Leviticus 6:6

He was to give back what he had taken by force, or got by cheating, or been given to keep safe, or found after someone lost it. To that he added a fine of one fifth of its value. He handed all of it over to the person he had injured. But to the Lord he brought his offering, for it was against Him that he had trespassed, as the opening of this passage (6:2) declared. The injury done to his neighbour was a trespass against Jehovah.

When God's rights were broken, the blood of atonement was the great, prominent matter. But when a man's rights were harmed, restitution would naturally take the leading place in the mind. Yet this second case involved the soul's relation with God just as the first did. So the sacrifice comes in as well, though it comes last in order. If I wrong my fellow man, that wrong will surely interfere with my communion with God. That communion can only be restored on the ground of atonement. Mere restitution would not do. It might satisfy the injured man, but it could not restore communion with God. I might repay the principal and add the fifth ten thousand times over, and my sin would still remain, for "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). Still, when the injury is done to my neighbour, restitution must be made first.

Where fraud had taken place, restitution was a very healthy test of repentance. If a man tried to dodge it, the priest could not offer the trespass offering. The offering and the restitution had to go together.

For a trespass offering there was only one sacrifice appointed, whatever the trespass, with no cheaper option to suit the offender's means. A ram of the flock was the only sacrifice the law allowed. It was worth less than a bullock, but more than a lamb. The trespass showed that either God or man had been robbed of their rights. So a ram, which reminds us of consecration, was the fitting offering to appoint.

So the ram was the fitting animal to offer for the opposite problem, desecration. That was exactly the aspect of evil the trespass offering met. It was not simple wrong, which the sin offering covered, but treachery towards Jehovah. Moses' valuation "in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary" confirms this. Gold pictures divine righteousness in God's presence; silver pictures His grace.

The great thought pressed on us in the trespass offering is restitution — making good the harm done. The priest has to work out the amount in shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary. The estimate was to be a divine one, the priest giving God's judgment. But even that was not enough. A fifth part more still had to be added. God would have more good come out of the evil than there was before, not a mere putting back of things as they stood. That would not be worthy of Him.

This offering presents Christ who died for our sins and trespasses on the cross, restoring what He did not take away (Ps. 69:4). He has answered to God for our sins and paid our debt by His shed blood. He has also added the fifth part, as it were. There is now more glory to God and more blessing to man than there were before sin entered.