Scripture Reading: Hebrews 13:10-16
Listen link: https://www.lcepc.org/blogger
If you wanted to live a perfect life, healthy, wealthy and wise, you could keep the whole law and do pretty well, much like that rich young ruler that Jesus met. But if you want to be saved and go to heaven, well, keeping the Law won’t get you that far. By the time you make a willful decision that you are going to keep the whole law, it’s already too late because of things that you did before that decision, unless you got a real early start and never sinned, never showed even an ounce of selfishness, even when you were a baby. And today, even if you become a Jew, now it really is impossible to keep all of God’s Law. There is no temple, no legal way to make animals sacrifices, not even in Jerusalem, because there is no God ordained place to bring your offerings.
So, if we can’t or won’t perfectly obey, and keeping the law once we get the idea won’t erase the sins we did before anyway, then what’s the use of the Law? Why did God even do that if he was just going to send Jesus to save us later? The short answer is, to show us God’s perfection and how far short we fall.
We can find in Scripture that there are at least two good uses of the Law, three if you count the second one as two. 1. It mirrors the glory of God, showing his perfections and revealing his character. 2. Though it can’t change the heart, it does act as a guide. And that goes in two directions. It can restrain evil by showing us what is wrong and to be avoided. And it can encourage right living by showing us what is good and healthy.
How does the Law mirror the glory of God? Consider one of the purification rituals. These rituals by the way, did not cause healing or cleansing. They were not the treatment, they were the public announcement that healing or cleaning had occurred so the afflicted could be restored to the community. The purification rituals show us the character of God and prepare us for the fulfillment of his plan of redemption. My example here is the purification ritual associated with announcing that a person was healed of disease or that the house or object had been cleansed of its mildew problem. Listen.
Leviticus 14:49-53 says, "To purify the house the priest must take two birds, a stick of cedar, some scarlet yarn, and a hyssop branch. He will slaughter one of the birds over a clay pot filled with fresh water. He will take the cedar stick, the hyssop branch, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, and dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird and into the fresh water. Then he will sprinkle the house seven times. When the priest has purified the house in exactly this way, he will release the live bird in the open fields outside the town. Through this process, the priest will purify the house, and it will be ceremonially clean."
Do you see Jesus? I see the cross in the stick of cedar. The scarlet yarn represents his robes dipped in blood. The hyssop branch, first of all, recalls the hyssop dipped in blood, used to paint the door frames of their houses the night before they left Egypt. It is also a prophecy of this: John 19:29 "A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips." (What's amazing is that the Romans did that, all unconscious of the precedent. Sure, you could brush it off and say it's a mere coincidence. But it is a divinely appointed one.)
Blood and water speak of this: John 19:34, "One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out." Sprinkling the house is both baptism and being washed in the blood.
But why are there two birds? This is a solemn ceremony. The owners of the house and probably many neighbors stood around while the priest did this awful thing. Take a poor innocent bird, ring its neck and tear it open to let its blood flow into the water. Then he put it aside somewhere, and everybody would feel sorry for the poor, dead, torn apart little creature. It hadn’t done anything to deserve this!
But it had to be done. Then near the end of the ritual, the living bird is released to fly away. Can't you just feel your spirit lifting too, as you see it in your imagination? Isn’t it a bit of rejoicing to see that free life taking wing? I think I would smile then and give thanks to God for his mercy! In these symbols it takes two birds, one to show the required death, one to show the resulting new life. The two birds represent death and resurrection. One to die, the other to live on after the cleansing ritual! Jesus did both together in his death and resurrection.
All these symbols have to be bundled together to tell the gospel of Jesus, who bundled it all together in his own perfect life, death and resurrection! The whole procedure must be followed exactly the same way every time so that the gospel story would never be distorted or forgotten, so that when it was fulfilled, everybody with the Spirit would say, "Aha! So that's why God made them do it that way! Praise be unto God!"
Another way that God’s perfection was shown was in the exacting requirements for when and where and how God could be approached safely. Worship was to be God centered and offerings and sacrifices were to take place only at the tabernacle and later the temple. Lev 17:8-9, “Give them this command as well. If any native Israelite or foreigner living among you offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tabernacle to offer it to the Lord, that person will be cut off from the community.”
