Our fourth word...

PROPITIATION: HOW DO WE DEAL WITH ANGER?

"The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died, and the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place..." Lev 16:1-3

What a horrible moment Leviticus 10 must have been for Aaron. His sons were both set in as priests in chapter 9, and then they were both killed by God for their disregard for His holiness! The shift in tone between those chapters is palpable... it's hard to imagine what must have been going through his mind. Nadab and Abihu improvised with their roles in God's presence by choosing to change the way they offered incense in the Tabernacle. Not a big deal, right? Wrong... and they were struck down by God as a result. What a terrible moment- not just of grief... but also of trying to answer the question: what can be done to avoid God's wrath again? What we saw yesterday is that God directed Aaron to the one place where God's anger towards sin could be taken care of: the mercy seat... the "place of propiation." And Aaron was to go there only one day per year- the Day of Atonement. Three things come to light as we studied a bit more about that day...

First, God's holiness is foreign to the earthly: God told Israel to make the Tabernacle so that earthly people could interact with a holy God. The patterns weren't just based on random proportions... instead, they were to mirror the reality of heaven. Hebrews 9:1-5 was clear that all the regulations from the Old Testament were pointing to other realities... to other places. And at the heart of the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant- covered by the mercy seat- the place of propitiation. So on the Day of Atonement, after great sacrifice to atone for his and Israel's sin, Aaron brought blood into the Most Holy Place, behind the curtain and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat. Why? Because the Ark represented the heavenly throne of God. And you don't just waltz up to the Throne.

Second, God's anger is justified against the guilty: God didn't need to apologize, therefore, about his treatment of Aaron's sons. In fact, God was merciful by helping Aaron to understand how to prevent his OWN death. Remember, on the Day of Atonement, Aaron walked into the courtyard (past the altar and basin), into the Tabernacle (past the table of bread and the lampstand), he would pause at the altar before going beyond the curtain. He would take coals on a censer and place it in the Most Holy Place, then return to get incense to throw on that fire. What must that have been like? This was how his sons died... they offered incense that was common and profane before a God who was uncommon and holy. Hebrews 9:6-10 reminds us that deep down, Aaron knew the system wasn't fully operational yet. His conscience wasn't fully cleansed... even after a year of sacrifice, even after the Day of Atonement. Aaron was still sinful, and all the blood of bulls and goats could never remove his sin.

Sadly, I think too many of us as Christians start here... and never leave. We know that God was at least satisfied by Christ's death to forgive our sins. But we live as though God is bearing a grudge against us because of the lack of perfection that defines our lives now. We have bad habits, give into old sins, forget to exercise self-control, and go weeks without reading the Bible. These things are serious, but not in the way we feel them... our consciences are never fully purified... and we wonder if they ever could be. We avoid God's presence because we're afraid of His anger. Enter propitiation- the process by which God's wrath is removed from His people... because...

Third, God's sacrifice is sufficient for our purity: Hebrews 9:11 begins "When Christ appeared"- what glorious truth... Christ appeared to deal with God's wrath (not in some earthly copy of heaven) but in heaven itself! Christ's blood pleads for His people at the Throne, and Christ is seated at the Father's side as our propitiation. The Cross has now become our mercy seat- the "place of propitiation" for us... all pictured in the two goats of the Day of Atonement. One goat slaughtered with its blood sprinkled on the Ark, the other one banished from the people of Israel as a representation that the guilt from their sins was removed from the nation. As our scapegoat, Jesus has removed our sins from us... and as our propitiation, "the blood of Christ purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Heb 9:13-14

The wonderful upshot of it all is that God is not angry with His people. What would be different if we really believed this... if the threat of God's anger didn't hang over the shoulders of God's church today?

• I think we'd be calm in the Father's presence, remembering that Christ came to be made like us, to become a priest for us to make propitiation for the sins of the people. He suffered like us so that He can help us. Don't believe me? Read Hebrews 2:17-18... it's right there.
• I also think we'd be quicker to love others rather than to get angry at them. Love doesn't find its source in our capacity to love. Instead, it's defined by the fact that our Father loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God was not content to let His wrath dwell on us, and so we ought to make sure that we are committed to the same mindset with others. That's from 1 John 4:10.

