“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 NKJV
Sin is a costly, deadly business. I was reading Leviticus 4 this morning in which the Lord directed Moses and Israel how to atone for sin ( the sin offering) :
“He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and kill the bull before the Lord. Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord, in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall putsome of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of meeting; and he shall pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” (Leviticus 4:4-7 NKJV)
The business of paying for the high cost of sin was an ugly business. It was expensive (only perfect specimens were sacrificed), not to mention gory and bloody. The priests and the altar area were splattered with blood, and I imagine this rivaled any scene from a horror movie. From the time that the sacrificial system was set in place until the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave there was a steady increase in offerings. As sin increased so did the need for more and more sacrifices, blood splattering, butchering…death.
The sacrificial system is not practiced any longer, but this doesn’t change the payment required for sin: someone has to pay with their life. This may seem like “Christianity 101”, but we must-I must-remember (and never forget) the great payment that was made for us all.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, once and for all.
If you suffer from self- esteem issues think about this great truth:
God loves us ( present tense) so much that He sent his only Son to take the punishment we so deserve…ransoming and delivering us from eternal death to everlasting life.