6.13.24

In our Appalachian culture, it’s easy to believe two lies. First, that how well I live will determine how God loves and relates to me in the moment. And second, that my relationship with God is a personal, private matter.

But our passage this week challenges both of those ways of thinking by reminding us that a new way to approach God is now open because of the blood of Jesus. The old way, we’re told, is one where God is at a distance. He’s separated from us because of his holiness and our sin. And the way to approach him was through various rituals and ceremonies that were able to temporarily bridge that gap.

But because Jesus has now fully bridged that gap for us, a new way has been opened. And that new way not only allows for the intimacy of Immanuel, God with us…but because everything that once separated us from God is now paid in full, God is within us. He resides inside our very hearts.

And the writer’s implications for that new open path to God shows us that his imminent presence is now experienced through community. For the Old Testament Christian, the book of Leviticus was their detailed manual for how to approach an awesome, distant God. But for the New Testament Christian, all of that is replaced with these opening verses of chapter 13.

Because God now lives in a very real and powerful way inside of each one of us, the collective community of God’s people is a powerful and transformational community where we most effectively experience the presence of God. The church was created by God and intended to be the functional meeting place between a holy God and a people made holy for his presence.

And because we are a people who still live with a sinful heart and don’t always see clearly or understand with wisdom, God gave us the collective community of the church to speak life, to speak truth, to remind each other of the amazing glories of what Jesus has done for us. And in so doing, this becomes the way we navigate life in a broken, shaking world.

God loves us completely because of Jesus. And the way we experience and remember and apply that truth takes Christian community. And so it’s critical that we heed God’s call to take our personal, private faith, and throw it into the collective pool of the redeemed, as we spur one another on to grow in our love for Jesus.