I was reading through a portion of the Old Testament Law that focused on the sacrifices required by God of the Israelites.
I was struck by the idea of how frequently sacrifices would need to be made to atone for their sins.
For example, every time a woman completed her monthly cycle, she was required to make a sacrifice to purify her of her uncleanness.
I came away with an even greater gratitude for grace and the atoning power of the blood of Jesus.
I am so thankful that the blood of Jesus paid for all sin, once and for all. His sacrifice fulfilled the Law by atoning for the sin of Mankind.
Therefore, it set aside the Law and introduced the New Covenant of Grace for all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.
There is so much talk today of the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem so that the Jews can re-institute the sacrificial system as prescribed in the Torah.
However, the truth is that Messiah Jesus has already fulfilled the Torah by being the spotless Lamb of God who sacrificed His life to pay the penalty for sin.
There really is no need for a Temple, and there will be a day, that the eyes of the Jews will be opened and they will look on Jesus and mourn for Him as one mourns for their only son.
Believe it or not, there is a whole movement in Christianity that says we, as Gentiles, need to keep the Old Covenant Law.
However, even the early church elders did not hold to that idea.
Beloved, we need to marvel and the power of the Jesus’ blood to completely atone for sin and fulfill the Old Covenant.
His resurrection from the dead ushered in the New Covenant of Grace and set us free from the power of sin.
As the Apostle Paul declared in Romans 6, grace is not an excuse to sin or a motivation to sin, rather it is a liberation from the power of sin.
It is by grace through faith that we have been crucified with Christ, buried with Him and raised to newness of life, thus giving us our new identity in Christ…saints.
It is grace that teaches us to say, “NO!” to ungodliness.
All that the Law could do is show us sin, and once it does, sin seized the opportunity to tempt us to act on it.
In contrast, grace shows us who we are in Christ so that when sin tempts us, we are empowered to say, “No” to it because we know we are free from sin’s power over us.
We are free to be the new ‘us’ in Christ.
Remember people cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with how they see themselves.
This is why it is so critical to understand our new identity in Christ.
In Adam, we were sinners because we were born into his family.
This is why Jesus said we had to be ‘born again’ in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
The person who puts their faith in the shed blood of Jesus to atone for sin is spiritually placed into Christ Jesus.
We share His past, present and future.
This is why when He died, we died; when He was resurrected, we were resurrected or born again by the Spirit into His family.
Beloved this is why we are saints not sinners saved by grace.
If we see ourselves as sinners, we will continue in sin, but if we see ourselves as saints, sin will lose its power over us.
Beloved, the sacrifice was made by Jesus to atone for our sin, once and for all.
Rejoice in this and walk on by faith in His amazing grace.
Blessings!
Robyn Henning