The Daily Word

 

Back in the Old Testament, God set up the Law. It wasn’t just the 10 Commandments there were specific ceremonies and ways of approaching God. Right from the original entrance of sin in the Garden of Eden, animals had been sacrificed, ostensibly, to restore a relationship with God which was continually being broken by man’s sin. It appeared as though those sacrifices actually paid for sin, but as Hebrews makes clear, they only acted as a covering not a total cleansing. In a way, it was as though the sin of the individual offering the sacrifice was being transferred to the sacrifice itself, which was then killed as a punishment for sin instead of the individual.

All this was pointing forward to the future sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross which finally did make a cleansing of sin. The animal being sacrificed was either not aware or was unwilling to be sacrificed. But Jesus went willingly to the cross knowing exactly why He was being crucified. In 1 Peter 2 24 we have those wonderful words which we often quote at our Breaking of Bread service, which explain the difference and effectiveness of Jesus’ sacrifice. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body to the tree”. Here was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices because there remains no more offering for sin. He didn’t just bear the sin of an individual and certainly not His own sin because He was sinless, but He bore the sin of all mankind on that first Good Friday. And we are now offered salvation from sin as a free gift. What a blessed Saviour and what a blessed gift! 

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church