Exodus 29:10-14: a reflection

In the instructions for consecrating the priests, a sin offering is made: a bull is offered, its blood put on the altar, but its body is burned outside the camp. Its flesh, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside of the camp, the instruction says; it is a sin offering. The sin offering was not consumed on the altar like other offerings; its body was taken outside the camp and burned there. This detail, small as it seems, points forward to Christ. For the letter to the Hebrews notes that Jesus too suffered outside the gate, outside the camp, bearing our sin, as the sin offering was burned outside the camp. The sin offering burned outside the camp points to Christ, who suffered outside the gate. Christ bore our sin outside the camp, as the sin offering foreshadowed. The sin offering outside the camp foreshadows Christ's suffering for us. Christ suffered outside the gate, bearing our sin.

Notice the detail that the sin offering was burned outside the camp, and where it points. Unlike offerings consumed on the altar, the body of the sin offering was carried outside the camp and burned there, away from the place of worship and dwelling. The letter to the Hebrews draws out the meaning: that Jesus, our sin offering, also suffered outside the gate, outside the camp of the holy city, bearing our sin, that he might make us holy through his own blood. The sin offering burned outside the camp foreshadowed Christ, who was led outside the city walls to the place of the skull, and there bore our sin and suffered for us. This deepens our understanding of what Christ did. He took our sin upon himself, and as the sin offering was cast outside the camp, so he suffered outside the gate, bearing away our sin that we might be made clean. What the sin offering pictured, Christ fulfilled: bearing our sin, suffering outside the camp, to make us holy. Christ fulfilled the sin offering, suffering outside the gate to bear our sin. Christ bore our sin away, as the sin offering was carried outside the camp. What the sin offering foreshadowed, Christ accomplished for us. Christ suffered outside the gate to make us holy.

That is worth resting in, for Christ fulfilled the sin offering, suffering outside the gate to bear our sin and make us holy, as the sin offering was burned outside the camp. We can read these ancient sacrificial instructions as remote and strange; but the sin offering burned outside the camp points forward to Christ, who suffered outside the gate of the city, bearing our sin, as Hebrews draws out. Christ bore our sin away. When you consider what Christ did for you, remember that he suffered outside the gate as the sin offering, to bear your sin and make you holy. Rest in the truth that Christ fulfilled the sin offering, suffering outside the gate to bear our sin and make us holy, as the body of the sin offering was carried outside the camp and burned there rather than consumed on the altar; for we can read these ancient sacrificial instructions as remote and strange, but the letter to the Hebrews draws out that Jesus, our sin offering, also suffered outside the gate of the holy city, bearing our sin that he might make us holy through his own blood, so that what the sin offering pictured, Christ fulfilled, being led outside the walls to the place of the skull and there bearing away our sin, and when we consider what Christ did for us we can rest in knowing that he suffered outside the gate as the sin offering, to bear our sin and make us clean.