Trampled
December 8, 2010
Dear Friends,
Picture in your mind a man coming into the temple bringing a goat. The man has sinned and therefore must offer a sin offering. The man lays his hands on the animal’s head as the priest slits the throat of the goat. As the life slowly drains out of the goat, the blood begins to pool at the feet of the man surrounding both the man’s and the goat’s feet. The man is preoccupied with other things however and makes small talk with the priest about this year’s crops. As the goat begins to bleat and to wobble on its feet from the loss of blood, the man snickers at the actions of the dumb animal. The man shuffles his feet as he can no longer avoid the spreading pool of blood. The blood continues to drain from the animal until it drops to the ground into the bloody pool and dies while the man thinks to himself of the things that he needs to do once he has cleaned up from this ritual.
What do you believe God thinks of this man’s sacrifice? In my opinion, this man has done nothing to diminish his guilt before God and, in fact, has raised the ire of the Almighty for his callus reaction to the plight of this animal that died for no other reason than this man’s transgression.
I believe it is to this ritual and attitude that the writer to the Hebrews alludes when he writes in Hebrews 10:29,
.How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?(NIV)What the writer seems to be saying is that when we deliberately keep on sinning when we are confronted with the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, it is as if we stand before the bleeding Jesus with our hands on his head and his blood pooling around our feet and are like this sinful man at the Temple. We trod on the Jesus’ blood with no remorse, with no recognition of how offensive our actions are to God and completely deny the transformation that is supposed to accompany this amazing example of self-sacrifice by our Savior. The writer in making the comparison to the animal sacrifice also makes a sobering contrast. While the man in the Temple deserves punishment for his insensitivity, how much more so does the man that shuffles about without conscience in the blood of Jesus? We don’t have to wonder as the writer supplies the answer.
For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.(30-31 NIV)
The writer began this thought by saying “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.” May I suggest to you that what the writer is not saying is that this is the unforgivable sin? The “knowledge of the truth” in this instance is not a set of first principles like “there is one God.” This knowledge is specific; namely that Jesus died for me and because of my sin. This is personal and direct. Once we realize this but remain unchanged, there is nothing else God can do for us. God has, in effect, given it His best shot in telling us in the most dramatic way possible that He loves us and we need to repent. If, even after this dramatic display of Christ’s sacrifice, we decide to keep on sinning, we are the very definition of hard-hearted and can expect nothing but judgment.
Have a great week,
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