The following commentary covers Chapters 13 and 14.
Leprosy
in persons, garments and houses
Leprosy requires a little
more detail. It was found in persons, in garments, in
houses. Leprosy was sin acting in the flesh. The
spiritual man—the priest—discerns as to it. If
the raw flesh appears, he is unclean; the strength of the
flesh is at work. If the man was white all over, it was
only the effect, as sin entirely confessed but no longer
active; he was clean. The thing spreads in man, if it be
evil in the flesh. The first step is for him to confess;
and to confess under full spiritual discernment, and the
judgment of God who has brought to light what was acting
in his nature. He makes up his mind as one judged and
detected. He has no part in the assembly of God, though
making part of it in one sense. He is put out, without
the camp.
Leproasy in
circumstances, and its treatment
Leprosy (sin) manifested
itself in circumstances, in that which surrounds us, as
well as in personal conduct. If it was only a spot, the
garment was washed, and it was clean; if the plague spot,
on the contrary, spread, the whole was burned; if the
plague, though it did not spread, remained, after washing,
unchanged, the whole was burned. If changed and it spread
no more, the spot was torn out.
If we get thus defiled by
our circumstances, and it is not in the things themselves,
we need only wash and remain where we are; if a part of
them be essentially bad, that it spread defilingly in our
whole condition, all that part of our outward life must
be given up; if, in spite of washing, sin be still found
the same there, if we cannot walk therein with God, such
a position must be wholly given up at any cost; if it be
affected by the washing and cease to spread, the general
state being unaffected, the particular thing which has
defiled is to be given up.
Purification of
the healed leper; its means
As to purification, the
leper was first considered as being outside the camp, not
belonging to it; but if the activity of the disease was
stopped in him, he was healed, but not yet purified. Thus
this type supposes that the flesh, instead of being
active and characteristic of the state of man, is judged
and arrested in its activity. It is the enjoyment of a
recognised relationship with God which is to be
established [1].
The first part of the
purification relates to this position. Christ being dead
and risen, man sprinkled with His blood is fit, as
regards the controversy with God, and His requirements,
to enter the camp of God's people; and then he can share
in the efficacy of the means which they can use there, of
that which is found within, in order to present himself
as acceptable before the tabernacle of God. Two birds
were to be taken, and one killed by some one, at the
command of the priest; for the priest's office never
properly began till there was blood to offer or sprinkle,
though the high priest represented Israel on the great
day of atonement [2].
The two birds, however, are identified, so that we hear
no more of that which was killed, though the efficacy of
the blood be everything in the work of cleansing; the
second is dipped in the blood of the first.
The Antitype of
the two birds
Thus Christ dead is no
more found; but, being raised, He sprinkles His blood, as
priest, on the unclean sinner. The earthen vessel, over
running water, presents to us the efficacy of the Holy
Spirit, according to the all-powerful efficacy of which,
in Christ as man, this work of the death of Jesus has
been accomplished: through the eternal Spirit He offered
Himself without spot to God—God having brought again
from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. He, the sinner,
was under the efficacy of Christ's work.
The actual
cleansing applied to the leper
But now there is, before
he can offer, the work done on himself, the actual
cleansing applied to him. He who cleansed himself washed
himself—a purification of water as well as of blood,
which is always found; the moral judgment of sin viewed
as that which excludes from God's presence, so that the
sinner is, in principle and faith, morally as well as
judicially cleansed. Of the last blood is the emblem; but
the water is the estimation of sin as shewn in Christ's
death, and the forsaking of God. It is in virtue of the
death of Christ, seen as His work for us, for the water
comes out of His pierced side. He came by water and blood.
The leper rids himself of anything to which impurity
might have attached, or had a share in, and now he enters
the camp; and the work of bringing him into communion
with God in his conscience begins [3].
The second part of
the cleansing after re-entry into the camp
This is through realising
all the efficacy of the work of Christ, with reference to
conscience itself—not only as to the acceptance of
the person, according to God's knowledge of that
acceptance, but as to the purification of the conscience,
and as to a knowledge of God, based on a moral
appreciation of the work of Christ in every aspect, and
the excellent work of the power of the Spirit of God.
This is the second part of the cleansing of the leper,
that which took place after he had re-entered the camp.
