Leviticus episode 2 - Clean Hands, Clean Hearts

Ever felt squeaky clean on the outside yet weighed down inside? We open Leviticus and find a path that deals not just with guilt but with stain, not just with apology but with repair. With Dr Paul Blackham and the Reverend Joseph Steinberg, we move through the sin offering, the guilt offering, and the fellowship offering to see how moral pollution is cleansed, how broken trust is mended, and how peace with God becomes a shared table.

First, we get honest about the difference between unintentional failure and defiant rebellion. Drawing on Numbers 15, we explore the “raised fist” of sin that rejects God, and the grieving heart that longs to be different. That clarity relieves common fears: awareness of sin and sorrow over it signal life, not doom. From Romans 7 to the everyday moments we regret, we uncover how atonement addresses both what we do and what we leave undone.

Then we tackle restitution. Forgiveness reconciles us to God, but love also restores what was harmed. The guilt offering frames justice as restoration: when we wrong others, we make it right. Christ pays our ultimate debt to God—no further price earns salvation—but grace transforms us to act generously, like Zacchaeus returning more than he took. It’s a practical vision for communities hungry for integrity and repair.

Finally, we reach the summit: the fellowship, or peace, offering. After cleansing and justice comes joy—communion, presence, and shared delight with God. This voluntary offering foreshadows the Lord’s Supper and the marriage supper of the Lamb, a picture of the future where peace is not abstract but experienced together. We stitch the five offerings into one portrait: many facets, one cross. Leviticus becomes less a maze and more a map—from stain to washing, from debt to restitution, from distance to a feast of peace.

If this journey deepened your understanding, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves biblical theology, and leave a review telling us which image of atonement helps you most.

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Transcript

Setting The Scene At Sandown Park

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Oh my book by book, and here we are again for study number two in our series on the book of Leviticus. We're right here at beautiful Sandown Park in a wonderful part of England, which is in Surrey, and we're part of a great uh, well, it's called the Christian Resources Exhibition, and all around us are stacks of little stalls and exhibits and things you can buy and things you can share, and there are many, many organizations here. We're just part of that, and it's a great honor to be in this fabulous place. What we're doing is the book of Leviticus, and I've got here with me Paul Blackham, Dr. Paul Blackham, for whose works in London at the moment, though he's born in Lancashire, and uh Dr. Well, I let's call him the Reverend Joseph Steinberg, who was born in Miami in Florida, but is living in England and working with the Church Mission Society. He's really our special international guest on this occasion. Leviticus.

Reading Leviticus: The Fellowship Offering

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Let's do chapter 3, verses 1 to 5. It's about the fellowship offering here. If someone's offering is a fellowship offering and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he is to present before the Lord an animal without defect. He is to lay his hand on the head of the offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then Aaron's sons, the priests, shall print I think I'm going to start that reading again. I'm getting tongue twisted. If someone's offering is a fellowship offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he is to present before the Lord an animal without defect. He is to lay his hand on the head of the offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Then Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood against the altar on all sides. From the fellowship offering, he is to bring a sacrifice made to the Lord by fire. All the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. Then Aaron's sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, that is, on the burning wood, as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. You may say to yourself, if you're sitting there in a student group, or sitting with some friends in front of the screen, or sitting on your own, or sitting in a big church, staring in this study, you may be saying to yourself, What is that all about? We've got this series of offerings here. I mean, I'm looking now at chapter four, uh, the sin offering, when the Lord says to Moses, when anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord's commands, and then comes the instructions. So, Joseph, may I jump straight in with you? The sin

Why Sin Offerings Clean More Than Skin

SPEAKER_01 3:19

offering is obviously associated with cleansing. What does this mean? Do we don't we need, I mean, the cynic would say, don't I need soap more than you know, a sacrifice for my cleansing to get clean?

