Chris Katulka: Thank you for joining us for The Friends of Israel Today radio program. I'm Chris Katulka, your host and teacher. Let me ask you a question. Have you been to foiradio.org yet? Because if you haven't, you need to get there. That's where you can connect with us here at the Friends of Israel is at foiradio.org. That's where we have over a decade of content, radio content and biblical teaching all on that site for you to understand biblically why God loves Israel and the Jewish people. Again, that's foiradio.org. Now, we are in the middle of a series that we're doing on ancient Israel's sacrificial system. That's right. We're going to be looking at two sacrifices today, actually, that talk about the sin sacrifice and also the guilt or trespass sacrifice. And ultimately, how did Jesus fulfill these two sacrifices? This fits within a longer teaching series that we've had where we've been going through the tabernacle and now the sacrificial system that helps us understand how we approach a holy God.

But before we get to that, let's look at what's happening in the news. Israel is expected to hold elections in October placing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership at stake. While Netanyahu's Likud Party continues to maintain a strong footing in the polls, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader, Yair Lapid, have formed an anti-Netanyahu alliance called the “Together Party,” aiming to challenge his hold on power. Likud may still be well positioned to win the most seats, but forming a governing coalition could prove far more difficult for Israel's longest serving prime minister. Well, here's my take. The anti-Netanyahu coalition appears to have some real momentum. Bennett and Lapid come from different political perspectives, yet they have joined forces around the shared goal of removing Netanyahu from office. If they succeed, it would mark a significant political transition for Israel, especially during wartime. Remember, it was Netanyahu that led the country since October 7th, when the attacks originally started making any potential change in leadership, especially consequential.

As we continue this series on the sacrifices of Israel, we are coming to two offerings that help us see the seriousness of sin and the grace of God with even greater clarity, the sin offering and the trespass offering. Now, in our last episode, we looked at the whole burnt offering and we saw that approaching God requires a sacrifice. It requires atonement and total consecration as the worshiper offered the entire sacrifice to the Creator of heaven and earth. But see, now we're coming to offerings that focus even more directly on sin itself. If the burnt offering emphasized complete surrender through an atoning sacrifice, the sin offering and trespass offering bring us face-to-face with another reality. Sin defiles, sin damages, sin creates guilt, and sin must be dealt with according to God's holiness. See, the sin and trespass offerings are described in Leviticus chapter four through six, and though they are related, they are not identical.

See, the sin offering addresses the reality of sin and its defiling effects, especially when God's commandments have been violated unintentionally. We'll talk about that later. The trespass offering, however, sometimes called the guilt offering, highlights not only the offense itself, but also the liability and debt created by that offense. See, in other words, the sin offering stresses purification and atonement where sin is polluted. The trespass offering stresses satisfaction and restitution where sin has caused a loss or offense or damage. See, together they teach us that sin is not small, it's not abstract, and not merely personal. Sin affects our standing before God. It pollutes what is holy. It creates real guilt that must be answered. So let's begin with the sin offering. Leviticus chapter four opens with the Lord speaking to Moses about what is to be done if anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments.

So right away, that language may catch our attention. Why is the Lord focusing on unintentional sins? Because the point is not that deliberate, intentional sins don't matter. They matter profoundly. The point is that even sins committed in ignorance, weakness or failure still create guilt before a holy God. The Lord's holiness is so absolute that even when a person does not rebel with a clenched fist, the violation still defiles and requires atonement. And that alone teaches us something important. Sin is measured not by our intentions, it's measured by God's holiness. The instructions then move through several categories. It's fascinating. If the high priest sins, then one kind of sacrifice is required. If the whole congregation of Israel sins, another type of sacrifice for sin is offered and prescribed. If a leader of Israel, a king, sins, there is a sacrifice for him. If one of the common people of Israel sins, there's a sacrifice.