It is important to
recognise the work of Christ under these two aspects; its
intrinsic efficacy for the acceptance of the person on
the one hand; and, on the other, the purification of the
conscience itself, in order that there may be communion
with God, according to the price and the perfection of
that work, known in the conscience as a means of drawing
near to God, and as the moral condition of that nearness.
The trespass-offering
for purification of the conscience
Let us now examine what
took place. The first thing was the trespass-offering.
The conscience must be purified, by the blood of Christ,
of all that with which, as a matter of fact, it is
charged, or would be chargeable in the day of judgment;
and man must be consecrated to God with an intelligence
which applies the value of that blood to his whole walk,
his whole conduct, his whole thoughts, and upon the
principle of perfect obedience. It is the judicial
purification of the whole man, upon the principle of
intelligent obedience—a purification acting upon his
conscience, not merely an outward rule for a man freed
from the present power of sin, but a purification of his
conscience felt in the knowledge of good and evil, of
which the blood of Christ is the measure before God. Man
being a sinner, having failed, the work must take place
in the conscience, which takes an humbling knowledge of
it; and in becoming cleansed through the precious
efficacy of the blood of Christ, does so through the
sorrow for all that is contrary to the perfection of that
blood, and which has required the shedding of it.
Consecration and
communion
It is thus man is
consecrated. The heart is first purified in the
conscience. The things to which he had given way are, as
it were, brought to the conscience, which takes a painful
knowledge of them, according to the value of the blood of
the precious Lamb of God, who, without spot, and perfect
in obedience, had to suffer the agony caused by the sin
from which we have to be cleansed—wretched creatures
that we are.
Afterwards the heart makes
progress in the power of its communion, through the
knowledge of the most precious objects of its faith. As
to communion—though never as to the conscience of
imputation (see Heb. 10), and as to communion it is by
water (see John 13 and 1 John 2). This work must go on
again from time to time in the conscience, whenever there
is something in our nature which is not in subjection to
Christ, which is not brought captive to the obedience of
Christ.
The blood and oil
applied, the sin offering was offered
The blood, then, was put
upon the tip of his right ear, his right hand, his right
foot—his thoughts, his conduct, and his walk
purified on the principle of obedience according to the
measure of Christ's death, and the claim of the love
displayed in it. Over that they sprinkled oil—the
presence and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit as
given to us, by which we are anointed and sealed—not
washing (that was typified by water, the application of
the word by the Spirit), but given to consecrate in
knowledge and power of purpose and affection to God (with
whatever gifts might be added thereto); the whole man
being thus consecrated, according to the intelligence and
the devotedness wrought by the Holy Spirit, to God. After
that the oil was put upon his head, his whole person
being thus consecrated to Him. The work was complete upon
him who was to be cleansed [4]. After that the sin-offering was offered;
that is, Christ (not only for the purification of the
conscience in a practical sense, for its actual faults,
but that sin might be judged in its full extent before
God; for Christ was made sin for us, as well as bore our
sins) thus acts on our consciences with regard to those
sins—makes us estimate sin, such as it is in itself,
seen in the sacrifice of Christ.
The burnt and meal-offerings
offered, the leper was clean
Then the burnt-offering
with the meat-offering was offered; the former, the
appreciation of the perfection of the death of Christ,
seen as the devoting of Himself to God unto death, to
vindicate all the rights of His majesty, and put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself—in view of the existence
of sin; the latter, the absolute sinlessness of Christ,
His perfection, and the acting power of the Spirit in Him
even to death, and full testing by it. This death was of
infinite perfection in itself, as a work, for it can be
said, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I
lay down my life, that I might take it again." It
was not as bearing our sins, but absolute devotedness to
God and His glory, in the circumstances that sin had
brought us into, and into which Christ also came by grace,
that God might be fully glorified in Him.
In the meat-offering was
found, besides, all the perfectness of the grace of
Christ in His life—humanity, pure without doubt, but
kneaded with oil; humanity having in it all the strength,
the taste, and savour of the Holy Spirit in its nature;
for it is in that aspect that it is presented here, not
as anointed with oil [5]
—as power—but kneaded with oil in its substance.
Now the man is clean.
