Washed by His Blood (Leviticus 16:1-5)

“You should tell the devil: ‘Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner you are placing a sword and weapon into my hand with which I can decisively overcome you; yea, with your own weapon I can kill and floor you. For if you can tell me that I am a poor sinner, I on the other hand, can tell you that Christ died for sinners, and is their Intercessor . . . You remind me of the boundless, great faithfulness and benefaction of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ . . . to Him I direct you. You may accuse and condemn Him. Let me rest in peace; for on His shoulders, not on mine, lie all my sins.’”

— Martin Luther

Washed by His Blood (Leviticus 16:1-5)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

God Separates to Make a Way (Leviticus 10:8-11)

“For the Scriptures teach me that God established two seats for men, a judgment seat for those who are still secure and proud and will neither acknowledge nor confess their sin, and a mercy seat for those whose conscience is poor and needy, who feel and confess their sin, dread his judgment, and yearn for his grace. And this mercy seat is Christ himself . . . There shall I take my refuge when I have done or still do less than is meet and done much more of sin according to the law, both before and after my sanctification and justification. . . . Thereunder shall my heart and conscience creep and be safe.”

— Martin Luther

God Separates to Make a Way (Leviticus 10:8-11)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

A Holy God (Leviticus 9:22-10:3)

“The Scripture stories do not, like Homer’s, court our favor, they do not flatter us that they may please us and enchant us — they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be subjected we are rebels.”

— Erich Auerbach

“In the self-assured world of modernity people seek to make sense of the Scriptures, instead of hoping, with the aid of the Scriptures, to make some sense of themselves.”

— Nicholas Lash

A Holy God (Leviticus 9:22-10:3)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

Sacrifices Deal with the Consequences of Sin (Leviticus 6:24-7:10)

“You should tell the devil: ‘Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner you are placing a sword and weapon into my hand with which I can decisively overcome you; yea, with your own weapon I can kill and floor you. For if you can tell me that I am a poor sinner, I on the other hand, can tell you that Christ died for sinners, and is their Intercessor . . . You remind me of the boundless, great faithfulness and benefaction of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ . . . to Him I direct you. You may accuse and condemn Him. Let me rest in peace; for on His shoulders, not on mine, lie all my sins.’”

— Martin Luther

Sacrifices Deal with the Consequences of Sin (Leviticus 6:24-7:10)
Rev. Bradley Barnes

A Community of Witness (1 Peter 2:9-17)

“[Christians] dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified.”

— Letter to Diognetus, 2nd Century

A Community of Witness (1 Peter 2:9-17)
Rev. Nathan Barczi

One Body with Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12-31)

“Because this act was done by this one, there and then, acts of reconciliation are more than an attempt to create reality by establishing imagined communities which offer a different sort of social space from that of the world’s routine violence.  Human acts of reconciliation are in accordance with the structure of reality which God in Christ creates and to the existence of which the gospel testifies; and therefore they are acts which tend toward the true end of creation which God’s reconciling act establishes once and for all in Christ’s person and work.”

— John Webster

One Body with Many Members (1 Corinthians 12:12-31)
Rev. Nathan Barczi