Leviticus 4:1-12
The sin offering concludes the list of the holy offerings. First place was given to the burnt offering – God’s side in the work of Christ; the last offering was to meet the sinner’s needs. But it goes without saying that we must take the opposite route. Before knowing the peace and joy of the peace offering, before understanding what Jesus was for God in His life and His death, we begin by having dealings with the One who has suffered and died on the cross to atone for our sins. The blood was carried into the tabernacle as if to give to God a proof of the finished work and to the sinner the pledge of his acceptance. The fat burned on the altar, a sign of the satisfaction found by God in the obedience of the victim. In short, while the flesh of the burnt offering was to burn on the altar, while that of the peace offering was eaten by the one who offered it, the bodies of the animals offered for sin were burned outside the camp. Because of our sins which He bore, Jesus suffered "without the gate" (Hebrews 13:12), far from the presence of a holy God. And the verb to "burn", different from "to burn as incense", used for the fats and the savours, expresses the intensity of the judgment which consumed our perfect Sacrifice (Hebrews 13:11).