The Grammar of Atonement: Priests, Portions, and Christ Text: Leviticus 7:1-10
Introduction: God's Holy Housekeeping
We modern Christians tend to treat the book of Leviticus like the dusty attic of the Bible. We know it's part of the house, but we don't go up there much. It seems full of strange furniture, archaic rules, and smells faintly of blood and smoke. We are New Covenant believers, after all. We have Christ. Why should we trouble ourselves with the intricate details of the guilt offering, or the precise division of priestly portions? We do so because this is God's Word, and God does not waste ink. We do so because if we do not understand the shadow, we will never fully appreciate the substance. Leviticus is not a collection of arbitrary religious hoops for ancient Israel to jump through. It is the grammar of holiness. It is the blueprint of atonement. It teaches us the shape of our sin and the far more glorious shape of our salvation.
Our secular age despises this kind of talk. It despises distinctions, definitions, and, above all, the idea that sin is an objective offense against a holy God that requires a bloody payment. The modern mind wants a therapeutic god, a non-judgmental god, a god who is more of a cosmic guidance counselor than a consuming fire. But the God of Leviticus is the one true God. He is meticulously holy, and His holiness is the central fact of the universe. Therefore, how a sinful people can approach and fellowship with this holy God is the most important question anyone can ask. Leviticus answers that question in painstaking detail. It shows us that God Himself has made a way, but it is His way, on His terms, according to His holy housekeeping rules.
These rules about blood, fat, and priestly portions are not just for the Levites. They are for us. They teach us that sin is costly, that atonement is specific, that God's servants must be provided for, and that everything, absolutely everything, points forward to the final priest and the final sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. To neglect Leviticus is to walk into the upper room of the New Covenant without ever having understood the Passover that got you there. So let us pay close attention. God is teaching us how He deals with our sin, and how He provides for His people.
The Text
‘Now this is the law of the guilt offering; it is most holy. In the place where they slaughter the burnt offering they are to slaughter the guilt offering, and he shall splash its blood around on the altar. Then he shall bring near from it all its fat: the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe on the liver he shall remove with the kidneys. And the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire to Yahweh; it is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy. The guilt offering is like the sin offering, there is one law for them; the priest who makes atonement with it shall have it. Also the priest who brings near any man’s burnt offering, that priest shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has brought near. Likewise, every grain offering that is baked in the oven and everything prepared in a pan or on a griddle shall belong to the priest who brings it near. And every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall belong to all the sons of Aaron, to all alike.
(Leviticus 7:1-10 LSB)
The Holy Business of Guilt (vv. 1-5)
The text begins by establishing the gravity of this particular sacrifice.
"‘Now this is the law of the guilt offering; it is most holy. In the place where they slaughter the burnt offering they are to slaughter the guilt offering, and he shall splash its blood around on the altar." (Leviticus 7:1-2 LSB)
Notice the first thing said: "it is most holy." This is not an ordinary transaction. The guilt offering, or trespass offering, dealt with sins that violated God's holy things or defrauded a neighbor, sins that incurred a debt. This was about restitution. But before you could make things right with your neighbor, you had to make things right with God, because every sin against a neighbor is first a sin against God. David understood this when he sinned with Bathsheba. He had sinned against her, against Uriah, against the nation, but his primary confession was, "Against You, You only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4). This offering acknowledges that sin creates a debt to God Himself.
The geography of the sacrifice is important. It is slaughtered in the same place as the burnt offering, the place of consecration. This tells us that atonement and consecration are tied together. You cannot dedicate yourself to God while ignoring your debts. The blood, representing the life of the animal, is splashed on the altar. Life for life. This is the stark, non-negotiable economy of God's justice. A debt has been incurred, and a life must be given to pay it. This is not symbolic in some vague, sentimental way. It is a real transaction. The blood on the altar is the receipt, showing the debt has been paid.
"Then he shall bring near from it all its fat... And the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire to Yahweh; it is a guilt offering." (Leviticus 7:3-5 LSB)
Next, the fat is offered. The fat was considered the richest, best part of the animal. In the ancient world, fat meant abundance, prosperity, and energy. And God lays claim to it. "All the fat is the Lord's" (Leviticus 3:16). This is a fundamental principle of worship. God does not get our leftovers. He does not get the scraps we can spare after we have served ourselves. He gets the best. He gets the fat. To give God the fat was to acknowledge that all our strength, all our abundance, all our very best comes from Him and belongs to Him. When we sin, we are robbing God of the glory He is due. In the guilt offering, we give back the best part, acknowledging His ownership over all things. The fat going up in smoke is a "pleasing aroma" to the Lord, not because God has a physical nose, but because He is pleased by the repentance and restored fellowship that the act represents.
The Priest's Portion (vv. 6-8)
After God receives His portion, the fat and the blood, provision is made for His ministers.
"Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place; it is most holy. The guilt offering is like the sin offering, there is one law for them; the priest who makes atonement with it shall have it." (Leviticus 7:6-7 LSB)
Here we see the economy of the kingdom in action. The priest who facilitates the atonement gets to eat from the sacrifice. This is not a form of spiritual taxation; it is a profound theological statement. The minister of the gospel is to live from the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14). The priest, by eating the meat of the guilt offering, is identifying with the sinner and his sacrifice. He is, in a representative way, taking the sin upon himself and seeing it resolved. He eats it in a "holy place" because this is holy food, part of a holy transaction. This meal is part of his work. His lunch break is liturgy.
This also teaches us a crucial lesson about the fruit of repentance. When a sinner repents and makes restitution, it not only restores his fellowship with God but also provides sustenance for the church. A repentant sinner is a blessing to the body. His restoration provides spiritual food for the ministers of God. The priest who presides over this reconciliation gets the tangible benefit. This is God's design. The work of atonement supports the work of the ministry.
"Also the priest who brings near any man’s burnt offering, that priest shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has brought near." (Leviticus 7:8 LSB)
This is another detail in God's provision. In the burnt offering, where the whole animal was consumed, the priest received the hide. The hide was a valuable commodity, used for clothing, containers, and shelter. God ensures that His servants are provided for in practical, tangible ways. He is not a spiritual deity who is unconcerned with earthly matters. He cares about the priest's budget. He cares if the priest has shoes. And He builds this provision right into the central activity of His people's lives: their worship. Our giving to the church, our support of the ministry, is not an add-on. It is part of the sacrifice.
Fair Distribution (vv. 9-10)
Finally, the passage addresses the grain offerings and ensures equity among the priests.
"Likewise, every grain offering that is baked in the oven and everything prepared in a pan or on a griddle shall belong to the priest who brings it near. And every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall belong to all the sons of Aaron, to all alike." (Leviticus 7:9-10 LSB)
Here we see a distinction. When a grain offering required special preparation by the worshipper, baking it, or cooking it in a pan, it went to the specific priest who officiated. This rewards the labor of the individual minister. But when the offering was simply raw ingredients, flour mixed with oil or dry, it was shared among all the priests equally. This prevents jealousy and ensures that the entire priesthood is supported. It strikes a balance between rewarding individual labor and providing for the corporate body.
This is a picture of a healthy church economy. Some support is tied to specific labors, but the general support of the people sustains the entire ministry. God is a God of order, and this extends to the church budget. He cares about fairness, equity, and the well-being of all His servants. There is no room for a superstar system where one priest gets rich while others starve. The ministry is a corporate task, and the body is to support the whole ministry.
Christ, Our Guilt Offering and Priest
Now, how do we, who live on this side of the cross, read a passage like this? We read it with gospel eyes. We see that every detail is a signpost pointing to Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of this entire system. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that the blood of bulls and goats could never truly take away sin (Hebrews 10:4). They were shadows, placeholders, promissory notes until the real payment could be made.
Jesus is our guilt offering. We had a debt we could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe. Our sin was a trespass against the infinite holiness of God. No animal, no amount of silver or gold, could make restitution for such a crime. Only the blood of the Son of God was precious enough to satisfy that debt. He is the "most holy" offering. On the cross, His blood was splashed not on a bronze altar, but on the very altar of God's perfect justice.
Jesus is also the fat of the offering. He is the best, the richest, the perfect Son, the Father's supreme delight. He gave His all, His very best, holding nothing back. He was offered up as a pleasing aroma to God, and in Him, God's justice is satisfied and His wrath is turned away. When we come to God, we do not bring our own fat, our own best efforts. We bring Christ. We are accepted because of His perfect sacrifice.
And wonderfully, Jesus is also the Priest. He is the one who makes atonement. But unlike the Levitical priests, He does not simply receive a portion of the sacrifice. He is the sacrifice. And because He has made the perfect atonement, He now provides for His people. He is the one who feeds us. In the Old Covenant, the priest ate the holy food in a holy place. In the New Covenant, we, the royal priesthood, are invited to eat at the Lord's Table. We feast on Christ by faith. He is our portion. He is the bread and the wine. He is the one who sustains His church.
The old system provided for the priests with meat and grain and skins. The new system, the church, is provided for by Christ Himself, through the faithful giving of His people. When we support the work of the ministry, we are participating in this same divine economy. We are ensuring that the gospel, the news of the final guilt offering, continues to be proclaimed. We are making sure the priests of this new covenant, and by that I mean the ministers of the Word, have their own "hide for the offering" and their portion of the grain. This is not a burden; it is a privilege. It is an act of worship, built right into the structure of our atonement.
So do not let your eyes glaze over when you read Leviticus. See the gospel. See the terrible cost of your sin. See the meticulous holiness of your God. And see the glorious, all-sufficient provision He has made for you in His Son, Jesus Christ, our great High Priest and our perfect Guilt Offering.