The Final Sacrifice

1 Peter 2:13-25

"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. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, 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." (v. 21-25)

We always attempt to keep our house in a acceptable state of cleanliness. However, with children running in the house, our acceptance level had declined. Regardless, we work hard in keeping it clean. However, when we have guests, our acceptance level returns to a very high level. We do our best to present a beautiful clean house. However, during the process if time is running out, we have a "special room" where we dump things into when we cannot appropriately clean them. It is a room where we sometimes tell our guest of two german shepherds as a watchdog behind the door. The house in general may be clean, but it would be disastrous if the guest walked into that room. Unfortunately, it's worse after our guests leaves. We are typically exhausted, and either the mess in the "special room" is forgotten and collects over time, or the mess just gets re-distributed back into the house.

Unfortunately, we as Christians treats our sins in the same manner. Many of accept the gift of eternal life of Christ, but continues to treat in a similar fashion. We now recognize its wrong, but we attempt to sweep it into a "special room." We treat Christ's sacrifice as if it was simply to cover our sins. Christ's sacrifice through His death and resurrection was not a sacrifice as in the Old Testament. It was not an atonement as translated in the Old Testament as "a covering" or "to cover over something." He sacrifice was to wash away our sins once and for all. To have our sins completed washed away is very different than covering it up. So to must our attitude be. When we sin against God and then receive His forgiveness, then we must take every attempt to prevent from sinning again. His forgiveness, is not about "rearranging the deck furniture on the Titanic." We do not just cover it up, only to have it appear elsewhere in our lives. Our acceptance of His forgiveness means the elimination of the event AND the attitude of the sin.

Let us therefore not diminish the power of the cross. His sacrifice was not like the sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament. It was done once and for all as Jesus spoke His last few words, "It is finished."