Beloved, this is not a new topic but a continuation of the last publication. In our last publication, I told you that Jesus must fufil the processes a goat needed to fufil before the people's sins were forgiven for one year. Just like the first step a goat must pass to be used for the atonement of sins must be that it must be without defect, JESUS also fulfilled that demand of the law by being without defect. Jesus was holy, pure, and faultless. No one could accuse him of having committed any sin.
ISAIAH 53:9 says
"He was placed in a grave with the wicked, he was buried with the rich, eventhough he had never committed a crime, or even told a lie."
2 Corinthians 5:21 says
"For our sake, he made him to be Sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God"
1 Peter 2:22 says
"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth"
Jesus was without defect. As a result he became qualified to be used for the atonement of our sins. If the goat used in the old testament was found to be with defect, it was rejected by God and could be used for atonement.
Jesus The Bearer of Our Sins
After the goat has been found to be faultless, it then qualified to bear the sins of the people, that is to say, the confession of the people's sins is then made on the goat's head who then becomes the carrier of their sins. Likewise, Jesus also satisfied this demand of having to carry our sins before qualifying to die. Without Jesus bearing our sins first, his death on the cross would have been meaningless. This is because what qualifies a person to die is his/her sins. Since Jesus came and was without sin, before going to the cross, he had to bear the sins of the whole world. That is, the sins of every human being born into this world irrespective of tribes and tongues. In order to fulfill this righteous demand of the law, Jesus went all the way to receive the baptism of John. This was the point where he received the confirmation as the bearer of our iniquities. Without this confession laid upon him by John he would have died for nothing.
Matthew 3: 23-17
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him let it be so for thus it is fitting for us to fufil all righteousnes. And when Jesus was baptized,he went up immediately out of the water and behold the heavens opened and he saw the spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him and lo a voice said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased"
In that scripture, God first of all gave his testimony about Jesus as the chosen one. He confirmed Jesus as his own son whom he sent. God's declaration on Jesus was an act of acceptance of him as the lamb for the atonement of sin. He accepted him as qualified. John also gave his testimony when the following day he saw Jesus and declared, "behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world". This pronouncement of confession on Jesus by John automatically made Jesus the bearer of our sins. By implication, the one to pay for the sins of every one was now Jesus no longer you and I who sinned. With that confession by John, God's attention drifted from human beings and fell on Jesus the carrier of our sins. John was able to make that confession on Jesus because God accepted Jesus as without defect. He was his own lamb he provided all by himself.
You may be wondering who gave John the Baptist the authority to make such pronouncement, confession and confirmation. But let me bring to your notice that John was the grandson of Aaron the high priest and his father Zachariah was one of the Sons of Aaron. So he was from the lineage of priesthood (Levi) divinely created and sent by God six months ahead of Jesus to prepare his way for him that you and I may believe in Jesus through him.
John 1: 6 says
"There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light(Jesus) that all might believe through him(John)"
So John just like Aron performed the job of showing us the chosen lamb as well as confessing of the sins of the world on him. This was exactly what John did when after baptizing Jesus he said " behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." With this confession, your sins, my sins and the sins of the entire human race fell on Jesus. So who now was to die for your sins? You or Jesus? It was no other person but Jesus. What a deep relief it is to know and believe in this.
Jesus The Man Who Took Your Judgement/Punishment/Condemnation
The wages of sin is death(Romans 6: 21). Just like the goat after being laid with the sins of the people must be killed and it's blood used to purify the people, Jesus must also die for his blood to be used to make you automatically holy, pure and blameless. This is because before God forgives any sin, blood must be poured.
Hebrews 9:22 says
"Indeed, according to the law almost everything Is purified by blood and sins are forgiven only if blood is poured."
So Jesus must die to pay for the sins of the world he was carrying. This is what Isaiah was pointing at when he prophesied in Isaiah 53:6 "all of us were like Sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way but the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment of us all."
God chose to punish Jesus in place of you. Instead of facing God's anger and judgment on the last day for being a sinner, he chose to use his son Jesus in place of you that you may be free and thereby imputed Christ's righteousnes on you. What God did was an exchange for you. He placed your sins on Jesus and took Jesus righteousnes, holiness, and purity and placed on you. So Jesus death made you automatically holy, blameless and righteous before God. What a gracious God! His love for you is soo deep than you can ever imagine. I pray you don't join the league of people that doubt this grace of God on them. I pray you believe and be joyful for the rest of your life.
The beautiful thing about the whole thing is that his blood was capable of wiping your entire life's sin. you might be surprised I said this to you but with God all things are possible. Now, when the sacrifice of goat was made, God forgave their sins for a whole year. If the blood of goats could achieve yearly forgiveness of sins, how much more the blood of Christ? Remember the goat sacrifices were performed repeatedly every year but Christ was not offered many times but once and for all.
Hebrews 9:25-26
"The Jewish high priest goes into the most holy place every year with the blood of animal. But Christ did not go in to offer himself many times, for then he would have had to suffer many times ever since the creation of the world. Instead, now when all ages of time are nearing to an end, he has appeared once and for all to remove sin through the sacrifice of himself."
With the sacrifice of Christ in place, God removed the old sacrifice of animal blood and replaced with that of Christ.
Hebrews 10:9
"Then he said here I am to do your will o God. So God does away with the old sacrifices and put the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of his own body once and for all."
Hebrews 10:14-18 also says
"with one sacrifice, then he has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin. And the holy spirit also gives us his witness. First he says: this is the covenant that i will make with them in the days to come says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds. And he also adds, I will remember their sins and evil deeds no more. So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed."
Did you see that? It was done once and for all. His sacrifice made you an imperfect being a perfect being forever not before the eyes of your fellow man but in the sight of God. With the sacrifice of Christ our sins have been forgiven and remembered no more. As such, there is no longer any offering for your sins to be forgiven again because they are already forgiven.
Beloved, Christ has set you free. The problem is that you have been living in ignorance, pursuing religion, trying to obtain salvation by your self efforts as a result of what you have been taught. That was why Jesus called the teachers of the law blind guides leading the blind and both will fall into a ditch. But thank God today you have heard and known the truth that your salvation has been obtained long ago by the effort of Jesus not yours. The only thing left for you to do is to believe in the finished work of Christ. You must believe he took away your sins, paid for those sins with his blood, and has given you eternal life through his resurrection. Without believing like this, you have cut yourself off from the blessings and grace of God. I pray you exercise faith and believe. This will lead us to the next topic titled FAITH NOT LAW. SEE YOU SOON! LOVE YOU DEEPLY
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