See, the details vary depending on the person's role, but the message is unmistakable. No one is beyond accountability. A priest, a leader, a king, the congregation of Israel, an ordinary Israelite—all alike can incur guilt and all alike need a God-appointed means of atonement. The holiness of God levels the ground. In the sin offering, the animal is brought. The worshiper lays his hand on its head and is killed before the Lord. Again, substitution is central, as you can see here. The offering stands in the place of the sinner, but in the sin offering, special attention is given to the blood. See, in some cases, like on the Day of Atonement, the priest brings the blood into the holy place, sprinkles it before the veil and puts some of it on the horns of the altar of incense. The rest is then poured out at the base of the bronze altar.

In other cases, the blood is placed on the horns of the bronze altar itself. See, why is all this emphasis on blood and the location of where the blood is placed important? Because the sin offering is dealing with defilement. See, sin doesn't just merely make a person guilty in an abstract way. It actually pollutes the holy place, the tabernacle, the temple, where God dwelled among his people. The blood then functions as the means by which cleansing and atonement are made. If I could put it very simply, blood is the Clorox on the Holy Place. And that is why the sin offering should not be understood only as a punishment transferred to an animal. That's one way. It's a substitute. But it's also about purification. Sin contaminates, sin corrupts, sin makes what is unclean. See, the sin offering answers that pollution. It restores the possibility of fellowship with God by addressing the defilement sin brings into the community of Israel, even into the sanctuary itself.

And there's something profoundly humbling here when we think about it. We often think of sin mainly in terms of rule breaking or missing the mark, and that's true as far as it goes, but Leviticus teaches us to think even more deeply. Sin is not only lawlessness, it's defilement. If you want to see the total depravity of man, just read through the book of Leviticus. Sin introduces uncleanliness into a world that belongs to a holy God. It disrupts the relationship between Israel and God. And that's why a sacrifice is needed. A sinner can't just simply say, "I'm sorry," and move on as though nothing has happened. See, God in his grace provides a way for purification and atonement because his holiness is non-negotiable. Although repentance plays, remember this, a very integral part of the sin sacrifice. Repentance is incredibly important. The sin offering also reveals the mercy of God.

He doesn't just expose sin merely to crush his people. He exposes it so that it might be dealt with. He provides the sacrifice. He gives the instructions he makes a way for cleansing. See, the same God whose holiness reveals the seriousness of sin is the same God who graciously provides blood for purification. That is the theme that we must never miss in Leviticus. The sacrificial system is not a burden invented by a man to appease an angry God. It's a gracious provision given by God so that sinful people may continue to live in fellowship with their holy King, Yahweh, the Creator of heaven and earth. Now see, alongside the sin offering stands the trespass offering or guilt offering, which can be found in Leviticus chapter five and six, and it brings another dimension of sin into you. If the sin offering highlights the pollution caused by sin, the trespass offering emphasizes the debt and liability created by wrongdoing.

The Hebrew idea here carries the sense of offense that incurs guilt, especially where something sacred against God has been violated or where damage has been done against another party or person. See, in Leviticus, the trespass offering is required in cases where a person sins with regard to holy things of the Lord or where he deceives, cheats, steals, lies, or even otherwise wrongs his neighbor. See, in these cases, the offender doesn't merely bring an animal. He also has to make restitution. He has to repay what was taken or damaged and then add a fifth to it. See, that is important. The trespass offering shows us that forgiveness in Israel's worship life didn't treat harm as unreal. Where sin created loss, restitution was required. Grace didn't erase responsibility. Atonement and repair, actually, if you think about this, they belong together. That means the trespass offering gives us a more concrete picture of guilt.

Sin is not just pollution in the sanctuary. It's also a trespass that creates a debt. Something has been violated. Something has been taken. Something has been damaged. The offender now stands liable. And the Lord's answer is not only sacrifice, but also restitution. What was broken must be addressed. What was defrauded must be repaid. The relationship with God and the relationship with neighbor are both taken seriously. And this is a powerful word for us because it shows that biblical forgiveness is not sentimental. God is compassionate, yes, but his grace is never careless about justice. Do you hear that? God's grace is never careless about justice. If a man has sinned against the holy things of the Lord, that offense matters. If he has lied or cheated to his neighbor, that offense matters too. The trespass offering teaches us that sin carries consequences and true repentance is willing to face those consequences honestly.

