Torah: Leviticus 1:1-6:7(5:26)
Haftarah: Isaiah 43:21-44:23

I think this will be my last post on the Torah portion reading Vayikra, cited above. I really want to address the Haftarah too and how that related to God’s eternal plan for Israel and the world through Messiah, but we’ll see. I would like to get to the next portions as I am behind. This was such a rich portion, it really required a lot of time to cover. Unfortunately, most Christians just fly over these passages.

In summary of my exploration of this portion thus far, in my post about Leviticus chapter 1, The Burnt Offering He Called for, I focused on the burnt offering of Leviticus chapter 1 and how it represents both Jesus and the spiritual and sometimes literal self-sacrifice God requires of believers. In my next post, which is about Leviticus chapter 2, The Grain Offering He Called for, I focused on how the unleavened bread for grain offering and the bread offered as firstfuits represent Jesus in His different aspects. For my last post, The Peace Offering He Called for, I focused on Leviticus chapter 3 and how the peace offering foreshadows the work of Messiah. For this post, I will focus on the sin offering and the guilt offering, how Jesus fulfills the function of these two offerings, and even more. Normally, I would segment out the sin and guilt offerings from one another, but this time I’m going to tackle them together.

The sin offering and the guilt offering are what is called “expiatory sacrifices,” or hatta’t, that is, sacrifices “to secure atonement and forgiveness from God” (JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus, 18). These are the types of sacrifices Christians are most familiar with and even conflate all other sacrifices with. The consequence for a sin (either omission or commission) that required a hatta’t (sin offering) for commission or an asham (guilt offering) specifically for omission was to be “cut off” if atonement was not made and forgiveness was not received, “sometimes perceived as punishment meted out directly by God in contrast to that imposed by the community” (JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus, 18). The penalty of being “cut off” in Hebrew is called karet. Being “cut off” by removing that person from the community by means that included death was a direct consequence for breaking sins in the Torah that were considered serious enough for such a measure.

So why then is the Messiah, the “anointed one” of Daniel “cut off” (Dan. 9:26)? Isaiah 53 says that it was for our sins that He was “cut off” by karet. Jesus, the Messiah, was “cut off” by karet on our behalf so we wouldn’t have to be. He suffered the penalty for our sins that demanded karet. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What Romans 6:23 is saying is the same thing the Torah and prophets say: Our sins demand karet, but the Anointed One will be “cut off” on our behalf. He will rescue us.

Now expiatory sacrifices only were accepted if the sins committed were unintentional either by lack of knowledge to begin with or forgetfulness. Whether Israelites knew the Torah or not, they were responsible for it. If they knew the Torah and inadvertently broke it, they were responsible. If they made themselves unclean by unknowingly doing something that made them ritually unclean, they were responsible. Similarly, the world is accountable to a Righteous Almighty God whether they know the Bible or not. They are not under the same exact covenant as Israel is, but the basic principles of sin, righteousness, and Divine Being are there to which all people are accountable. Romans 1 says,

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (vs. 18-20).

So for all the world that has violated God’s holiness unbeknownst to them, there is good news! The Anointed One sacrificed Himself by karet on their behalf for their sins. Upon realizing their sins, Israelites were supposed to offer an expiatory sacrifice. The world, upon realizing its transgression in light of the gospel, is received by God with forgiveness when the world trusts in Jesus Christ as the expiatory sacrifice that suffered karet on its behalf. But this is only good for those who sin unintentionally. According to the Torah, there is no expiatory sacrifice for those who sin in full knowledge of the Torah and fully desire to continue committing wrongdoing. Take a close look at how Jesus phrased our expiation on the cross:

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34).

This understanding of hataa’t and karet gives me a lot of insight into the words Jesus said to some Pharasees after he healed a blind man in the temple. The context of the story is that Jesus healed a man born blind on the Sabbath, and the Pharasees called for the blind man and his parents to be brought to them for questioning. Upon questioning, the Pharasees learned from the man’s testimony that Jesus had healed him. The healed man testified, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (Jn. 9:25). When the man asked the Pharasees if they wanted to be His disciples too, “they reviled him” (vs. 28). The Pharasees had full knowledge that Jesus was sent by God through the miracles he performed, and they willingly chose to reject the testimony and revile His witnesses. The juxtaposition of a blind man who was healed and believed against educated Pharasees who knowingly and willfully rejected credible evidence and testimony explains why Jesus said what He did next in light of the Torah’s principles regarding karat and hatta’t.

