Daily Archives: January 26, 2015

Scapegoat And Sacrifice

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SCAPEGOAT AND SACRIFICE

‘He Himself bore our sins’ in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by His wounds you have been healed.’ For ‘you were like sheep going astray’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2: 24, 25).

In spite of his dismal failure during the time of Jesus’s trial, Peter must have been enthralled by the way Jesus conducted Himself when every false accusation and insult was hurled at Him. He was at the foot of the cross during those terrible hours when his Master hung there, writhing in agony and yet more mindful of those around Him than He was of Himself.

It was inevitable that his mind would stray to the familiar words of the prophet Isaiah:

“Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds we were healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53: 4-6)

How often had Peter not been a part of the solemn Day of Atonement ceremony at the temple in Jerusalem. The high priest would press the sins of the nation onto the scapegoat which was driven out into the desert. Then he would repeat the procedure on the second goat, pressing the nations’ sins onto the sacrificial goat which was slaughtered and its blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place.

How many times had he repeated that Scripture and puzzled over its meaning? Not even the learned rabbis of the past and present could understand to whom the prophecy referred until the Holy Spirit interpreted His own word to the sincere followers of Jesus.

Gradually the light came on! Of course! The man with whom they had lived so closely for three and a half years, listening to His teaching and watching His marvellous works, was the very person of whom Isaiah spoke. Who else fitted the scene which Isaiah described more perfectly than Jesus? The realisation must have sent shivers of joy through Peter’s soul.

What better message could he share with these believers who were part of God’s own people and now a part of Christ’s body? He was the very one to whom all the ceremonies of Israel’s most holy day pointed. The implications were huge. Just as the scapegoat bore the sins of the nation away into the desert for another year and the blood of the sacrifice covered their sins and received the forgiveness of God, so the sacrifice of Jesus took away their sins forever.

Animal sacrifices had no power to remove sin or cleanse their guilty consciences but they were pictures of the reality Jesus came to bring. He was God’s lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. He died at a point in history, but the effects of His death were so enormous that, from God’s perspective, He paid the debt of all sin for all people for all time.

God’s people in the old dispensation only had pictures in the form of ceremonies and sacrifices to point to that sacrifice. Peter and his fellow disciples had the fulfilment as the Holy Spirit revealed it to them. It was up to them to make the bold declaration to everyone who would listen and everyone who would believe, that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

When the sinner is forgiven, sin removed and the conscience cleansed of all guilt and shame, the wayward son is free to return home. There is nothing left to separate him from his offended Father. He has an elder Brother who took his place. All he has to do is to admit his guilt and receive the forgiveness which has been freely offered to him.

It must have filled Peter’s heart with joy to be able to write:

For ‘you were like sheep going astray’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Christ Suffered For You

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CHRIST SUFFERED FOR YOU

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. ‘He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:21-23)

Slavery was an accepted part of life in those times. People were enslaved for many different reasons. Some had to sell themselves and their families when they fell on hard times. Others were enslaved through conquest. Many were the offspring of slaves who were sold off by slave owners, often as young children. There is no doubt that slavery brought terrible misery and suffering to a large part of the population. At least 40% of the Roman Empire at that time were slaves.

All slaves and their families were the property of their owners who could sell or rent them out at any time. Their lives were harsh. Slaves were often whipped, branded or cruelly mistreated. Their owners could also kill them for any reason, and would face no punishment. http://www.crystalinks.com/romeslavery.html

Although Peter was particularly addressing the slave community in the church at this point, what he taught has relevance for all God’s people. What he wrote was revolutionary. Not only was he encouraging his readers to submit to cruel treatment without resisting, but he also explained that their suffering was not just circumstantial but a calling from God! How on earth could the kind of suffering they had to endure be a calling? Had Peter somehow lost the plot? No, he was quite serious about what he wrote.

The majority of people in the world are in the grip of their ungodly nature – living for self and making their own rules. In the background is the ‘god of this world’, using his subtle influence to cause as much misery and destruction as he can. Some people even acknowledge him and willingly participate in his plan while others inadvertently carry out his evil design through the worship of false gods and the wicked ways their beliefs spawn.

There is only one way to overcome evil in the world – not by retaliating because this only contributes to more evil. Jesus revealed the answer by the way He conducted Himself throughout the ordeal of His unjust arrest, trials and crucifixion. Before He faced the cross, He came to terms with what lay ahead of Him, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We know that a part of His mission was to be the sacrificial lamb for the sin of the world.  To be the perfect and unblemished lamb, He had to be sinless which meant far more than not committing the gross deeds we reckon as sin. To be without blemish meant that He had to be in perfect harmony with the Father in every aspect of His life – thoughts, attitudes, and motives, as well as words and actions. Everything He was and did was to reflect the Father’s nature – love and light.

Since it was the Father’s will that He die, He submitted not only to death but to the manner in which He would die, by the agony of the cross and all its implications. Day by day He submitted and obeyed the Father and in Gethsemane, where He fought His greatest inward battle, He overcame all the evil that His enemies could throw at Him by submitting to the Father’s will.

No matter what they did to Him, they could not break His will to obey the Father. He not only became our Saviour but also our example. By submitting to the worst His enemies could do to Him without resistance or retaliation, He absorbed all the evil in Himself and left them guilty and without excuse for what they had done.

‘Now,’ said Peter, ‘you do that as well.’ When we leave the judgment to the Father in the face of cruelty or injustice instead of trying to take it on our own shoulders, we know we will not have to face the music for our own sin. We also know that God will be perfectly just in the end.

Although we do not suffer the indignities of slavery, there are many occasions when we are at the receiving end of unscrupulous people, employers, lawyers, and people in places of authority. When, like Jesus, we entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly, we put them to silence and bring them to shame and force them to be accountable for what they have done.

This is how the kingdom of God functions.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.