we all long for the world to be good for people to live in peace
act with love and justice but there's a problem
something compels us humans to constantly wreak havoc and destruction
instead and we call this evil and from the Bible's point of view, evil ruins
things in at least two ways. There's a direct effect of our evil like when someone
steals from another person they've created injustice therefore they owe something
to make it right but there's another indirect effect of evil because
they've also ruined the environment of the relationship creating a lack of
trust there's emotional damage it's like vandalism and they need to make that
right too. Now many people believe 'Hey God is good
he should be the one to just get rid of all the evil in the world.' But let's be honest I mean
the evil that I see everywhere
out there it's the same evil that's inside of me. We have all contributed and
we keep doing it. So this kind of puts us in a bind if God's going to rid the
world of evil, he'll have to get rid of us. And this is what's so remarkable about the story
of the Bible. This God is so good
that not only is he going to rid the world of evil he's going to do it
without destroying humanity. So how is he going to do that? Well early in the story
of the Bible we're introduced to this practice of animal sacrifice which I
know seems weird to us but for the Israelites it was a very powerful symbol
of God's justice and of His grace. So remember I'm a contributor to the evil
that's in the world I should be removed. But God is allowing this animal's life
to be a substitute. It symbolically dying in my place. And the biblical word for this is atonement,
which means to cover over someone's death. But there's a second part to this ritual
remember evil also causes this relational vandalism and in the Bible this
idea is described as polluting or defiling the land and making it unclean
so the priest would symbolically wash away the vandalism by sprinkling the
animal's blood in different parts of the temple. So the animal's blood is
cleaning things? Well, remember this is a symbol and it's a symbol that we're not
used to. The blood represents life and the sprinkling of the blood is this
representation of how God is cleaning away these indirect consequences of
evil in their community. In the Bible this process is called purification and
so the temple in the land now become a clean space where God and His people can
live together in peace
So this ritual makes things right between Israel and God? And more than
that! The Israelites experience God's love and His grace through these symbols and by
being forgiven ideally this would compel them to become people of love and grace
that's the ideal but
it wasn't always happening right so the prophet Isaiah for example he talks a
lot about this he opens his book by saying that the continual sacrifices of
the Israelites had become meaningless because they were also allowing great
evil in their midst. Ignoring the poor and the oppressed even the Israelite
kings were distorting justice. But Isaiah looked forward to a day when a new king from
the line of David would come and deal with evil but in a surprising way the
King would become a servant and not just serve but also suffer and die for the
evil committed by his own people and his life would be offered as a sacrifice
this is the promise of Jesus believed he was fulfilling he's the king of Israel
suffering and dying on the cross. In fact, Jesus himself used Isaiah's words when he said
that he came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. And that word ransom
refers to the sacrifice of atonement and so all over the New Testament we hear
about how Jesus' death was an atoning sacrifice for us. It covered the debt that
humans owe God for contributing to all of the evil and death in His world but the
new testament authors also talk about Jesus death as providing purification
and so we hear about Jesus' blood as a symbol of his life having this ability
to wash away the vandalism that evil has caused in and around us so we can
now live at peace with God so that's the meaning behind Jesus' death but there's
more to the story. Yeah, the New Testament makes this powerful claim that Jesus's
death was not final
he rose from the dead
and so he's the sacrifice who broke the power of death and evil which means that
he lives on to offer his life to anyone who will accept it he is the perfect sacrifice
to it which all the previous sacrifices were pointing all along. So because of Jesus
the early Christians stopped participating in the ritual animal
sacrifice. But they were given new rituals there are two that Jesus taught his
followers to perform the first is called baptism. Just as Jesus died so going
into the water becomes this personal connection you now have to his death and
in coming out of the water you so to speak
come back to life with Jesus baptism is the sacred ritual that joins your story
to Jesus's death and resurrection the second rituals called the Lord's Supper
which is a reenactment of Jesus' last meal with his disciples and he use bread
and wine to portray his coming death as a sacrifice and so now followers of
Jesus they take the bread and the cup regularly to remember and to participate
in the power of Jesus' death and in his life so these rituals they remind us of
God's love and encourage us to live a life love and grace but they do more
than that they connect us to a new life source the very power that brought Jesus
back from the dead is the same power that can deal with the evil in our own
lives and transform us into people who lead lives of love and peace.
Hi this is Tim! And this is Jon! And we believe the Bible is telling one overall
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