The Changing of God's Image

John 1:29

John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, this because he not only wrote of God’s love but he also had a recognition of the love of Jesus for him. Five times in the gospel that bears his name, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It wasn’t that Jesus loved him any more than he did the others, but John was the one who realized it!

His descriptions of God in the first chapter of John show us a softening of the image of the Father. The Old Testament depicts God as distant, loud and constantly angry with His people. Many men die, entire towns are burned up and a sacrificial system is instituted that kills over 2 billion lambs, clouding the sky with the smoke off of the altar. As John describes God, he unfurls a three-fold description, showing us the Trinity in a different light.

In describing where Jesus originates from John tells us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus comes from the bosom of the Father; a description that shows God as nurturing and gentle.

Next, Jesus is called “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist, as He approaches the Jordan River to be baptized. John could have called Him, “The Lion of Judah” and he would have been just as truthful, but John knew that Jesus did not come to live and die as a lion, but rather as the Lamb. Every Jew standing there would have caught the reference, as they had lived their lives sacrificing lambs, and now here is THE Lamb, who would take all of their sins away. Again, God is now gentle as a lamb.

Finally, John describes the scene of Jesus’ baptism as the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and landed on Jesus. Here is the Holy Spirit, typified by the dove that left Noah’s Ark, wandering until He could find a place to rest His foot, lighting upon the Son of God. Though the Spirit can hunt down sinners like a hawk, and cause saints to soar like an eagle, it is the dove that is used to describe Him at Jordan.

The Father’s bosom; the Son as Lamb; the Spirit as dove, this is a different face of God! Because of John’s descriptions of the image of God, man should feel a welcome call from the Father to approach Him without fear. As Lamb, Jesus would go forth to the slaughter, not for sins which He had committed but for the sin of the world. John is careful not to say, “The sins of the world”, for this denotes that Jesus will take away individual sins, and we know that He did not do that.

Rather, He died for the “sin” of the world, and His death at the cross has solved the sin problem once for all. Anyone who accepts Christ as their savior has no more “sin problem”. Though they fail and fall into “sins”, they are no longer a sinner, and sin has no dominion over them (Romans 6:14).

If you have been shy to approach the Father, for fear that He will point out your failures, please know that He has already killed the Lamb on your behalf. Your lamb would be worthless, for it could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), so God provided Himself a Lamb (Genesis 22:8). Thank God for Jesus!

Blood on the Altar

Leviticus 17:11

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood”, is a foundational statement of evangelical Christianity. It is the fulcrum on which the message of blood atonement rests, for it answers the question, “Why must something die for sins to be atoned?” It is life for life, and one being losing its life can buy as a ransom the life of the other.

This concept brings great importance to blood in the Christian faith. Although an important aspect of sacrifice, it was not just blood that fulfilled the task of atonement. The blood had to come from a spotless host, which was inspected thoroughly to ensure its perfection. The blood was also useless in a basin or on the ground. It was only considered worthwhile when it was placed, “on the altar” (verse 11).

The fact that blood had to be placed on the altar shows us that salvation could not be found in the sheep or the bull, but in their blood placed in the position of sacrifice. For this cause, there is no salvation to be found in copying the life or the lifestyle of Christ. I have heard it said that true Christianity is trying to be as much like Jesus as possible. That is not Christianity; that is the basis for all other religions. They try to be as much like perfection as they can, hoping to slowly but surely transform into that ideal perfection. Christians do not emulate Jesus’ life; they let Jesus live His life through them.

Many philosophers and great minds of the world will quote Jesus alongside other intellectuals of yesterday. Confucius, Aristotle, Gandhi and Jesus will be used to promote everything from world peace to inner healing. The world of intellect seems to have no problem with the statements of Jesus, but they rarely mention the cross of Jesus. Paul called the crucified Christ, “to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23). The blood on the altar puts the life of Jesus on the back-burner in relation to the death of Jesus. The blood on the altar makes Jesus into “Christ”.

It was absolutely necessary for Jesus to die at Calvary. The constant sacrifice of bulls and goats could never make the giver perfect (Hebrews 10:1). If the sacrifice of animals had done the job in taking away sin then, “the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:2, 3). The reason that the conscience was not wiped clean by the animal blood was, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

Some may say, “Paul, that is well and good, but I still have consciousness of my sins”. The reason that we remain aware of our failures is because we forget that Jesus’ work is a finished work. “But this man (Jesus), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). Jesus is now seated, not constantly offering up sacrifice for your sins. Just in case you need a reminder, He sent the Holy Spirit into your heart to make you aware of the great price that Jesus paid, for the Holy Spirit was there when it happened, and He was an eye witness:

“Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:15, 16).

