Courtney Gilmore Do your sins weigh you down? Do you feel like there is no way to get out from under them? Maybe you don’t think you even deserve mercy or forgiveness for the things you’ve done. Maybe you live in a self-imposed punished state because you think that’s what you deserve.
Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad first: You do not deserve mercy or forgiveness. The good news is: You are not alone, because the rest of us don’t either. But the very best news is that we have a God who chooses to give to us that which we do not deserve. That is GRACE!
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
You are not unique in your sin. It may feel like you have done something much worse than most people. Or it may feel like you sin much more often than everyone else. But God says that we are all sinners, period. Just as all people who commit crimes are criminals no matter what they have done or how often, all people who sin are sinners, no matter the degree or frequency.
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
James 2:10-11
Anyone who breaks the law of God or man is guilty and goes before the judge to receive their sentence. An earthly judge can choose to give you the harshest sentence or the lightest allowable for your offense. But for those found guilty of breaking God’s law, which we have already determined is all of us, He pronounces only one sentence: Death
For the wages of sin is death…
Romans 6:23
So, when we pass from this life to the next and stand before the Judge of all heaven and earth, He will ask only one question: Has the sentence been served or not?
For the death He (Jesus) died, He died once for all.
Romans 6:10
So if Jesus already paid the price, why not add your name to the list of people He paid it for? Why live in your guilt and shame any longer?
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe, is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16 &18
If we place our faith in Jesus as our Savior, then the sentence has been paid for us. If we do not, then we sentence ourselves to eternal death. So, if there is someone willing to intervene on your behalf, why wouldn’t you let them?
After the Israelites provoked God to wrath once again, Aaron, the high priest, presents us with a beautiful picture of what intervention looks like.
Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun.” Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly. Already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. Aaron stood between the dead and the living, so the plague was stopped.
Numbers 16:46-48
Aaron was willing to run into a plague that was killing everyone, stand in front of it, and plead with the Lord not to proceed any further. Can you picture what that must have looked like? He placed himself in harms way and stood on their behalf, praying for mercy. If he would have done that for you, would you accept it? I hope you would, because that man was risking his life to save everyone else. That kind of willingness to sacrifice oneself for another should not be in vain and neither should the sacrifice of our Savior be for us.
You see, we too have a High Priest, that took a stand between life & death for us. His name is Jesus. But instead of offering up prayers, He offered Himself as payment for our sins. Once the punishment had been paid there was no longer need for God’s wrath on us. How amazing!
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 5:8-10
So, you are not alone! Just like the Israelites, we all deserve God’s wrath. But Jesus stood between us and God and took the wrath for us all.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
Unlike Aaron, our High Priest not only risked His life to protect us from that wrath, but He gave His life so there could be peace between us and our God. He reconciled us to the Father through His sacrifice.
Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:11-15
He did not sacrifice animals for us like the priests did in those days, taking their blood to the altar before the Most Holy Place as proof. Instead He sacrificed His own life for our sins because He had no sin of His own to pay for. This made Him our Mediator like Aaron was for the Israelites. They deserved God’s wrath, but Aaron intervened for them, saving their lives. We too deserve God’s wrath but Jesus intervenes for us, saving our lives for eternity.
So don’t let the law condemn you, pronouncing you guilty, leaving you in that state. Instead die to that which condemns you and let Jesus live through you.
I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Galatians 2:19-21
Live by faith in Him because He gave Himself up for you. Do not set aside His GRACE for YOU!!!
Excerpt from Episode 93 “The Sweet Intervention of a Savior” on Podcast and YouTube
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