Page 45 - The Marriage Covenant

Leviticus 17:11
For the life (nephesh) of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement for your souls (nephesh): for it is the blood that maketh
an atonement for the soul (nephesh).
KJV

A very deep principle is revealed in this verse. If the translators had been consistent
in the translation of the Hebrew word nephesh, they would have written something similar
to the following:

For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make
atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.

The following describes the logic of what is stated.

Ezekiel 18:4
The soul who sins will die.

This same truth is expressed in the New Testament.

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

The wages of sin is death. Death is always the consequence of sin. This is an
unalterable law of the universe. Yahweh will not wink at the sin of man. He will not excuse
it. The holiness and righteousness of God requires that sin always bears the consequence
of death.
Yahweh will not alter this “law of sin and death.” Yet, in His mercy, He has graciously
provided man with a substitute. In the Old Testament the soul of a beast could be offered
up in place of the soul of a man. This is what atonement was all about. The blood of an
animal was sprinkled upon the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies on The Day of Atonement.
The sins of the people were before God’s eyes on that day, and the High Priest was making
an offering for the people of God. In bringing the blood of bulls and goats he was entreating
Yahweh to accept the soul of the animal in the place of man’s soul.
Man deserved to die, for he had sinned. It was Yahweh’s mercy that permitted another
to die in the place of man. We know that such offerings had to be made year after year, for
they were imperfect. When Yahweh sent His Son to the earth to be offered up in the place
of man, to shed His blood, and to place it upon the Mercy Seat in that Tabernacle whose
original is in heaven, then the perfect sacrifice had been made. God had exchanged the soul
of His Son in place of man’s soul, that man might live.

Hebrews 9:11-14
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered
through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His
own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal