this passage. Though they bring it, the people are not permitted to slay the heifer; that is the peculiar office of the priest. The people made their offering indirectly (mediate), by the hand of the priest. And that is how it is today: “To propitiate God, we set Christ before his face. But it is necessary for Christ himself to come between and to discharge the office of a priest.”12 If these assertions were true, we would expect to see the ritual language and symbolism of the sacrificial rites applied
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