving faith. ✧ Ask God to help you guard your heart from flirting with sin.

For Further Study: Read 2 Samuel 11. ✧ What circumstances led to David’s sin with Bathsheba? ✧ How did David attempt to cover his sin? ✧ How did David finally deal with his sin (see Ps. 51)?

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 24). Crossway Books.

15 december (preached 2 january 1859) | Perfection in faith

“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14

suggested further reading: 2 Timothy 2:20–26

We could not have access to God unless on the footing of perfection; for God cannot walk and talk with imperfect creatures. But we are perfect; not in character, for we are still sinners; but we are perfected through the blood of Jesus Christ, so that God can allow us to have access to him as perfected creatures. We may come boldly, because being sprinkled with the blood, God does not look on us as unholy and unclean, otherwise he could not allow us to come to his mercy seat; but he looks upon us as being perfected for ever through the one sacrifice of Christ. That is one thing. The other is this. We are the vessels of God’s temple; he has chosen us to be like the golden pots of his sanctuary; but God could not accept a worship which was offered to him in unholy vessels. Those vessels, therefore, were made perfect by being sprinkled with blood. God could not accept the praise which comes from your unholy heart; he could not accept the song which springs from your uncircumcised lips, nor the faith which arises from your doubting soul, unless he had taken the great precaution to sprinkle you with the blood of Christ; and now, whatever he uses you for, he uses you as a perfect instrument, regarding you as being perfect in Christ Jesus. That, again, is the meaning of the text, and the same meaning, only a different phase of it. And, the last meaning is, that the sacrifices of the Jews did not give believing Jews peace of conscience for any length of time; they had to come again, and again, and again, because they felt that those sacrifices did not present to them a perfect justification before God. But behold, beloved, you and I are complete in Jesus. We have no need of any other sacrifice. All others we disclaim. He hath perfected us for ever. We may set our conscience at ease, because we are truly, really, and everlastingly accepted in him.

for meditation: Being accepted in Christ enables us to serve God acceptably.

sermon no. 232¹

---

¹  Spurgeon, C. H., & Crosby, T. P. (1998). 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 1) (p. 356). Day One Publications.

December 14.—Morning. [Or November 25.]“Without shedding of blood is no remission.”

Hebrews 9:15–28

AND for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (It was absolutely needful that guilt should be atoned for, and, therefore, Jesus became a mediator. Nothing short of this could secure the eternal inheritance for those who are called. Take away the atonement and you have robbed our Lord of his greatest reason for being a mediator at all. We love and live upon the truth of his atoning death.)

¹⁶ For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

¹⁷ For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. (Or it may be understood that a covenant is not of force till the victim is slain to ratify it with blood. In either sense the death of Jesus was necessary to secure to us the blessings of the gospel.)

^18–21 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. (Blood was seen on all sides under the law, it was vital to its teachings. The blood of Jesus is the very life of the gospel; a ministry without the blood of Jesus in it is dead and worthless.)

²² And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (This solemn truth needs to be well learned and remembered. Nothing can cleanse us but the blood of Jesus. Sacraments, prayers, repentances are all useless as a substitute for faith in the blood.)

²³ It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (The blood of bulls would suffice to purge the types, but the realities must have a richer sacrifice to cleanse them.)

^24–26 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Once has Jesus offered sacrifice, and only once. All attempts to offer him again, as the priests pretend to do in the mass, are blasphemous, and are an insinuation that the one offering was not sufficient. As for us, let us rest on the once offered atonement, and in humble faith know that we are fully accepted.)

^{27, 28} And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin (or without a sin-offering) unto salvation. (Every man’s death day is his doomsday, all is settled then. So Jesus, when he died, finished his atoning work, and nothing remains for him but to come a second time, no more to die, to take his great reward.)

O Christ, what burdens bow’d thy head!

Our load was laid on thee:

Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead,

To bear all ill for me.

Death and the curse were in our cup,

O Christ, ’twas full for thee!

But thou hast drained the last dark drop,

’Tis empty now for me.

Jehovah lifted up his rod,

O Christ, it fell on thee!

Thou wast sore stricken of thy God;

There’s not one stroke for me.

For me, Lord Jesus, thou hast died,

And I have died in thee;

Thou’rt risen; my bands are all untied;

And now thou liv’st in me.¹

---

¹  Spurgeon, C. H. (1964). The Interpreter: Spurgeon’s Devotional Bible (p. 738). Baker Book House.

December 10 | The Sacrifice and Exaltation of Christ

“When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3).

✧✧✧

Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for all the sins of mankind, then sat down with the Father once He had accomplished it.

The Bible makes it perfectly clear that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Jesus Christ went to the cross, died the death we deserved, and consequently freed us from the penalty of sin by our faith in Him.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that Christ “does not need daily, like those [Old Covenant] high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Heb. 7:27). In the Old Testament, the priests had to make continual sacrifices, but Jesus made only one. And not only was He the priest, but also the sacrifice! He made a tremendously potent sacrifice, for He forever purged our sins—something the Old Testament sacrifices could never do.

When His sacrifice was complete, “He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3, emphasis added). That is significant, because the Old Testament priests never sat down; there were no seats in the sanctuary because they offered sacrifices day in and day out. But Jesus offered one sacrifice, finished it, and then went to the Father and sat down. What the Old Testament sacrifices couldn’t accomplish, Christ’s did for all time.

As a result, God exalted Him to His right hand, the seat of honor and rule and rest. But perhaps most important, it is the place where Christ intercedes to the Father on our behalf (Rom 8:34).

Don’t ever forget what Jesus accomplished for us—and what He still does for us: “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

✧✧✧

Suggestions for Prayer: Thank Jesus for His sacrifice on your behalf. Also thank Him for the salvation He has given you and the access you now have to God.

For Further Study: Read Hebrews 9:1–10:18 to gain a deeper understanding of Christ’s ultimate fulfillment of the Old Testament priestly system. In what specific ways did He fulfill it?¹

---

¹  MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 357). Crossway Books.