Sin Costs

As I read my way through the book of Leviticus, I realize that every sin requires a payment for that particular penalty. And long before Moses brought down the Ten Commandments from the mountain, and broke all of them at once, there was a cost for disobedience.

But thanks to his mercy, God helps us with that cost. In the beginning, he could have killed Adam and Eve for their huge mistake. Instead, an animal's life was taken. Genesis 3:21 (Bible in Basic English) records, "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins for their clothing."

This substitution foretold Christ's atoning death on the cross. As we read in Exodus 12:5-7 (BBE), an unblemished lam was kept in the house until Passover. "Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it from among the sheep or the goats: Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark. Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken."

One thing I noticed about those verses is the three places where blood was placed. It forms the same positions of Christ's hands and head when he was crucified.

Additionally, Exodus 29:33 (BBE) points out that only sanctified priests could eat of the offerings to God. "All those things which were used as offerings to take away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for they are holy food."

But because Christ has made the ultimate atonement through his death on the cross, we are privileged partakers of his holiness. Romans 5:10 (BBE) explains, "For if, when we were haters of God, the death of his Son made us at peace with him, much more, now that we are his friends, will we have salvation through his life; And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God."

And if Christ doesn't come by Saturday, I hope to post about a super hero and our own way of becoming super beings.