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When I read through the Bible, I'm often tempted to look down on people of the past. "How could they not see what's so obvious?!" I think to myself...
I do this not just with the Bible, but with anything!
"Bell-bottoms? Really?"
I've recently started attending something called reGROUP. It's a ministry where people go to be honest with each other. This is both wonderful and terrifying. I am constantly saying this to myself, "I can't believe I'm going to tell people this story!"
There's healing in being open, honest, and known. It seems counter-intuitive, like if I share the worst parts of myself, if they really knew that, then I wouldn't be accepted. But as you share you find out that everyone has that, you aren't the only person with hurts, hang-ups, habits, and hopelessness.
Anyways, while I'm sharing and listening to other people share...it's always so easy to see what other peoples problems are.
While other people are talking I find myself thinking, "Well that's easy, his problem is so obvious!" But what I don't usually think about until later, after mulling things over, is that my own problems are just as easy for others to see.
We are so blinded to our own faults. Sometimes I wonder if this is a defense mechanism. Would we be able to function if we really understood how terrible we can be?
All that to say, it's easy for us to look at a passage like this and say, "Duh! It's about Jesus, His sacrifice!" Without really putting ourselves in their shoes we lose the meaning and the emphasis here.
Let's contextualize, what is it that you look to in your own life to find security? If you world comes crashing down, where does your heart run for safety? Or, if you are a Christian, what if the world ended and you had to appear before the throne and were asked, "Why should I let you in?" What would be your response?
If the answers to any of those questions was something other than Jesus and his work of redemption on the cross then we are guilty of the same thing that the people referenced in this passage are guilty of.
For the Jewish people, what they would have looked to in order to justify themselves would be their performance at keeping the law. Am I guilty of the same thing? Do I look to my performance in keeping the law to know I'm okay with God? Do I look to my performance at being a Father, a husband, a worker to justify my "righteousness" with God?"
In the text it says, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship."
Are we doing the same thing? Are we trying to make ourselves perfect by the way we carry out some duty? This text is saying..."that will never work."
There's only one way to draw near to worship the Holy God...the man Jesus Christ. It's only by trusting in His works, His merits, His righteousness that He gives to us that we can draw near.
1 Timothy 2:5–6 (NIV) — 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!
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