The Perfect Burnt Offering

Leviticus 1:4
Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.

The burnt offering was to be a sacrifice without spot or blemish. This perfection of the burnt offering is a picture of the way Jesus presented His body throughout His earthly life to His Father – and then finally on the cross as well. All through His earthly life, He kept His body perfectly pure in every temptation before He presented it to His Father as a sacrifice on the cross. God would not have accepted Jesus’ offering up of Himself on the cross if there was a single spot in His earthly life. Jesus had a perfect life so that the burnt offering of His perfection would cause you to receive His perfection (gift of righteousness) in place of your imperfection.

Burnt Offering Perfection Transferred to You

When the person making the burnt offering lays his hand on the offering the perfection of the animal is transferred to him. (Leviticus 1:3-4) In this same manner every sacrifice of Jesus was transferred to you. Jesus had complete perfection of health and wholeness. When He was sent to be beaten his suffering dis-ease became your healing and wholeness for your imperfections of diseases. (John 19:1, 1 Peter 2:24, Isaiah 53:4-5) When Jesus cried out to God “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”, his perfection of perfect sinless life was being forsaken so that His perfection could be transferred to you and become your perfection for your sinful life. When Jesus hung on the cross and said “I thirst!”, he was thirsting so that his perfection of living water “In Him” could be transferred to us for eternal life “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”(John 4:14)

Spotless Burnt Offering Before God in Jesus

In the Old Covenant, righteousness had to be attained through keeping the law perfectly (Deuteronomy 6:25). It is the righteousness of man because it was to be attained through man’s effort. No one succeeded in 1,500 years. So, God used the sacrifice of animals that covered their sins till Christ came. In the New Covenant, righteousness is a gift (Romans 5:17, Ephesians 2:8). We cannot earn this gift of Righteousness. It is called the righteousness of God because Jesus kept the law and gave us His righteousness (Romans 10:3, Philippians 3:9). It is given by grace and received by faith.

In the manner that God used the sacrifice of animals to cover the sins of the people under the Old Covenant, under the New Covenant there was one final sacrifice that remits the sins of the people forever through Christ. (Hebrews 7:27, Hebrews 10:4-12)

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (John 7:37-38) When you receive Jesus He will transfer to you His “burnt Offering” perfection and you can trust that thru Him you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Beloved, God sees all the perfection of Jesus transferred to you every moment of every day!