God Provides The Offering For Our Sins

"Today's Devotion" For March 23, 2005

Read: Genesis 22:1-18; Psalm 6

GOD PROVIDES THE OFFERING FOR OUR SINS

"...but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son..." (Gen. 22:7c-8a)

In two days, on Good Friday, we're going to again remember Jesus' crucifixion on "Place of the Skull," Golgotha, outside the city walls of Jerusalem. We're going to watch Him, through the power of the Word and Spirit, painfully make His way through the streets of Jerusalem burdened by not only the beating and scourging He had received, the ignominy and pain of the crown of thorns, and the cross itself, but also the catcalls and derision of those He came to redeem from the power of Sin, Death, and the Devil. We're going to see Him nailed to the Cross, stripped of most of His clothing and all of His dignity, scorned by the leaders of the people, abandoned by His disciples, and suffering with the burden of the world's sins upon His head. At the end of the day we will once more see Him crying out, "It is finished!" and, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit," as He dies for all of humanity and is laid in a rich man's tomb, not even fully prepared for burial.

In the movie, "Schindler's List", we're told about a German businessman named Oscar Schindler who set about exploiting World War II for personal gain. As so many others were prone to doing, and still are, he was among those who believed that the Jews deserved to be harassed and killed because they had "killed" Christ. Yet, after a series of events that personally affected him, he had a change of heart and began saving Jewish people from the work and death camps of the Nazis. In a show of gratitude, some of those whom he led to freedom presented him with a gold ring inscribed with the words from the Talmud, "He who saves a single life saves the world."

What a contrast to the words of the high priest, Caiaphas, who noted at Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin on Maundy Thursday evening, that it was right that one man should die for the benefit of the nation. That God was working in Caiaphas without him knowing it, there can be no doubt. Since it was God's Will that Jesus suffer and die for the sins of the world, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin could do nothing other than condemn Jesus to death. Yet that death sentence wasn't to save "a single life" and thus the world, as was inscribed on Schindler's gold ring. Certainly the words of the Talmud sound good, but those words are far cry from the reality of salvation. While it's true that God saved Isaac's life when an obedient Abraham was about to sacrifice him, this act didn't save the world. For centuries the sacrificial lamb was offered on the Day of Atonement and yet there was no completion of God's Plan of Salvation. No human being's life, or animal's life, was going to obtain the forgiveness of sins or obtain heaven itself. Rather than supporting the Talmudic dictum, Scripture clearly points out that it's futile for any human being to think that he or she can earn salvation for himself/herself or others.

In order for the world to be saved from Sin, Death, and Satan, it was necessary for God to sacrifice the "Lamb of God who takes away the Sin of the world" (Jn.1:29). It wasn't the saving of one man's life that saved "the world entire." Rather, it was the sacrifice of one Man, the Lord of heaven and earth, the "Word made flesh" (Jn.1:14) that saved the entire world. When human beings ignore God's Word we always get it wrong. Sadly, the Talmudic scholars missed the boat. "For just as by one man Sin entered into the world, and death by Sin" (Rom. 5:12), "so also by the obedience of the One Man the many will be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19b). Christ Jesus has paid the ultimate ransom price for sinners--His life's blood. We give thanks that He was the ultimate "burnt offering" that has saved us for God.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I am so grateful that You took care of saving me from my sins through Jesus Christ. By myself I'd have just messed it all up. I'd still be lost and without Your love if You had not acted at the right time. You have saved the world through Jesus. Please help me to live joyfully with that knowledge and faith, and give me the courage and enthusiasm to share Your love in Christ with others. Here me, gracious Father, for the sake of Jesus. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2005 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.