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Well, in fact, um, Paul was telling me earlier that uh the hygiene industry is is booming at the moment. And um I know that I certainly uh you know like to stay clean. And I think in society, especially modern society, uh cleanliness, as I used to say, is next to godliness. But in fact, one of the things that's neglected is moral cleanliness. And in fact, there's a progression uh within the sacrificial system that we're beginning to see because the burnt offering is about making peace with God, but the sin offering is actually about cleaning us up. It's about pollution. Because when we sin, we feel guilty, but ultimately what we might miss is the fact that we're actually dirty and we need to be cleansed. And again, it's the blood of the animal, it's the shedding of blood where we have forgiveness of sins, it's also the shedding of blood where we have our sins wiped away, where we're washed clean. So, in a sense, um, blood is God's detergent for our own moral cleansing. And ultimately, um, where there's sin, and in a sense, where it's like dirt, it's contagious. And so, again, in society, we see that as sin becomes more acceptable, um, the further away from God we become, and the more unlike him we become. So, again, it's important that the context of this offering is within Leviticus when we see God and we see his holiness and we see the picture of the Messiah who is to come, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, so that he becomes the standard, but not the slipping decay of society. So we look at our lives, we compare them to Jesus, we see the dirt that is upon us, and we ultimately understand that he is a sin offering for us. So the sin offering is very much about cleaning us up and making us fit to worship God as part of that progression.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

And the reference also in uh chapter four to unintentional

Unintentional Versus Defiant Sin

SPEAKER_01 5:16

sin. Uh I mean, Paul, what is the difference between an intentional and an unintentional sin?

SPEAKER_02 5:22

I know a lot of people get quite anxious about this section because um there's you know atonement for uh unintentional sins. But then what about intention? Because I think I always I I I sin intentionally. I know I'm sinning when I sin so often. Um so people can sometimes get alarmed because they say, well, isn't there an atonement for intentional sins and that and all that sort of alarm? Well, there are two issues uh here. First of all, I remember uh looking at um a sermon from CH Spurgeon from the 19th century about this passage, and all the point that he made, it really struck me powerfully, was just the fact that we know of some of the sins we do, but there's loads of sins we do that we don't even know about. Because, you know, we sometimes get really alarmed about some particular sin in our lives, but we probably are overlooking all kinds of things that we do that offend the living God that we don't even bother about. So that's one thing to be aware of, that our sin is much bigger than we're actually aware of. Um and that's really important for us to remember. And then uh the other point though is um what is meant by uh unintentional sins is sins that we not just that we don't consciously intend to do, but it's also the sins that we wish we never did. And that's why in numbers 15, numbers 15, we um is a whole if you want to really get to the bottom of it, it's good to look at numbers 15 because it's all about this. And there's an example of a man who's gathering wood on the Sabbath. Now, we might say, well, it's not doesn't sound to be the biggest sin ever. And yet there's an alarm in the community, they don't know what to do about him because it looks as if he just doesn't care. He's gathering wood on the Sabbath. He's like, yeah, whatever. So what? And they're like, this is outrageous because if someone else had gathered wood on the Sabbath, they'd say, Oh, I'm really sorry. I I I've that's a sin against God, I repent of that, I think I need to seek forgiveness and so on. Well, it doesn't look as if that man bothers at all. And that's the alarm and the sense of the sins that uh in Numbers 15 they have this phrase defiantly, to sin defiantly, or as the Hebrew is with a raised fist. As if to say, Yeah, I'm sinning against God. That's an intentional sin in scripture, where it's as if you're you're shaking your fist at God when you sin and you're rejecting him and everything he stands for.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

