"This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year" (Leviticus 16:34).
THEME
ATONEMENT
On Easter Sunday in 1908, William Grenfell, a missionary doctor in Labrador, started a sixty-mile journey with his sled dog team to help a desperately ill person. To shorten the trip, he decided to cross a frozen bay, though he knew the ice had begun melting.
The ice broke and Grenfell and his dogs fell into the frigid water. The doctor and three dogs crawled onto a floating piece of ice. To keep himself from freezing to death, he eventually killed his three dogs and covered himself with their bloody skins.
Grenfell struggled for physical survival and found it in a bloody covering. So in a way did ancient Israel. God's people fought both nature and themselves, and their internal battle with sin produced never-ending guilt. In the various tabernacle offerings, God provided a way for people to relieve their guilt through bloody sacrifices. The word ATONE may mean "to cover." Thus in atonement the blood of a slain animal hid a person's sin, bringing forgiveness and access to God.
Because the people could never stop sinning, the need for animals was never ending. The priest was as much butcher as confessor. At best, he had a grisly task.
No less nauseating was Golgotha. No less unfathomable is the mystery of blood--shed to cover the sins of the whole world.
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MAR 11
ACTS 20:17-27
"Nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy" (Acts 20:24).
In religious art, the pelican has long been a symbol of self-sacrifice. Having observed these strange birds while fishing in gulf coast waters off Florida, I have a difficult time thinking of them as "self-denying saints." They seem more like lazy freeloaders. With pitiful stares that mask hearts full of envy, they look lustfully at every fish I catch. Once in a while, they even try to intercept one before I can reel it in.
Their behavior, however, is not the reason they have become symbols of self-sacrifice. The reason is their appearance. The tip of a pelican's huge beak appears to have been dipped in red dye. According to legend, when a mother pelican cannot find food for her young, she thrusts her beak into her breast and nourishes her little ones with her own blood. The early church saw in this tale a beautiful picture of what Christ did for us and what we in turn should do for one another.
The legend of the pelican, then, not only speaks of the Savior, but also of us, God's blood-bought children. As fallen humans, we are more generally known by our greed than by our self-sacrifice. But that can change. Through faith in Christ's atoning death, we are forgiven and transformed. Therefore, we should no longer be characterized by selfishness. As new creatures, we can, like Christ, practice the art of self-sacrificing love.
--M.R.D.II
Nothing satisfies God but the voluntary sacrifice of love.
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MAR 12
1 JOHN 4:7-11
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us!
(1 John 3:1).
On the chapel wall at Eagle Village, a residential treatment center for boys near Hersey, Michigan, hang the portraits of two twelve-year-old boys--Rick and Rosy. The pictures bring to mind a tragedy that happened several years ago. Boys from Eagle Village were on a canoe expedition on Lake Superior when they pulled ashore to make camp. Rosy spotted something floating in the water, so he pushed off in a canoe to retrieve it. Strong winds quickly blew him offshore. The staff recognized his peril and started off in two canoes to rescue him. When Rick saw that his best friend was in danger, he insisted on going along. The wind tossed all three canoes until finally they capsized. The staff members all made it to shore. But Rick and Rosy were both lost in the depths of Lake Superior. A plaque between the pictures is inscribed: RICK, WHO LOVED ENOUGH TO GIVE HIS LIFE FOR ANOTHER. ROSY, WHO WAS LOVED ENOUGH TO HAVE ANOTHER PAY THAT PRICE.
This story calls to mind "what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us." He loved us enough to give His Son to die as payment for our sin. And we were loved enough that He would willingly make that sacrifice. Our salvation is the best demonstration of the power of love.
--D.C.E.
The true measure of God's love is that He loves without measure.
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MAR 13
HEBREWS 9:11-28
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14).
Having trusted Christ as our Savior, we should never cease to glory in His sacrifice for us on the cross. The reality of being identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection should fill us with gratitude in the morning, give us refuge throughout the day, and be a pillow at night upon which to rest.
A small detachment of British troops, surprised by an overwhelming enemy force, fell back under heavy fire. Their wounded lay in a perilous position, facing certain death. They all realized they had to come immediately under the protection of a Red Cross flag if they wanted to survive. All they had was a piece of white cloth, but no red paint. So they used the blood from their wounds to make a large cross on that white cloth. Their attackers respected that grim flag as it was held aloft, and the British wounded were brought to safety (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, THE GREAT BOER WAR).
Our enemy not only must respect the blood of Christ shed on Calvary's cross, he also is helpless against it. Christ's blood represents the sacrifice of One whose death removed the guilt and condemnation of our sin and broke its hold over us. It is absolute protection against the accusation of Satan, the defeating remembrances of past sins, and the downpull of our Adamic nature. No wonder we glory in the cross.
--D.J.D.
