Mustard, Coffee, Blood.  No matter where I am, this pernicious triumvirate seeks and finds me.  I try.  I really try to avoid them.  Copious napkins, the best of allegedly spill-proof mug-tech, and fastidious caution around anything sharp.  Yet, inevitably, they appear in some conspicuous spot on a favorite, and usually new, shirt.  Oh, the shame of it.  Stains make us self-conscious. And bring permanent ruin to what formerly brought joy. 

Our grandmothers had sovereign remedies.  Baking soda and Dow Scrubbing Bubbles were touted to take out any stain.  Now we have high-tech oxi-products which promise to “make stains invisible.”   Yet those tough stains often remain, oxidized, set in, made indelible by time and heat.  And what was briefly a favorite shirt is now consigned to yard work or the resale shop. 

Stain removal is hard.  Some stains are stubborn.  Others resist the fuller’s craft.  And some stains are beyond the reach of our grandmother’s sovereign remedies or modern treatments.  Guilt is a stain that sets in quickly and binds tightly to the fabric of our heart, mind, and soul.  It cannot be washed away or covered up.  Though perhaps unseen by others, it never feels that way.  The much-heralded urge to confess reminds us that as David once said, “my sin is ever before me.”

We try all sorts of sovereign remedies.  We ignore it.  We distract ourselves from it.  We try to numb it.  We work to make up for it.  We bargain with it.  And try to buy it off.  We try to excuse it.  We seek others who tell us not to feel guilty.   And yet there it is, the stain that resists the fuller’s craft.  Hymnwriter, Horatius Bonar expressed it well.

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load

Guilt is metastatic.  It poisons every area of our being.  It is a crushing load.  We are desperate to unburden. But there seems to be no way to remove guilt’s stain.  To be made clean again.  We feel the weight of Paul’s plaintive cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  Is there no way forward?  No way to wash out sin’s guilty stain?

Tucked neatly in the rules and regulations of the last of Israel’s five sacrifices, the Lord graciously appoints the sovereign remedy for the stain of guilt.  In Leviticus 5 we learn of the guilt offering, sometimes called the reparation offering.   While at first glance it appears indistinguishable from the sin/purification offering that precedes it, there are important distinctions.   And in this reparation offering the Lord gives his people a gracious remedy for sin’s shame and sets before them the path to move forward from crippling guilt. 

The guilt offering, like all the other sacrifices, teaches us about the nature of sin.  And what is required for sin’s curse to be lifted.   This offering, like the others, also points us to the One whose sacrifice gives efficacy to the blood of every ram offered for Israel’s guilt.  In Isaiah 53 we encounter a reference to this sacrifice.   The prophet writes.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:10

In the subsequent verse of Horatius Bonar’s hymn quoted above, the author answers the tension his first verse creates.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of the dark unrest, and set my spirit free.

Has the indelible stain of guilt created dark unrest for you?  Is your sin ever before you?  Has no work of your hands been able to remove guilt’s stain?  You need to know there is hope.   There is a sovereign remedy.  Paul’s plaintive cry is followed by gracious praise.  “But thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ…  For there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Join us as we examine Leviticus 5:14-6:7 and consider the guilt offering, what it teaches us about our sin and how it provides a way to put guilt behind us and move forward.  We meet each Lord’s Day on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship. Get directions here or contact us for more info. Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.