Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement."
The Old Testament's law of atonement is so detailed in it's ceremonial process (in Tagalog, mabusisi). Blood and life shed. The offer-er must make atonement for himself before he could make atonement for the people and their objects and places of worship. Three of four animals are slaughtered, one is spared and banished--a lot cast upon it but divinely appointed.
How often times we take for granted the atonement Christ that replaced this ancient process of cleansing oneself to enter God's presence. Today when I sin, I don't come before Him with a bull and a ram to slaughter. I would confess my sins to him and believe that I have once more been forgiven through the blood of Jesus and then go my own way. When I come before the Lord to minister to His people, I don't come to church with a second set of clothes made from a single kind of cloth for His holy ministry. I don't come before Him with a pair of goats, one to slaughter and the other to confess our sins onto it and let it wander off the streets of Chinatown. I come and speak blessings and declare how loving and good our God is and His passionate desire to bless us. Then after we socialize in fellowship. In the process are we losing reverence for His holiness? Indeed today is in an age of grace.
What Christ has done cannot be justified by these simple words. Bearly. But let this be a reminder to you my soul not to take lightly this freedom that has caused the shedding of a Life. Do not live in careless abandon to sin. But in every thought, word and action examine them in the revealing light of the mind of Christ.
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