Hebrews 10.4 - For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

James 1.23-24 - 23  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
24  and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

The ceremonial law of sacrificing bulls and goats could not take away our sins.  The law was a shadow, stretching ahead to the time when Christ would come to this world and offer His own body as a sacrifice for sins.  The ceremonies of the Old Testament law was a postponement, and the blood of Christ is what cleansed the sins past of the Old Testament saints, and has cleansed our sins today also.

By the deeds of the law we can never be justified before God, for we have all sinned in our lives.  One sin condemned Adam and Eve and banned them from the Garden.  If you were able to keep the Ten Commandments in your deeds, in your words, in your thoughts, and in the motivation of your heart with perfect purity every second of your life from this time forward, what would you do with the massive sin debt already accumulated?  It must be paid and it can only be paid by Christ, but the fact is, no one keeps God's moral law to perfection in every way at every moment anyhow.

Yes, we should obey the Commandments, and everything else God commands us in the New Testament, but our salvation does not lie in obedience.  Our obedience is instead rooted in our salvation.  We don't obey to get saved - we obey because we are saved.  We obey out of love and gratitude, for the Lord Jesus said "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14.15).

The law is a mirror to show us our sinfulness, but the mirror cannot wash the face.  It can only show the wrinkles, the scars, and the dirt.  The blood of Christ alone can cleanse our sins - the mirror cannot do that, but it can show us when we are clean.

Our justification before God is on the grounds of faith in the sacrificial, vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ and our trust is in His shed blood, shed for the remission of our sins.  Nothing else.  There are no other grounds to come to God, except through the work of Jesus Christ alone.  Whosoever will come, may come, but whosoever comes must come through Jesus Christ (David Jeremiah).  Christ did not say He was a good way or even the best way.  He said He is the only way (John 14.6).

Come to Christ and trust Him alone to pay for your sins, for He "...bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness..." (1 Peter 2.24) and let us trust Him to indwell us through the Holy Spirit and empower us to indeed "live unto righteousness".

©2008 MrWonder

Published 12.1.2008