In none of the offerings is Christ's personal holiness more strikingly presented than in the sin-offering. "Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin-offering: In the place where the burnt-offering is killed shall the sin-offering be killed before the Lord: _it is most holy_.... Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof _shall be holy_.... All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: _it is most holy_." (Chap. vi. 25-29.) So also in speaking of the meat-offering, "It is most holy, _as is the sin-offering_, and as the trespass-offering." This is most marked and striking. The Holy Ghost did not need to guard with such jealousy the personal holiness of Christ in the burnt-offering; but lest the soul should, by any means, lose sight of that holiness while contemplating the place which the blessed One took in the sin-offering, we are again and again reminded of it by the words, "It is most holy." Truly edifying and refreshing it is to behold the divine and essential holiness of the Person of Christ shining forth in the midst of Calvary's profound and awful gloom. The same point is observable "in the law of the trespass-offering." (See chap. vii. 1, 6.) Never was the Lord Jesus more fully seen to be "the Holy One of God" than when He was "made sin" upon the cursed tree. The vileness and blackness of that with which He stood identified on the cross, only served to show out more clearly that He was "most holy." Though a sin-bearer, He was sinless; though enduring the wrath of _God_, He was the _Father's_ delight; though deprived of the light of _God's_ countenance, He dwelt in the _Father's_ bosom. Precious mystery! Who can sound its mighty depths? How wonderful to find it so accurately shadowed forth in "the law of the sin-offering"!
Again, my reader should seek to apprehend the meaning of the expression, "All the _males_ among the priests shall eat thereof." The ceremonial act of eating the sin-offering or the trespass-offering was expressive of full identification; but to eat the sin-offering--to make another's sin one's own, demanded a higher degree of priestly energy, such as was expressed in "the _males_ among the priests." "And the Lord spake unto Aaron, 'Behold, I also have given thee the charge of Mine heave-offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and _to thy sons_, by an ordinance forever. This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat-offering of theirs, and every sin-offering of theirs, and every trespass-offering of theirs, which they shall render unto Me, shall be most holy for thee and for _thy sons_. In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; _every male_ shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee. And this is thine; the heave-offering of their gift, with all the wave-offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to _thy daughters_ with thee, by a statute forever: _every one that is clean_ in thy house shall eat of it." (Numb. xviii. 8-11.)
It demanded a larger measure of priestly energy to eat of the sin or trespass-offering than merely to partake of the heave and wave-offerings of gift. The "daughters" of Aaron could eat of the latter: none but the "sons" could eat of the former. In general, "the male" expresses a thing according to the divine idea; "the female," according to human development. The former gives you the thing in full energy; the latter, in its imperfections. How few of us have sufficient priestly energy to enable us to make another's sin or trespass our own! The blessed Lord Jesus did this perfectly. He made His people's sins His own, and bore the judgment thereof, on the cross. He fully identified Himself with us, so that we may know, in full and blessed certainty, that the whole question of sin and trespass has been divinely settled. If Christ's identification was perfect, then the settlement was perfect likewise; and that it was perfect, the scene enacted at Calvary declares. All is accomplished. The sin, the trespasses, the claims of God, the claims of man--all have been eternally settled; and now, perfect peace is the portion of all who, by grace, accept as true the record of God. It is as simple as God could make it, and the soul that believes it is made happy. The peace and happiness of the believer depend wholly upon the perfection of Christ's sacrifice. It is not a question of his mode of receiving it, his thoughts about it, or his feelings respecting it; it is simply a question of his crediting, by faith, the testimony of God as to the value of the sacrifice. The Lord be praised for His own simple and perfect way of peace! May many troubled souls be led by the Holy Spirit into an understanding thereof?