He is the Redeemer / Leviticus 16; Hebrews 10:1-8
Expanding Our View of Christ
If you have your Bibles, open them to Genesis chapter 3. We are going to end up there in just a little bit. First, let me give you a little backstory as to what we are doing and why in this summer teaching series.
There are a couple of purposes for this series. One, as you have noticed, is that you have heard from several different communicators, and you are going to hear from more in the coming weeks. We have always, by definition, been an equipping church. That means we want to help people develop in their personal ministry. God has brought some incredible young communicators to this place—men who are developing their gifts—and we want to give them opportunities to shine and receive feedback to help them grow. What you may not see behind the scenes is that in our teaching team model, everyone comes together, myself included, to receive honest critique: “You could do better here,” “That point wasn’t clear,” or “Have you noticed you repeat this phrase?” It helps all of us improve. So we wanted to give our young communicators room to fly, but we also have what I would call wily veterans on staff—men who have communicated God’s Word for decades and possess deep wisdom to share.
Through this, we are learning the art of looking through style to content, looking beyond the communicator to the Word of God. What is most important is not the personality on stage, but the inspired Word of God being taught.
We also chose to focus on Christ in the Old Testament to dramatically expand our view of the person and work of Jesus Christ. For many of us, Jesus can inadvertently become very small. He becomes the functional Savior who mattered when you came to faith years ago, but over time He shrinks into a religious symbol—a cross on a rearview mirror or a wall—with little daily resonance. We forget that Jesus did not suddenly pop into existence in the Bethlehem manger. He is woven throughout the entire Old Testament. If we had the audacity, we could almost flip to that blank page between the Testaments that says “Old” and rip it out, acknowledging that all Scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
Throughout this series, we are looking at foundational themes: He is Supernatural, He is the Promise, He is Emmanuel, He is the Lamb, and He is the Lion. Today, our focus is: He is the Redeemer.
Last week, we looked at how He is the Promise. Jared walked us through Genesis 3, showing that while humanity faced a massive problem called sin, God immediately gave a promise.
Genesis 3:15 (NASB)
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’
That verse introduces the singular male pronoun—He—which theologians call the Protoevangelium, the “first gospel.” From the very beginning, all humanity knew was that one day, a Deliverer would come. If you take all sixty-six books of the Bible and shake them down to their core essence, the central message from Genesis to Revelation is Jesus Christ.
The First Covering: Genesis 3
Let’s dive into Genesis 3 and build upon the foundation laid last week. Chapter 3 records the tragedy of temptation, the twisting of God’s Word, and humanity’s rebellion against the Creator.
Genesis 3:6 (NASB)
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make [one] wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Eve rationalizes, rejects God’s command, and eats the forbidden fruit. Then she gives some to her passive husband, Adam, who was right there with her. Adam wasn’t off fasting and praying; he was standing right beside her, and together humanity fell into sin. The consequences were immediate.
Genesis 3:7 (NASB)
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
The moment sin entered their hearts, their eyes were opened, they realized their nakedness, and they sewed fig leaves together to make loincloths. Their immediate reflex was to hide, cover up, and minimize their condition. We see that exact same human instinct every single day. If you have ever raised children, you know this pattern intimately. Kids have a remarkable way of constructing metaphorical “loincloths” to hide their guilt: “She made me do it!” or “It wasn’t my fault!” We instinctively cover our shame with self-made solutions.
Notice how God responds to their attempt at self-atonement.
Genesis 3:21 (NASB)
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Instead of accepting their homemade covering of fig leaves, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. This is the very first picture of animal sacrifice in Scripture. It introduces a vital spiritual principle: human attempts to cover our own sin are utterly insufficient. Only God can provide an acceptable covering, and that covering requires the shedding of blood and the loss of life.
This reveals something critical about God’s justice. Back in Genesis chapter 2, God gave Adam a direct warning.
Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB)
The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’
In the original Hebrew, verse 17 literally says, “dying you shall die”—a poetic redundancy emphasizing absolute certainty. Yet when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they did not physically drop dead on the spot. They experienced spiritual separation, certainly, but how could God declare that death would occur and yet allow them to walk away physically alive without contradicting His own holy standard?
Genesis 3:21 gives us the answer: something else died in their place. God established the pattern of substitutionary sacrifice. Sin inevitably brings death, but God in His mercy provided an innocent substitute to die so that the guilty could live. That is the heartbeat of redemption.