The importance and
the reality of reconciliation and restoration to God
And how great is the
importance and the reality of the reconciliation of a
soul to God, if it values all that is thus unfolded of
the work of Christ, and of its application to the soul;
and certainly its reconciliation does not take place
without. Alas! our trifling hearts pass, perhaps lightly,
over this, and the dealings of that hand of God which
does marvellous things with the quiet ease which perfect
grace and power give. However, we do see,. sometimes, in
some souls (according to the wisdom of God), the anguish
and the suffering which accompany this work, when the
conscience, in view of the reality of things before God,
and through Christ, takes knowledge of the state of the
heart, sinful and distant from God in its nature.
This is the restoration of
the soul on the part of God. It is all the working of
divine power, not merely as to the work and resurrection
of Christ, but even as to the soul itself; for the case
here under supposition is that of a man already vitally
cleansed. The priest judged him already clean, but the
leper was not himself restored to God in his conscience [6]; and the Spirit of God, for this
purpose, goes over the work of Christ, and its
application to the soul itself, and its relationship with
the work and presence of the Holy Spirit in its work,
whether in purifying the sinner, or in consecrating the
man. May our gracious God render us attentive to this!
happy that the work should be His, though it takes place
in us as well as for us.
Leprosy in a house
— in the land
There remains to be
considered leprosy in a house. In the case of the leprous
person, the whole referred to the tabernacle. They were
still in the wilderness: the walk in the world was what
was in question. But here the being in the land of
promise is supposed. It does not refer to the cleansing
of the person; it is more typical of an assembly. When
defilement appears there, they take out the stones and
the plaster: the external walk is quite changed, and the
individuals who have corrupted this walk are taken out,
and thrown amongst the unclean. If the whole be thereupon
healed, the house remains; if not, it is wholly destroyed;
the evil is in the assembly itself, and it was manifest,
as in the case of the leper. If its source was in the
stones taken away, if it was only there, the end was
accomplished by taking out the stones and removing the
plaster, reforming the whole external walk. Purification
consisted in taking away the wicked who corrupted the
public testimony—that which was manifested outside.
It was not a question of restoring the conscience; the
whole rests anew on the primitive efficacy of the work of
Christ, which renders the assembly acceptable with God.
We shall find that the
apostle Paul, in his epistles addressed to assemblies,
says, "grace and peace"; and, when writing to
individuals, adds "mercy." Philemon seems an
exception; but the church is addressed with him.
In the case of garments it
is no question about cleansing one's person, but of
getting rid of defiled circumstances. We see that the
case of the house is presented separate, being in the
land of promise, and not in the walk of the wilderness.
The same truth is found in the application, I doubt not.
The assembly is in the land of promise; the individual
walks in the wilderness. However, stones which corrupt
the house may be found there.
[1] This difference
is important; it is that between the work in us which
makes a sin a judged thing in us, judged by us, and the
work of Christ which supposing that, puts us in a
condition for relationship with God.
[2] It was the high
priest who did it, but it was not a properly priestly act.
That is, it was not one going between individuals or even
the people and God, but representing them as such in his
own person: as Christ, His people on the cross.
[3] When it was a
question of consecrating those who were recognised as to
their persons (the priests), they were first washed, and
the sacrifice of Christ, viewed under every aspect, was
the measure of their relation with God in every way, and
the basis of their communion in its inward efficacy upon
the soul. But here, the sinner being viewed in his sin
outside the camp, it was necessary first to lay the basis
for the possibility of intercourse with God. This was
done in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Then, being
washed (the efficacious operation of the Spirit by the
word), he can be in relationship.
[4] Note here how
very distinctly the ground of introduction into the new
christian place is stated in its completeness.
Culpability is fully met, guilt removed, cleansing by
blood as to all committed sins perfect, and the Holy
Ghost given, giving competency for all that was to follow.
The man stood, to apply the figure, personally on
christian ground. The sin-offering and the burnt-offering
go further, hence only the trespass-offering is used to
introduce the leper and have him anointed.
[5] The fact of
anointing the person comes after the trespass-offering.
But this circumstance is of moment as shewing that it is
Christ, in what He was in Person intrinsically—not
the display of power, so as to say, "If I by the
Spirit of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of
God is come amongst you," but what He was in all His
blessed life in perfectness to God and in love. This is
what we feed on. Note here that what is said in verse 18
does not mean, I apprehend, that the oil in itself made
an atonement, but the trespass-offering, for it is the
blood that makes atonement for the soul. But it is not
the less true that the man was not there until he had
been anointed with the oil; nor is a man in heart and
conscience before God till he have received the Holy
Ghost, though the ground and measure of all be the blood
with which he is sprinkled. It is the same in verse 29.
