Undone by the Gospel

HOLY HOLY HOLY is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.

The above statement essentially summarizes my thoughts and feelings of the past few weeks. Lately I have been reading through the Old Testament. I have read it several times before but this has been the first in a while. My normal method of study has been to read a chapter at a time, take notes, and prayerfully consider them. This time I choose to break away from my routine to just read large chunks at a time, no stoping for notes but just writing questions as I go.  It has been amazing to look at the scriptures as a continuous whole. I’ve watched Abraham who was not a religious authority cling to nothing but faith in God, who promised him that his descendents would be a special people set apart. I’ve wrestled with why God would harden Pharoh”s heart over and over again resulting in the severe suffering of the Egyptians. I was deeply struck when God informed Moses that he was no longer going to travel with the Israelites because they were so rebelious and I was convicted when Moses told God that he would stay where God was because no amount of cultural separation would make them any different from the nations if God didn’t go with them. Already in my journey I was seeing the text point to Christ and the need for his coming, time and time again.

And then I reached the ceremonial laws for the tabernacle and sin offerings.

Everything in the Tabernacle, even to what the priests wore was symbolic of Christ and our desperate need for Him. I encountered the process for sacrificing a sin offering. For some reason I thought the priests did all the sacrificing in the tabernacle, I was wrong. The individual would bring the goat or lamb to the tabernacle and would lay one hand on the animal’s head and kill it with the other hand. Every person offered their own sin sacrifice and would have been faced with watching the life of an innocent animal be abruplty taken by the guilt of his own hand.

My thoughts came to a screeching hault.

I’ve had a good understanding of the gospel for a while now. I knew Jesus came to this earth because of our sin and that we need a savior to redeem us from that sin. But God radically rocked my world a few weeks ago and my life is still trembling. After reading the Leviticus passage about sin offerings I put on some worship music to meditate on what I just read. In my mind I pictured the sin offering and how I would feel having to kill an innocent animal for my sin. Then I saw my hand on the head of a perfect man kneeling before me. He willingly raised his head revealing his throat and as I looked into his eyes I cut his throat to atone for my sin.

I am undone.

Jesus is called the Lamb of God. He in His infinite wisdom, love, and glory died in our place. He paid our ransom and set us free from hell so that one day in eternity we can be with Him and give Him the glory He so rightly deserves.

It has taken me far too long to learn what it means to take up the cross daily and follow Him. What is life when compared with what happened on the cross? The fear of war suddenly vanishes, the worry about politics becomes inconsequential, the pain of illness is diminished, the knowledge that there are people out there who don’t know him becomes unbearable. The cross puts our priorities in order, pride ceases to exist and humility takes its place. Unfortunately, it is easy to wander from the cross which is why we are told to daily take up our cross and follow him. We are to daily remember our place and purpose and humbly walk through this life seeking to bring glory to the only one to whom it ever belonged.

Do you take up your cross daily and follow Jesus? Are you undone by the power of the Gospel? The Gospel is central to everything in the Bible and without it everything would lose its value. I urge you to read the scriptures with thoughts of the cross humbling your heart.

To God be the glory.

Offensive Love

Lets be honest, it is hard to look past sin and see the individual. It must be part of human nature to judge other’s faults, why else would it be so easy? I know that when I see what other people struggle with it makes me feel like I have my act together. Why do we place ourselves in a sin hierarchy? God says all sin is offensive to Him even if we deem the vice as something small. My sin is just as scummy as everyone else’s.

As believers why have we taken it upon ourselves to speak out against specific sins? Jesus didn’t do it that way, why do we? Don’t misunderstand me Jesus did speak against sin but He dealt with it by speaking to people face to face, He didn’t campaign. Jesus reached out to those struggling in sin by literally meeting them where they were. Jesus is compassionate but unwavering toward sin.

The Bible tells us to preach the truth in love and yet we condemn others because of our bad attitudes.  It is not okay for unbelievers to feel alienated because Christians have treated them with contempt. If someone is uncomfortable around me I hope that it is because I am living my life out according to the Word of God. People should be unsettled by the truth of the Scriptures. God uses His Word to convict us of sin so that we can repent and be renewed.

Shame on me if I offend someone because I treat them with distain (something I will be held accountable for), but if someone is offended by the truth of the Scriptures I will not apologize or stand down. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 states:”For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?”

May we have offensive love, not offensive attitudes.

Did Jesus really sacrifice anything?

A couple posts ago I wrote about a video I watched in which a pastor was confronting a controversial topic at a secular university. There was a question and answer time at the end and one of the questions in particular keeps popping up in my mind. One of the students was talking about Jesus’ death and asked the pastor how dying but returning to life three days later could be a sacrifice on Jesus’ part as he still was God and the ‘Ruler of the universe’. I can’t say that I was totally satisfied with the response the pastor gave and the whole idea of it has been bothering me.

Jesus was fully God and fully man, the bible expresses such. The image that jumps to my mind is that of The Prince and the Pauper. Jesus (God) taking the form of a man. I don’t care who you are it would be humiliating to go from being a king to a beggar but Jesus was God and was placed as the lowliest of the low on Earth. That in itself is a sacrifice.  So to have the ‘Ruler of the universe’ pay my penalty for the crimes I committed AGAINST HIM, yeah I would say that was a sacrifice. I mean seriously that would be like someone robbing me, but I accept the jail time and let the robber go free.  Jesus experienced torture, ridicule, and death so that I could have a chance to spend eternity with Him. That is love and the ultimate sacrifice, even if He was only dead three days.

After discussing this with my husband, he helped me to realize that what Jesus did was even deeper than just paying for our sins. He came to be our example. Jesus came so that we would see what a fulfilled life looks like. We as believers will follow after our Lord through death and then we also will be resurrected into new bodies to partake in the new heaven and earth. His actions were not only of redemption but also hope and encouragement so that we would know what comes next. Why fear death? Jesus defeated death and He promised His followers that we would join Him.