God holds very high standards! If you want to live with him, you must be very obedient! Do not neglect the required ceremonies and sacrifices, or you're out! But God gave all these instructions, not to make it hard for them to satisfy him, but make it safe for his people to be with him.
The analogy here for me is sterilization. For the surgeon to be ready to operate and not spread infection, he, or she, has to be very careful to follow an exact procedure, following the steps in the right order, because a process has been developed to make sure that all bacteria are removed, and since they are invisible, you can't just look at yourself and see that you did a good job. You have to trust the process. Surgeons who get lazy and neglect the process endanger lives and can lose their license, or "be cut off" to use the Biblical language.
But the satan in the world fills our heads with lies that make worldly pleasures and goals we can attain in a few years seem more worthwhile than a life of obedience that takes a life time with not much visible result until after we die. And the world itself, broken as it is, is a whole 'nother source of discouragement and despair.
Just look at how even at the very start, God’s people fail! Before they even had a chance to forget, they ran roughshod over God’s holy plan, thinking that he wouldn’t care what they did. In Leviticus 10:1-2, right after they were ordained to priestly service, "Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. So, fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord."
Remember my analogy about humans in outer space? NASA astronauts take great care to go out in to space. If they don't dress properly and take special precautions with special preparations for space travel, they can't survive out there for even a minute! Full contact with outer space means instant death. Ordinary humans are not fit for outer space. But Nadab and Abihu tried it! They attempted to stand before the Lord without the proper safeguards and proved the real danger. Their offering back-fired! God didn't accept them as authorized priests. He fired them! He's good. But he's not safe. And yet we are safe in him, by his grace, if we believe in the provision he has made for us and trust the process.
There is a pattern to be seen also. Right at the beginning of creation, when all is good and perfect, Adam and Eve rebel. Right after Noah is safe again on dry land, he gets drunk, shames himself and ends up cursing his own son. Soon after Abram hears from God and moves to the Promised Land, in fear he moves on to Egypt and compounds his lack of faith by lying about his relationship with Sarai. While Moses is on Mt Sinai, the people cast a golden calf. On the very day that the new sacrificial system is instituted, a pair of priests most closely associated with the Holy Presence of God break the rules and fail to honor the seriousness of their calling and position.
All of these things happened even though God’s Laws are good for people for a number of reasons. And really, none of God's commandments and instructions are impossible to fulfill, just exacting and demanding. Disobedience does not arise because God's standards are too high, but because human hearts are too rebellious. The impossibility of keeping the Law is not the result of what God asks of us. The impossibility of keeping the Law is not in the Law, but is in our hearts. We find it impossible only because we do not even want to. We perceive the Law as burdensome and oppressive, not because it is, but because we are not interested in keeping it.
An athlete, especially a gold medal athlete, lives a very different life from that of an ordinary human. He or she keeps a set of "commandments" that will produce the desired result of a healthy, athletic body, able to accomplish amazing feats of strength and or agility. It is called training. We ordinary humans hear about the time consuming regimens of exercise and the refusal to consume certain foods for proper diet and might feel it impossible for us to live that way. We even say, “Ohh! I could never do that!” But it is not true that we can’t. Just that we won’t, don’t want to, not interested.
But those humans who love their sport readily accept and obey all the commandments and instructions of coaches and trainers. Similarly, if we really love our God, we would not see his commandments and instructions as burdensome. We would see them as a desirable regimen, training us in holiness and fitting us for heaven! That's even better than a gold medal! But, as it is with us and God, we constantly let him down.
He, on the other hand, constantly forgives and faithfully keeps his covenant in spite of his right to forget the whole thing. He has just cause to destroy us all. But he has a merciful heart to keep on loving and providing for us. And finally, Jesus did perfectly all that we never barely even tried to do for ourselves! Now we are safe in him! Praise be to God for his wonderful grace! And if we have received his Holy Spirit we will never be cavalier about our safety, but only grateful as we maintain a constant awareness of our ongoing sin and that we don't deserve to be so happy.
In Leviticus, we read through 22 chapters about rules and regulations. Then comes the festivals. Isn’t that interesting? God sets up all the demands to make it safe to be near him, and then orders them to celebrate! Once we are safe around him, God wants us to enjoy his company!
