Jesus' Effective Sacrifice

My friend Charlie is a madman. A few days ago, he wrote his sixth blog post of the month of June. SIXTH! With a week left in the month, too! He's written before about how one of his goals is to keep up with how much I write, and now he is certainly demolishing me in that regard. So kudos to him. I, however, am happy with the rhythm I have found for myself. Fridays are my day off from my internship, so I sleep in, wake up, read a little, eat a ham sandwich for lunch, and then write a blog post. Look at me, with my routines and habits. I'm such an adult.

This post is the second in a three-part set on Jesus' sacrifice and how it relates to his role as the great high priest as found in Hebrews. Last week I wrote about how Jesus offered a self-sacrifice, so if you haven't read that one, you should go ahead and do that. Right now, I want to discuss how Jesus' sacrifice, in contrast to the animal sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood, is effective is cleansing mankind from sin.

It is easy for a person, having spent a long time performing religious acts, to begin to think that those acts are what brings salvation. I would think that this was the case for many Jews who brought a bellowing goat to the priest to be sacrificed. Forgiveness is easy in this scheme. Go sin, grab an animal, slice its throat, and get a clean slate. Such a person would probably have trouble swallowing the statement found in Hebrews 10:4: "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

That's where Jesus' sacrifice is so different. He does not stand at an altar slaughtering animals whose blood in itself is unable to get the job done. Jesus' death on the cross has real power to forgive sins. Where the Levitical system fell short, Jesus accomplishes the redemption of mankind. While animals sacrifices were able to make a person ceremonially clean on the outside, Jesus' sacrifice heals the wound of sin and guilt. Hebrews 9:13-14 says:

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Sadly, there are many people in the world who distrust the effectiveness of Jesus' sacrifice. They feel that their sins are too many, too heinous, too shameful, and simply too big for Christ to cover over. They think, "Sure, God may be willing to forgive everyone else, but he doesn't know what I've done. I have said, thought, and done too terrible of things to be able to be forgiven." These people let their guilt and shame to push them farther and farther from Christ's outstretched, scarred, and powerful arms.

Mark Driscoll writes, "You are more evil than you have ever feared, and more loved than you have ever hoped" (Death by Love, 68). In contrast to those who feel their sin is unforgivable, some of us downplay the significance of our sin, imagining that we are basically good people who really haven't done that much wrong. This is an inaccurate way to think, however. Sin does indeed dirty us to the point that we need an incredible rescue to save us. Some people push aside the weight of their sin, while others undervalue the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice. Both sides are true. Our sin is a big deal, and it's dangerous to think otherwise. But that is exactly what makes the good news so good. Because God and his love are big enough to forgive us through Jesus' effective sacrifice. When we're tempted to doubt the power of Christ's blood, let's remember just how effective that blood is.