This Easter I hope to invite you into refreshing your relationship with God. To know that it was God the Father who sent his son Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. We deserve to perish because we disobey our heavenly father, but have been given a clean slate if we only trust that Jesus is our Lord and savior. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God is infinitely holy (Isa 6:3, Rev 4:8) and He is righteous (Neh 9:32-33, 2 Thes 1:6). Since all of us have sinned and fallen short we must be punished for our sin (Ezek 18:4, Rom 4:15, Rom 6:23). God could not be a just and righteous God if He did not hold us accountable for the wrong acts that we have done. We cannot ourselves ever make up for the sins that we have committed against our holy Creator. (Gal 2:16, 21, Rom 8:23) This is why God sent his son to die on the cross. This sacrifice was the highest form of love – agape. We were promised that we will have a savior at the time of Adam and Eve just after the fall of man. (Gen 3:15) What an awesome God we have—one who loves us so much to die for us. Keep from thinking that God loves us unconditionally. This is a false pretense that can lead to destruction. God loves us more than we can ever understand, but it is a conditional love. Contrary to the many sermons and books and messages that are out there, God’s love is conditional—on the condition that you believe that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. (John 3:36, Rom2:5,8, Eph 5:6) There are some who believe that God will save all. This is dangerous because the Bible does not teach this. It is unbiblical to state that God will save us all no matter what. We are a fallen race. All humans are guilty of sin.
We must remember that the punishment for sin is death. In the Old Testament, people were under the Mosaic Law. This law entailed a lot of sacrifices of animals for sins. You cannot pay for sins by means of sacrificing animals. They knew as well as we know that these sacrifices were not to pay for their sin in full. This was in essence a “down payment” until the Messiah came. We need to know that these animals do not have a spirit. They have the life blood, but when an animal dies it dies. When people die, our fleshly body dies but our spirit does not. We need to know that an animal’s blood could never and would never make atonement for our sins; only Jesus can atone for our sins. (Rom 8:3) This is why Jesus is regarded as the Lamb of God. (John 1:35-36) Why is this? This title is given because Jesus is sinless; He could not and did not sin. (2 Cor 5:21, 1 Pet 2:22) It is against God’s character to sin. Jesus was tempted in every way. (Matt 4:1, Heb 2:18, Heb 4:15) But He never sinned. When He died on the cross, all need for sacrifices ceased. Jesus is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for sin. In Exodus 12:11-13, the spreading of the lamb’s blood over the door posts was used for a protection of the Hebrews. This is an early depiction of how the lamb’s blood would save us from a spiritual death. So when we think of sacrifices of the animals that were described in the Old Testament, we must know that this death is not of one of bleeding to death like the sacrifices described in the Old Testament, but for the soul to die. The apostle John tells us that Jesus says “It is finished” while He was on the cross and then he gave up his spirit. (John 19:30) And Luke records Jesus’ spirit being released by saying “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46) He gave up His spirit to propitiate, or to have God the Father appease the wrath and reconcile our sins. (Rom 3:25, Heb 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10)
So not only has Jesus ended sacrifices, paid for our sins in full, but he has allowed us to have a relationship with God the Father. There were very strict commandments and instructions to be followed. It was Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who offered unauthorized fire before the Lord God and fire came out and consumed them. (Lev 10:1-2) They did not take God’s commandments seriously. Remember that there were only very few people that were allowed access to the Holy Place in the Tabernacle Tent and let alone the Most Holy Place. The Holy Place was where only few were permitted to go. And it was in the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where God would descend and dwell. Only the High Priest was allowed to go into the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle Tent and he was only allowed in there once a year—the Day of Atonement. Jesus is the High Priest (Heb 5-6) and it was He who made atonement for our sins. He fulfilled scriptures by tearing that veil. This is crucial! The veil that existed during the Old Testament days is no longer there for Christians. God tore the veil from top to bottom. (Luke 23:45) Christianity is the only religion where God reaches down to man. All other religions man tries to get to God; all other religions man tries to earn the way to heaven. You cannot earn your way to heaven. It is by grace and grace alone can you get to the heavenly God and it is He and only He that gives you that grace. Because God ripped that veil, He allowed us to get to Him.
We are blessed to see the Old Testament and New Testament together. We see what the Hebrews had to go through for their sin. We actually have it easy. I think that sometimes we forget about God because we don’t literally see His works. But we must remember that God is still present in our daily lives. We must continue to have a relationship with Him. We need to remember that it was Jesus, His Son, who made that possible by dying a horrific death so we could live an eternal life with Him in heaven. Please spread God’s word. You are commanded to do so. And let the truth be known.
-God Bless
No comments:
Post a Comment