Thursday, September 10, 2009

Leviticus Chapters 4-6

4:3 - Jesus is the exact opposite of this high priest. The human high priest is sinful and relies on the death of a creature to pay for his sins. Jesus is sinless and offers himself as the sacrifice for others' sins. Jesus is the ultimate high priest.

4:22 - Own up to your sinful actions, especially if you are in a position of leadership. Admit when you are wrong, confess your sins and do whatever it takes to make things right. These are traits that have to be present in humble servant leadership. If more church leaders lived like this, there would be a lot less failed ministries.

4:35 - "And the priests shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven." It doesn't get any more Jesus-y than that!

5:1 - It is sinful to stand aside and allow evil to take place without doing anything to prevent it. As followers of God, we should feel guilt when we take an ambivalent stance towards evil around us.

5:4 - Shocking! It is a sin to gossip, say cruel things about people and tear others down? Yep. You worship God with that mouth!

"Realizes his guilt" - Did you see phrase used all over this passage? A huge part of repentance (turning away from your sin and towards God) is understanding that what you did was wrong. If there is no understanding of the evil that dwells within you, there will be no true turning towards Christ.

6:25 - We become one with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ...we are crucified with him...we come in contact with his offering and we become holy ourselves. Through his death and the death of our sinful human nature, we are made righteous.

2 comments:

Matt said...

5:1- I have a lot of trouble with this one. Even if I see something wrong going on within the family I tend to not say anything.

Bekah said...

I find it really really hard to confront people with what they are doing that is wrong... I kinda feel like I am breaking the peace that we are called to have with all people. But in the end, I know that it is the most loving thing that we can do for people is to confront them and admonish them. I don't know, I have a lot of trouble with this too Matt.