If we had time to do a study of each festival, we could see how each one tells the gospel story, or part of the plan of redemption, in symbol form. And all of them are fulfilled by Jesus, or will be one day, in one way or another. The biggest one of all gets special attention. It is so important that it is spelled out for us back in Leviticus 16. That’s because it also functions as the biggest public announcement of God’s provision for sin so that we dwell with him safely.
It’s the day of atonement, with all its rules and regulations and the careful steps that must be taken. This festival is one of the clearest examples of the space travel type of care that must be taken before assuming you’re safe. God even says, “If he [the priest] follows all these instructions, he will not die.”
The day of atonement is the once a year festival of general cleansing. It covers all the unknown, unintentional, accidental sins that the people have committed during the year, because in God’s sight, even if you don’t realize you have sinned you are still guilty of any sin you committed without knowing it or without knowing it was sin. It was called a day of purification. “On that day offerings of purification will be made for you, and you will be purified in the Lord’s presence from all your sins. It will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. This is a permanent law for you.”
For Jews and Christians alike, the place where we find forgiveness of sins is before the altar of worship, where the blood of the sacrifice is presented to God, by a priest, acting on behalf of the people. In the Old Testament, this ritual was presented by imperfect priests. They were part of the people. Their sins had to be forgiven too. So, they offered the blood of animals over and over, but only as a sort of rehearsal for that which would be the real deal. Jesus is the real deal.
We learn a lot about this in the book of Hebrews. Chapter 7:26-28 says, “Jesus is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins. The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness. But after the law was given, God appointed his Son with an oath, and his Son has been made the perfect High Priest forever.”
The reason such a sacrifice for sin was needed was because people sin. We are not holy by nature, but have to be made so, by God’s grace. And holiness demands perfection! We may look back on the Old Testament Laws, especially the ritualized food offerings of meat and grain and give thanks that we do not have to worship in what must have been close to looking like a slaughterhouse! And we may be used to thinking that the Old Testament Law was impossible to keep because its perfectionistic demands were really just too much for ordinary humans. But that is not the case. In fact, the Bible does not say anywhere in its pages that is it impossible to keep the whole law. It does say no one but Jesus has ever done it.
The Bible does not say it is impossible for us to keep all the Laws. It does say that we don’t, because we won’t. Also, let us confess that rules and regulations seem burdensome to us. We really rejoice in our freedom in Christ! But that is no excuse for laziness in our devotion. In the New Testament, the Church still gives instructions about diligence and discipline. 2 Timothy 2:15 "Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth."
Philippians 3:12 "I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me."
Philippians 3:14 "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
Every Christian is called to this. In a very real and practical sense, people who think they are Christian and hope for salvation, but don't tend to their spiritual lives by disciplined reading and prayer, are "cut off" from God! Since they are not keeping the lines of communication open, they cut themselves off from hearing from God.
There is something that is impossible for us with regard to the Law. We can’t make ourselves right with God by keeping the Law. In Hebrews 10:4 for example, “It is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The only real cure for the fatal disease called sin, is a "heart transplant." Fortunately for us, living in the age of grace, we know the gospel and are saved by Grace though faith alone! Now, we know that we don't have to keep the whole law in order to be saved. Yay! Halellujah! And even in the old days, some people, like King David for example, know that forgiveness was really a matter of God’s grace. He wrote Psalm 40:6, “You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand— you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.”
When we sin, we still need to repent, to confess our sin before God and say "sorry"; we still need to offer a sacrifice and ask for His forgiveness, but instead of bringing a lamb as a burnt offering, we point to Jesus and remember what he has done for us on the cross and ask God to apply Jesus' sacrifice in our place. By faith, we claim forgiveness trusting in God's mercy and faithfulness (1 John 1:9) and He applies the blood of Jesus to our case, so that we can become clean before Him.
Are you weighed down under the burden of sin in your life? Do you feel it pressing in upon you day by day? Know that God has provided the full and perfect sacrifice for you in Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ. Turn to Him and claim that peace and forgiveness that He purchased for you with His own blood and trust Him forever.
Thank you Lord, for you wide welcome! Thank you Lord for showing us how important we are to you! May we make our lives demonstrate how important you are to us! In Jesus' name, amen.
