When we read through the Bible, we come across many passages that are extremely difficult for us to understand. Even more, we find it almost impossible to find an application from a passage written hundreds, even thousands of years ago, to our present, contemporary context. This is especially true when we read through the books of the Old Testament.

A graphic example of this (one of many we could cite) can be found in the book of Leviticus. I have known quite a few persons who set out at the first of a new year with the commitment to read through the Bible during the course of the coming year. They begin their journey with a spirit of excitement, and that spirit continues for a while, until they reach Leviticus. Then, all of a sudden, the excitement wanes, and the commitment falters. We get bogged down with all those laws God gave Moses to share with the people of Israel. For example, we don’t get far into Leviticus before we are faced with specific, detailed instructions on how to offer sacrifices.

Many get to this point and think to themselves, “Wait, what?” What exactly does this have to do with me? How can I possibly find any application of this to my life, to my current situation? We might even think there are better, more productive ways to spend my time than reading a book that has nothing to do with me today.

Might I dare share with you one extremely important aspect of the Bible – even the book of Leviticus – that perhaps would encourage us to read it? And not just once, but over and over again. Here it is: the Bible has a very personal application to you as an individual. You read that correctly: there are personal applications for us to glean from every book of the Bible.

Let’s think about those sacrifices detailed in Leviticus as an example. We are told about different types of sacrificial offerings: the grain offering, the fellowship offering, the burnt offering, the sin offering. As we read the detailed instructions for each of these offerings, we might think to ourselves that these were barbaric practices performed by a savage people. But not so. These were sacrifices prescribed by God Himself for very specific purposes.

And one of those purposes was to reveal the personal nature of God’s relationship with individuals. Read carefully the following excerpts from Leviticus:

“He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering so it can be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.”

“He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the tent of meeting.”

“He must bring the bull to the entrance to the tent of meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and slaughter it before the Lord.”

Leviticus 1:4; 3:2; 4:4

You might want to reread those verses, giving special attention to the extremely personal manner in which these offerings were to be given. The individual must lay his hands on the animal, then watch as that animal is sacrificed on his behalf, in his place. There may have been others watching, but the sacrifice would have not affect them. It was a very personal matter between the one offering the sacrifice, and the sacrifice itself.

So again, you may be wondering what this has to do with you, personally. It’s really quite simple, and yet extremely profound. We are to understand first and foremost that each and every one of those sacrificial offerings in Leviticus – those that were offered by individuals for personal needs and those offered by priests on behalf of the nation – pointed to the ultimate sacrificial offering detailed in the New Testament: the death of Jesus Christ.

Just as the person presenting his sacrificial offering would personally identify with his sacrificial animal by laying his hands on the animal, so it is with the believer in Jesus Christ: it must be a matter of personal commitment. There were multitudes standing around the cross as Jesus was crucified, but Jesus’ death had no effect on them unless they acknowledged that He was dying for them, personally. Like the individual laying his hands on the sacrificial animal would know that the animal’s life was given in his place, so it is with the one who personally acknowledges the fact that Jesus’ death was in his place, given for him. He then accepts the forgiveness of sin as Jesus’ blood was shed to pay the penalty for that sin, and that he now has a personal relationship with God through this sacrifice of Jesus.

The huge distinction between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is that those OT sacrifices had to be repeated over and over, each time the individual sinned. Those animal sacrifices could not actually pay the penalty, they could only serve as a reminder of the grave need for forgiveness. They provided atonement for sin. The word ‘atonement’ literally means to cover, to put out of sight. This is seen graphically in the Day of Atonement, the one day of the year in which the high priest would go inside the Holy of Holies and present a sin offering for the entire nation. The sins of the people would be covered over, but it had to be repeated each year because the sin had not actually been dealt with.

That is the distinction: blood sacrifices of the Old Testament atoned for sin, whereas Jesus’ sacrificial death propitiated the just wrath of God against sin. This is the reason His death was once for all, never needing to be repeated time after time, year after year.

Those animal sacrifices presented in graphic ways the devastating power of sin, and the destructive results of sin. Jesus’ death was the ultimate sacrifice that not only covered our sin, but actually met the just decree of God that sin would result in death: physical, spiritual and eternal. Jesus paid it all by His death on the cross.

And now, each of us must realize that it is a personal matter between the individual and God. For a moment, use your imagination to place yourself on Golgotha as Jesus makes His way to the place of His death. You have a choice. You might choose to stand there and identify with the multitude, as they shouted their ridicule and mockery. You might choose to see Jesus as a victim of their hostility and hatred, or as an innocent man who has been misunderstood and now being put to death for crimes He did not commit. If so, then the death of Jesus Christ will have not affect in you the desire for salvation, but it will decree your eternal damnation as one who rejected Jesus’ offer of salvation.

But, if you look at these events through the eyes of faith, believing that Jesus truly died in your place, suffering the full force of God’s just wrath against sin, then you understand how personal that decision is to you. Others may be around you who do not see what you see; who do not feel what you feel; who do not decide what you decide. You decide to, by faith, lay your hands on the head of Jesus, realizing that He is truly dying in your place.

It is a very personal matter. Next time you are reading through Leviticus, and in your mind’s eye, the eye of faith, you see that man lay his hand on the head of the animal about to be sacrificed, take a moment, close your eyes, and in a spirit of utter joy and thanksgiving praise Jesus for being your sacrifice!