And we'll be to be outright rebels.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Outright rebels. So in that sense, when because Christians are often alarmed because they'll say, Well, I still sin. Yeah, but the with the Christian, the desire of the deepest desire of their heart is, I wish I never would sin. And when I do sin, I it's what I don't want to do, and I long for the day when I will never sin again, and I'll be just like Christ and and be free from the from the prison of sin forever.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Oh yes. I mean I I find that uh sometimes talking with fellow believers, they'll sometimes say, you know, I'm so awful, you know, I wonder whether I should start again at square one all over again. I hate and I think, well, it it's actually quite a good sign that you are so upset about the fact that you are not what you ought to be. Yeah. So that's is it's quite encouraging. It's like the Apostle Paul, you know. Oh wretched man that I am. Romans chapter seven. And that's an advanced believer, so that's right.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Yeah. An apostle.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

An apostle. And he says, I do the things I wish I didn't do, I don't do what I should. That's the yeah, that's the sign of where we are.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

That's the other thing, isn't it? Sins not only of commission, sins we commit, but sins of omission, things that we should have done that we didn't do.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah, that's right. Both things.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, both are there.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

We're going through these um offerings, uh gentlemen, moment. And uh we just looked at them very briefly at that sin offering. There's the guilt offering I

Restitution And The Guilt Offering

SPEAKER_01 9:05

see in chapter five, verse 14 onwards. Um, and uh I I'd like to ask you, Joseph, about I mean it's to do with repayment, I think. Yes. Who and what needs to be repaid?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Well, it's interesting. We talked about sins just now of uh commission, sins we commit, and also sins of omission. I think we need to acknowledge that when we sin, um we actually sin against the Lord. We we commit something, we commit an act which is sinful. Um, but in a sense, there's something else we need to do to make that right. In many ways, it's almost like paying a fine to try to right a wrong, although fines today are much more about penalizing, whereas this is much more about making right a wrong. And Leviticus is is is concerned with the whole community, um, and it's concerned with restoration. And if you look at the sacrificial system and these various sacrifices, again as a progression, you know, um, as our sin is paid for and as we're uh at one with God through atonement, as we have peace with God, and as we're cleaned up, and as we begin to come into fellowship with the Lord, we begin to want to take on God's attitudes. And the attitudes of somebody who's repentant and who wants to move forward with the Lord is to make restitution, is to make right. Because, of course, if you wrong me, you ask me for forgiveness, and I offer that, but if you've stolen from me, it would be nice to have back whatever it was you took. You know, otherwise, is your repentance genuine? So, as we sin against God, in a sense, uh the guilt offering has to do with repayment, it has to do with justice. And of course, that's something that we see in the court system all the time when uh when people have suffered the loss of a loved one who's been murdered, they want justice. They they want the a penalty to be paid. And and and all these sort of images help us to understand the context of the guilt offering in terms of restitution. We've sinned against the Lord, it also affects others, and the way we demonstrate that faithfulness back to God is by making things right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I I love that word, you use the word atonement to atone for a sin, to pay it. Actually, that word was invented for the English language by William Tyndale, the great translator of 450 years ago, he actually invented that word for the English speaking people, atonement. And it's what a very, very wonderful and powerful word. So, Paul, if the Lord God is repaid through the ultimate sacrifices we're hinting at through of Jesus, then is any other payment, repayment needed? Do we need to repay those that we have wronged, for example?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Well, that's the thing, isn't it? Because if he's done the big repayment, you might say, Well, I say I don't need to do anything. And there's two things about the repayment. First of all, um sometimes peaks Christians in the past have wondered whether it's the devil who needed to be repaid. Because the idea sometimes was the devil owns us, and God has to buy us back from the devil. But actually, that's not in the Bible the idea, because we're not owned by the devil, he doesn't own anything, but it's the Lord God who created us. So the repayment is actually to the Lord God Himself, and so that's on the one side. So the Lord God um we're indebted to him and we've offended against him, and then he's repent.

