Think Wink.

This past week I had the distinct pleasure of listening to Dr. Kenneth Matthews, a Christian scholar of the Old Testament, particularly in Genesis and Leviticus (he is the co-author of a book on the PaleoLeviticus Scroll discovered in Qumran and is the first person to translate this text).  He painted a very interesting image using the Tabernacle.  So just picture this with me.

You are walking into the tabernacle, “the tent of meeting.”  The first thing you see is the altar.  Behind that is the Bronze lavern.  Behind that is the tent housing the holy place, where the priests minister, and the Holy of Holies, where Yahweh dwells on his throne of the Mercy Seat atop the Ark of the Covenant between the wings of the Cheribim.  When you enter the Tabernacle area, the first thing you see is that altar.  The first thing you feel is the heat of the fire under the altar.  The first thing you smell is blood and burnt flesh.  The next thing you see once you pass that altar is the lavern where priests are washing their hands and feet to enter the Tabernacle proper.

It is interesting to see this.  For a person to enter God’s presence is to first pass through the altar of sacrifice.  They must pass through the altar of death.  To enter into God’s presence, one must die because of their sins.  There is only one way to meet this requirement: Jesus Christ and the cross.  Jesus placed himself upon that altar and died in your place that you might move on, further into the Tabernacle and closer to God.  He was the propitiation of your sin on the altar of God.

After this, a person must be washed by braizen lavern.  You cannot enter into God’s presence unclean.  Your sins must be washed away.  You must be purified from your sins, they must be removed from you.  Jesus Christ took up your sins and cleansed you with his blood shed on the cross.  He removes your sin from you and gives you his righteousness.  He expiates your sin.

I am just blown away by all that Jesus did for me at the cross.  He did so much for me on that wretched piece of wood.  Yet he asks so little of me: trust him.  All he asks me to do is trust him with my life.  He gave his life for mine and now he only asks that after he defeated death through his resurrection to trust him.  He promises to take me into that Tabernacle of God and to pass behind that curtain that separates man from God.  He promises to take me into the Holy of Holies.  He promises to take before my heavenly Father who eagerly waits to have a face-to-face relationship with me and to lavish me with his eternal love.

Jesus you are truly awesome and all my praises are for you alone.  Blessed be my Great High Priest!

Did Jesus actually suffer on the Cross as God?

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