The Burnt Offering (a Picture of Christ):

The Burnt Offering (a Picture of Christ): The Only Way to

Approach God, the Only Way to Become Acceptable and Reconciled

to God, Leviticus 1:1-17

(Leviticus 1:1-17) Introduction: there is only one way to approach God, only one way to become acceptable to God. Man on his own is not acceptable to God. The Bible declares an awful, tragic fact: a great gulf separates man from God, a gulf so vast that it cannot be crossed. Man, simply cannot reach God on his own. Why?

? Because man curses, rejects, and denies God; man ignores, neglects, and forgets God.

? Because man—even at the summit of his goodness and righteousness—is sinful, short of perfection, far, far short of living in a world of absolute perfection.

? Because man lives selfishly: seeking and hoarding more and more, shutting his ears to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the suffering, and the lost.

? Because man lives in self-righteousness and pride, feeling that he is good enough and religious enough to approach God, that he can approach God in his own righteousness and strength.

God is perfect, living in absolute perfection; and heaven is perfect, a place of absolute perfection. No imperfection—no imperfect being, not even man—can ever live in God's holy presence. There is a terrible gulf separating man from God, the tragic gulf of sin and imperfection.

How, then, can man approach God, become acceptable to God? How can man be reconciled, brought to God? This is the glorious message of this passage: there is a way to approach God. The way is through the Burnt Offering. Keep in mind that the Burnt Offering pictures the atonement, the ransom price paid so that man might escape the death penalty demanded by God's holiness. To say it another way, the Burnt Offering pictured the atonement, the ransom price, paid to reconcile and make the person acceptable to God (Leviticus 1:3-4). In today's terms, this is a picture of salvation, of Jesus Christ dying for us, of His paying the ransom price so that we might escape the penalty of death.

1. (Leviticus 1:1) Way, The— Acceptance— Reconciliation: God, not man, determined the way to approach and to become acceptable to Him.

Note that it was God who “called” (qara). The word means to speak in a loud, clear, distinct voice. It indicates that something of importance and significance is about to be declared.

The point is this: God is the Person speaking, not man. God is the One who determines...

?  how He is to be approached

?  who is acceptable to Him

Thought 1. This strikes a forceful blow against self-righteousness. Only God—the only living and true God, the great Creator and Sovereign Majesty of the universe—determines how He is to be approached and who is acceptable to Him. No person can ever reach God unless he approaches God exactly as God declares.

? We have no right to stand before God and declare, “God, this is the way You and I are to be reconciled. This is the way I am going to approach You. This is the way You must accept me.”

? We, mere human beings, have no right to stand up before the Creator of the universe and declare anything, much less tell Him how He must accept us.

John 8:24 (NASB)

24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

John 14:6 (NASB)

6 “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Acts 4:12 (NASB)

12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

1 Corinthians 3:11 (NASB)

11 “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Proverbs 14:12 (NASB)

12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Proverbs 16:25 (NASB)

25 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Proverbs 21:2 (NASB)

2 “Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts.”

Proverbs 30:12 (NASB)

12 “There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness.”