³⁵ Jesus heard that they [the Pharasees] had cast him [the blind man] out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶ He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸ He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹ Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains (Jn. 9:35-41).

For these men who rejected Jesus, it was like rejecting the Torah willfully and disobeying Torah willfully. There would be no hatta’t for them. Their guilt remained. For the blind man, his physical condition is representative of spiritual ignorance, that is, sin committed inadvertently. Once his opportunity for enlightenment came, and Jesus revealed Himself to him, he confessed his faith and worshipped Him (because He was God and Jews only worshipped God). If we continue to understand Jesus as the katta’t, then the blind man put his faith in Him and was cleaned of his guilt.

There are many other places where this understanding of the function of katta’t manifests in the New Testament. Paul writes to the Romans,

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom. 6:1-2).

Those expiated by the katta’t cannot sin in willful violation. Also look at Hebrews 6:4-6:

⁴ For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Now many people take this verse as a way of saying true believers can lose their salvation. That is not what I am arguing. I pull this verse up to liken it to members of the Israelite community who were born into Israel, given the Torah, made witnesses to God’s miracles and His manifested Divine Presence in the tabernacle, yet willfully violated Torah without remorse. Such people were “cut off” by karat. Similarly, those who are members of the Church community and are surrounded by enlightenment of the gospel and evidence of God through the Holy Spirit, yet live a life that spurns its profundity and presumes upon His grace, are effectively like the Israelite who is subject to karat. Jesus does not atone for them because there is no sacrifice for such willful sinning and disregard for God’s heart. We can rely on His grace, but we cannot presume upon His grace. I hope that distinction makes sense.

Jesus is also the guilt offering, the asham. Isiah 53 10 says,

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

What the ESV translates as “offering for guilt” is the Hebrew word asham, the guilt offering. His soul is the asham. Jesus is the guilt offering for our sins of omission! Jesus is the asham!

This passage includes the sins of commission too. Isiah 53 doesn’t use the exact word hatta’t for sins of commission, but it does use pesa for “transgressions” (specifically against God). That would fall under the category of hatta’t, I’d argue. Also in this passage, awon is used for “iniquities” (specifically conscious wrongdoing).

I think there is great comfort in knowing God used the Messiah, Jesus, to cleanse sins that are also committed knowingly. I know what I have already described in this post can make it sound like God can’t forgive you for anything you do wrong or don’t do right with any prior knowledge. God also gave us Biblical examples of men who sinned consciously and were later forgiven and restored, such as David, who committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, one of his mighty men, Uriah the Hittite, to cover up the adultery.

The sin that is not covered by expiation seems to be habitual conscious sin that a person doesn’t care to remedy or change. For example, during the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic church doled out indulgences that licensed a person to sin before they committed the sin and promised God’s forgiveness afterward. Nope, according to the rules of expiatory sacrifices, that it no bueno. I hope that helps clarify this some more for you, in case you were afraid God could not forgive you because you did something you knew was wrong at some point in your life. I know I have.

So in Isaiah 53, you have the suffering servant, namely Jesus (we know later), Who takes care of our sins of omission, commission, and even conscious sins. Halleluyah! What a Savior! Jesus is the sin offering. He is the guilt offering. He is so much more than the shadow the sacrifices cast (Heb. 8:5). He is the substance of these things (Col. 2:17).

My hope and prayer for you and the world is that once having received the saving knowledge of the Messiah, you would look to Him as your sacrifice for all sin and guilt, and that you would resolve to live in sin no more. Until next time, God bless.

Sources

The Bible. English Standard Version. Biblegateway.com. Accessed 18 Apr. 2026.

Baker, Warren and Eugene Carpenter. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament. Chattanooga, AMG Publishers, 2003

The Complete Jewish Study Bible. Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 2016.

The Interlinear Bible. ed. Jay P. Green Sr. USA, Hendrickson, 2010.

The JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus. Philadelphia, The Jewish Publication Society, 1989.