LAW OF THE SIN-OFFERING. (B. C. 1490.)
We have here so much of the law of the sin-offering as did peculiarly concern the priests that offered it. As, 1. That it must be killed in the place where the burnt-offering was killed (Leviticus 6:25), that is, on the north side of the altar (Leviticus 1:11), which, some think typified the crucifying of Christ on mount Calvary, which was on the north side of Jerusalem. 2. That the priest who offered it for the sinner was (with his sons, or other priests, Leviticus 6:29) to eat the flesh of it, after the blood and fat had been offered to God, in the court of the tabernacle, Leviticus 6:26. Hereby they were to bear the iniquity of the congregation, as it is explained, Leviticus 10:17. 3. The blood of the sin-offering was with great reverence to be washed out of the clothes on which it happened to light (Leviticus 6:27), which signified the awful regard we ought to have to the blood of Christ, not counting it a common thing; that blood must be sprinkled on the conscience, not on the raiment. 4. The vessel in which the flesh of the sin-offering was boiled must be broken if it were an earthen one, and, if a brazen one, well washed, Leviticus 6:28. This intimated that the defilement was not wholly taken away by the offering, but did rather cleave to it, such was the weakness and deficiency of those sacrifices; but the blood of Christ thoroughly cleanses from all sin, and after it there needs no cleansing. 5. That all this must be understood of the common sin-offerings, not of those for the priest, or the body of the congregation, either occasional, or stated upon the day of atonement; for it had been before ordained, and was now ratified, that if the blood of the offering was brought into the holy place, as it was in those extraordinary cases, the flesh was not to be eaten, but burnt without the camp, Leviticus 6:30. Hence the apostle infers the advantage we have under the gospel above what they had under the law; for though the blood of Christ was brought into the tabernacle, to reconcile within the holy place, yet we have a right by faith to eat of the altar (Hebrews 13:10-12), and so to take the comfort of the great propitiation.