[Editor’s Note: Pastor Colin Smith continues his Christmas season devotional to help you reflect on Jesus’ glory by taking a broad look at all that God has promised and accomplished in Him. The readings follow the pattern of his current sermon series, “The Plan: God’s Design For the Universe and Your Place In It.” You can read, hear or watch these sermons as they are posted at Unlocking the Bible.]
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God diverts judgment away from His people. This amazing truth, first seen in the curse falling on the ground rather than on the man and the woman (Genesis 3:17) is now demonstrated more fully through a slaughtered lamb.
God’s people painted the blood of a sacrificed lamb over the doorframes of their houses, indicating that “death has already come to this house.”
That powerful picture helps us to grasp how the death of Jesus applies to us today. Christ died as the sacrifice for our sins. In His death He absorbed the judgment for us. He bore the curse. He died your death.
As one who is united with Christ by faith, you have truly been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). Christ’s blood has been spattered over your life. In Him, you can say “death has already come to this house.”
God’s purpose in the sacrifice goes far beyond deliverance from judgment. God brought His people out of Egypt so that they would be set free to worship Him. God made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai: “I will walk among you, and be your God, and you will be my people.”
At this time God gave His people the commandments and the sacrifices. We need the commandments because God calls His people to walk in His ways. Those who bear His name must reflect His character.
But God’s people need more than commands. We need the sacrifices, because at our best we are still sinners who fall far short of the glory of God.
God’s people had been delivered from judgment by the blood of a slaughtered lamb. In the same way, their fellowship with God would be sustained through a sacrifice offered for their sins.
God’s promise to set His people free from the oppressive power of evil, to deliver us from the fearful judgment of death, and to walk with us through life, is delivered through Jesus Christ who came into the world to lay down His life as the sacrifice for our sins.
God’s presence with you and His blessing on you are yours through the shed blood of Jesus Christ applied to your life today. Let that lead you to worship and thanksgiving.