Jesus Christ is my God!
Issued 15.02.2004
Godīs Sacrifice
Justice is demanded and love is sought. Both can be found in the Sacrifice of God.
Justness and love
It is easy to notice the requirement of justness working in us. That belongs to the character of our spirit. We cannot escape it, no matter what we believe. When God created our souls, He gave us sense of justness.
When someone wrongs you, you experience the need to pay a person back in his own coin. When you wrong someone, you will accordingly know that you deserve the same treatment. "An eye for an eye" and "repay in kind" express justness. What about if you forgive? Are you able to do it without violating justness?
God has made it plain to us that He is the God of justness as well as the God of love. Forgiving love and the requirement of justness are obviously in conflict with each other. If you forgive, you wrong justness. If you always stick up for your rights, you are loveless. The sin offering is the solution of God to this conflict.
Because God loves us, He prepared for us a possibility to get forgiveness without violating justness. He gave His sacrifice for us to fulfil the requirement of justness.
Jesus lost His eye instead of ours. The innocent received the blows that belong to the guilty. This would be very wrong, if it was done to Jesus without His consent. However He gave this offering together with His Father - because of His love for us.
Jesus is the only human being without sin, the Lamb of God without defect. No-one else would have been accepted as the sin offering that could atone our sins.
This message is unpleasant to many people. They do not accept vicarious offerings or sufferings. Their sense of justness is fighting against it. They think that everybody must suffer his own punishment and accordingly get honour of his own good deeds.
It is easy to notice the requirement of justness working in us. That belongs to the character of our spirit. We cannot escape it, no matter what we believe. When God created our souls, He gave us sense of justness.
When someone wrongs you, you experience the need to pay a person back in his own coin. When you wrong someone, you will accordingly know that you deserve the same treatment. "An eye for an eye" and "repay in kind" express justness. What about if you forgive? Are you able to do it without violating justness?
God has made it plain to us that He is the God of justness as well as the God of love. Forgiving love and the requirement of justness are obviously in conflict with each other. If you forgive, you wrong justness. If you always stick up for your rights, you are loveless. The sin offering is the solution of God to this conflict.
Because God loves us, He prepared for us a possibility to get forgiveness without violating justness. He gave His sacrifice for us to fulfil the requirement of justness.
Jesus lost His eye instead of ours. The innocent received the blows that belong to the guilty. This would be very wrong, if it was done to Jesus without His consent. However He gave this offering together with His Father - because of His love for us.
Jesus is the only human being without sin, the Lamb of God without defect. No-one else would have been accepted as the sin offering that could atone our sins.
This message is unpleasant to many people. They do not accept vicarious offerings or sufferings. Their sense of justness is fighting against it. They think that everybody must suffer his own punishment and accordingly get honour of his own good deeds.
Vicarious sacrifice
Why is a vicarious sacrifice so unpleasant to many? Their pride is the only reason. They willingly want to get forgiveness, but not as a gift, but they believe they are able to buy it with their good deeds or with their own sufferings.
They consider themselves so good people that speaking about the vicarious sacrifice for them offend against their pride. On the other hand they understand that receiving a vicarious sacrifice leads them to a debt of gratitude. They don't want to give thanks much as they want to be given thanks. No wonder that they feel insulted, when they hear about the Son of God who was crucified because of their sins!
Strong sense of justness leads finally to self-condemnation. At whatever point you judge others, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Who suffers under his own judgment has a good opportunity to revise his attitude to the vicarious sacrifice offered by God, because only a sentenced person has a need to get mercy.
However in that situation many have chosen another direction. They decide to put to death their sense of justness. When they notice they have condemned themselves they decide to forgive themselves. They buy this forgiveness by selling the truth. They start to declare to themselves that it was not so wrong what they did.
Because they forgave themselves they become very tolerant towards the wrongdoers of the same sin. The painful memory of how their justness turned against themselves makes them tolerant towards all kinds of evil.
You are able to hold onto your sense of justness, if you buy forgiveness with the blood of Jesus and not by selling the truth. You get the valuable currency of the blood of Jesus as a gift. Receiving the gift costs you only that you give your ear and hear Jesus.
When you notice you have gotten forgiveness as a gift, you decide to start buying the truth. God reveals to you that, what you did, was actually much worse than you believed. When you understand how much your salvation cost God, you become stricter against all kinds of evil.
