Continued from Chapter 11f
Availability of God’s forgiveness
As we have seen, the sacrificial system is a part of one method the Almighty provides for attaining forgiveness of sin. Biblically, a Jew could generally obtain forgiveness through sacrifice accompanied by repentant prayer, repentant prayer alone, or out of the pure mercy of God. A blood sacrifice in itself was never the sole means of atonement, but a portion of a larger process.
The prophet Hosea states: “For I desire loving-kindness, and not sacrifices, and knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). Loving-kindness and showing knowledge of God are greater than any blood sacrifice. Without knowledge of God, there is no belief in Him. It is belief in God and putting one’s faith in Him, and not the offering of a blood sacrifice that biblically establishes a relationship with God. Today, Jewish people without Temple, active priesthood, or animal offering, by faith in God, by coming to Him with contrite repentant prayer, maintain their biblically based relationship with Him. Simply put, a Jewish relationship with God is based on belief and trust in the Almighty. The role of Torah is crucial in having this relationship.
The purpose of Torah is not simply to save individuals from sin. Its primary purpose is to bring into existence God’s promise that through the Torah the Jewish people become “a holy people before God” (Deuteronomy 26:19). When the individual Jew acknowledges God’s preeminence and accepts upon himself God’s commandments he identifies himself with God and establishes a relationship with the Almighty. Atonement is then open to the person of faith.
How can a Jew today receive forgiveness of sins?
Repentance and not bloodshed is the quintessential biblical form of atonement valid in all generations. When a Jew sins, he/she may come before God in sincere repentance to receive forgiveness through contrite prayer. “Yet even now, says the Lord, turn back to Me with all your hearts, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation” (Joel 2:12; Esther 4:3). Although the Temple stood when these words were enunciated, there is no mention of a blood offering. Instead, there is a call to: “Blow the shofar in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly” (verse 15) and to, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar” (verse 17).
Indeed, the offer to humble oneself before God and be reconciled to Him is made to all humankind. Some moral precepts of Torah, the Noahide Commandments, are incumbent on Gentiles. These are the natural laws which any just person can be expected to follow by observation and reason. Minimally, non-Jews are to live by moral and civil rules and establish the proper institutions necessary to uphold the basic structure of society. For example, a tone of righteousness and mercy is to be set in relationships of human to human and human to animal life in the command to abstain from eating flesh from a living animal (Genesis 9:4), have responsibility to maintain the sanctity of life, whether one’s own or someone else’s (Genesis 9:5), and to have respect for human life, which entails prescribing capital punishment for murder (Genesis 9:6).5 On a deeper spiritual level, non-Jews may also establish a personal relationship with God (2 Kings 5:15-18) and find remission of sin through sincere repentance (Jonah 3:5-10, Daniel 4:27).6 But, it was not necessary for a person to become a Jew to be righteous and have a place in the world to come.
God’s relationship with the Jewish people is unique, but does not preclude God’s concern about all humanity. Thus, God declares through the prophet, “And there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:21-22).
Continued