Question: If unintentional sins are the only
ones that can be forgiven with a sacrifice (lamb, bread, etc.) in the Torah;
then what unintentional Sins did "Jesus" die for, exactly?
Answer: The same unintentional sins, violations of Torah, the people would commit before the Messiah came - Numbers 15:22-30 for example. Just as the provision in Torah provided for atonement for an unintentional sin by a substitutionary act - often the shed blood of an innocent animal - and the people were expected to continue with their lives and (try to) not sin again; the Messiah's death was the substitutionary act offered to us, for our sins up to that point when we accept what the Messiah did for us, and afterward we are expected to continue with our lives and try not to sin any more. As it is for all, today, after the Temple sacrifices ended and the Levitical priesthood was lost, we can't simply kill an innocent animal for our transgressions, so everyone (Jew and Gentile alike) must now seek atonement for continued, unintentional sins through repentance and prayer in hopes we are forgiven.
This question,
though, was obviously designed by someone who does not "buy" the idea
that the Messiah had to die for us, or that his death atoned for our
unintentional sins. But the question
itself shows that the questioner does not even understand his own Tanakh. Upon hearing the answer given above, the
person asking the original question will more than likely respond with: "But
Torah does not require a blood sacrifice for forgiveness of sins!",
and then they'll rattle off a litany of verses which demonstrate this
fact. And, there really is no
argument! Anyone with two brain cells to
rub together can read scripture and see that, of course, sins can be
forgiven by repentance and prayer.
But saying "Torah does not require a blood sacrifice for
forgiveness of sins" is, by itself, not an accurate statement!
It's not accurate,
because Torah DOES require blood sacrifices! You read about these blood sacrifices
throughout Numbers and Leviticus! And
nowhere do you find any scripture which says they are "optional". So the more appropriate question might be: "Why
does the Torah speak of blood sacrifices, yet, we find also within Torah that
forgiveness of sin can be gained by repentance and prayer?" Or put another way: "What is so
"special" about blood sacrifices that they are in Torah?"
Well, here is the
answer: The blood sacrifice made by the
Levite Priest at the Temple, was the guarantee of everlasting life! Leviticus 17:11 makes this abundantly
clear! "For
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making
expiation for your lives upon the altar; it is the blood, as life, that effects
expiation." (JPS Tanakh)
Let's examine this verse a moment because it's significance is lost in
English:
While the word
"life" is used in the verse, three times, the actual Hebrew word in
the verse is "nephesh" more accurately translated as
"soul" rather than "life".
The English word "life" does not convey an accurate meaning nephesh.
Actually, the English word "soul" does not convey a proper
understanding either, but a more accurate translation might be: "For the soul of the flesh is in
the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for
your souls upon the altar; it is the blood, that effects
expiation of the soul."
I think that is pretty clear! One
"nephesh" is given for another "nephesh".
The reason blood sacrifices were specifically
called for, was not just that "it forgave sins", rather, it assured
your place in the Kingdom, i.e., everlasting life! This was the
special significance of the blood sacrifice, because it is about the soul not
the sin! The blood from the animal,
carrying the nephesh, ceremonially splashed on the altar, substituted
for your nephesh/soul and made you "whole" again, so you could be
considered worthy of being with YHWH after you physically die. Otherwise, you are nothing but a filthy body,
not worthy of being in the presence of YHWH. In a minute you will see that this verse in
Leviticus 17 is very important because it is demonstrating that the
substitution saves the soul, the nephesh, and prevents it from dying!
The role of blood
sacrifice is therefore pivotal! But the
fact that a poor, sinless, blemish-free animal had to die to assure one's place
in the afterlife was clearly not enough to keep people from committing more
sins, so the sacrificial process had to be repeated over and over and
over! But for the "day-to-day"
inadvertent, unintentional sin, Torah certainly permitted your seeking
forgiveness by an animal sacrifice or by less drastic means - i.e., repentance and prayer and fasting! There are plenty of verses to cite indicating
this, including: Jonah 3:7-10, Numbers 16:47, Numbers 14:17-20, 2 Chronicles
7:14, Job 33:26, Hosea 14:2 and many others.
So by one's own recognition of having sinned,
one could seek forgiveness in this physical life by making a heartfelt
repentance and asking YHWH for His forgiveness, and assuming He
responded positively, you could go on with your earth-bound life. Nevertheless, everyone also needed to have
been "cleansed" by the blood sacrifices at the Temple, otherwise,
they are simply worm-fodder when they die.