Why is a vicarious sacrifice so unpleasant to many? Their pride is the only reason. They willingly want to get forgiveness, but not as a gift, but they believe they are able to buy it with their good deeds or with their own sufferings.
They consider themselves so good people that speaking about the vicarious sacrifice for them offend against their pride. On the other hand they understand that receiving a vicarious sacrifice leads them to a debt of gratitude. They don't want to give thanks much as they want to be given thanks. No wonder that they feel insulted, when they hear about the Son of God who was crucified because of their sins!
Strong sense of justness leads finally to self-condemnation. At whatever point you judge others, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Who suffers under his own judgment has a good opportunity to revise his attitude to the vicarious sacrifice offered by God, because only a sentenced person has a need to get mercy.
However in that situation many have chosen another direction. They decide to put to death their sense of justness. When they notice they have condemned themselves they decide to forgive themselves. They buy this forgiveness by selling the truth. They start to declare to themselves that it was not so wrong what they did.
Because they forgave themselves they become very tolerant towards the wrongdoers of the same sin. The painful memory of how their justness turned against themselves makes them tolerant towards all kinds of evil.
You are able to hold onto your sense of justness, if you buy forgiveness with the blood of Jesus and not by selling the truth. You get the valuable currency of the blood of Jesus as a gift. Receiving the gift costs you only that you give your ear and hear Jesus.
When you notice you have gotten forgiveness as a gift, you decide to start buying the truth. God reveals to you that, what you did, was actually much worse than you believed. When you understand how much your salvation cost God, you become stricter against all kinds of evil.
Knowing God through the sacrifice
Do you want to know God, who sacrifices something? He is a rich giver to everybody. He can give us much and it is not yet any sacrifice to Him. He has given us a very beautiful planet and a rich nature for our joy. He could give us even a thousand habitable planets more and gladden us by creating millions of new species. And that would not yet be any sacrifice to Him. Now behold and understand that He really has given us much more, so much that it is sacrificing.
A sacrifice is always such kind of giving away that it feels and it hurts. God gave away His most beloved. He gave everything. He gave His One and only Son! "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29
It is unbelievable that anyone can pass by this message with a cold heart!
Love and justness are in conflict with each other, but God forgives us in a just way and has resolved this conflict for us. He doesn't only forgive, but He lets us know Himself through His sacrifice. And this is a very wonderful thing.
"The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
"When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." Isaiah 53:10
You become an offspring of God, if you receive knowing God by this sacrifice! Have you made the soul of Jesus the offering for your sin? If you have not, you don't know God.
Receive Jesus as your sin offering. If you confess your sins, you have the permission of God to give away your guilt on the offering Lamb of God. In the offerings of the Old Covenant that transfer of guilt was done so that a hand was laid on the head of the offering lamb before it was slain. (Leviticus 4:32-35) It is an example that shows us how everybody must reach out his hand personally towards the sacrifice. The blood of the Son of God was once bled on Golgotha. Gaze carefully into that sacrifice! It is the gate of the Paradise and the door into life. Give your heart to it.
Do you want to know God, who sacrifices something? He is a rich giver to everybody. He can give us much and it is not yet any sacrifice to Him. He has given us a very beautiful planet and a rich nature for our joy. He could give us even a thousand habitable planets more and gladden us by creating millions of new species. And that would not yet be any sacrifice to Him. Now behold and understand that He really has given us much more, so much that it is sacrificing.
A sacrifice is always such kind of giving away that it feels and it hurts. God gave away His most beloved. He gave everything. He gave His One and only Son! "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29
It is unbelievable that anyone can pass by this message with a cold heart!
Love and justness are in conflict with each other, but God forgives us in a just way and has resolved this conflict for us. He doesn't only forgive, but He lets us know Himself through His sacrifice. And this is a very wonderful thing.
"The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6
"When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." Isaiah 53:10
You become an offspring of God, if you receive knowing God by this sacrifice! Have you made the soul of Jesus the offering for your sin? If you have not, you don't know God.
Receive Jesus as your sin offering. If you confess your sins, you have the permission of God to give away your guilt on the offering Lamb of God. In the offerings of the Old Covenant that transfer of guilt was done so that a hand was laid on the head of the offering lamb before it was slain. (Leviticus 4:32-35) It is an example that shows us how everybody must reach out his hand personally towards the sacrifice. The blood of the Son of God was once bled on Golgotha. Gaze carefully into that sacrifice! It is the gate of the Paradise and the door into life. Give your heart to it.
The Bible version used in references is NIV