His blood is still on the altar, and you are no longer guilty. Go in the grace of our Lord Jesus today.

The Blood of Bulls and Goats

Leviticus 1:3-5

A priest in Israel had many important duties during the course of a day while working in the tabernacle. One of the most significant tasks was the pouring of the sacrificial blood onto the brazen altar, which sat near the door of the tabernacle. The blood was a foreshadowing of the blood of Christ, which would be shed at Calvary for the removal of our sin debt. The door is Christ, the only way to get to the Father (John 10:7).

The role of the one who had sinned was quite simple, but very important as well. If you sinned, you were to take a male from among your cattle and offer it of your own free will as a sacrifice. The priest inspected it to make sure that it was spotless and without blemish and then you laid your hand on its head as a type of the transference of your sin onto the body of this animal. Only then did you kill it, for it was now a sacrificial animal, bearing your sins in its body.

Notice that the priest did not inspect the sinner, but rather the sacrifice. The man was the one who had done wrong, not the animal, yet it was the animal that went through the full inspection to see if it qualified as a sacrifice. It was not that God did not recognize sin in the man, but the whole point of the sacrificial system was that God could be appeased while His prized creation could live. God thoroughly inspected His Son’s life and found Him to be spotless (2 Corinthians 5:21) which qualified Him to bear in Himself the sin of the entire human race; past, present and future. When the man symbolically transferred his sins onto the animal, it could then die. When Jesus bore our sins at the cross, He was ready to cry “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Not until Jesus cried “It is finished”, could He die! In that moment, He had fully made the payment for our sins, “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). When you accept Him, you are accepting the one who did what bulls and goats could never do (Hebrews 10:4), for they could only cover up sin. These animals brought God no pleasure (10:6) while He was constantly pleased with His beloved Son (Luke 3:22).

The death of Jesus on the cross satisfied the wrath of God and now you can face this day with a clean conscience (Hebrews 9:14), knowing that you need not bring an animal into Him, for He has taken care of this once and for all. There is no longer a need for bulls and goats for we have our redeemer!

Be at peace today in the knowledge that since God has thoroughly inspected Jesus, He is not thoroughly inspecting you. When He sees into your life, He sees the finished work of His Son and that satisfies God. Fear not, this won’t lead you to a life of sin and shame. You are born-again, and your heart and desires have changed accordingly. You have been made righteous because your Lamb was made to be sin.

The Better Covenant; The Better Promises

Hebrews 8:6-8

If you were to ask many Christians, “What makes the New Covenant a better covenant?” many would respond, “We don’t have to kill lambs anymore”. This is due to the fact that Jesus died for sins, thus there is no need for animal sacrifice when we fail. Let me be blunt, if that is all that the New Covenant accomplished then that was a royal waste of time.

Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry than his priestly predecessors (Hebrews 8:6). He brought in a “better covenant, which was established upon better promises”. The purpose for bringing a better covenant was because the first covenant was found to have fault (Hebrews 8:7). The fault was not within the law itself, for it was holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). Instead, the fault was in the people on the other end of the covenant, “For finding fault with them…” (Hebrews 8:8). The “them” is Israel and Judah, just as it would be you or I.

The first covenant was faulty because it demanded perfection from a people that could never live perfect. No matter how hard someone tried, they would always be found in contempt of the law in one area or the other. Either they did things that were contrary to the law, or they failed to do the many things that the law demanded. Even in the atoning system of the Old Covenant, man was condemned constantly. If you failed and brought a sacrifice before the Lord, everyone saw you bring it and they knew that you had sinned in some respect. The law provided no privacy and no personal relationship. It was cold and it was distant, unable to help you in any way.

Jesus came to live that Old Covenant to perfection; fulfilling all of its many demands. When He died at Calvary, He cut a New Covenant with His Father, taking the faultiness out of the way. We were at fault under the Old Covenant for we could not keep the Law. Jesus has no fault, thus He stepped into our place and cut the Covenant between His Father and His perfect life. Now, we are the recipients of Jesus’ work, receiving benefits of a Covenant that we are not obligated to live up to.

The Old Covenant held man’s sins against him, while the New Covenant says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). The Old Covenant is now decayed and truly old, “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13), so to return to it for guidance or instruction is to go back to a system found faulty by God.

We have a better covenant and a better promise because we have a better sacrifice. Jesus did what no lamb or bull or goat could ever do; He removed the sin problem (John 1:29; Hebrews 10:4). If we are still dealing with sin it is because WE are doing it and not resting in what HE has already done. When we fail now, we are covered by the better covenant and the better promise and the knowledge of that causes us to live as we should, for His New Covenant is written on our minds and in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

Thank God for a better covenant, where Jesus keeps His end of the deal with the Father so that we get the blessings of heaven. Hallelujah!

The Blessings of the Covenant

Deuteronomy 28

Notice that I do not list a verse in this devotion, but rather an entire chapter. The reason for this is that this chapter is God’s conditions of blessings and cursing in the Promised Land for Israel. The first 13 verses are what God promises that He will do to bless Israel if they are obedient, while verses 15-68 show God placing curses upon them for disobedience.

The 27th chapter ends with 12 verses beginning with “Cursed”. These curses precede the great blessings of chapter 28 and they are representative of the curse coming before the blessing. Jesus bore our curse so that we could bear His blessings, thus our curse has been accounted for while we rest in His goodness.

When we read the 28th chapter we are reading conditional promises. If we do what is good and right then “these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:2), but then if we fail to do what is right, we get curse upon curse. This is typical language for the Old Testament as much of it is built upon the principles of God’s Law, which is founded upon a covenant between God and Israel. They were responsible for their end of the deal, and their end was to keep God’s Law entirely. When they failed, they received punishment for their breaking of covenant which are the multiple curses.

Jesus came and lived a perfect life, born of a virgin. His lifestyle, one of perfection and absolute stainless righteousness met every demand of God’s law. He stated, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). By living the law to perfection, Jesus could lay His life down as a sacrifice for others, and present His life as an example of law completed.

When the Father smote Jesus at Calvary, He was killing Christ as a sacrifice for everyone else. This was not possible merely by stating it to be so, but rather Jesus had to first qualify as a sacrifice. With no stain of sin in His life, He was deemed acceptable and then given the opportunity to walk away from the task. In Gethsemane, Jesus agreed to drink of the cup of God’s wrath, thus taking into Himself at the cross all of the sins of the world.

By fulfilling the law, Jesus was given all of the blessings of that fulfillment with none of the subsequent curses for breaking it. However, Jesus changed places with us, knowing that we could never fulfill the law. His fulfillment brought Him God’s blessings which He traded to us for all of our law breaking. Thus, Jesus bore the curse that should have been placed upon humanity, so that humanity could bear the blessings that Jesus had earned by His perfect lifestyle.

Now, when we read Deuteronomy 28, we receive all of the blessings of the first 13 verses because we have placed our faith in the finished work of Christ, receiving all that He paid for. No Christian should ever study the curses that are listed in this chapter and fear that they may be living under them, for what has been blessed cannot be cursed (Numbers 23:20). Why do some Christians insist on telling others that they might be cursed because of things that are going on in their lives? It must be because they do not understand just how finished Christ’s finished work is.

The Lord Prefers Mercy

Hosea 6:6

Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees concerning His eating with publicans and sinners. He responded that the healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do (Matthew 9:12). He then challenged those Pharisees to “go ye and learn what that meaneth, ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice’: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (9:13).

The passage that Jesus is challenging them to go and learn is found in the Old Testament book of Hosea, and it is an indicator as to the nature of God. The default position for God has never been judgment, but rather, it has always been mercy. When Adam sinned in Eden, God could have killed him outright or worse yet, he could have let him remain in the Garden to eat the Tree of Life and live forever in a fallen state. God’s mercy kept Adam from that terrible fate, and then went with him to sojourn the earth.

When God dealt with Abraham, He showed him constant mercy, even though Abraham brought along his nephew Lot, and lied to Abimelech about his wife, as well as to Pharaoh. God gave him endless mercy, for that is the heart of God.

God has always desired to show mercy over the offering of sacrifices, but few men could see that through their blind lust to attempt to do the right thing by their own power. When David sinned with Bathsheba, the prayer that resulted from that terrible sin of adultery was one of faith and hope in a better covenant. The normal method for receiving forgiveness of sins was to slaughter a lamb and offer its blood as atonement for one’s sins, but David bypasses this method, stating, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalms 51:16, 17). There was not a single scripture to indicate to David that God wanted anything but sacrifice, but his heart of faith knew that it was not the heartbeat of his loving Father to prefer anything but mercy.

God desires mercy over sacrifice because mercy speaks of relationship, while sacrifice speaks of religion. For a merciful exchange, there is an intimate relationship that results, while a sacrifice is a ritualistic, religious practice that needs only obedience but no emotional attachment. In other words, anyone can offer up a sacrifice with no change of heart, but God wants to know His children. Mercy is for those that you know, while sacrifice is for those that you wish to know. We have a greater relationship with our Daddy God than to just “want to know”.

Apparently, the Pharisees ignore Jesus’ request to study the book of Hosea, for He says the same thing to them a few chapters later when they accuse the disciples of doing unlawful things on the Sabbath day. “But if ye had known what this meaneth, ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless’” (Matthew 12:7).

Thank God for His mercy and goodness toward us! Let’s not be accused of the same apathy as the Pharisees. Let us study to show ourselves approved and find out what it means when Jesus says “I prefer mercy and not sacrifice”.

The Changing of God's Image

John 1:29

John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, this because he not only wrote of God’s love but he also had a recognition of the love of Jesus for him. Five times in the gospel that bears his name, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It wasn’t that Jesus loved him any more than he did the others, but John was the one who realized it!

His descriptions of God in the first chapter of John show us a softening of the image of the Father. The Old Testament depicts God as distant, loud and constantly angry with His people. Many men die, entire towns are burned up and a sacrificial system is instituted that kills over 2 billion lambs, clouding the sky with the smoke off of the altar. As John describes God, he unfurls a three-fold description, showing us the Trinity in a different light.

In describing where Jesus originates from John tells us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus comes from the bosom of the Father; a description that shows God as nurturing and gentle.

Next, Jesus is called “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist, as He approaches the Jordan River to be baptized. John could have called Him, “The Lion of Judah” and he would have been just as truthful, but John knew that Jesus did not come to live and die as a lion, but rather as the Lamb. Every Jew standing there would have caught the reference, as they had lived their lives sacrificing lambs, and now here is THE Lamb, who would take all of their sins away. Again, God is now gentle as a lamb.

Finally, John describes the scene of Jesus’ baptism as the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and landed on Jesus. Here is the Holy Spirit, typified by the dove that left Noah’s Ark, wandering until He could find a place to rest His foot, lighting upon the Son of God. Though the Spirit can hunt down sinners like a hawk, and cause saints to soar like an eagle, it is the dove that is used to describe Him at Jordan.

The Father’s bosom; the Son as Lamb; the Spirit as dove, this is a different face of God! Because of John’s descriptions of the image of God, man should feel a welcome call from the Father to approach Him without fear. As Lamb, Jesus would go forth to the slaughter, not for sins which He had committed but for the sin of the world. John is careful not to say, “The sins of the world”, for this denotes that Jesus will take away individual sins, and we know that He did not do that.

Rather, He died for the “sin” of the world, and His death at the cross has solved the sin problem once for all. Anyone who accepts Christ as their savior has no more “sin problem”. Though they fail and fall into “sins”, they are no longer a sinner, and sin has no dominion over them (Romans 6:14).

If you have been shy to approach the Father, for fear that He will point out your failures, please know that He has already killed the Lamb on your behalf. Your lamb would be worthless, for it could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), so God provided Himself a Lamb (Genesis 22:8). Thank God for Jesus!

Blood on the Altar

Leviticus 17:11

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood”, is a foundational statement of evangelical Christianity. It is the fulcrum on which the message of blood atonement rests, for it answers the question, “Why must something die for sins to be atoned?” It is life for life, and one being losing its life can buy as a ransom the life of the other.

This concept brings great importance to blood in the Christian faith. Although an important aspect of sacrifice, it was not just blood that fulfilled the task of atonement. The blood had to come from a spotless host, which was inspected thoroughly to ensure its perfection. The blood was also useless in a basin or on the ground. It was only considered worthwhile when it was placed, “on the altar” (verse 11).