Some will argue that
"scripture says sacrifices were less important than obedience"
and cite Jeremiah 7:22. That verse,
(out of context, especially in English), blows your mind:
"22 For I didn't speak to your ancestors or give
them orders concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them
out of the land of Egypt."
What? YHWH didn't
speak to our ancestors about sacrifices? The verses go on:
"23 Rather, what I did order them was this: 'Pay
attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my
people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things
will go well for you.' 24 But they neither listened nor paid attention, but
lived according to their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil hearts,
thus going backward and not forward." (CJB)
So sacrifices are
not important, they say, and only obedience is required. Not so!
If you read the context of Jeremiah 7, you see that YHWH is not
"reducing" the significance of sacrifices, rather, it was the
PEOPLE who had reduced the importance!
Read Jeremiah 7:9-10:
"9 First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear
falsely, offer to Ba'al and go after other gods that you haven't known. 10 Then
you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, 'We
are saved' - so that you can go on doing these abominations!" (CJB)
So what YHWH is
actually saying in verses 22-24 is that He "did not give the sacrifice
for it to be done with such contempt and disrespect."
Another verse some
will use to try to lessen the significance of the sacrifice is 1 Samuel 15:22,
which says (again, out of context):
"Sh'mu'el [Samuel] said, "Does ADONAI take
as much pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying what ADONAI
says? Surely obeying is better than sacrifice, and heeding orders
than the fat of rams." (CJB).
Again, this sure
sounds like obedience is more important!
But if one would only go back and read all of 1 Samuel 15, you'd
see that it was King Sha'ul who had disobeyed YHWH because he (Sha'ul)
had allowed the troops to take animals as spoils from a battle when he had been
commanded by YHWH to "destroy all".
Why did Sha'ul permit the animal spoils? Verse 21: "…and the troops took from the spoil some sheep and
oxen - the best of what had been proscribed - to sacrifice to the Lord
your God at Gilgal." (JPS Tanakh) Now reread verse 22 and the context is
understood! Sh'mu'el was not saying
sacrifices were less important at all!
He was admonishing Sha'ul for his disobedience which
reduces all YHWH's commands to nothing!
Read verse 23 and see this clearly!
Despite the volumes
written on this subject by those insisting "forgiveness" only
requires prayer and supplication, and no need for any sacrifice we see Torah
actually teaches otherwise. Forgiveness
always had two "levels" - an individual responsibility to seek
forgiveness when committing unintentional transgressions of Torah, and a Levite
Preist responsibility to substitute the nephesh of another sinless thing for survival of your
nephesh. These requirements go
hand-in-hand. One is not more important
than the other. Denying the importance of the blood sacrifice is truly making
YHWH out to be what "you" want Him to be instead of who He is and
what He asks of you!
So now, even though
the questioner, if they were to be reading this answer, would likely not want
to hear what I say next, nevertheless it is important to understand because it
ties the Messiah to the blood sacrifices.
Here is what must be understood:
Two points: 1st, when Yeshua died, the Temple still
existed. So the timing of the presence
of the Messiah could not be more important. 2nd, Yeshua's death was not a
"human sacrifice" as He was not "sacrificed" like an animal
and He did not have a "human" nephesh!
Addressing the 2nd
point first: Yeshua's "nefesh"
was not like ours! When a person dies,
physically, the Hebrew/Jewish mindset still considers the body a
"nefesh". It's just that a
"dead body" is a "dead nephesh", a dead soul. Numbers 19:11 says, for example: "He who touches a corpse of any human being shall be
unclean for seven days." (JPS Tanakh). Again, this rather sterile English
translation does not do the original Hebrew justice. The Hebrew actually reads "…touch any dead
human nephesh…". So we
come to understand that a "nephesh", is more than "soul" as
the English word "soul" conveys little. When a person is dead, and we (in our Western
mindset) look upon the body, we do not see a "soul", in fact, we are
taught the "soul" is no longer with the body.