The Cost of Sin and the Pursuit of Grace
Because a holy God and fallen humanity cannot fellowship in unrestrained intimacy, radical measures were required. In the Garden before the Fall, there was perfect oneness. Scripture uses anthropomorphic language—describing God as walking in the garden in the cool of the day—to paint the picture of near, unhindered communion.
When sin shattered that intimacy, God took an action that might initially seem harsh, but was actually profound grace.
Genesis 3:22-24 (NASB)
Then the LORD God said, ’Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever ’– therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
God drove man out of the garden and placed cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life. Why? Because if fallen man had eaten from the Tree of Life in that broken condition, humanity would have been frozen in an eternal state of sin and misery. Physical death, as difficult as it is, serves as an act of mercy for the believer because it allows us to lay aside our corruptible bodies and put on incorruptible perfection.
From the moment humanity was cast out of Eden, God began His relentless pursuit to redeem us. To redeem means literally to buy back. Humanity originally belonged to God in perfect fellowship, was lost through sin, and now God purposed to purchase us back.
Hebrews 9:22 (NASB)
And according to the Law, [one may] almost [say], all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
God set up a precise system demonstrating how an unholy people could approach a holy God. It was localized in a structure called the Tabernacle. You could not simply approach God however you felt like it. You had to come through a specific mediator—a priest—with a specific sacrifice, in a specific place, at specific times.
Tangible Worship and the Tabernacle
When Israel came out of Egypt, they struggled immensely. Egypt was filled with physical temples, visible idols, and tangible representations of various gods. Out in the vast, barren wilderness, the Israelites panicked because they could not see their God. God does not dwell in man-made temples; He simply is.
When Moses delayed on Mount Sinai receiving the Law, the people demanded a visible god they could see and touch. My youngest daughter has a little pink blanket that goes everywhere with her. If that blanket goes missing at bedtime, panic ensues. In many ways, the Israelites wanted a spiritual “pink blankie.” They pooled their gold and manufactured a golden calf.
In response to their weakness, God condescended to give them a tangible, visual representation of His presence among them by commanding the construction of the Tabernacle.
Exodus 26:1 (NASB)
’Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet [material]; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.
The Tabernacle was a portable tent with distinct elements: the bronze altar for sacrifices, the bronze basin for washing, the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, the altar of incense, and behind the veil, the Ark of the Covenant containing the tablets of the Law, Aaron’s rod, and a jar of manna.
Among these furnishings, the bronze altar was massive—roughly seven and a half feet square. Why was it so enormous? Because the entire system revolved around sacrifice. The primary way sinful people engaged with God was through the shedding of blood on that altar.
The sensory reality of ancient Israelite worship was visceral. Worship was marked by the sights of slaughter, the sound of dying animals, and the heavy smell of burning meat and singed hair. Skim through the early chapters of Leviticus:
Leviticus 1:1-3 (NASB)
Then the LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, ’Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ’When any man of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock. ’If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD.
Chapter 1 details burnt offerings. Chapter 2 details grain offerings. Chapter 3 covers peace offerings. Chapter 4 outlines sin offerings. Chapter 5 describes guilt offerings. Every single offering screamed the same truth: You cannot approach God on your own merits. You need a sacrifice and you need a mediator.
The Great High Priest and the Holy of Holies
The ordinary worshiper brought their animal to the priest, and the priest mediated on their behalf. The priests conducted daily ministry in the Holy Place, trimming the lampstand and offering incense. But past the Holy Place stood a thick veil separating them from the Holy of Holies—the earthly footstool of God’s presence.
No one dared casually enter the Holy of Holies. In Leviticus 10, Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, treated God’s presence carelessly by offering unauthorized fire, and fire came out from the Lord and consumed them instantly. Later in Israel’s history, King Uzziah presumptuously entered the sanctuary to burn incense, and God immediately struck him with leprosy. God is consuming fire, unapproachable in His holiness.
Only one man, the High Priest, was allowed behind the veil, and only on one specific day of the year: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Leviticus 16:6 (NASB)
’Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.
Before Aaron could do anything for the people, he had to offer a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household because he was just as fallen as the rest of the nation. Then two goats were brought before the Lord. Lots were cast: one goat was slaughtered as a blood sacrifice, and the High Priest placed his hands on the head of the living goat, confessed the sins of Israel over it, and sent this “scapegoat” away into the wilderness, visually carrying their sins away.