It seeks not only pardon from God, but repair where possible. And yet even here, sacrifice remains central. The trespass offering still requires a ram without blemish. Why? Because even when restitution is made, restitution alone cannot ease guilt before God. Repayment can address the human dimensions of wrong, but guilt still needs atonement. That is such an important balance because sometimes people think they can make up for a sin simply by doing better, repaying what they owe or trying to clean up the mess. But Leviticus says that even when restitution is necessary, atonement is still needed. The sinner needs both forgiveness and repair. He needs grace and justice to meet. So when we place the sin offering and trespass offering side by side, what do we see? We see that sin is both defiling and indebting. It pollutes what is holy. It creates guilt that must be answered.

It disrupts fellowship with God, and it often causes real injury in the world. The sin offering addresses purification. The trespass offering addresses liability and restitution. Together, they show us the depth of the human problem before God. We are not merely weak people in need of encouragement. Are you ready? We are guilty people in need of cleansing, forgiveness and repair. And just as with the burn offerings, these sacrifices were never meant to be final in themselves. They were true offerings ordained by God, meaningful in Israel's worship life, but they pointed beyond themselves. See, no animal could finally cleanse the conscience. No repeated ritual could fully resolve the guilt of sin forever. No ram on the altar could ultimately set the world right. These sacrifices were real, people, but they were provisional. They were signs pointing forward to a greater sacrifice and a perfect priest. And that brings us to Jesus.

And when we come back, we're going to see how Jesus fulfilled these vital sacrifices. So stick around.

Steve Conover: Chris, we talk a lot about sharing our faith here, but sometimes it can feel discouraging when people just aren't open to hearing about Jesus.

Chris Katulka: So true, Steve, that's exactly the reason why our friends, Tom and Lorna Simcox, wrote the powerful story called That You May Know. It tells the story of Saul Greenberg, who's a man who wanted nothing to do with Jesus or Christians, but see, God had other plans.

Steve Conover: So glad he did. Through faithful friendship, real life trials, and consistent love, God slowly softened Saul's heart to the truth of Jesus. It's a reminder that God is always at work, even when we don't see it. And I think that's what makes this story so impactful. It encourages us to keep going, to keep sharing the gospel and trusting the Lord with the results.

Chris Katulka: See, Steve, you never really know when God might awaken someone's heart.

Steve Conover: If you've ever felt hesitant or discouraged in sharing your faith, this book will strengthen and encourage you. You can find out more or order your copy of That You May Know today at foiradio.org. Again, that's foiradio.org.

Chris Katulka: Welcome back, everyone. We're in the middle of a series on the Old Testament sacrifices laid out in the first few chapters of Leviticus. In our previous segment, I laid out the sin and guilt sacrifices and why they were so important. See, how do we understand them in light of Jesus's once-for-all sacrifice? So if the sin offering teaches us that sin defiles and must be purified, and if the trespass offering teaches us that sin incurs guilt and must be answered, then Jesus fulfills both offerings in his death. He is the one who bears our sins, removes our guilt, and provides true cleansing before God. He's not only a sacrifice for sin in a general sense, He is the fulfillment of every sacrificial pattern that anticipated the day when guilt would be fully dealt with and cleansing finally secured. The New Testament speaks this way repeatedly.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He suffers outside the camp, which echoes the language and movement of the sin offering. The writer of Hebrews especially draws out this truth by showing that the Old Testament sacrifices could never perfect the worshiper in its deepest sense. But Christ, by one offering—Himself, has accomplished what the blood of bulls and goats could only foreshadow. He purifies the conscience. He opens access to God and truly deals with sin once and for all. And he also fulfills the trespass offering. The suffering servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 uses language that heads in the direction when it says that “the servant's soul is made an offering for guilt.” That's the trespass offering. It's the same Hebrew word. Jesus not only bears our defilement, he bears our liability. He answers for what we owe.