Have a great week!

Our third word...

Over the last two Sundays, we've taken a look at two pretty important days in the Old Testament: Passover and the Day of Atonement. As we saw Sunday, they functioned differently from each other... each with its own focus and ceremonies.

• Passover started the calendar year,
• while the Day of Atonement started the religious year.
• Passover marked Israel's redemption,
• while the D of A marked Israel's atonement.
• Passover looked back to the Exodus,
• while the D of A looked back to Israel's past year.
• Passover was a time of feasting together,
• while the D of A was marked by fasting.

As we prepare for Good Friday and Easter this week, it's good to remember that God planned out Christ's substitutionary, redemptive work in a way that built around SACRIFICE and PROPITIATION (our two new words). Although we don't have community groups this week, I trust these reviews of Christ as our propitiatory sacrifice will help you to remember Christ's death and to celebrate Christ's resurrection. The messages basically answered two simple questions: "How do we deal with the reality of vengeance?" and "How do we deal with the reality of anger?"

FIRST- SACRIFICE: HOW DO WE DEAL WITH VENGEANCE?

"For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt." Ex 12:12-13

All of us instincively have a desire to see justice executed. Like Inigo Montoya who was dominated by the quest to see his father's death avenged, we can all have an internal cry for justice when we're wronged: "There will be blood tonight." But we know that God calls for forgiveness from us and extends mercy to us... so how does this square up? Sin should result in blood, but God calls us to defer instead for patience and kindness towards those who sin... but where does justice fit in all this? Exodus 12 reminds us that sin requires a sacrifice that only God can provide. We see this in two parts in these verses:

1. Sin results in death: God had exacted 9 judgments against the gods of Egypt- plagues that had humbled Egypt and shattered their view of God as a weakling slave deity. But God had one more plague in mind... one that resulted in great blood. And it's easy to dismiss this view of God until we remember sin for what it is: "an act of treason again our cosmis authority... an insult to God's holiness" (RC Sproul). When we remember that our internal idolatry and love affair with this world is a direct insult to God's holiness as we thumb our noses at Him, it seems right to remember that sin results in death... not simply as a natural consequence. God often brought death on those who offended Him, like Uzzah or Ananias and Sapphira. And this causes us to stop and consider whether we're trivializing the vestiges of our rebellion against God. Isn't it treasonous...

• when we fawn over people we admire?
• dream about the stuff we could purchase?
• work like dogs to advance our careers?

It's not simply the forbidden that gets us off track, it's the fact that the secondary pursuits of life overtake God in our lives... suddenly, the first commandment to love God without rival seems fairly difficult. We must start by remembering the way God dealt with this is Egypt... sin results in death.

2. But blood atones for sin: What an amazing phrase hits us in verse 13- "when I see the blood." The truth is that Passover... that sacrifice... is a bloody pasttime. In fact, given the way that sacrificial language dominates Scripture, the Bible is a pretty bloody book. What amazes me is the way God responds to blood! Some of us have different responses when we see blood (mine are fairly shameful)... but when God sees the blood of His sacrifice, He responds with mercy. Only God could provide the kind of sacrifice that could evoke this type of response. So God hid a glorious reality in a dying system. From the beginning, blood was shed to cover Adam and Eve, to atone for Noah's condition, to cover up Israel's sin... but ultimately to point to the One that John called "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." You see, when Christ appeared, he did so "once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Heb 9:26). What an atonement He provides: He builds a sense of blood-justice into us, He exposes our need that deeds can't undo, and He provides a sacrifice who would bleed on our behalf:

• One who bled from the fists at the courtyard
• One who bled from the thorns in His forehead
• One who bled from the nails in His wrists
• One who bled from the spear in His side...

