Skip to main content

R.I.G.H.T.


God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)
 

          Saturday afternoon, I went to a painting class at my church. Our subject was a pair of dandelions that had gone to seed, one of them with part of the seeds blown into the wind around the line “Be still and know that I am God.” This is my fourth time taking one of these classes. I learn a little about technique each time, but I can tell you with absolute assurance that I am not an artist. I enjoy the activity but it’s also frustrating because it didn’t turn out R.I.G.H.T. 
          What’s right? I’m not sure, but probably what they are calling “hyper-realism.” If not that, then at least that is not only more than I accomplished, but more than I am able to accomplish. You’ve probably been there. You want to get it right and no matter how hard you try, it’s just not good enough. That’s what we’ve been examining for the past several days. We just can’t be good enough. Even in the Old Testament, God acknowledged this. He set up a sacrificial system. While we deserved to die for what we did, God would accept the death of a substitute instead. 
          The rules about this were strict. He demanded “hyper-reality.” Since the life is in the blood, it had to be an animal. It had to be innocent of the sin for which it was being sacrificed, which might explain why carnivores weren’t sacrificed. It had to be perfect, and the truth of the matter was that it didn’t change much. Until we tried, we couldn’t know that we would fail. Now that we have failed, God as provided what we could not. He provided a perfect, innocent sacrifice that met His standards. We may not understand it all, but because we've tried, we have a better idea of what it takes, and can better appreciate the One who did what we could not.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more