5.16.24
This week we are looking at why it was necessary for Jesus to shed his blood. Why couldn’t God have simply let our sins and offenses go? Why was it necessary to die? And why is the blood so important?
And what we’ve seen is that there is a cost to be paid any time an offense occurs. That happens on a smaller scale with our daily relationships. But it happens in the macro in THE offense of all offenses: our rebellion against our Creator. No offense can simply vanish into thin air. It must be paid…either by the perpetrator through justice or revenge…or through the victim by bearing its weight with forgiveness. And the payment for rebellion against the Creator is death - the life-blood of the offender. And that is the price that Jesus willingly bore for our sakes.
So how does knowing about this kind of sacrifice for us change us - practically? First of all, this is what actually transforms us. If Jesus’ sacrifice was merely a sentimental gesture of love for humanity, it was stupid and meaningless. Because it accomplished nothing. But if his death actually paid the price we owe to God for our rebellion, then it makes all the practical difference in the world. Because now we can stand with confidence before God and know that we are worthy to be there. We belong. Because any outstanding debt we owe has been paid in full. We are now fully accepted children of the King.
The second way his sacrifice transforms us is that it changes the motivations of our hearts. Because anyone who has been saved by the death of another person can never live without that shadow marking their life forever. And it changes the heart’s motivation from duty to love. The author gives us a picture of that in 9.14, "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” One would naturally assume that the phrase, “acts that lead to death” is referring to bad, evil, sinful actions. But that’s not the case. The words used there literally say, “dead or lifeless rituals”. He’s talking about religious actions - moral actions - that we do to try and create life in us. But he says that religious rituals are dead and lifeless. And what he offers in its place is a clean conscience. Rather than using our own dead works to try and create life, we are being told that Jesus’ sacrifice for us actually cleans our conscience so that we can now obey out of love - not out of trying to earn something. This changes our motivation from duty to choice - from endless rituals that can’t bring life to basking in the love God has for us as we express that love in joyful obedience.
This is the difference between a Christian and a good moral religious person. Both Christians and religious people obey God. And both repent of this sins. But the difference comes in the motivation for why they are obeying and repenting. The religious person is obeying and repenting in hopes of getting something from God. Whereas a Christian is obeying and repenting out of love for what Jesus has given them. And as a result, a Christian not only repents of their worst deeds, but also of their best deeds that are done to try and earn something - that are done to try and put God in our debt. Because a Christian has come to see that our “damnable good works” are even more lethal than our worst sins. Sins can be repented of. But good deeds make a person feel owed. And that’s what Jesus’ sacrifice for us eliminates. All the work has been done by him for us.