See what follows.
[6] This difference
is important, and shews how the working of sin may be
stopped, and the desires and will set right, and in a
certain sense the affections, but the conscience not yet
be restored; communion consequently not yet re-established,
nor the blessed confidence and affections founded on it.
Leviticus 13 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
Leprosy in persons, garments and houses
Leprosy requires a little more detail. It was found in persons, in garments, in houses. Leprosy was sin acting in the flesh. The spiritual man—the priest—discerns as to it. If the raw flesh appears, he is unclean; the strength of the flesh is at work. If the man was white all over, it was only the effect, as sin entirely confessed but no longer active; he was clean. The thing spreads in man, if it be evil in the flesh. The first step is for him to confess; and to confess under full spiritual discernment, and the judgment of God who has brought to light what was acting in his nature. He makes up his mind as one judged and detected. He has no part in the assembly of God, though making part of it in one sense. He is put out, without the camp.
Leproasy in circumstances, and its treatment
Leprosy (sin) manifested itself in circumstances, in that which surrounds us, as well as in personal conduct. If it was only a spot, the garment was washed, and it was clean; if the plague spot, on the contrary, spread, the whole was burned; if the plague, though it did not spread, remained, after washing, unchanged, the whole was burned. If changed and it spread no more, the spot was torn out.
If we get thus defiled by our circumstances, and it is not in the things themselves, we need only wash and remain where we are; if a part of them be essentially bad, that it spread defilingly in our whole condition, all that part of our outward life must be given up; if, in spite of washing, sin be still found the same there, if we cannot walk therein with God, such a position must be wholly given up at any cost; if it be affected by the washing and cease to spread, the general state being unaffected, the particular thing which has defiled is to be given up.
Purification of the healed leper; its means
As to purification, the leper was first considered as being outside the camp, not belonging to it; but if the activity of the disease was stopped in him, he was healed, but not yet purified. Thus this type supposes that the flesh, instead of being active and characteristic of the state of man, is judged and arrested in its activity. It is the enjoyment of a recognised relationship with God which is to be established [1].
The first part of the purification relates to this position. Christ being dead and risen, man sprinkled with His blood is fit, as regards the controversy with God, and His requirements, to enter the camp of God's people; and then he can share in the efficacy of the means which they can use there, of that which is found within, in order to present himself as acceptable before the tabernacle of God. Two birds were to be taken, and one killed by some one, at the command of the priest; for the priest's office never properly began till there was blood to offer or sprinkle, though the high priest represented Israel on the great day of atonement [2]. The two birds, however, are identified, so that we hear no more of that which was killed, though the efficacy of the blood be everything in the work of cleansing; the second is dipped in the blood of the first.
The Antitype of the two birds
Thus Christ dead is no more found; but, being raised, He sprinkles His blood, as priest, on the unclean sinner. The earthen vessel, over running water, presents to us the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, according to the all-powerful efficacy of which, in Christ as man, this work of the death of Jesus has been accomplished: through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God—God having brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. He, the sinner, was under the efficacy of Christ's work.
The actual cleansing applied to the leper
But now there is, before he can offer, the work done on himself, the actual cleansing applied to him. He who cleansed himself washed himself—a purification of water as well as of blood, which is always found; the moral judgment of sin viewed as that which excludes from God's presence, so that the sinner is, in principle and faith, morally as well as judicially cleansed. Of the last blood is the emblem; but the water is the estimation of sin as shewn in Christ's death, and the forsaking of God. It is in virtue of the death of Christ, seen as His work for us, for the water comes out of His pierced side. He came by water and blood. The leper rids himself of anything to which impurity might have attached, or had a share in, and now he enters the camp; and the work of bringing him into communion with God in his conscience begins [3].
The second part of the cleansing after re-entry into the camp
This is through realising all the efficacy of the work of Christ, with reference to conscience itself—not only as to the acceptance of the person, according to God's knowledge of that acceptance, but as to the purification of the conscience, and as to a knowledge of God, based on a moral appreciation of the work of Christ in every aspect, and the excellent work of the power of the Spirit of God. This is the second part of the cleansing of the leper, that which took place after he had re-entered the camp.
