Observing the Futility of Sacrifice (Argument 4)

I have been thinking a lot about the sacrifices I’ve watched while here at the Temple. I persuaded my older brother to linger with me at the Temple, watching all the people who come and go. He is a good Hebrew student, and quizzes me on the reasons why each person offers the sacrifice they do. We speculate on what it could be that compels them to seek repentance… do they truly desire favor in the eyes of Adonai or were they compelled to repent because of a disgruntled spouse. My brother is a firm believer in the unity of obedience to please God and compulsion. He is too idealistic a Jew to admit the tendency of man to disobey the Law out of selfish idolatry. My brother loves God, but denies the need for anything other than the Law to make him righteous before God. But you, my brothers and sisters, know how dead we are and how incapable under the Law, because by the Law we realized sins, and transgressed against the Law more because of it (as Paul pointed out).

Realizing how great our sacrifice was in Christ, that I may sit as an observer to all other sacrifices, never needing to atone for sins again, where as my brother must offer sacrifices, and all that effort and blood and death… and yet those sacrifices do not purify his sins as much as my sacrifice does. I had the perfect sacrifice, One who sacrificed Himself once in order to pay for all my sins. My brother must return again here every year to be covered under the sin offering on the Day of Atonement. And yet my brother will sin again, and the blood from his last sacrifice will not clean him until the end What freedom we who are in Christ have, no longer being bound to seek blood absolution for our sins! Look, you have this sacrifice absolving your sins, so don’t stand outside the Temple like an unclean woman, press into the very presence of God, the heart of the Father. Once close in His presence, remain there in purity, do not defile the sacrifice He has made for us, because the blood was already pain for the whole sacrifice, Christ has no more sacrificial blood to spill!

We are coming closer and closer to the time when we will want to deny His blood because it is going to hurt us to claim this perpetual absolution. Do you realize it will be willful sin, willful denial of Christ is you return to your Temple sacrifices? This would mean that Jesus was just another sacrifice, not the eternally absolving sacrifice. Let me compare for you the consequences of willful sin vs. unintentional sin between Old Covenant and New Covenant just to encourage you not to relinquish your claim on Christ’s blood. If you all hold together in the blood of Christ throughout this trial, the fellowship you share as fellow sufferers will strengthen your individual resolve, and you will not be as tempted to fall away from Christ as you would be if you approach this trial divided.

In Mosaic Law, willful sin brought death if convicted by two or three witnesses, so God would not tolerate it then. How do you think that you, under a greater sacrifice and your sins completely covered, will escape punishment for your willful sins? You are not less accountable because your sins have been completely covered, but because your sacrifice is worth far more and absolves you far better, you are expected to be holier than those under the “mere” Torah! You have a spiritized Torah, a means of following the rules, not just the rules themselves! Do not test God this way by sinning willfully, by denying the power of His Son’s blood. It is the most dreadful thing in the world to witness God’s judgment on His own. It is because He loves you and wants you to have the best, be holy and perfect, and so because you have been cleansed and are able to live holy, God will hold you to a higher standard of behavior than those under the Old Covenant!

And even those under the Old Covenant who did not see the fulfillment of their promise, actually see Christ remove their sins from God’s presence, remained faithful to God. This proves that you are far more able to live holy, obedient lives before God than they, since you have seen this fulfillment of the promise. Look at our fathers: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham (even Sarah!), Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses! They all faced great trials and persevered until the end, sticking to their decisions. Even you have already suffered persecution and endured in spite of it. So why would you give in to the temptation now, simply because it’s a greater persecution than you endured last time? All those who persevered and finished the race under the Old Covenant are standing on the sidelines as we run this persecution through until the end. But we do not just have the fathers cheering us on, we have Christ himself, who not only encourages us to keep running, but runs alongside us.

Therefore, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and remain together. You are temples of Christ, now, don’t be caught in the old sacrificial system, because if you turn back from the better sacrifice of Christ now, you are willfully sinning against God and He will judge you for it because He loves you. Look, Jesus Himself suffered like you are now, suffering even a worse persecution. And He finished… therefore think of Him and you will too. I love you all. I will keep watching the Temple and describe it to all of you when I return!