KING of GLORY Illustrated Study Guide

T he LORD is perfect in justice and mercy. Justice means that the full penalty of the law has been carried out against my sin. Mercy means that the penalty of the law has not been carried out against me. How could God punish our sin without punishing us? The answer is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to our rescue. In Old Testament times, before Jesus came, God set up the law of the sin offering to rescue sinners from the law of sin and death . God accepted the blood of innocent animals as a payment for sin. This is how He punished sin without punishing the sinner. But is a lamb a fair trade for a man? No. Animal blood could only picture what justice really required. What kind of blood could pay off the sin debt of the world? Only the blood of a perfect, infinite Man. The Creator-Word Himself became that Man. “In the beginning was the Word… . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1,14). The blood of lambs could only cover sin. Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Remember Abel? God put Abel’s sins on the lamb. The lamb was Abel’s temporary sin-bearer. Jesus is our permanent Sin-Bearer. God loaded all our sins onto Him. The lamb that was killed and burned to ashes in Abel’s place was a picture of Jesus who paid the full penalty for our sins. That is why, just before He died, Jesus shouted in victory, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Justice is satisfied. Mercy is available. It is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it … . Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said (1 Corinthians 15:2-4 NLT). T he M essage in the S tory • 3 T he G ood N ews T hink of Abraham and his son. Why did God send them to a specific distant mountain for the sacrifice? God was marking out the place where His own Son would go to die for the sins of the world. Why did Abraham name the mountain “The LORD will Provide”? Because it was on that mountain that God provided the full and final sacrifice. What did God provide for Abraham’s son? A ram. What has God provided to save you from judgment? Jesus, the Lamb of God. Do you fear death and judgment? If you put your total trust in Jesus as your Savior, you need not fear, because God has received full payment from Him for your sins and raised Him back to life. Now think back to Adam and Eve. Their sin and shame made them cover up with fig leaves and want to hide from God. In His justice and mercy, God exposed their sin and clothed them in the skins of sacrificed animals. The shed blood of the animals pictured what was necessary to cover their sin, and the skins of the animals pictured what was necessary to cover their shame. We all share our ancestors’ sin and shame. We fall short of God’s righteousness. We are unfit to live with Him. The good news is that on the cross Jesus Christ took our sin and shame. During those hours of darkness, He experienced the separation from God that we deserve. And then He died. But since He had no sin of His own, the tomb could not hold Him. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, God offers to cleanse and clothe you: to exchange your sins for His righteousness. We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6 NLT). I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10 NLT). God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). On Judgment Day, will you stand before God in the rags of your own religious efforts? Or will you stand robed in the pure righteousness of Christ? 164 165