Concupiscence Condemned
The rituals found in the ancient sanctuary services divulge a theology that renders man a sinner. In Leviticus 12 we discover it is sin to give birth for a sin offering was required of the mother after she completed the days of her purification. The idea here is that anything that comes from sin produces sin, thus making it sin. After the fall of Adam, humanity was now in a state of sin and any baby born would already be a product of sin with a sinful nature. “How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?” (Job 25:4 NASB). The overarching big-picture problem for man is that a righteous One is needed to come forth from fallen humanity untainted from a corrupt sinful nature.
Leviticus 12:6-7 NASB
When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female.
In the letter to the Romans Paul condemns all to be under sin “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[1] Nothing that comes forth from man is righteous; whether it be a words, deeds, or even a child, all that he produces is condemned before a righteous God. “Truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2).
What I would like to emphasize here is the role of the human body. From the get go “the wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psa 58:3). We need not flatter ourselves; we are all wicked when measured against God’s law. The law of God, makes the world guilty, because the deeds (including the good ones) no flesh can be justified/righteous before God.
Romans 3:19-20 NKJV
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
It was not the sin of Isaiah but his righteousness that he declared to be as “filthy rags.”[2] So, even the righteousness that man produces, running through the corrupt channels of human nature, are unrighteous in “His sight.”
One of the reasons for God’s rejection of man’s holiness is due to his concupiscence, or corrupt channels. While one may make the right choice, pursuing righteousness, the flesh is alway in a process of producing evil. This is why the Christian must learn to die daily, never to be so presumptuous as to assume he has arrived to perfection. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phi 3:12).
The Miracle of the Incarnation
The miracle of the Gospels is that there would be a Man born of a Women, who could stand righteous before God on all accounts. That not only means that He didn’t sin, but He was not a sinner by nature. This Son of Man is Christ.
Galatians 4:4-6 ESV
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
In Hebrew the word for “gospel” or “good news” is basar (בשר). However, the word basar is also translated “flesh” signifying that the good news of the gospel is the body of Christ. In Hebrews 10, Psalms 40 is quoted stating, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME.” The ritual sacrifices of the sanctuary were only a type of the perfect body that would be the Quintessential Man. As each sin offering in typology was inspected for flaws both externally and internally, so Christ was to be the perfect Man that would replace the first Adam.
Isaiah 61:1 NASB
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news (בשר) to the afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.
Leviticus 7:17 NASB
But what is left over from the flesh (בשר) of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire.
Jesus was “born of a woman” “yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). This is the miracle of the incarnation. That something clean could come from something unclean (cf. Job 14:4; Lev 10:10). And as every Aaronic priest had to be free of any blemish, so Christ is perfect and accepted by God in His own flesh. If we have faith in Him, we too are accounted perfect through imputation.
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron, saying, none of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.
Leviticus 21:16-24 ESV
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron, saying, none of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.
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