The End of Death’s Reign
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses… (Romans 5:14)
The cold grip of death tugs relentlessly at the soul of every man, no matter how lofty his ideals, as if to claim its fair wages in advance of his dying breath. The evil ruler of the unseen realm knows the Bible all too well. Eager to exact the justice due him, he plays with the sin-sick souls of men as a cat plays with a mouse, holding them captive to the fear of death. For some, depression works best, for others, a manic denial of their sorry circumstances, or an unbridled obsession for sex, or money, or recognition — anything to capture the soul, crush the spirit, and silence the objective voice of man’s conscience. Thus Satan feeds his insatiable desire for the destruction of God’s image in man.
Yes, it is true: All men sin,1 and the wages of sin is death,2 therefore it is appointed to man to die once, and then comes the Judgment.3 And yes, it is also true that the Messiah was offered once to bear the sins of many,4 and set them free from their captivity to the evil ruler of this world.5 So who are the “many” whose sins He bore? “But,” you may object, “He bore the sins of the whole world!” And so it may seem from a casual reading of this popular verse:
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:22, NIV)
But obviously the whole world is not experiencing freedom from Satan’s reign — not even the many who claim Christ as their Savior. Statistics consistently show that Christians in America are as much in the grip of the world’s vices as the unbelieving society in which they are immersed.6 How then can they claim to be saved from sin’s dominion? For the Apostle Paul wrote of the profound effect in this life of having received the benefit of Messiah’s sacrificial death:
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)
So whoever is still a slave to sin has obviously not received God’s abundant provision of grace through Messiah’s sacrifice, or His gift of righteousness, regardless of what he claims to believe.7 Clearly something more than that kind of belief8 is required on the part of the sinner in order for his sins to be borne by the Savior, releasing him from his slavery to sin.
Perhaps the key to understanding what is required can be found in the puzzling statement that Paul began his thought with a few verses back: “Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses…”9 Why didn’t he say, “Yet death reigned from Adam to Christ”? What did Moses do to bring an end to death’s reign? Well, it was through Moses that God gave the law, the priesthood, and the sacrificial system, and through these He provided a way for a man’s sins to be atoned for, loosening death’s grip on his soul. If we can understand how this sacrificial system worked, then maybe we can understand why Christianity today doesn’t work — and where to find the faith that works.
It has been said of old Israel’s animal sacrifices that enough blood was shed to float a battleship.10 If even a sparrow doesn’t fall to the ground without our Father taking notice,11 how much more did He care about the lifeblood of all those animals that served His people? Was it all poured out in vain? The writer of Hebrews taught that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin,12 yet it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.13 So why did the Law require animal sacrifices? The key is found in what happened in a sensitive human heart during the shedding of that blood.
The Sin Offering
This was the law of the sin offering for a common Israelite:
If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the LORD’s commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar… Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:27-31)