Calvary stands for Satan's fall.
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MAR 14
1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-25
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:22-23).
When the Lord Jesus came to live on the earth, He came at the Word of the Father (John 1). Everything He said and did was in obedience to God's will and therefore was a true expression of His Father's loving heart. Yet it was not by Christ's great teaching nor through His astounding miracles that He best represented the eternal purposes of God. Rather, He proclaimed the Father's love most eloquently by His sacrificial death on the cross.
A furniture maker trying to explain the theory of his designs to a blind yeoman said that he believed he could express himself best through his craft. "Artists," he said, "express themselves in colors, in words, in stone; well, I don't see why a man can't express himself in wood." The yeoman, with unusual spiritual insight, responded, "In wood? It has been done, sir; yes, the mightiest expression of a man ever the world knew has been in wood!" "What, yeoman?" asked the craftsman. "Sir," the yeoman replied, "the cross of Christ!" (Arthur Hutchinson, ONE INCREASING PURPOSE).
The sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus was the supreme expression of a loving God. That death, that sacrifice, that proclamation of unending love, was for you and for me.
--D.C.E.
Christ took the guilt of our sin that we might have the gift of His salvation.
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MAR 15
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us
(2 Corinthians 5:21).
Words cannot fully express the worth of Christ's work for us on the cross. To think that He endured separation from the Father because of our sins staggers our finite minds. Elizabeth Barrett Browning tried to capture the deep theological significance of this in these poetic words: "Deserted! God could separate from His own essence rather; / And Adam's sins have swept between the righteous Son and Father. / Yes, once Immanuel's orphaned cry His universe hath shaken; / It went up single, echoless, 'My God, I am forsaken!'"
A girl in Gary, Indiana, terribly burned in a flash fire, lingered between life and death. A delicate and extensive skin graft offered the only hope for her restoration. When the hospital issued a call for volunteer skin donors, a young boy responded. During the surgery, complications set in and the boy died. But through his sacrifice he made it possible for that young girl to be completely restored.
Nothing in our Lord's life called for His death. He was free from sin's fatal infection. Yet He willingly offered Himself to die in our place. A poet wrote: "He suffered in our stead, / He saved His people thus; / The curse that fell upon His head / Was due by right to us."
Having been restored to God's favor by the sacrifice of His Son, we should lift our hearts to our sinless Substitute.
--P.R.V.
Christ was delivered for sins that we might be delivered from sin.
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MAR 16
JOHN 20:26-31
Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God"
(John 20:28).
The English preacher Alexander Maclaren once asked, "Why is it that one Person, and one Person only, triumphs over space and time and is the same close Friend with whom millions of hearts are in loving touch, as He was to those that gathered around Him upon the earth?" That is a valid question. The following story, attributed to the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli, will help to answer it.
A young scholar approached Disraeli one day. He had developed a new religion and written a book to explain its doctrines. The young man claimed that his newly devised creed surpassed in beauty the message of Christ and His sacrificial crucifixion on Calvary. Disraeli asked the young man about the success of the book's sales, only to hear him complain that he couldn't get anyone to buy it or to believe in his religion. The old statesman placed his hand on the young man's shoulder and said, "No, my boy, you will never get anyone to read your book and believe in your religion until you too have been crucified on a cross and risen from a tomb."
Only the spotless Son of God, the perfect substitute for sinful man, can provide salvation. Only a dying Savior who validates His sacrifice by bodily resurrection can lift the burden of sin's guilt. Because Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us, we should give Him our love. If we have placed our faith in Him, we can exclaim like Thomas in love and adoration, "My Lord and my God." The Savior deserves our heartfelt worship.
--P.R.V.
When we recognize Jesus' lordship, we'll give Him our worship.
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MAR 17
ROMANS 12:1-8
Present your bodies a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1).
A young woman went to a Scottish preacher and asked how she could resolve her problem with desires that contradicted the will of God. The minister wrote two words on a slip of paper. Then he asked the woman to ponder the words for ten minutes, cross out one of them, and bring the slip back to him. The woman looked at the two words on the slip: "No" and "Lord." It did not take her long to realize that if she said no, she could not say Lord, and if she wanted to call Christ Lord, she could not say no.
Herein lies the secret of discerning God's will for our lives. We cannot know God's choice concerning the limitless options before us until we put ourselves unconditionally at His disposal. We must turn over all our rights. Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice is another way of saying "Yes, Lord" to any command. Once we settle the question of our yieldedness, we can take the second step, which is to bring our behavior in line with the renewing of our minds. Renewing occurs only when we pattern our thinking after the principles of God's Word, not the prevailing ideas of the world around us.
If you are trying to discover God's plan for your life, you must first make a complete sacrifice of your body.
--D.J.D.
God gives His very best to those who leave the choice with Him.
