Yom Kippur and the Kinsman Redeemer

If Jesus had a human father, He then was just a man. And if He was just a man, He couldn’t be our Saviour. And if He isn’t our Saviour, then there is no eternal life and forgiveness of our sins.

This is why Paul stated that if Jesus wasn’t our Saviour, our faith is worthless (1Corinthians 15.17; 1Corinthians 15.19) and we might as well eat and drink because tomorrow we die  (1Corinthians 15.32)!

This miraculous conception and the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ was a necessary sign proving His deity and preexistence (Isaiah 07.14; Isaiah 09.06; Galatians 04.04; 1Timothy 03.16).

Isaiah 07.14 “14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”

It is important that His name is “Immanuel”, because if He had not been Immanuel (meaning God with us), He could not have been Jesus the Saviour (Isaiah 07.14; Matthew 01.23)!

The Jews at this time all would know that a virgin giving birth was in fulfillment of Isaiah 07.14 and Jeremiah 31.22, and that it was a sign that the Messiah was now here! The fact that the Messiah would be virgin born was a sign that He was the Son of God, for a virgin giving birth is impossible unless it’s Divine!

To deny the virgin birth is to deny the Biblical proof that Jesus is both God (John 01.01; John 10.30; John 20.28; Romans 09.05; Philippians 02.06; Colossians 02.09; Titus 02.13; Hebrews 01.08; 2Peter 01.02; 1John 05.20) and man (John 01.14; Romans 01.03; Galatians 04.04; Philippians 02.07-08; 1Timothy 02.05; Hebrews 02.14; 1John 04.02; 2John 07).

David said that from the very beginning he was a sinner (Psalms 51.05). Paul describes our sinful condition in Ephesians 02.03. Because of our sin, we needed a Saviour. But an animal substitute was not sufficient, because the blood of animals cannot take away our sins.

Hebrews 10.01a “1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come…”

This is foreshadowing Jesus! Read the Book of Leviticus, and the whole book points to the work of Jesus and His substitutionary death for us.

Hebrews 10.01b “1 …and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Offering the sacrifices can never make us free from the guilt of sin. By offering sacrifices all it did was to remind the Jews how sinful they were (Hebrews 10.02-04). If the blood of animals would have been good enough, the writer of Hebrews is saying then that they would no longer have to offer sacrifices. All that the sacrifices did was to cover their sins; it never took away the guilty conscience that is within man. The writer of Hebrews here is referencing the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), which you can read about in great detail in Exodus 30.10, Leviticus 16.01-17.16 and Leviticus 23.16-32.

On this day, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies to offer a sacrifice of atonement on behalf of the nation to cover the sins of the nation from the previous year. The Hebrew word for atonement is (H3722) rpk kaphar kaw-far’; meaning to cover, to cancel, to purge away, to pardon and to make reconciliation.

Hebrews 10.04 The blood of the animals just merely covered our sin.

The perfect picture of this is after Adam and Eve sinned, the LORD took and killed an animal and used the skin of that animal to cover their nakedness (Genesis 03.21). This was the first blood sacrifice as the result of sin. In order for our sins to be completely forgiven and redeemed, we needed a kinsman redeemer (Leviticus 25.47-55; Ruth 03.01-04.13; Hebrews 02.11-18). The Hebrew word for “kinsman” (H1350) is lag ga’al gaw-al’; and it means to redeem, to buy back a relative’s property. The Book of Ruth provides a great picture of this when Boaz “redeemed” Ruth and Naomi (Ruth 03.01-04.13). But of course an even greater example is that of Jesus the Christ, our redeemer.

There are four requirements of a Kinsman Redeemer:

01. The kinsman redeemer had to be a blood relative

Jesus fulfilled this requirement in His incarnation, coming to be a man in flesh to show us our need for a Saviour (John 01.14; Romans 01.03; Romans 08.03; Galatians 04.04; Philippians 02.06-08; Hebrews 02.14-17; Hebrews 04.15).

02. The kinsman redeemer could not be in debt

Jesus came as a man, but He was without sin (Isaiah 53.09; 2Corinthians 05.21; Hebrews 04.15; Hebrews 07.26; 1Peter 02.22; 1John 03.05)!

03. The kinsman redeemer had to be able to pay the price of redemption

The price of redemption was the sinless man taking our place on the cross to appease the wrath of God (Matthew 27.54; Mark 01.01; Mark 03.11; Mark 15.39; Luke 01.35; John 01.34; John 01.49; Acts 08.37; 1John 05.13).

04. The kinsman redeemer had to be willing

Jesus came as a man willing to pay the price for redemption. This is why He was born, to purchase with His blood the redemption of mankind by His death (John 10.15-18; Philippians 02.06-08; 1John 03.16).

Besides fulfilling Scripture, and proving His deity, why was it important that Jesus was born of a virgin? Being conceived by the Holy Spirit means that He is both God and man, thus being able to be our kinsman redeemer, and fulfilling all the righteous demands against sinful people.

Paul tells the Roman church (Romans 03.25) that the death of Jesus is the final sacrifice that completely satisfied all of God’s righteous demands against sinful people, thus averting His wrath from those who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour (Romans 10.09-17).

Paul says that the death of Jesus on that Roman cross was Jesus becoming the blood sacrifice that paid for our sins, wiping out our sinful debt (Colossians 02.14) and thus reconciling us back to God (Colossians 01.20).

Jesus was our perfect Kinsman Redeemer, coming in our place to die on the cross for our sins. But if He just stopped there, Christianity would be like every other “religion”, following a great man who has now died. But it doesn’t end there! For after He was buried, on the third day He rose from the dead, conquering death so that we may have eternal life and fellowship with the Father!