Today we’ll talk about how many of us are still trying to pay for all the wrongs we have done … kind of like making minimum payments on sin. We’ll also look at the need to be faithful in whatever we do and the importance of being ready for eternity.

Welcome, to “God’s Word Day by Day” where I blog through the Bible in a Year. I hope you’ll join me every day. If you’re not already signed up, you can do it here. This year I’ve added a couple of new features. First, check out the “Free Resources” tab at the top. You’ll find a downloadable, printable PDF with “Going Deeper Study Questions” for each day’s post. And … this year you’ll find the daily “Bible in a Year” posts on YouTube. The daily emails now have a link to both these Soul Survival posts and the YouTube videos. I hope you’ll sign up. (If you already receive them, no need to sign up again.)

Today’s Readings:

Exodus 29 & 30
Psalm 20.6-9
Proverbs 7.6-23
Matthew 25.1-30

Are You Still Paying for the Wrong You Have Done?

Exodus 29 & 30

Imagine It

Imagine … this Sunday morning before going in to worship, you had to stop outside the church and sacrifice a bull, then take some of the blood and put it on the altar. Afterward, you take the fat that covers the intestines, the fatty part of the liver, and the two kidneys and burn them. Then you take the bull’s waste, the skin, and the rest of the flesh out in the parking lot to be burned! All this after baking bread and taking a ritual bath! (And you thought just getting the family out of the house was hard!)

It’s a funny picture, but a serious subject. Why would God have required all that was entailed in the sacrificial system? What might it say to us?

For one thing, it pictures the seriousness and the cost of sin.

The Cost of Sin

The cost of sin then and still is death (Rom. 6.23), but God made a way for that price to be paid. Under the Old Testament sacrificial system, it was only temporary and had to be done over and over because the blood of animals could not do away with the debt. It was a little like making minimum payments on your credit card. It keeps the creditor off your back, but the debt is still there.

When it comes to sin, only another man, but not just any man … a perfect man … without sin … could stand in our place and pay our sin debt once and for all. So God allowed Himself to be born in the body of a baby … all God, and yet, all man. He lived a sinless life and then offered Himself as the Final Sacrifice, once and for all, for anyone who would put their faith and trust in Him and what He did.

Just a Preview

The book of Hebrews helps us understand. Chapter 10 (NLT):

1 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.

4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹³ There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. 19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Payment in Full

He offers us a free gift (Rom. 6.23), a most incredible gift! It is freely offered by His grace (Eph. 2.8-9), payment in full for our sin debt. But we must receive it by faith. Faith that what God says about us is true, that we are sinners deserving of death and unable to do anything to save ourselves. And faith that God sent Christ as that Final Sacrifice. He was and is the Lamb of God. We must put our faith, our trust, in what He did and receive His forgiveness and cleansing. Then we are to turn away from our sin and seek His help to change. That is the essence of the gospel.

Christ died for our sins because even trying to make minimum payments on sin is futile. We can never be good enough or do enough righteous deeds to pay the debt we owe to God (Rom. 3.10-12).

If you’d like to read more about God’s gift of salvation by grace, you can read any of these earlier posts:

“Could You Be Left Behind?”

“Do You Live with a Sense of Guilt?”

“Could You Be a Christian in Name Only?”

Today’s Other Readings:

And now a few thoughts about today’s other readings …

Psalm 20.6-9

Ongoing Faith & Trust

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God (v. 7).

The name of God speaks of His character. It speaks of who He is. As believers, we are not to put our trust in our jobs, our intelligence, our education, our strength, or other people. Just as we trusted Him for the forgiveness of our sins, we are to trust Him on an ongoing basis to live the life He’s called us to live. Faith is not a one-time thing, it’s a way of life. For “the just shall live by faith” (Gal. 3.11).

Proverbs 7.6-23

Teens & Sex

God’s Word, written centuries ago, before cell phones and computers and Facebook, before texting and sexting and online dating, speaks so clearly to modern issues.

Yesterday’s reading introduced us to “the immoral woman … the seductress who flatters with her words.” Today’s reading shows us who she is and how she operates:

We need to teach our daughters and granddaughters these truths from God’s Word. Chapter 7 of Proverbs would be a great study to do with any young girls you know. Read it together and talk about what it means because while we may not think of teen sexual activity as that of a seductress, the Bible teaches that even children can become known by what they do (Prov. 20.11).

Warnings for Sons

And if you have sons, what a great warning these verses contain for them.

The writer describes the young man who falls for her seduction as “simple” and “devoid of understanding” (Prov. 7.7). The New Living Translation says he lacks common sense.

He is like an “ox going to the slaughter” and like a deer caught in a trap and about to be shot with an arrow (Prov. 7.22-23).

Virgins & Talents

There is so much to learn from the two parables in this passage. First, “The Parable of the Virgins” reminds us of the need to be ready for His coming. How many people who know they need to get right with God put it off thinking … “I’ll do it later.” But later may be too late!

“The Parable of the Talents” speaks of faithfulness. God doesn’t require us to do what He has called someone else to do, just to be faithful to do what He has set before us. We need to be faithful to share our testimony and the gospel with our neighbors and families … be faithful to help those we can … and be faithful to live our lives in ways that bring glory to Him!

Coming Up:

In the coming days, we’ll talk about sheep and goats in the church, what it really means to be a friend of God, how to rate yourself on biblical love, offering God your best, the importance of defending your faith, and pose the question, “Could you be raising little hypocrites?”

I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss them. 

Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥

 

Note about this post:

I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer. 

A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”

I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)

I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.