“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Lev 17:11). Among the list of laws, the Israelites were forbidden to eat blood from an animal. The reason for this is that blood played a special role in God’s plan of forgiveness so it was to be set apart and only used for this specific purpose.
This all sounds a bit gory, and it is meant to sound that way. Atonement is an horrific event because sin is a terrible, ugly, violent act! However, once you understand the grace of God in even making atonement available, the gore turns to glory!
Atonement is God’s idea, and if God had not provided a means of reconciling us to him, we would be hopelessly, eternally lost in our sin! The basic idea of atonement is that sin incurs the wrath and judgment of God. It bears the penalty of death, both physical and spiritual. Therefore, blood must be shed. Death must happen because it is the consequence of sin. In atonement, God designed a way for death to occur and still save his people by supplying a substitutionary death. The result of atonement then is that justice is satisfied, grace is dispensed for the sinner, and God is glorified for saving undeserving sinners!
For this great transaction to take place, though, blood was required. Atonement is an ugly and a beautiful God-given provision. Our atonement is found in Christ as he gave himself on the cross for our sins. The cross is an horrific sight where our sins were paid in full! However, the cross is also a beautiful sight where grace took away our sin!
I'm a couple of days behind with my P.S.'s!! How's everyone else doing with their reading??
ReplyDeleteThree commands stand out to me in Lev.19:
v.14--"You shall not curse the deaf. . ."
v.15--"You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great. . ." and
v.17--"You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him."
"You shall not curse the deaf"--isn't that curious? If he happened to be walking away from the angry cursing man, would he even know he'd been cursed? But people CAN feel hatred. And this command reminds me that many people are affected by one person's sin: the victim, the man who curses and those who hear his verbal violence. AND the cursing man has sinned against God, the deaf man's Maker, and the One Who makes men seeing or blind, deaf or hearing. (Ex. 4:11)
"You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor. . ." I think if I were in a judge's position that might be a temptation. The rich and the great can find the "loopholes", they can afford the court bills, they know the right people who can "fix" things. The poor man is desperate. But God's kind of justice is about what is TRUE, not who "deserves favors".
And "you shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him."
I want to excuse myself, and say something like, "well, not hatred exactly" and "no one is hurt by the thoughts in my head", and like a coward, scurry out from the bright lights of the "reason frankly with your neighbor" part, because I hate confrontation. "Less said, sooner mended", that's me! And it is SO easy to sin with what I DO say, and HOW I say it. . . But my Father would rather have me to be loving all the way through my being, COMMANDS it in fact.
Whew. That's hitting awfully close to home for me!