Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness
- Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God. We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway. We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway. As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others. In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The end of
the chapter deals with sacrifices.
Naturally, sacrifices are for the forgiveness of sin. It is the shedding of blood that allows for
human sinfulness to be overlooked.
This makes
great sense when we couple this with what happens at the beginning of this
chapter. In the beginning of the
chapter, God promises to come and dwell with His people. He promises to forgive them. He promises to put the past behind and come
forward into a restored relationship.
This is why we see the vision of the sacrifices at the end of the
chapter.
As a
Christian, I can’t help push through this text into the future that this text
does not presuppose. We know that Christ
will come. He will teach. He will die.
Through the shedding of His blood we will find our relationship with Him
restored permanently. And after His
death, we see the ultimate fulfillment of the promises of this chapter. After His death, the Holy Spirit comes and
dwells within us. God dwells among His
people in a new and exciting way. God comes
and dwells with His people. It starts
with His forgiveness being poured out upon us.
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