It is important to recognise the work of Christ under these two aspects; its intrinsic efficacy for the acceptance of the person on the one hand; and, on the other, the purification of the conscience itself, in order that there may be communion with God, according to the price and the perfection of that work, known in the conscience as a means of drawing near to God, and as the moral condition of that nearness.
The trespass-offering for purification of the conscience
Let us now examine what took place. The first thing was the trespass-offering. The conscience must be purified, by the blood of Christ, of all that with which, as a matter of fact, it is charged, or would be chargeable in the day of judgment; and man must be consecrated to God with an intelligence which applies the value of that blood to his whole walk, his whole conduct, his whole thoughts, and upon the principle of perfect obedience. It is the judicial purification of the whole man, upon the principle of intelligent obedience—a purification acting upon his conscience, not merely an outward rule for a man freed from the present power of sin, but a purification of his conscience felt in the knowledge of good and evil, of which the blood of Christ is the measure before God. Man being a sinner, having failed, the work must take place in the conscience, which takes an humbling knowledge of it; and in becoming cleansed through the precious efficacy of the blood of Christ, does so through the sorrow for all that is contrary to the perfection of that blood, and which has required the shedding of it.
Consecration and communion
It is thus man is consecrated. The heart is first purified in the conscience. The things to which he had given way are, as it were, brought to the conscience, which takes a painful knowledge of them, according to the value of the blood of the precious Lamb of God, who, without spot, and perfect in obedience, had to suffer the agony caused by the sin from which we have to be cleansed—wretched creatures that we are.
Afterwards the heart makes progress in the power of its communion, through the knowledge of the most precious objects of its faith. As to communion—though never as to the conscience of imputation (see Heb. 10), and as to communion it is by water (see John 13 and 1 John 2). This work must go on again from time to time in the conscience, whenever there is something in our nature which is not in subjection to Christ, which is not brought captive to the obedience of Christ.
The blood and oil applied, the sin offering was offered
The blood, then, was put upon the tip of his right ear, his right hand, his right foot—his thoughts, his conduct, and his walk purified on the principle of obedience according to the measure of Christ's death, and the claim of the love displayed in it. Over that they sprinkled oil—the presence and sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit as given to us, by which we are anointed and sealed—not washing (that was typified by water, the application of the word by the Spirit), but given to consecrate in knowledge and power of purpose and affection to God (with whatever gifts might be added thereto); the whole man being thus consecrated, according to the intelligence and the devotedness wrought by the Holy Spirit, to God. After that the oil was put upon his head, his whole person being thus consecrated to Him. The work was complete upon him who was to be cleansed [4]. After that the sin-offering was offered; that is, Christ (not only for the purification of the conscience in a practical sense, for its actual faults, but that sin might be judged in its full extent before God; for Christ was made sin for us, as well as bore our sins) thus acts on our consciences with regard to those sins—makes us estimate sin, such as it is in itself, seen in the sacrifice of Christ.
The burnt and meal-offerings offered, the leper was clean
Then the burnt-offering with the meat-offering was offered; the former, the appreciation of the perfection of the death of Christ, seen as the devoting of Himself to God unto death, to vindicate all the rights of His majesty, and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself—in view of the existence of sin; the latter, the absolute sinlessness of Christ, His perfection, and the acting power of the Spirit in Him even to death, and full testing by it. This death was of infinite perfection in itself, as a work, for it can be said, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." It was not as bearing our sins, but absolute devotedness to God and His glory, in the circumstances that sin had brought us into, and into which Christ also came by grace, that God might be fully glorified in Him.
In the meat-offering was found, besides, all the perfectness of the grace of Christ in His life—humanity, pure without doubt, but kneaded with oil; humanity having in it all the strength, the taste, and savour of the Holy Spirit in its nature; for it is in that aspect that it is presented here, not as anointed with oil [5] —as power—but kneaded with oil in its substance. Now the man is clean.
The importance and the reality of reconciliation and restoration to God
And how great is the importance and the reality of the reconciliation of a soul to God, if it values all that is thus unfolded of the work of Christ, and of its application to the soul; and certainly its reconciliation does not take place without. Alas! our trifling hearts pass, perhaps lightly, over this, and the dealings of that hand of God which does marvellous things with the quiet ease which perfect grace and power give. However, we do see,. sometimes, in some souls (according to the wisdom of God), the anguish and the suffering which accompany this work, when the conscience, in view of the reality of things before God, and through Christ, takes knowledge of the state of the heart, sinful and distant from God in its nature.