Changed Hearts Lead To Repayment

SPEAKER_02 12:16

But it's like uh Joseph was saying, out of that complete free forgiveness that we receive in Jesus, our hearts are changed. So it's not as if the Lord says, if you fail to repay properly, then you'll you're not saved. It's not a condition, it's not like you earn salvation, it's rather, as Joseph was saying, with that changed heart comes a changed life, and it's a response of gratitude to say, the Lord God has forgiven me so freely, I want to I want to share his character. I think that's the phrase.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

You see that in Zacchaeus, don't you? When you have Zacchaeus, of course. He changes, he repents. And not only does he give back to people what he took from them, he actually gives them over and above. Because of course, God is gregarious in his generosity to us, which is what you were sharing earlier with the other offering there. But it's that whole attitude, isn't it? As you come to be like the Lord, as you're made right with him, as you have peace with him, the atonement, um, as you're as you're cleansed through the sin offering, you begin to want to act in the way the Lord acts, which is generously, and which is which is in a way to make restitution. We begin to reflect him in our relationships and in our community life and our social context.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

We're coming towards the end, or rather towards the end. Uh the but let's keep going, Joseph, because uh we looked at the very beginning of our study, just read about the uh fellowship offering, that's chapter three, first few verses, which was a voluntary offering. Why would anyone choose to make that offering?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

You would think I've made so many offerings now, I think it's okay to go home. This has cost me quite a bit. But in fact, the fellowship offering in my mind is the culmination, it's the pinnacle, it's the height of the whole sacrificial system. Because if you've gone through the progress of having been unholy and unclean, and now you're getting moved into a state of being clean and you're brought towards the holy God through the mediation of the priest, now you can actually do what the whole system

The Fellowship Offering As Communion

SPEAKER_00 14:03

was prepared for in the first place. It was put there so that we can have fellowship with God. Because as he is our creator, he made us to know him and to enjoy that fellowship with him forever. And so, in many ways, and in every way, this fellowship offering is the height because it brings us close to God. In fact, it's also known as the peace offering, where we have peace with God and we enjoy his presence. And I know many times where I've just sat in the Lord's presence and enjoyed that communion with him. It's been the greatest blessing of being a believer in Jesus and of being a follower of Jesus, because there have been times when I've just been overwhelmed with God's love to the point of tears, just being moved with God's graciousness and his love, just sitting there with him and and just having a relationship with him in that way. I like it very much, Joseph. And just to say that in many ways, this is a picture of communion. This this is, in a sense, foreshadowing what we have in communion as we commune with the Lord. And certainly, I think for the end, when we see revelation, it's very much a picture of the marriage supper of the Lamb. When we all sit down and we enjoy together as a community of people in relationship with the Lord in that new creation, we have that marriage supper of the Lamb. God didn't have to put that feast on, but again, it's not just us who get something out of that relationship. The Lord loves us and he gets something out of that communion as well. And I think the marriage supper is a picture of that too.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Oh, Paul, wrap it up in just a few seconds, only why did the Lord God give these five different views of atonement in the beginning of Leviticus? Why wasn't it uh enough just to give one sacrifice

Many Sacrifices, One Cross

SPEAKER_01 15:30

quickly?

SPEAKER_02 15:30

It's because they're all pointing to this one great sacrifice, the sacrifice which is the cross of Christ. And you can't say everything about the cross with one picture, one facet. Multifacet. It's multifaceted, and these five different camera angles allow us to grasp this greatest and deepest event there ever will be.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Oh, that's wonderful. You know, that I could I was born in Africa and I used to meet with people who used to animistic sacrifices. They would sacrifice to the gods of the rivers and the rocks and things like that, tiny little gods, but quite near, at least so they thought. But I remember a man who became known as Festo Cavengeri. He was just started as a herd boy looking after the calf. And when he was first taught to read and then taught to read the Bible, then taught about the sacrificial system of Leviticus, and then the one great towering sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said the whole thing had to be true. It had to be true. He said, we Africans were like apples ripe for the picking, that there had to be one gigantic sacrifice that the Lord God Himself has provided for us all, and that made him into a world evangelist. God bless you. As we meditate on the things we've studied today, as we continue to put them into our own mindset, and as we look forward to the next time. God bless you always.