The fact that blood had to be placed on the altar shows us that salvation could not be found in the sheep or the bull, but in their blood placed in the position of sacrifice. For this cause, there is no salvation to be found in copying the life or the lifestyle of Christ. I have heard it said that true Christianity is trying to be as much like Jesus as possible. That is not Christianity; that is the basis for all other religions. They try to be as much like perfection as they can, hoping to slowly but surely transform into that ideal perfection. Christians do not emulate Jesus’ life; they let Jesus live His life through them.

Many philosophers and great minds of the world will quote Jesus alongside other intellectuals of yesterday. Confucius, Aristotle, Gandhi and Jesus will be used to promote everything from world peace to inner healing. The world of intellect seems to have no problem with the statements of Jesus, but they rarely mention the cross of Jesus. Paul called the crucified Christ, “to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23). The blood on the altar puts the life of Jesus on the back-burner in relation to the death of Jesus. The blood on the altar makes Jesus into “Christ”.

It was absolutely necessary for Jesus to die at Calvary. The constant sacrifice of bulls and goats could never make the giver perfect (Hebrews 10:1). If the sacrifice of animals had done the job in taking away sin then, “the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:2, 3). The reason that the conscience was not wiped clean by the animal blood was, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

Some may say, “Paul, that is well and good, but I still have consciousness of my sins”. The reason that we remain aware of our failures is because we forget that Jesus’ work is a finished work. “But this man (Jesus), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). Jesus is now seated, not constantly offering up sacrifice for your sins. Just in case you need a reminder, He sent the Holy Spirit into your heart to make you aware of the great price that Jesus paid, for the Holy Spirit was there when it happened, and He was an eye witness:

“Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:15, 16).

His blood is still on the altar, and you are no longer guilty. Go in the grace of our Lord Jesus today.

The Better Covenant; The Better Promises

Hebrews 8:6-8

If you were to ask many Christians, “What makes the New Covenant a better covenant?” many would respond, “We don’t have to kill lambs anymore”. This is due to the fact that Jesus died for sins, thus there is no need for animal sacrifice when we fail. Let me be blunt, if that is all that the New Covenant accomplished then that was a royal waste of time.

Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry than his priestly predecessors (Hebrews 8:6). He brought in a “better covenant, which was established upon better promises”. The purpose for bringing a better covenant was because the first covenant was found to have fault (Hebrews 8:7). The fault was not within the law itself, for it was holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). Instead, the fault was in the people on the other end of the covenant, “For finding fault with them…” (Hebrews 8:8). The “them” is Israel and Judah, just as it would be you or I.

The first covenant was faulty because it demanded perfection from a people that could never live perfect. No matter how hard someone tried, they would always be found in contempt of the law in one area or the other. Either they did things that were contrary to the law, or they failed to do the many things that the law demanded. Even in the atoning system of the Old Covenant, man was condemned constantly. If you failed and brought a sacrifice before the Lord, everyone saw you bring it and they knew that you had sinned in some respect. The law provided no privacy and no personal relationship. It was cold and it was distant, unable to help you in any way.

Jesus came to live that Old Covenant to perfection; fulfilling all of its many demands. When He died at Calvary, He cut a New Covenant with His Father, taking the faultiness out of the way. We were at fault under the Old Covenant for we could not keep the Law. Jesus has no fault, thus He stepped into our place and cut the Covenant between His Father and His perfect life. Now, we are the recipients of Jesus’ work, receiving benefits of a Covenant that we are not obligated to live up to.

The Old Covenant held man’s sins against him, while the New Covenant says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). The Old Covenant is now decayed and truly old, “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13), so to return to it for guidance or instruction is to go back to a system found faulty by God.

We have a better covenant and a better promise because we have a better sacrifice. Jesus did what no lamb or bull or goat could ever do; He removed the sin problem (John 1:29; Hebrews 10:4). If we are still dealing with sin it is because WE are doing it and not resting in what HE has already done. When we fail now, we are covered by the better covenant and the better promise and the knowledge of that causes us to live as we should, for His New Covenant is written on our minds and in our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).

Thank God for a better covenant, where Jesus keeps His end of the deal with the Father so that we get the blessings of heaven. Hallelujah!

