I know I've used this pic before, but I love it!Ok, This might be a little scattered since I don't have my thoughts completely pulled together on this.
Last night at Bible Study we talked about the book of Hebrews. It's reoccuring theme is "better". The new dispensation of grace is better than the old law. I think the people who practiced the old mosaic law must have had a really neat perspective on this.
Don't get me wrong. To go from a "to-do list" to a 24/7 lifestyle of worship and relationship couldn't have been easy, and it wasn't easy for them according to Hebrews. At the same time, once they accepted that Christ was a "better" sacrifice than ANY of the sacrifices they could offer, what a freeing truth. No longer do we have to accept the inevitability of sin and just "plan" on sacrificing another lamb or dove or whatever. Now we have the Spirit of God. We have the power of Christ that we're encouraged/commanded to tap into!
The blood of animals could never cover sins. All they could do was remind them of sins. Now there's been a sacrifice that covers and washes away every sin that a believer has ever or will ever commit. (Except the sin of Apostacy: forsaking your belief) What an awesome thought. Christ took care of it. Our part comes in taking advantage of that gift that he's holding out to us.
The old law didn't encourage or require a relationship with God. It required obedience to a set of rules. As long as you followed those rules, things were fine. If you did this sin, you sacrificed this animal, if you did this other sin, you sacrificed this other animal. In this setting the people had no power to overcome. They just trusted in the sacrifice to make up for it. They lost their focus on "DON'T SIN". God is SO much more pleased with obedience than sacrifice after disobedience. (think Saul)
Praise God that we have the ability to tap into the power today! Through Christ Jesus every one of us can stand spotless before the throne!! Not because we're perfect, but because we've had Christ's righteousness imputed upon us!! We've been veiled in His cloak of righteousness!
Thank you Jesus for being willing to stoop infinitely low to come to earth and suffer and die and rise again for me. May I strive to live in constant worship of you by the grace you so freely give!
In Jesus Name,
Amen
I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I wrote here. I definitely don't have it all sorted out in my mind!
10 comments:
Luke:
You may not feel like your thoughts were neatly put together, but what you conveyed came across perfectly. Sometimes when our emotions and fire for God are running high, we tend to write purely what's on our hearts (if you noticed my post right after I got back from camp, that's how I was functioning)... and the tendency then is to offer up a very honest, pure depiction of what has really been laid on your heart.
I too, love that picture, because it gives us a comprehendable idea of God's abounding love and grace that He pours upon us every day. Every hour. Every second of our lives: if we let him.
I love the way that you presented our Savior to us today: that it's no longer about rules and restrictions, but love and worship, grace and mercy. Thank you, Luke, for letting God work through you to be a daily reminder to the rest of us of just how much our Father loves us... that he would be the ultimate sacrifice so that we can be free.
Thank you Jesus!
Sorry about the multiple posts Luke, your site and I were "wrastlin'" for quite some time... doesn't like me very much today ;)
It is pretty amazing, the freedom we've been given in Christ's sacrifice.
Sometimes when I think about the Law, I wonder how they really dealt with all that. There were so many restrictions on what was sacrificed when for what sins and the animals had to be just right... and there were people who could "afford" to sacrifice more, and then there were people who didn't have money and didn't have a lot of animals, and I wonder if they had a hard time paying for the sacrifices they needed to offer.
And today, Christ offers Himself as a sacrifice...free! All He asks of us is our love and obedience...
And then...every sin was public in a sense, because (or maybe I'm wrong) the sacrifices had to be offered by certain people...some at certain places...so others could see what you were sacrificing and have an idea what sin you comitted. I'm thankful (and I know this is somewhat pride) that my sins are not all bared for the world to see...but that they can, in some instances, be only between me and my Lord.
And, the greatest part of Christ's sacrifice, in my view, is the RELATIONSHIP!! During the time of the Law, only certain people could talk to God. Can you even imagine trying to follow God's will, and not being able to have His help?? Sometimes I think my life would be spent in constant sacrificing.
Isn't it amazing?
We have it so good. Not only do we not have to worry about sacrificing animals for our sins, but we have the ability to have that relationship with Christ in our hearts via the Holy Spirit.
Jesus did that for us.
"God is SO much more pleased with obedience than sacrifice after disobedience." Yes! How do we learn to obey in the first place, though? Check out my post for today!
I really liked his point last night about falling into the mindset that "we can make up for our sin later." No, no, no! There is no such thing as "making up for sin." We have no power to do that. Christ ALREADY did! Yet, that is no excuse to take advantage of the freedom we have been given from sin. We must strive to be Christ-like by obedience!
T
So apparently the Missouri cops don't register on your radar detector if you are going over 80MPH in a 65???? or did you slow down to 83... oh i bet i know. You were busy doing something else and we all know boys can't do two things at once??? either way, I guess i'm sorry to hear about your ticket. :-)
*hangs head*
I have no excuse. I shouldn't have been doing it, and I feel badly. It was dumb. I'm definitely going to try and do better with that.
Thanks for making it public Gab. You keep me humble.
"making it public"... like everyone reads your blog or something??? jk. I know you can handle it :-) glad to hear that you guys had fun- thanks for bringing jenny home safely (semi-safely)
"I know you can handle it :-)"
Was that a compliment Gab? 'Cause if it was...that's weird.
As far as "making it public"...well...I definitely think posting it on the internet is public regardless of who all "reads" this. :)
Sorry Luke! :)
*sigh*
It's ok Jenny.
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