Tuesday,
January 17, 2023
The old system under the law of Moses was only a
shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things
themselves. The sacrifices under that
system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able
to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If
they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped,
for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their
feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually
reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is
not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10:1-4
Taking away sins is indeed a
tricky business. We can hear the
preacher say: In the name of
Christ, you are forgiven…and a nanosecond or two later we are having
the same thoughts and desires that got us into the debt of our evil in the
first place. And the guilt starts a new
cycle. Our base problem (sin nature,
courtesy of Adam) makes us (as the hymn-writer has it) prone to wander
and we can no longer imagine we are forgiven than jump over the moon.
What’s not so tricky is
understanding this about me. Having
spent the better part of 8 decades in this human skin of a life examining the
insides of Russell, knowing just how crumbly human clay feet can be, and how
permanently the scars of our sins can destroy our sense of peace, I have become
acutely aware of how successfully guilt can rob us of everything
powerfully-good in our daily lives. The
annual sacrifices at the Temple could do nothing to asuage a guilty
conscience. Something greater was
required to get at the root of our guilt.
Paul[1] later described for the Jewish tribes of believers how Jesus’ sacrifce
was that something better to root out the assault our
arch-enemy, Lucifer makes on our vulnerable conscience:
Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
Hebrews 10:11-14
A careful reading of Paul’s
explanation offers the subtle (but sure) difference between a clear conscience
and overwhelming unrest in the soul. It
is the enemies of Christ that are destined for humbling
punishment, not the friends!
To be a friend of Jesus means trusting
him. When we trust him with our future,
our past is included in the forgiveness of all the sins we have done, or ever
will do. Jesus, the flawless friend is
the fulfillment of the title, Best Friend Forever
…a real friend sticks
closer than a brother. Proverbs
18:24b
For You Today
Even if everyone else is a liar, God is true. Romans 3:4b
There are about 2,000 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions
library. To dig deeper on
today’s topic, explore some of these:
A Clean Sweep, But Not Swept-Away
and Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire
Images: Title Wikimedia Commons Images without
citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