The Blessings of the Covenant

Deuteronomy 28

Notice that I do not list a verse in this devotion, but rather an entire chapter. The reason for this is that this chapter is God’s conditions of blessings and cursing in the Promised Land for Israel. The first 13 verses are what God promises that He will do to bless Israel if they are obedient, while verses 15-68 show God placing curses upon them for disobedience.

The 27th chapter ends with 12 verses beginning with “Cursed”. These curses precede the great blessings of chapter 28 and they are representative of the curse coming before the blessing. Jesus bore our curse so that we could bear His blessings, thus our curse has been accounted for while we rest in His goodness.

When we read the 28th chapter we are reading conditional promises. If we do what is good and right then “these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:2), but then if we fail to do what is right, we get curse upon curse. This is typical language for the Old Testament as much of it is built upon the principles of God’s Law, which is founded upon a covenant between God and Israel. They were responsible for their end of the deal, and their end was to keep God’s Law entirely. When they failed, they received punishment for their breaking of covenant which are the multiple curses.

Jesus came and lived a perfect life, born of a virgin. His lifestyle, one of perfection and absolute stainless righteousness met every demand of God’s law. He stated, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). By living the law to perfection, Jesus could lay His life down as a sacrifice for others, and present His life as an example of law completed.

When the Father smote Jesus at Calvary, He was killing Christ as a sacrifice for everyone else. This was not possible merely by stating it to be so, but rather Jesus had to first qualify as a sacrifice. With no stain of sin in His life, He was deemed acceptable and then given the opportunity to walk away from the task. In Gethsemane, Jesus agreed to drink of the cup of God’s wrath, thus taking into Himself at the cross all of the sins of the world.

By fulfilling the law, Jesus was given all of the blessings of that fulfillment with none of the subsequent curses for breaking it. However, Jesus changed places with us, knowing that we could never fulfill the law. His fulfillment brought Him God’s blessings which He traded to us for all of our law breaking. Thus, Jesus bore the curse that should have been placed upon humanity, so that humanity could bear the blessings that Jesus had earned by His perfect lifestyle.

Now, when we read Deuteronomy 28, we receive all of the blessings of the first 13 verses because we have placed our faith in the finished work of Christ, receiving all that He paid for. No Christian should ever study the curses that are listed in this chapter and fear that they may be living under them, for what has been blessed cannot be cursed (Numbers 23:20). Why do some Christians insist on telling others that they might be cursed because of things that are going on in their lives? It must be because they do not understand just how finished Christ’s finished work is.

The Lord Prefers Mercy

Hosea 6:6

Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees concerning His eating with publicans and sinners. He responded that the healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do (Matthew 9:12). He then challenged those Pharisees to “go ye and learn what that meaneth, ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice’: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (9:13).

The passage that Jesus is challenging them to go and learn is found in the Old Testament book of Hosea, and it is an indicator as to the nature of God. The default position for God has never been judgment, but rather, it has always been mercy. When Adam sinned in Eden, God could have killed him outright or worse yet, he could have let him remain in the Garden to eat the Tree of Life and live forever in a fallen state. God’s mercy kept Adam from that terrible fate, and then went with him to sojourn the earth.

When God dealt with Abraham, He showed him constant mercy, even though Abraham brought along his nephew Lot, and lied to Abimelech about his wife, as well as to Pharaoh. God gave him endless mercy, for that is the heart of God.

God has always desired to show mercy over the offering of sacrifices, but few men could see that through their blind lust to attempt to do the right thing by their own power. When David sinned with Bathsheba, the prayer that resulted from that terrible sin of adultery was one of faith and hope in a better covenant. The normal method for receiving forgiveness of sins was to slaughter a lamb and offer its blood as atonement for one’s sins, but David bypasses this method, stating, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalms 51:16, 17). There was not a single scripture to indicate to David that God wanted anything but sacrifice, but his heart of faith knew that it was not the heartbeat of his loving Father to prefer anything but mercy.

God desires mercy over sacrifice because mercy speaks of relationship, while sacrifice speaks of religion. For a merciful exchange, there is an intimate relationship that results, while a sacrifice is a ritualistic, religious practice that needs only obedience but no emotional attachment. In other words, anyone can offer up a sacrifice with no change of heart, but God wants to know His children. Mercy is for those that you know, while sacrifice is for those that you wish to know. We have a greater relationship with our Daddy God than to just “want to know”.

