John Calvin Commentary Leviticus 6:7

"and the priest shall make atonement for him before Jehovah; and he shall be forgiven concerning whatsoever he doeth so as to be guilty thereby." — Leviticus 6:7 (ASV)

And the priest shall make an atonement. From this frequently occurring expression, we must also learn that the victim in itself was not the price of redemption, but that expiation was founded on the priesthood.

For they have foolishly and falsely invented the notion that people accomplish something themselves in the sacraments,²⁷³ whereas their power and effect come from an entirely different source. The offering, therefore, properly speaking, is passive rather than active concerning humanity.²⁷⁴

The significance of this will be more clearly understood from the delusion of the Papists. They are indeed compelled to acknowledge that in the sacraments people are passive, insofar as they receive the grace offered to them there; but they immediately pervert this doctrine by inventing their opus operatum, as they call it.

But, lest the people should think that they bring the price of their redemption from their own resources (domo), Moses constantly impresses that it is the unique role of the priest to appease God and to erase sin by expiation.

It is also noteworthy that he adds, before the Lord, for by this phrase the profane notion is refuted—that people are cleansed by the legal sacrifices only in a civil sense, as they say, i.e., before other people, as if there were no spiritual promise included in them.

Now, if this were so, the forefathers would have been confirmed in their confidence of pardon by no external symbols, which is utterly absurd. But by this one phrase all ambiguity is removed, when Moses declares that they were absolved before the Lord.

²⁷³ “Qui’ls apportassent rien du leur aux sacremens;” that they bring something of their own to the sacraments. — ;” that they bring something of their own to the sacraments. — Fr.

²⁷⁴ Addition in Fr., “c’est a dire, qu’il n’y apporte rien du sien, mais qu’il y recoit;” that is, that he brings nothing of his own to it, but receives something from it.;” that is, that he brings nothing of his own to it, but receives something from it.

Likewise this is the law. I have just confessed that I do not sufficiently understand how these two words, חטאה, chateah, and אשם, asham, differ from each other; and I have therefore followed the sense which is commonly received, and called them the sin and the trespass-offering (hostiam pro peccato vel pro delicto.). Although in this second kind of offering he commands the same ceremony to be observed as in the former one, yet he mentions some things which he had previously omitted, such as the sprinkling of blood around the altar, the offering of the fat, kidneys, and so on, which had not been previously expressed. The sum amounts to this: that they were to sacrifice in the same manner and with the same rites for sin as for trespass, and make not the smallest alteration in the rule laid down for them.