Centuries later, King David desired to transition this tent into a permanent temple in Jerusalem. The Temple formalized the sacrificial routine. Every single morning at 9:00 AM and every afternoon at 3:00 PM, sacrifices were offered. The smoke from the altar was continuous, serving as a perpetual reminder that sin was never fully paid for.
When the Veil Tore
Now fast forward to the first century. Israel was waiting for the Messiah—the Daniel 7 Son of Man, the Genesis 3:15 Promise. Jesus of Nazareth arrived, performing breathtaking miracles and speaking with unprecedented authority. Hope surged that He would overthrow Rome and establish His kingdom. But instead, He was betrayed, arrested, scourged, and nailed to a Roman cross. When He breathed His last, all worldly hope seemed completely crushed.
Yet at the precise moment of His death, something earth-shattering occurred.
Matthew 27:45 (NASB)
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
Darkness covered the land from the sixth hour (noon) until the ninth hour (3:00 PM). At 3:00 PM—the exact time of the evening sacrifice in the Temple—Jesus yielded up His spirit. At that very instant, the massive veil in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
Imagine being the priest on duty in the Holy Place at 3:00 PM. It has been pitch black outside for three hours. You are adjusting the lampstand and burning incense, trembling. Suddenly, you hear the violent ripping of fabric thirty feet above you. The veil that protected fallen men from the direct, consuming holiness of God tears wide open. The Ark of the Covenant stands fully exposed.
That priest would have dropped to the floor in sheer terror, expecting instant death. But no fire fell. Why? Because the true and final sacrifice had just been offered outside the city gates. The barrier between God and man was forever removed.
The Final Sacrifice: Sat Down at the Right Hand
The author of Hebrews explains the glorious reality of what Christ accomplished.
Hebrews 9:11-12 (NASB)
But when Christ appeared [as] a high priest of the good things to come, [He entered] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:14-15 (NASB)
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were [committed] under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Jesus did not enter a physical tent with the blood of bulls and goats; He entered the true heavenly sanctuary by His own blood, securing our eternal redemption.
Hebrews 10:1-4 (NASB)
For the Law, since it has [only] a shadow of the good things to come [and] not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those [sacrifices] there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The Old Testament sacrificial system was intentionally repetitive. If those animal sacrifices had truly cleansed the conscience and eradicated sin, they would have ceased. Instead, they served as an annual, daily reminder of ongoing guilt.
Hebrews 10:11-14 (NASB)
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
In the Tabernacle and the Temple, there was no chair. A priest never sat down because his work was never finished. Day after day, year after year, he stood ministering at the altar.
Contrast that with Jesus: when He offered one single sacrifice for sins for all time, He sat down at the right hand of God. On the cross, He cried out, “Tetelestai”—“It is finished!” The price of redemption was paid in full. There is no longer any need for an ongoing sacrifice for sin.
Hebrews 10:17-18 (NASB)
‘AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.’ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer [any] offering for sin.
I Know That My Redeemer Lives
Thousands of years before the cross, in the earliest pages of human history, a suffering man named Job understood this truth by faith.
Job 19:25 (NASB)
’As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Job didn’t know the earthly name “Jesus” any more than Adam and Eve knew the specific name of the Seed in Genesis 3:15. But Job possessed absolute, unshakeable confidence: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.”
We serve a living Redeemer. Jesus died for our transgressions, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and rose victorious over death on the third day. He ascended to heaven, and just as surely as He left, He is coming back.
The critical question facing every one of us today is simple: Do you know Him?
It is not enough to know theological facts about Him or to admire Him from afar. Do you know Him as your personal Redeemer? Have you abandoned your own fig leaves—your self-righteousness, your moral efforts, your religious routines—and allowed Christ to clothe you in His righteousness?
If you have trusted in Him, you can boldly proclaim with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” If you haven’t, recognize that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Run to the cross, receive His forgiveness, and rest under the shelter of His wings.
Let’s pray.
Father, open our eyes to see Jesus in all of His fullness. Deliver us from casual religion, empty rituals, and the futile effort of trying to cover our own shame. We come before You acknowledging that we have no merit of our own. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our mediator, our sacrifice, and our Redeemer. May our lives be consumed with awe for what He accomplished on the cross. Clothe us in His righteousness, and draw those who do not yet know You into the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our living Redeemer. In His mighty name we pray. Amen.