Letter To Our Children

Hello friends!

Sin is an everyday problem everyone deals with on some level. This is what God did to defeat it.

Old Testament

First, we read in the Old Testament, God’s chosen people had been given so much from God. Still, they could not keep the law God had given. Because of this, there was a massive problem. How could a holy God live with these sinful people?

On a chosen day, each year—The Day of Atonement—the high priest of Israel was to enter the Most Holy Place. A unique place for a unique period where God’s presence dwelled—and the offering for Israel’s sins took place.

It was messy but necessary. The high priest would take two flawless goats. The first was a sacrifice for the sins of the people, sprinkling the blood of the goat on the mercy seat. This goat took the punishment for their sin. The second goat was a substitute. The result was people could live because one goat had died, and another was cast out.

What took place in the sacrifice of the first goat—atonement—was pictured in the treatment of the second goat. The priest would place his hands on the head of this goat. He would confess the sins of the people naming them one by one, out loud. Then cast out the goat into the wilderness.

By each of these acts, the high priest was expressing to God's people they do not need to worry about their sins anymore. They do not have to carry them in their bodies nor be burdened by them in their minds. Their sins have been cast out. They have a God who did what was needed so that people can be with Him forever.

New Testament

This sacrifice happened once a year, every year. Each year pointed to and moved closer to the day when the final and forever perfect sacrifice for sin took place—Christ, giving His body to die on the cross. Now no more yearly scapegoating. Now we never have to carry the burden of sin nor the worry of our sin. Now we have clean confidence, not in ourselves but Christ.

Small wonder some have defined righteousness as the forgiveness of our sins by God through the cross.  Please don’t ever forget this.

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10)

The bloody state of the many Old and one New Testament sacrifices may confuse us; however, it gives us a picture of how ugly sin is. It shows how the Christian’s performance neither adds nor distracts from how God sees you. Our sins have been paid for, dealt with, and removed once and forever. This means many things. For example, no one can boast about their holiness or use it to hurt or embarrass others or think that their sins are too many, too great, and too often that God will not forgive. It is impossible to make ourselves good by following rules. People have tried and failed for centuries—they still do. Only God can take away the sin in us and make us good, and at the cross is where He did both.

Another’s life, another’s death,

I stake my whole eternity

Upon A Life I Did Not Live—First Verse

God bless you in all things great and small this week.

You are forgiven,

Pastor Joe