The Law of Moses taught the Jews that sin could not be remitted without the shedding of blood.
The wages of sin is death. God said so in the beginning in the garden:
"If you eat it or touch it (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), you will surely die".
To hope for the remission of our sins without pointing to the shedding of blood as an atoning substitute would therefore be like expecting the withholding of wages. It would be unrighteous. And Moses' Law taught and demanded righteousness.
The concept of the remission of sin requiring atonement, propitiation, and substitution was well taught to Israel through Moses' Law.
The Law was intended as a temporary school master to bring them to Christ.
In the fullness of time, God Himself provided a sacrifice - a substitute - His only Son - to make atonement - propitiation - for our sins.
God has forgiven us in Christ, not because He ignored our debt, but because He paid it. Simply ignoring our debt would be unrighteous - it would be inequity. But paying for our debt is both righteous and merciful.
In the cross righteousness and mercy kissed each other.
How then can adherents of modern Judaism perceive of a forgiveness of sin without an atoning sacrifice? Such a concept is so foreign to their own Scriptures.
Since the destruction of the Temple in AD70 and the loss of Levitical records, it has never since been possible for anyone to offer sacrifices in a way that complied with Moses' instructions and demands in the Old Testament. It's literally impossible.
God had already ratified a New Covenant by that time - a new covenant in the blood of His Son.
The Jews' own authoritative Scriptures in which they trust - Moses' writings - as well as the writings of the Prophets - ought to point them to Christ.
The cross and the cross alone fulfilled every principle of Moses' Law.
They are hoping for forgiveness from the Almighty, but they are hoping for it without atonement - without recourse to the principles which their revered Moses himself spoke about.
What they are hoping in is tantamount to expecting unrighteousness - expecting Law-breaking - on God's part, for their own benefit.
In principle that is tantamount to expecting God to withhold wages. Any such inequity in dealings is itself a very non-Jewish concept. Yet that's exactly what they're hoping in.
Unless they believe in Jesus.
We who have believed can sing:
My hope is built on nothing less
Many Gentiles are receiving the promises that were intended for the Jews. Many Gentiles also are still yet to believe.
Let's pray for Jew and Gentiles alike that their eyes might be opened, their ears to hear and their hearts to receive.
But how shall they hear unless we go.
The wages of sin is death. God said so in the beginning in the garden:
"If you eat it or touch it (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), you will surely die".
To hope for the remission of our sins without pointing to the shedding of blood as an atoning substitute would therefore be like expecting the withholding of wages. It would be unrighteous. And Moses' Law taught and demanded righteousness.
The concept of the remission of sin requiring atonement, propitiation, and substitution was well taught to Israel through Moses' Law.
The Law was intended as a temporary school master to bring them to Christ.
In the fullness of time, God Himself provided a sacrifice - a substitute - His only Son - to make atonement - propitiation - for our sins.
God has forgiven us in Christ, not because He ignored our debt, but because He paid it. Simply ignoring our debt would be unrighteous - it would be inequity. But paying for our debt is both righteous and merciful.
In the cross righteousness and mercy kissed each other.
How then can adherents of modern Judaism perceive of a forgiveness of sin without an atoning sacrifice? Such a concept is so foreign to their own Scriptures.
Since the destruction of the Temple in AD70 and the loss of Levitical records, it has never since been possible for anyone to offer sacrifices in a way that complied with Moses' instructions and demands in the Old Testament. It's literally impossible.
God had already ratified a New Covenant by that time - a new covenant in the blood of His Son.
God put away David's sin without requiring sacrifice. But meanwhile it was written that a yearly atonement was to be made for the whole nation. David understood that.
God also accepted people in every nation who feared Him and loved mercy and did justly. The blood of bulls and goats after all could not really atone for sin.
It was also possible for a person to offer sacrifices without the heart. God didn't accept that. But He was more ready to accept a person with the right heart even without a sacrifice.
But none of this takes away from the fact that God gave the Law to Israel to show that there really is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. That was needed, and that would come. The blood of bulls and goats couldn't cut it really.
It was also possible for a person to offer sacrifices without the heart. God didn't accept that. But He was more ready to accept a person with the right heart even without a sacrifice.
But none of this takes away from the fact that God gave the Law to Israel to show that there really is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. That was needed, and that would come. The blood of bulls and goats couldn't cut it really.
What was to come - the sending of His own Son - was typified by the provision for Abraham in the mountain of a sacrifice in place of Isaac.
If adherents to modern Judaism cite an extra-Biblical source for an alternative solution or explanation for this dilemma - what authority does that source have to make provisions that fall short in a principle taught by Moses?
The Jews' own authoritative Scriptures in which they trust - Moses' writings - as well as the writings of the Prophets - ought to point them to Christ.
The cross and the cross alone fulfilled every principle of Moses' Law.
They are hoping for forgiveness from the Almighty, but they are hoping for it without atonement - without recourse to the principles which their revered Moses himself spoke about.
What they are hoping in is tantamount to expecting unrighteousness - expecting Law-breaking - on God's part, for their own benefit.
In principle that is tantamount to expecting God to withhold wages. Any such inequity in dealings is itself a very non-Jewish concept. Yet that's exactly what they're hoping in.
Unless they believe in Jesus.
We who have believed can sing:
My hope is built on nothing less
- Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
Many Gentiles are receiving the promises that were intended for the Jews. Many Gentiles also are still yet to believe.
Let's pray for Jew and Gentiles alike that their eyes might be opened, their ears to hear and their hearts to receive.
But how shall they hear unless we go.
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