If

Leviticus 1:1-2
1 The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When anyone among you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.

The Law was given so that we could be reconciled through our offerings to God. It was strict and precise. It was daily and it was mandatory. It was demanding. But I realized something: even in the Law, Grace abounds.

God, in all of His infinite wisdom, even managed to work the Grace that would be fully manifested in and through Jesus Christ into the giving of His sacrificial law. I realized this the other morning while reading the first chapter of Leviticus. I’ve read Leviticus before, and usually thought, “Huh, that was.....um...interesting.” But, since discovering that the Old Testament is about Jesus concealed and the New Testament about Jesus revealed, the Bible has taken on new meaning.

I’ve always read in the past about the bull, the goat, the sheep, and the birds that were to be offered and thought about how much blood must have been around the temple. I’d wondered about the sheer number of animals that were sacrificed and the work that the people had to put into making those sacrifices on a daily basis. But I never thought about God’s provision in dictating what should be sacrificed.

There is one word that jumped out to me over and over again as I read through this first chapter in Leviticus. That word is “if”. “If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd....” Leviticus 1:3 “If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock.....” Leviticus 1:10 “If the offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds....” Leviticus 1:14 Why all the “if’s”? Then it hit me, God was making a provision, through Grace, for each individual regardless of economic status or community stature. While His Law is demanding, He showed Grace in making it demanding on a individual level so that every person would have an opportunity for atonement.

How much more glorious an opportunity do we have now to experience His grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ! God, in His perfect justice system, made it possible to reconcile the sinner to Him based on the blood of a bull, a goat, or a bird. How much more blessed we are today, that He decided to make Himself the sacrifice! He’s taken away all of the “if’s” that existed before and the work that went along with them and replaced them with Jesus’ free gift.