Apparently, the Pharisees ignore Jesus’ request to study the book of Hosea, for He says the same thing to them a few chapters later when they accuse the disciples of doing unlawful things on the Sabbath day. “But if ye had known what this meaneth, ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless’” (Matthew 12:7).

Thank God for His mercy and goodness toward us! Let’s not be accused of the same apathy as the Pharisees. Let us study to show ourselves approved and find out what it means when Jesus says “I prefer mercy and not sacrifice”.

The Changing of God's Image

John 1:29

John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, this because he not only wrote of God’s love but he also had a recognition of the love of Jesus for him. Five times in the gospel that bears his name, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It wasn’t that Jesus loved him any more than he did the others, but John was the one who realized it!

His descriptions of God in the first chapter of John show us a softening of the image of the Father. The Old Testament depicts God as distant, loud and constantly angry with His people. Many men die, entire towns are burned up and a sacrificial system is instituted that kills over 2 billion lambs, clouding the sky with the smoke off of the altar. As John describes God, he unfurls a three-fold description, showing us the Trinity in a different light.

In describing where Jesus originates from John tells us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus comes from the bosom of the Father; a description that shows God as nurturing and gentle.

Next, Jesus is called “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist, as He approaches the Jordan River to be baptized. John could have called Him, “The Lion of Judah” and he would have been just as truthful, but John knew that Jesus did not come to live and die as a lion, but rather as the Lamb. Every Jew standing there would have caught the reference, as they had lived their lives sacrificing lambs, and now here is THE Lamb, who would take all of their sins away. Again, God is now gentle as a lamb.

Finally, John describes the scene of Jesus’ baptism as the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and landed on Jesus. Here is the Holy Spirit, typified by the dove that left Noah’s Ark, wandering until He could find a place to rest His foot, lighting upon the Son of God. Though the Spirit can hunt down sinners like a hawk, and cause saints to soar like an eagle, it is the dove that is used to describe Him at Jordan.

The Father’s bosom; the Son as Lamb; the Spirit as dove, this is a different face of God! Because of John’s descriptions of the image of God, man should feel a welcome call from the Father to approach Him without fear. As Lamb, Jesus would go forth to the slaughter, not for sins which He had committed but for the sin of the world. John is careful not to say, “The sins of the world”, for this denotes that Jesus will take away individual sins, and we know that He did not do that.

Rather, He died for the “sin” of the world, and His death at the cross has solved the sin problem once for all. Anyone who accepts Christ as their savior has no more “sin problem”. Though they fail and fall into “sins”, they are no longer a sinner, and sin has no dominion over them (Romans 6:14).

If you have been shy to approach the Father, for fear that He will point out your failures, please know that He has already killed the Lamb on your behalf. Your lamb would be worthless, for it could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), so God provided Himself a Lamb (Genesis 22:8). Thank God for Jesus!

The Blood of Bulls and Goats

Leviticus 1:3-5

A priest in Israel had many important duties during the course of a day while working in the tabernacle. One of the most significant tasks was the pouring of the sacrificial blood onto the brazen altar, which sat near the door of the tabernacle. The blood was a foreshadowing of the blood of Christ, which would be shed at Calvary for the removal of our sin debt. The door is Christ, the only way to get to the Father (John 10:7).

The role of the one who had sinned was quite simple, but very important as well. If you sinned, you were to take a male from among your cattle and offer it of your own free will as a sacrifice. The priest inspected it to make sure that it was spotless and without blemish and then you laid your hand on its head as a type of the transference of your sin onto the body of this animal. Only then did you kill it, for it was now a sacrificial animal, bearing your sins in its body.

God thoroughly inspected His Son’s life and found Him to be spotless (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then He placed upon Him the sin of the entire human race; past, present and future. When the man symbolically transferred his sins onto the animal, it could then die. When Jesus bore our sins at the cross, He was ready to cry “It is finished” (John 19:30).

Not until Jesus cried “It is finished”, could He die! In that moment, He had fully made the payment for our sins, “once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). When you accept Him, you are accepting the one who did what bulls and goats could never do (Hebrews 10:4), for they could only cover up sin. These animals brought God no pleasure (10:6).

The death of Jesus on the cross satisfied the wrath of God and now you can face this day with a clean conscience (Hebrews 9:14), knowing that you need not bring an animal into Him, for He has taken care of this once and for all. No more bulls and goats for we have our redeemer!

May God’s face shine upon you today.