...but One who bled was bleeding before they even touched Him. As He pled in prayer over the cup of wrath He would drink, His blood began flowing then- in preparation for the "sacrifice of Himself." If this is true, and it is, then our need for vengeance against others in satisfied... as believers, the blood we want from others is either paid by Christ or one day will be exacted by Him. (Vengeance is not ours.) In the same way, we don't need to offer up some way of atoning for our sins... that work in finished as well. As the song says, "His blood has forever ransomed me!"

more to come in the next post...

Our first two words...

A brief note before I begin: the recent delay in sending these out hasn't been due to a computer glitch, website troubles, or a system error of any kind. Instead, the problem has technically been diagnosed as a PICNIC error- which, as I learned yesterday, stands for "Problem In Chair, Not In Computer." So, yup... it's me... just haven't been able to get these out. However, the quality of the messages we heard during February mandates some follow-up. So, later this week, I'll be blogging about how we can continue to apply the series on purity. OK, note over. On to this week...

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Over the last two Sundays, we began our series entitled "5 Big Words"- our study of Old Testament concepts that help to inform how we understand the atonement (what Christ did for us on the Cross). None of them are "new" words to most Christians; but many of them can be words that are easily glossed over due to familiarity. I hope that our look at "substitution" and "redemption" over these past two weeks has served you. Here's a brief review:

On Sunday the 7th, we opened up to Genesis 22 where we read about Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah. We saw that (like the "stunt man" from my 8th grade talent show) substitution is when one person or thing acts or serves in the place of another. While it's easy to view their story sentimentally, the reality is that Abraham and Isaac's dilemma portrays for us our real struggle to trust God with the ways in which sin affects our lives each day.

• Consider the Drama: God had created people to bear His image and represent His nature on the earth- but they didn't... they rebelled and rejected God's significance as the Creator. They wanted to displace Him in the garden, they murdered and killed each other outside the garden, and even after God started over with Noah after the flood- they still lived their lives in an attempt to demonstrate their own permanence and power. But God was merciful and chose to restore His people to Himself through one man... a man whose family would produce a nation... a man whom God would use to bless the entire earth... a man whose only son represented the fulfillment of all God's promises... the man who was walking up Mount Moriah to kill that very son. It would have been easy for Abraham to despair that God was going to be faithful to His promises... just like it's easy for us to be so marred by sin (ours and others) that we wonder if God can keep His promises to us. Have you ever been so low in life that you've wondered if sin will have the final say in your life? What tempts you to think that right now?


• Consider the Trama: Abraham and Isaac approach mountain... alone... and Isaac turns to his dad and asks, "Where is the sacrifice? Fire- check, wood- check, sacrifice- uhh..." Isaac seems to understand that sin requires sacrifice... that our general condition as fallen folks and our specific contributions to that condition require a sacrifice that will stave off the wrath of God towards us. But where will that sacrifice come from? This moment has been called "one of the most dramatic and theologically significant episodes in Genesis." And I think these moments in our lives are the most theologically significant as well. We're all affected by sin- sometimes from others who've ruined our lives and sometimes because of the ways we've sinfully and selfishly treated God and others. We're often so aware that things are botched up financially, relationally, spiritually and we know that someone has to pay! There must be some way to atone for this mess we've made, but how can it be done? These are traumatic, theological moments because they say so much about what we believe. And the only true way to respond is the way Abraham responds: "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So consider: how easy is it for you to respond the same way? Are you quick to remember Christ as the substitute when someone sins against you (or your friends or your kids)? Are you quick to remember Christ as the substitute when you fail or blatantly sin against others? Why or why not? What else do you turn to?


• Consider the Triumph: What a great moment it is, then, when God intervenes, when Isaac is spared, and when the substitute is revealed. God provided for Himself the sacrifice. Just like He did for Adam and Eve who were covered in leaves- God provided the lamb. Just like He did for you and for me who so often cover ourselves in our own ways of patching things up and making things right- God provided the Lamb. This is how the horrors of sin can be explained, how our past can be redeemed, how the guilty can find sleep at night, how the innocent victims can endure... there is a Substitute who comes and stands in our place. If we really believed this and lived it, it could change the way we live, react, rejoice, suffer, and stand against evil. Because the point of the passage appears to be: We can trust God's promises to us because He sent His Substitute for us. If you really caught that and believed it to be true, what promises from God might make a real difference in your life this week?

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On Sunday the 14th, we opened to Exodus 6 where we read about God's promise to "redeem" His people... the descendents of Abraham. We saw that "redemption is when one person pays the price to free another from slavery." Although redemption language seems like some coupon-clipping kind of life, it's actually language that was much more familiar to those in Old and New Testament times. It came from an living in a reality where slaves really could purchase their freedom and where captives of war really might need to be purchased from their bondage to the conquering nation. Consider the way that comes through in Exodus 6:6-8...
"Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’”

God promises to redeem His people and we see three things about redemption here:

• Redemption looks to the past: Consider the history that Israel knew as a "slave nation." Their past was marred by bondage to Egyptians, by misery, by an inability to ever imagine life different than it was at the moment. So consider how tempting it might have been to hear Moses declare that God would redeem His people: "Moses, what do you know about us? You were raised in privilege, we were raised in the mud. No, my friend, bondage is all we've ever known and all we ever will." It's easy for all of us to feel like slaves to sin... especially for those who really are. Jesus, Paul, and Peter all declared that our natural condition apart from grace is in slavery to sin... we have no options- our master exerts its will over us and we are incapable of living in a manner that pleases God. (see John 8:34, Romans 6, and 2 Peter 2:19). But praise God that when He looks to the past, He not only remembers our suffering and sees us (Exodus 2:23-25), He also remembers His promises to redeem and change those He's called to Himself. Redemption looks to the past and sees sin but it also sees God's promises to save! Do you have hope that when God looks to your past, He sees both your suffering under sin and His commitment to redeem you from your sin? What tempts you to lose hope?
• Redemption looks to the cost: Looking back at Exodus 6, it's interesting to see how God describes the redemption He will bring to Israel. He won't simply redeem them (He could do it immediately and effortlessly); instead, God promises to do with by stretching out His arm- He's flexing and demonstrating His strength! God's plan to redeem Israel would come through the 10 plagues- violence targeting the very gods of Egypt... who not only captivated the Egyptians, they had become a stumbling block to Israel as well. In fact, Israel's history proved this out: even after they were free (see Mt. Sinai) and after they had kings in place in their land (see Jeroboam), they continued to worship Egypt's deity of the Golden Calves. Israel needed to be redeemed not simply from the Egyptians but also from the Egyptian's gods. In a similar manner, you and I can create false sources of hope and refuge and delight that might be enjoyable but were never meant to displace God. This idol worship throughout history has brought God's righteous response- often boldly communicating His great displeasure towards this sin. God's wrath is a terrible thing to the idolater and it's justly deserved. But praise God that He redeemed us from this curse- how? Galatians 2 says that "he became a curse for us", Titus 3 says that "he gave himself to redeem us from all unlawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are his own possession." Redemption has looked to the cost and provided a Savior in Jesus Christ who took upon Himself the cost. If we truly believed this, I think we could enjoy the reality of Exodus 6:7-8... that we can be God's own people... because-
• Redemption redefines the future: Our God (the LORD) personally and intimately offers to redeem us not simply out of slavery but to Himself that we might be His people and that He might be our God! How this redefines our future! We won't remain captive to sin, we don't have to wonder about the reign of sin, we can even have hope as we remember that the domain of sin over humanity has been broken! God is a Redeemer, and we know that our Redeemer lives! He has triumphed over sin as Colossians 1:13-14 says, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." What if we claimed that verse as our own, memorized it and had it on the tips of our tongues? Wouldn't it change the way we helped each other when we struggled? Wouldn't it help us to re-imagine what life could be like for those who struggle? Wouldn't it help us to fight sin when tempted or to instruct our children with hope? Couldn't it infuse our church with hope that our best days truly are ahead of us... that Christ really has defeated sin... that the cost for sinfulness has been paid? If the answers "yes", then get busy encouraging each other with this wonderful truth: We know that OUR REDEEMER LIVES!
  

Have a great week at Community Group!