John Kleinig suggests in his commentary on Leviticus that 2 Cor 5:21 refers to Jesus’ fulfillment of the rites of Leviticus 4-5: “Even though Jesus was singless, God offered Jesus as the ‘sin offering’ for human sin. In this case Paul employs the term HAMARTIA alone, which the LXX also uses for a sin offering in Lev 4:21, 24; 5:12; 6:10 (ET 6:17). Influenced by the use of ASAH, ‘perform, make,’ as a ritual term in Leviticus, he maintains that God ‘made’ Jesus a sin offering . . . . Those who are in Christ therefore share in his righteousness. He took on their sin so that he could give them his purity.” This is intriguing in part because Paul moves from a Levitical typology to the language of justification. What, if any, is the warrant for this move in Leviticus? How does justification language work in the Levitical system?
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