Did God offer any avenues for forgivrness when He gave the Law?
Edersheim Books
Temple 05 - Sacrifices: Their Order and Their Meaning
The Idea of Substitution
The fundamental idea of sacrifice in the Old Testament is that of substitution, which again seems to imply everything else—atonement and redemption, vicarious punishment and
forgiveness. The firstfruits go for the whole products; the firstlings for the flock; the redemption-money for that which cannot be offered; and the life of the sacrifice, which is in its blood
(Leviticus 17:11), for the life of the sacrificer. Hence also the strict prohibition to partake of blood. Even in the 'Korban,' gift
(Mark 7:11) or free-will offering, it is still the gift for the giver. This idea of substitution, as introduced, adopted, and sanctioned by God Himself, is expressed by the sacrificial term rendered in our version 'atonement,' but which really means covering, the substitute in the acceptance of God taking the place of, and so covering, as it were, the person of the offerer. Hence the Scriptural experience:
'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered .*.*. unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity' (Psalms 32:1-2); and perhaps also the Scriptural prayer: 'Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Thine Anointed'
(Psalms 84:9). Such sacrifices, however, necessarily pointed to a mediatorial priesthood, through whom alike they and the purified worshippers should be brought near to God, and kept in fellowship with Him. Yet these priests themselves continually changed; their own persons and services needed purification, and their sacrifices required constant renewal, since, in the nature of it, such substitution could not be perfect. In short, all this was symbolical (of man's need, God's mercy, and His covenant), and typical, till He should come to whom it all pointed, and who had all along given reality to it; He whose Priesthood was perfect, and who on a perfect altar brought a perfect sacrifice, once for all—a perfect Substitute, and a perfect Mediator
(Hebrews 10:1-24).
Edersheim Books
Temple 16 - The Day of Atonement
Weakness of the Law
It may sound strange, and yet it is true, that the clearest testimony to 'the weakness and unprofitableness' 'of the commandment' is that given by 'the commandment' itself. The Levitical arrangements for the removal of sin bear on their forefront, as it were, this inscription: 'The law made nothing perfect'—having neither a perfect mediatorship in the priesthood, nor a perfect 'atonement' in the sacrifices, nor yet a perfect forgiveness as the result of both. 'For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect'
(Hebrews 10:1). And this appears, first, from the continual recurrence and the multiplicity of these sacrifices, which are intended the one to supplement the other, and yet always leave something to be still supplemented; and, secondly, from the broad fact that, in general, 'it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins'
(Hebrews 10:4). It is therefore evident that the Levitical dispensation, being stamped with imperfectness alike in the means which it employed for the 'taking away' of sin, and in the results which it obtained by these means, declared itself, like John the Baptist, only a 'forerunner,' the breaker up and preparer of the way—not the satisfying, but, on the contrary, the calling forth and 'the bringing in of a better hope' (
Hebrews 7:19; see marginal rendering).
***********************************
Are you still living "in the shadow of good things to come"?
(Hebrews 10:1) There were three aspects of the Law....moral, social, and ceremonial and all three functioned as an indivisible unit....break ONE of the 613 commandments, you are guilty of breaking them all
(Galatians 3:10-13; James 2:10).