He takes upon himself the guilt of sinners and satisfies the demand of divine justice all at the same time. At the cross, he does what restitution alone could never do. He pays the debt we could not pay. He makes full satisfaction before the Father. That means the cross of Christ is both purifying and reconciling. It cleanses what sin has defiled and he answers for what sin has damaged. He restores what we could not restore. He bears what we could not bear. The old offerings required repeated sacrifice because the work was never fully done, but Jesus offers himself once for all. His sacrifice is sufficient. It's final. It's perfect. And there's application here for all of us. First, these offerings, the sin and trespass offering are to be taken seriously. It teaches us that sin is to be taken seriously. See, we live in an age that trivializes guilt.

It renames evil. It treats wrongdoing as mere brokenness or dysfunction. But Leviticus will not let us do that. Sin pollutes. Sin creates debt. Sin offends a Holy God. And unless we understand that, we will never understand the hope of the gospel. Second, these offerings teach us that forgiveness is very costly, actually. Cleansing does not happen by denial. Guilt does not get erased by pretending. It takes blood. It takes sacrifice. It takes substitution. And supremely, it takes the cross of Christ. So we should never speak lightly of grace. Grace is free to us, but it was infinitely costly to our Father. Third, the trespass offering especially reminds us that repentance should be in both word and deed. When we sin against others, we should not hide behind the apology. We should seek to make things right. We should confess honestly. We should repair what we can.

That's what the trespass and guilt offering were all about. The gospel does not make us careless about wrongdoing. It makes us eager to walk in truth and reconciliation. And finally, both offerings point us to the deeper comfort believers have in Christ. See, if you belong to Jesus, then your defilement has been cleansed. Your guilt has been answered. The stain of sin does not define your future, and the debt of sin does not stand against you forever. Christ has borne it. Christ has cleansed it. Christ has satisfied it. So as we close this second episode on sacrifice, the sin offering and the trespass offering leave us with both a warning and a hope. The warning is that sin is far worse than we naturally imagine. It defiles, it damages, it incurs guilt before a holy God. But the hope is even greater. God has provided a sacrifice.

And in Jesus, that sacrifice has become final and complete. See, He is our purification. He is our guilt offering. And He is the One who cleanses the unclean, pays the debt of the guilty and brings sinners home to God.

Hey, listen, if you would like to get your copy of Israel My Glory Magazine, it's a one-year free subscription. That's right, one-year free subscription.That's six issues that'll come right to your house. You can have it mailed, our print edition, or I would encourage you to get our digital edition of Israel My Glory, which would give you more than 40 years of Israel My Glory content right at your fingertips on your cell phone, on your tablet, on your computer. All of it by just going to israelmyglory.org/subscribe. Again, that's israelmyglory.org/subscribe, and we'd love to give you a one-year free subscription of Israel My Glory Magazine. Thank you so much for being with us and we'll see you soon.

Thank you for joining us for today's episode of The Friends of Israel Today. Hey, listen, don't forget to order your copy of Tom and Lorna Simcox’s book, That You May Know. You can do that by going to foiradio.org. Again, that's foiradio.org. Also, join us next week as we conclude our series on ancient Israel's required sacrifices. We've already looked at the whole burnt offering. We've looked at the sin and trespass offerings. Next week, we're going to look at the fellowship offerings. God wanted to use sacrifices to fellowship with his people, so join us next week. 

As mentioned, our web address is foiradio.org. Again, that's foiradio.org. Our mailing address is FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. Again, that's FOI Radio, PO Box 914, Bellmawr, New Jersey, 08099. You can call our listener line, that's 888-343-6940. Again, that's 888-343-6940. Today's program was engineered by Bob Beebe, edited by Jeremy Strong, who also composed and performs our theme music. Our executive producer is sitting right next to me, Lisa Small. Our associate producer is Sarah Fern. Steve Conover is our executive director, and I'm your host and teacher, Chris Katulka. The Friends of Israel Today radio program is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Passion for God's Word. Compassion for God's Chosen People.