Reading: The Cross of Christ pg. 133-138
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrew 9.11-14
How then could God express simultaneously his holiness in judgement and his love in pardon?
Only by providing a divine substitute for the sinner so that the substitute would receive the judgement and the sinner the pardon. We sinners still of course have to suffer some of the personal, psychological and social consequences of our sins, but the penal consequence, the deserved penalty of alienation from God, has been borne by Another in our place, so that we may be spared it. | Stott pg. 134
How does the idea of the requirement of a divine sacrifice affect the way that you view the seriousness of sin? Of God’s mercy?
Father, we so deeply underestimate the severity of our sin and its offense to Your perfect ways. Thank You that You are not only a God of perfect justice, but a God who was willing to sacrifice Your own self for our benefit! Amen