Listen link: https://www.lcepc.org/blogger
If you wanted to live a perfect life, healthy, wealthy and wise, you could keep the whole law and do pretty well, much like that rich young ruler that Jesus met. But if you want to be saved and go to heaven, well, keeping the Law won’t get you that far. By the time you make a willful decision that you are going to keep the whole law, it’s already too late because of things that you did before that decision, unless you got a real early start and never sinned, never showed even an ounce of selfishness, even when you were a baby. And today, even if you become a Jew, now it really is impossible to keep all of God’s Law. There is no temple, no legal way to make animals sacrifices, not even in Jerusalem, because there is no God ordained place to bring your offerings.
So, if we can’t or won’t perfectly obey, and keeping the law once we get the idea won’t erase the sins we did before anyway, then what’s the use of the Law? Why did God even do that if he was just going to send Jesus to save us later? The short answer is, to show us God’s perfection and how far short we fall.
We can find in Scripture that there are at least two good uses of the Law, three if you count the second one as two. 1. It mirrors the glory of God, showing his perfections and revealing his character. 2. Though it can’t change the heart, it does act as a guide. And that goes in two directions. It can restrain evil by showing us what is wrong and to be avoided. And it can encourage right living by showing us what is good and healthy.
How does the Law mirror the glory of God? Consider one of the purification rituals. These rituals by the way, did not cause healing or cleansing. They were not the treatment, they were the public announcement that healing or cleaning had occurred so the afflicted could be restored to the community. The purification rituals show us the character of God and prepare us for the fulfillment of his plan of redemption. My example here is the purification ritual associated with announcing that a person was healed of disease or that the house or object had been cleansed of its mildew problem. Listen.
Leviticus 14:49-53 says, "To purify the house the priest must take two birds, a stick of cedar, some scarlet yarn, and a hyssop branch. He will slaughter one of the birds over a clay pot filled with fresh water. He will take the cedar stick, the hyssop branch, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, and dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird and into the fresh water. Then he will sprinkle the house seven times. When the priest has purified the house in exactly this way, he will release the live bird in the open fields outside the town. Through this process, the priest will purify the house, and it will be ceremonially clean."
Do you see Jesus? I see the cross in the stick of cedar. The scarlet yarn represents his robes dipped in blood. The hyssop branch, first of all, recalls the hyssop dipped in blood, used to paint the door frames of their houses the night before they left Egypt. It is also a prophecy of this: John 19:29 "A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips." (What's amazing is that the Romans did that, all unconscious of the precedent. Sure, you could brush it off and say it's a mere coincidence. But it is a divinely appointed one.)
Blood and water speak of this: John 19:34, "One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out." Sprinkling the house is both baptism and being washed in the blood.
But why are there two birds? This is a solemn ceremony. The owners of the house and probably many neighbors stood around while the priest did this awful thing. Take a poor innocent bird, ring its neck and tear it open to let its blood flow into the water. Then he put it aside somewhere, and everybody would feel sorry for the poor, dead, torn apart little creature. It hadn’t done anything to deserve this!
But it had to be done. Then near the end of the ritual, the living bird is released to fly away. Can't you just feel your spirit lifting too, as you see it in your imagination? Isn’t it a bit of rejoicing to see that free life taking wing? I think I would smile then and give thanks to God for his mercy! In these symbols it takes two birds, one to show the required death, one to show the resulting new life. The two birds represent death and resurrection. One to die, the other to live on after the cleansing ritual! Jesus did both together in his death and resurrection.
All these symbols have to be bundled together to tell the gospel of Jesus, who bundled it all together in his own perfect life, death and resurrection! The whole procedure must be followed exactly the same way every time so that the gospel story would never be distorted or forgotten, so that when it was fulfilled, everybody with the Spirit would say, "Aha! So that's why God made them do it that way! Praise be unto God!"
Another way that God’s perfection was shown was in the exacting requirements for when and where and how God could be approached safely. Worship was to be God centered and offerings and sacrifices were to take place only at the tabernacle and later the temple. Lev 17:8-9, “Give them this command as well. If any native Israelite or foreigner living among you offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tabernacle to offer it to the Lord, that person will be cut off from the community.”
