The SACRIFICE of the Lord

I'm sitting here on Passover evening/night and reading some of the Psalms leading up to Psalm 51.

David certainly knew the love and mercy of God.

"Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble.....My strength fails because of my iniquity..."
Ps.31:9,10.

"Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper" Ps.30:10.

"But I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy" Ps.31:6,7.

"You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth" Ps.31:5.

"O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave.." Ps.30:2,3.

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness" Ps.30:11.

"Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear you. Which You have prepared for those who trust you" Ps.31:19.

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" Ps.32:1.

"I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgression to the Lord,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin" Ps.32.:5.

"But he who trusts in the LOrd, mercy shall surround him" Ps.32:10.

"Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death" Ps.33:18,19.

"The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. And saves such as have a contrite spirit" Ps.34:18.

"The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned" Ps.34:22.

"I shall rejoice in His salvation" Ps.35:9.

"My hope is in You. Deliver me from my transgressions" Ps.39:7,8.

"My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me....But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer" Ps.40:12,17.

"I said, 'Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You'" Ps.41:4.

AND THEN PSALM 51

"According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.....Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me" Ps 51:1,2,9,10.

God is MERCIFUL to those who are humble, contrite, and acknowledge they are sinners.

Yet sin has a penalty that must be paid. God's law cannot be abolished, and it indeed defines what is sin as we see from 1 John 3:4 and Romans 7.

And so it was from the beginning, before the foundation of this earth, decided that a member of the Godhead would come to earth, be born of a woman, be made flesh and blood, be the Emanuel - God with us. And so it came to pass that Jesus the Messiah came to take captive what held us captive. He took sin and death captive so to speak - made it useless to kill us. And so as it was written, so it came to pass - Isaiah 53.

"He was despised and rejected by men.....But He was wounded for out transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.....the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth....For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken....When You make His soul an offering for sin....for He shall bear their iniquities....because He poured out His life unto death....and He bore the sin of many..." Parts of Isaiah 53.

Truly we all at times feel like the apostle Paul, in Romans 7, who said, "O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord..."

It is through Jesus the Messiah we are saved. It is by grace we are saved, not of works. A thousand good works cannot ever erase a sin. God the Father never planned that good works would erase sin. It was Jesus, a member of the Godhead, who was to come and conquer sin in the flesh, as a physical human of flesh and bone and blood.

Remember this night, the night Jesus was betrayed, the night He introduced the New Covenant Passover - bread and the fruit of the vine, to represent His broken body and shed blood for our sins.

PRAISE Him brethren; He is our victory. He died for our sins, but He did not remain dead; He was raised to immortal life, the first born from the dead, the first human to ever gain eternal life. He is a LIVING Savior. We are saved not only by the death of Christ but also by His life (Romans 5:10) - an interceding High Priest and His life and death and shed blood, can be applied to us at all times, when we remain humble and have our mind-set as shown to us by the apostle Paul in Romans 7. Read that chapter and be encouraged. The humble contrite, desiring to serve the law of God, mind-set, as Paul had, means we have victory in Christ.

When it is all done, when we are in the Kingdom of God, it will not be because of our however-many good works; it will be because we are saved by grace, forgiveness through Jesus the Christ.
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