This is the restoration of the soul on the part of God. It is all the working of divine power, not merely as to the work and resurrection of Christ, but even as to the soul itself; for the case here under supposition is that of a man already vitally cleansed. The priest judged him already clean, but the leper was not himself restored to God in his conscience [6]; and the Spirit of God, for this purpose, goes over the work of Christ, and its application to the soul itself, and its relationship with the work and presence of the Holy Spirit in its work, whether in purifying the sinner, or in consecrating the man. May our gracious God render us attentive to this! happy that the work should be His, though it takes place in us as well as for us.
Leprosy in a house — in the land
There remains to be considered leprosy in a house. In the case of the leprous person, the whole referred to the tabernacle. They were still in the wilderness: the walk in the world was what was in question. But here the being in the land of promise is supposed. It does not refer to the cleansing of the person; it is more typical of an assembly. When defilement appears there, they take out the stones and the plaster: the external walk is quite changed, and the individuals who have corrupted this walk are taken out, and thrown amongst the unclean. If the whole be thereupon healed, the house remains; if not, it is wholly destroyed; the evil is in the assembly itself, and it was manifest, as in the case of the leper. If its source was in the stones taken away, if it was only there, the end was accomplished by taking out the stones and removing the plaster, reforming the whole external walk. Purification consisted in taking away the wicked who corrupted the public testimony—that which was manifested outside. It was not a question of restoring the conscience; the whole rests anew on the primitive efficacy of the work of Christ, which renders the assembly acceptable with God.
We shall find that the apostle Paul, in his epistles addressed to assemblies, says, "grace and peace"; and, when writing to individuals, adds "mercy." Philemon seems an exception; but the church is addressed with him.
In the case of garments it is no question about cleansing one's person, but of getting rid of defiled circumstances. We see that the case of the house is presented separate, being in the land of promise, and not in the walk of the wilderness. The same truth is found in the application, I doubt not. The assembly is in the land of promise; the individual walks in the wilderness. However, stones which corrupt the house may be found there.
[1] This difference is important; it is that between the work in us which makes a sin a judged thing in us, judged by us, and the work of Christ which supposing that, puts us in a condition for relationship with God.
[2] It was the high priest who did it, but it was not a properly priestly act. That is, it was not one going between individuals or even the people and God, but representing them as such in his own person: as Christ, His people on the cross.
[3] When it was a question of consecrating those who were recognised as to their persons (the priests), they were first washed, and the sacrifice of Christ, viewed under every aspect, was the measure of their relation with God in every way, and the basis of their communion in its inward efficacy upon the soul. But here, the sinner being viewed in his sin outside the camp, it was necessary first to lay the basis for the possibility of intercourse with God. This was done in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Then, being washed (the efficacious operation of the Spirit by the word), he can be in relationship.
[4] Note here how very distinctly the ground of introduction into the new christian place is stated in its completeness. Culpability is fully met, guilt removed, cleansing by blood as to all committed sins perfect, and the Holy Ghost given, giving competency for all that was to follow. The man stood, to apply the figure, personally on christian ground. The sin-offering and the burnt-offering go further, hence only the trespass-offering is used to introduce the leper and have him anointed.
[5] The fact of anointing the person comes after the trespass-offering. But this circumstance is of moment as shewing that it is Christ, in what He was in Person intrinsically—not the display of power, so as to say, "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come amongst you," but what He was in all His blessed life in perfectness to God and in love. This is what we feed on. Note here that what is said in verse 18 does not mean, I apprehend, that the oil in itself made an atonement, but the trespass-offering, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. But it is not the less true that the man was not there until he had been anointed with the oil; nor is a man in heart and conscience before God till he have received the Holy Ghost, though the ground and measure of all be the blood with which he is sprinkled. It is the same in verse 29. See what follows.
[6] This difference is important, and shews how the working of sin may be stopped, and the desires and will set right, and in a certain sense the affections, but the conscience not yet be restored; communion consequently not yet re-established, nor the blessed confidence and affections founded on it.