God holds very high standards! If you want to live with him, you must be very obedient! Do not neglect the required ceremonies and sacrifices, or you're out! But God gave all these instructions, not to make it hard for them to satisfy him, but make it safe for his people to be with him.
The analogy here for me is sterilization. For the surgeon to be ready to operate and not spread infection, he, or she, has to be very careful to follow an exact procedure, following the steps in the right order, because a process has been developed to make sure that all bacteria are removed, and since they are invisible, you can't just look at yourself and see that you did a good job. You have to trust the process. Surgeons who get lazy and neglect the process endanger lives and can lose their license, or "be cut off" to use the Biblical language.
But the satan in the world fills our heads with lies that make worldly pleasures and goals we can attain in a few years seem more worthwhile than a life of obedience that takes a life time with not much visible result until after we die. And the world itself, broken as it is, is a whole 'nother source of discouragement and despair.
Just look at how even at the very start, God’s people fail! Before they even had a chance to forget, they ran roughshod over God’s holy plan, thinking that he wouldn’t care what they did. In Leviticus 10:1-2, right after they were ordained to priestly service, "Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. So, fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord."
Remember my analogy about humans in outer space? NASA astronauts take great care to go out in to space. If they don't dress properly and take special precautions with special preparations for space travel, they can't survive out there for even a minute! Full contact with outer space means instant death. Ordinary humans are not fit for outer space. But Nadab and Abihu tried it! They attempted to stand before the Lord without the proper safeguards and proved the real danger. Their offering back-fired! God didn't accept them as authorized priests. He fired them! He's good. But he's not safe. And yet we are safe in him, by his grace, if we believe in the provision he has made for us and trust the process.
There is a pattern to be seen also. Right at the beginning of creation, when all is good and perfect, Adam and Eve rebel. Right after Noah is safe again on dry land, he gets drunk, shames himself and ends up cursing his own son. Soon after Abram hears from God and moves to the Promised Land, in fear he moves on to Egypt and compounds his lack of faith by lying about his relationship with Sarai. While Moses is on Mt Sinai, the people cast a golden calf. On the very day that the new sacrificial system is instituted, a pair of priests most closely associated with the Holy Presence of God break the rules and fail to honor the seriousness of their calling and position.
All of these things happened even though God’s Laws are good for people for a number of reasons. And really, none of God's commandments and instructions are impossible to fulfill, just exacting and demanding. Disobedience does not arise because God's standards are too high, but because human hearts are too rebellious. The impossibility of keeping the Law is not the result of what God asks of us. The impossibility of keeping the Law is not in the Law, but is in our hearts. We find it impossible only because we do not even want to. We perceive the Law as burdensome and oppressive, not because it is, but because we are not interested in keeping it.
An athlete, especially a gold medal athlete, lives a very different life from that of an ordinary human. He or she keeps a set of "commandments" that will produce the desired result of a healthy, athletic body, able to accomplish amazing feats of strength and or agility. It is called training. We ordinary humans hear about the time consuming regimens of exercise and the refusal to consume certain foods for proper diet and might feel it impossible for us to live that way. We even say, “Ohh! I could never do that!” But it is not true that we can’t. Just that we won’t, don’t want to, not interested.
But those humans who love their sport readily accept and obey all the commandments and instructions of coaches and trainers. Similarly, if we really love our God, we would not see his commandments and instructions as burdensome. We would see them as a desirable regimen, training us in holiness and fitting us for heaven! That's even better than a gold medal! But, as it is with us and God, we constantly let him down.
He, on the other hand, constantly forgives and faithfully keeps his covenant in spite of his right to forget the whole thing. He has just cause to destroy us all. But he has a merciful heart to keep on loving and providing for us. And finally, Jesus did perfectly all that we never barely even tried to do for ourselves! Now we are safe in him! Praise be to God for his wonderful grace! And if we have received his Holy Spirit we will never be cavalier about our safety, but only grateful as we maintain a constant awareness of our ongoing sin and that we don't deserve to be so happy.
In Leviticus, we read through 22 chapters about rules and regulations. Then comes the festivals. Isn’t that interesting? God sets up all the demands to make it safe to be near him, and then orders them to celebrate! Once we are safe around him, God wants us to enjoy his company!
