Monday, December 9, 2013
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty…Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:8, 17b, 18)
Alpha and Omega [the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet]
Considering the Jewishness of John and the first believers in Messiah Jesus, we can look also at Jesus as the Aleph and the Tav (the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet).
The aleph is a letter/symbol that represents the "bull," an animal used for ritual sacrifice.
The tav is a letter/symbol that represents the "cross mark" or "cross," to which Our Saviour was nailed when He was crucified and made the Sacrifice for our sins. Through Jesus, these two letters symbolize the lengths to which God went to bring about forgiveness for us.
The old sacrificial system required an animal to be slaughtered, a life taken to substitute the life of the one offering the animal (the sinner), who had offended God (see Leviticus 14), and this on a regular yearly basis.
"For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." (Lev. 17:11)
Bringing an end to the sacrificial system, Jesus sacrificed His own life as a substitute for ours. Atonement for sin started with the blood of lambs and bulls, but ended with the blood of Jesus, once and for all.
Why is this important to us?
One of the most liberating things in the world is for a person to know that she or he is forgiven. Shame and guilt are shackles that weigh a person down, destroying their sense of self-worth, killing their confidence, and causing the onset of worry and anxiety that makes so many people physically, emotionally, and spiritually sick. But forgiveness is restorative and life giving. The Psalmist says, "when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. [But] I acknowledged my sin to you,and I did not cover my iniquity;I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin" (Psalm 32:3-5). A person's life changes when they know (without a doubt) that they have been truly forgiven. In this second week of Advent, I think of the purposeful gift of God in Jesus Christ, sent on a mission to die for our forgiveness.
I can smile because I'm forgiven.
I can live without the terror of wondering whether God cares for me or not because I'm forgiven
I can receive healing because I'm forgiven.
I can enjoy the presence of God and have peace in my heart because I'm forgiven.
Lord, help us to give someone the gift of forgiveness this season. Show us the someone that we can introduce to Jesus.
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