SALVATION IS ONLY THROUGH CHRIST

 

Leviticus 5 makes clear that when a sin offering is properly made, the underlying sin "shall be forgiven."  See, e.g., Lev. 5:16.  Thus, if you were a real stickler for the continuing efficacy of the law as a means to salvation, you might argue something like this.  Sacrificial offerings remove the underlying sin. In other words, God forgives the sinner his or her sins once the sin offering is made. Thus, each year when the Jewish priest offers atonement, the people are cleansed of all their sins and for that nanosecond stand perfect before God. Thus, the argument would go, why do we need Christ, risen of otherwise, since we can through this ritual attain purity from our sins, if only for a brief instant, on our own? The problem with this argument is that even if it is true for a brief moment in time that all our sins are forgiven through the rituals and prescriptions of the law, that is not enough to save us. For that we need to become new creatures.  See, e.g., Cor. 15:50-52:

 "Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery.  We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.… "   

Only Christ's death and resurrection enables us to become new creatures acceptable to God.

 As an aside, many believers have a problem with 1 Cor. 6: 9:  "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?"  They wonder:  Aren't we all wrongdoers, and if so how can we ever get to heaven since even with grace we still sin?  In the Greek the language of 1 Cor. 6: 9, with reference to sinners, and 1 Cor. 15: 50, with reference to flesh and blood, is identical ("shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.")  Thus, what Christ's resurrection offers us is the opportunity not just for forgiveness of sins, but to become new creatures, which we must be to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  See John 3: 3:  "Unless you are born again, you shall not enter the Kingdom of God.     

 Lev. 16:22 states that the scapegoat is sent out into a "Land not inhabited."  KJV.  The LXX uses the term abaton, which means "untrodden, inaccessible, impassable, desolate, not to be trodden, waste lands, desert."  Lust, A Greek—English Lexicon of the Septuagint.  This tells us that Christ's journey on our behalf was not accessible to us. In other words, only He could have done it.