If we had time to do a study of each festival, we could see how each one tells the gospel story, or part of the plan of redemption, in symbol form. And all of them are fulfilled by Jesus, or will be one day, in one way or another. The biggest one of all gets special attention. It is so important that it is spelled out for us back in Leviticus 16. That’s because it also functions as the biggest public announcement of God’s provision for sin so that we dwell with him safely.
It’s the day of atonement, with all its rules and regulations and the careful steps that must be taken. This festival is one of the clearest examples of the space travel type of care that must be taken before assuming you’re safe. God even says, “If he [the priest] follows all these instructions, he will not die.”
The day of atonement is the once a year festival of general cleansing. It covers all the unknown, unintentional, accidental sins that the people have committed during the year, because in God’s sight, even if you don’t realize you have sinned you are still guilty of any sin you committed without knowing it or without knowing it was sin. It was called a day of purification. “On that day offerings of purification will be made for you, and you will be purified in the Lord’s presence from all your sins. It will be a Sabbath day of complete rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. This is a permanent law for you.”
For Jews and Christians alike, the place where we find forgiveness of sins is before the altar of worship, where the blood of the sacrifice is presented to God, by a priest, acting on behalf of the people. In the Old Testament, this ritual was presented by imperfect priests. They were part of the people. Their sins had to be forgiven too. So, they offered the blood of animals over and over, but only as a sort of rehearsal for that which would be the real deal. Jesus is the real deal.
We learn a lot about this in the book of Hebrews. Chapter 7:26-28 says, “Jesus is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins. The law appointed high priests who were limited by human weakness. But after the law was given, God appointed his Son with an oath, and his Son has been made the perfect High Priest forever.”
The reason such a sacrifice for sin was needed was because people sin. We are not holy by nature, but have to be made so, by God’s grace. And holiness demands perfection! We may look back on the Old Testament Laws, especially the ritualized food offerings of meat and grain and give thanks that we do not have to worship in what must have been close to looking like a slaughterhouse! And we may be used to thinking that the Old Testament Law was impossible to keep because its perfectionistic demands were really just too much for ordinary humans. But that is not the case. In fact, the Bible does not say anywhere in its pages that is it impossible to keep the whole law. It does say no one but Jesus has ever done it.
The Bible does not say it is impossible for us to keep all the Laws. It does say that we don’t, because we won’t. Also, let us confess that rules and regulations seem burdensome to us. We really rejoice in our freedom in Christ! But that is no excuse for laziness in our devotion. In the New Testament, the Church still gives instructions about diligence and discipline. 2 Timothy 2:15 "Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth."
Philippians 3:12 "I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me."
Philippians 3:14 "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
Every Christian is called to this. In a very real and practical sense, people who think they are Christian and hope for salvation, but don't tend to their spiritual lives by disciplined reading and prayer, are "cut off" from God! Since they are not keeping the lines of communication open, they cut themselves off from hearing from God.
There is something that is impossible for us with regard to the Law. We can’t make ourselves right with God by keeping the Law. In Hebrews 10:4 for example, “It is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The only real cure for the fatal disease called sin, is a "heart transplant." Fortunately for us, living in the age of grace, we know the gospel and are saved by Grace though faith alone! Now, we know that we don't have to keep the whole law in order to be saved. Yay! Halellujah! And even in the old days, some people, like King David for example, know that forgiveness was really a matter of God’s grace. He wrote Psalm 40:6, “You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand— you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.”
When we sin, we still need to repent, to confess our sin before God and say "sorry"; we still need to offer a sacrifice and ask for His forgiveness, but instead of bringing a lamb as a burnt offering, we point to Jesus and remember what he has done for us on the cross and ask God to apply Jesus' sacrifice in our place. By faith, we claim forgiveness trusting in God's mercy and faithfulness (1 John 1:9) and He applies the blood of Jesus to our case, so that we can become clean before Him.
Are you weighed down under the burden of sin in your life? Do you feel it pressing in upon you day by day? Know that God has provided the full and perfect sacrifice for you in Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ. Turn to Him and claim that peace and forgiveness that He purchased for you with His own blood and trust Him forever.
Thank you Lord, for you wide welcome! Thank you Lord for showing us how important we are to you! May we make our lives demonstrate how important you are to us! In Jesus' name, amen.
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