The
"nephesh" is intimately tied to the individual. In death, the nephesh
of a person will live on, provided the person was in good favor with YHWH. Read these verses from Ezekiel 3:
17
"Human being, I have appointed you to be a watchman for the house of
Isra'el. When you hear a word from my mouth, you are to warn them for me. 18 If
I say to a wicked person, 'You will certainly die'; and you fail to
warn him, to speak and warn the wicked person to leave his wicked way and
save his life; then that wicked person will die guilty; and I
will hold you responsible for his death. 19 On the other hand, if you warn the
wicked person, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness or his wicked way,
then he will still die guilty; but you will have saved your own
life.
20 Similarly, when a righteous person turns away from his
righteousness and commits wickedness, I will place a stumblingblock before him
- he will die; because you failed to warn him, he will die in his sin; his
righteous acts which he did will not be remembered; and I will hold you
responsible for his death. 21 But if you warn the righteous person that a
righteous person should not sin, and he doesn't sin; then he will certainly
live, because he took the warning; and you too will have saved
your life." (CJB)
Now, both the wicked
and the righteous will "die", that is, die a physical death on earth,
so these verses must be understood to be describing the saving of one's
nephesh in the afterlife by living their earthly, physical life
righteously. By living your life
righteously, and not wickedly, when you die, you are eternally "saved"
(with a caveat, described later on.)
We can see this
again in Ezekiel 18:4 "Consider, all lives
[nephesh] are Mine; the life [nephesh] of the parent and the life [nephesh] of
the child are both Mine. The person
[nephesh] who sins, only he shall die." (JPS Tanakh) I have inserted "nephesh"
where it appears in the original Hebrew.
Clearly, since all humans die in their earthly life, this verse too is
addressing the eligibility for an eternal existence - after all YHWH says
"all lives [nephesh] are Mine!" But the verse also reveals the
terrifying prospect that when you fail, your nephesh simply dies, no continued
existence: "The person [nephsh] who sins, only
he shall die."
Which brings me back
to Yeshua's nephesh. Yeshua was sinless,
so his nephesh could be considered "unblemished". When Yeshua died, both His "live
nephesh" and "dead body nephesh" left the earth. When mere mortals die, their "dead
body" remains on earth. Yes, that
part of Yeshua that was a human body, died and was taken down from the stake,
physically handled by live humans, wrapped and placed in the tomb. But 3 nights and 3 days later, the physical,
dead body disappeared. That does not
happen to us mere mortals. Yeshua's nephesh could not die, and did not die!
Now some argue that
Yeshua could not be the Messiah because "God does not require human
sacrifice!" This is absolutely
true, but completely misses the point. The
point of the animal sacrifice was NOT the "sacrifice", rather,
as I tried to explain above, it was to substitute one nephesh so the human
nephesh could live eternally. But
instead, many stubborn people cannot see that Yeshua was not
"sacrificed" at all, rather, He offered his sinless nephesh for
us! It's that simple. His blood, containing His nephesh, had to be
spilled on the altar for Him to be that substitution for our nephesh. This is what the act required - see Leviticus
5:9 for example. (And the "altar" on which Yeshua's blood was spilled
was the earth, see Exodus 20:24).
So now the 1st point.
Yeshua died in 30 CE. The Temple still
existed till 70 CE. That's 40 years, ONE
generation, from Yeshua's death to the end of the Temple. YHWH gave all mankind ONE generation to come
to understand what He did for humanity by offering Himself as a substitute for
our nephesh, before the Temple was destroyed, and the substitution of the
nephesh of animals could no longer be done, and no longer abused.
The number forty appears many times in the
Bible, usually designating a time of radical transition or transformation. It is the same 40 years the Israelites had to
wander in the desert, when the 1st generation of the promise finally entered
the land. What could be more
"transforming" than the substitution of the nephesh of Yeshua, so
that within one generation, all who accepted this gift could be eternally saved
and retained in YHWH's favor by continued obedience!
So now you should
understand the caveat mentioned earlier. Being "righteous" alone
is not enough for the nephesh to be "saved", for being saved requires
also the substitution on the altar, a "redemption" if you will, of a
nephesh for your nephesh. Your love and
obedience to YHWH is the purpose of your life (Ecclesiastes 12:13), and you are
expected to return to YHWH if you have inadvertently sinned.
But "eternal life" always required
that substitution or redemption of one nephesh for another. The possibility of that substitution of an
animal at the Temple is gone. You can't
get that any more. It has been replaced
by your acceptance that the Messiah died for you, and redeemed you, so
you can be saved. He volunteered to substitute
His nephesh for yours! Now, go learn how
to live your earthly life in obedience to YHWH.
