DEVOTIONAL CORNER

It was the specific office and duty of the High Priest to act as the executioner of the sacrifice, and not any common man or men. And furthermore, by virtue of his office, was allowed only once a year to take the blood of the sacrifice into the most holy place of the tabernacle into the presence of God and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat for the sins of the nation.

It was the specific office and duty of the High Priest to act as the executioner of the sacrifice, and not any common man or men. And furthermore, by virtue of his office, was allowed only once a year to take the blood of the sacrifice into the most holy place of the tabernacle into the presence of God and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat for the sins of the nation.

The writer of the book of Hebrews makes it clear that the Old Testament ritual was only a copy and shadow of the superior sacrifice which would be made by Jesus when He died on the cross.

Hebrews 10:8-10 says: "Therefore, when Christ came into the world, first he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them' - though they were offered in accordance with the law."

Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

In His death, Jesus became both the sacrifice and also the 'sacrificer'. In His dying, Jesus, as the High Priest, became His own executioner and afterwards carried His own blood into the presence of His Father in heaven. As Tertullian, who has been called 'The Father of Latin Christianity' and 'The Founder of Western Theology' put it: "Christ, when crucified spontaneously, dismissed his spirit with a word and thus prevented the office of the executioner."

Origen observed that when life was no longer needed since Jesus had now completed the work of His Father's will, he laid down His life and He laid it down when He chose to lay it down.

When the Roman centurion soldier, who was a man of authority, witnessed how Jesus had dismissed His Spirit commanding His own life to cease, it caused him to declare in Matthew 27:54: "Truly this was the Son of God." Who else could give such a command in such a circumstance and see it instantly carried out?

Centuries before crucifixion had ever been invented and it ever came to pass, the cross had been chosen by God to become the altar and means for Jesus' supreme sacrifice. The cross was never Israel's invention as an instrument for punishment, but the Romans adopted it in a different context.

Crucifixion was one of the vilest forms of capital punishment. For the Jews the cross was a means of desecrating a dead person. It meant that everyone who hung on the cross was a person who was despised and accursed of God. In the eyes of the world, Jesus was crucified and slain but in the eyes of the Jewish people, Jesus was crucified and accursed of God. Crucifixion for the Romans was such a vile, painful means of death that they would not allow any Roman citizen to be punished by such a means and eventually banned this form of punishment altogether.

Despite its gruesomeness, God in His foreknowledge chose to use the cross as a means for history to record the death of Jesus, and as a means for Him to display His great love for His creation. (John 3:16)

The profound difference between the way that we die and the way Jesus died can be summarized YOUR WILL BE DONE in a series of contrasting concepts:

• Jesus died on the cross; but not because of the cross.
• We are humbled in death; Jesus humbled Himself.
• We are subject to death; Jesus became subject to death.
• We are offered in death; He offered Himself.
• We surrender to death; Jesus embraced death.
• Upon death we are forced to relinquish our spirit; In Jesus' death, He dismissed His Spirit.
• Our death is passive; Jesus death was active.
• Our lives are short; Jesus life is endless.
• Our death is the final triumph of flesh over spirit; Jesus' death was the triumph of spirit over flesh.
• We are defeated in death; Jesus conquered death.

Finally for God's plan of salvation to have succeeded there are some things which "had to be": The universe had to be what it is in order to support planet Earth. The Earth had to be what it is to support the life. Adam had to be created in a body in order that he could be redeemed. Eve had to be taken out of Man to preserve mankind. Eve's seed had to be undefiled in order for her to become the mother of all living. The forbidden fruit had to have the nature of death in it, the penalty of death had to be a drawn out process. The cross had to be invented. (The Romans did not event it - they inherited it from the Carthaginians and introduced it into Palestine.) The crucifixion had to be what it was in order to fulfill the plan of redemption. Jesus had to be born of a virgin woman. Jesus had to be both the sacrifice and high priest. The resurrection of Jesus had to be in order to prove that Jesus is the Son of God and the Holy Spirit had to be given in order to bring souls into the kingdom.

All these things had to be.

Dear friends, these are all the things which had to be. The design and plan of salvation had to be from a mind far beyond human capacity or thinking. Everything that had to be brings us to only one single conclusion! From beginning to end, no man or men together - no matter how intelligent or creative - could ever possibly devise such a great plan and great design for the salvation of man.

In conclusion, it had to be the design and plan of God! Jesus was the master architect and designer of all things. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit Jesus implemented His great plan and created all things. His master plan provided for a plan of redemption and, when the time came, He Himself fulfilled that plan by becoming the sacrifice that was slain before the foundation of the world. One day soon, Jesus will return to complete the plan of restoration and creation by taking His rightful seat as King of kings and Lord of all lords, and will rule over all with justice and righteousness.

Having fully understood God's great plan of redemption for mankind, the apostle Paul was led to pray this prayer for the church as recorded in Ephesians 3:17-19: "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

The earth can be compared to a courtroom of law. The evidence which is all around us speaks of a great master mind behind all creation. Yet, sinful man refuses to accept the evidence and desires to live in darkness, and God says to man: "Your will be done". Mankind refuses to come to the light and thus condemns himself. In the end, whether mankind wants to accept it or not, Jesus will one day return to the earth and take His rightful office and sit as the righteous judge of all the earth and declare that no one is without excuse, because the world will have already judged themselves by their refusal to believe, and therefore have been found guilty!

When we consider God's great plan of salvation, we are humbled to think that God through His great love for us, before creation, already had a plan of rescue.

Oh, How Great is Our God!