But What about the Cross?
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:17 NASB
Sacrifices of God – Poetry, my friend. Poetry. David is not writing a systematic theology. He is writing the words of a song, a poem set to music. His words are personal confession, insights drawn from the experience of disobedience, guilt and conviction. The context makes a difference.
In the previous verse, David informs his listeners that for him sacrifices will not make any difference. His sins were intentional. Leviticus does not apply. That does not mean sacrifices have no place in God’s economy. They just have no efficacy when it comes to sins like David’s. The only thing that David can do is beg for mercy and change his heart. If David were to offer sacrifices, the audience would suppose that David didn’t know what he was doing was wrong when he did it. That is quite obviously not the case. David knew and he sinned anyway. That is his confession. The result is the death sentence. The only thing that stands between David and stoning is the mercy of YHVH and the only thing that can be offered to enlist that mercy is ruach nishbarah, a smashed and broken heart. Under no circumstances is David suggesting that the sacrifices are replaced with a contrite and broken heart. David is reporting that his only hope is ruach nishbarah.
Some Christian theologians are apt to use this verse as a proof text for the claim that all God wants is a change of heart. The implication is that the sacrifices have been done away with because Jesus replaces them all with his death on the cross. What we need now is not an altar, a priest and a kosher animal but rather, and exclusively, a heart of remorse and repentance. While it is certainly true that God desires a broken spirit, it is certainly not true that a broken spirit is all that God desires. In the absence of the Temple and the temporary abeyance of the sacrifices, acts of charity, prayer and meditation are substitutes for sacrifices, but they are not permanent replacements any more than Yeshua’s death on the cross replaces any of the Torah commandments. When the prophecy concerning the Third Temple is fulfilled, sacrifices will begin again.
David’s perspective is psychological and personal. Under these circumstances, there is nothing David can do within the Levitical system. He must appeal to the compassion of YHVH for those who cast themselves upon the Most High God. And since rahum is the fundamental characteristic of YHVH, David has hope. Merciful. Compassionate. Knowing our frame, that we are but dust. These are the sources of David’s hope. These are the characteristics of YHVH and of the men He created that offer David an opening to plead his case. When we reach the point of absolute brokenness, when we finally admit we are completely destroyed, then there is but one thing left—God’s mercy. Sacrifices will be effective again—for the living. And if God grants life, then we will go back to the Temple and honor Him with our sacrifices. But first we must live.
Topical Index: sacrifice, broken spirit, ruach nishbarah, Psalm 51:17
Yes, we have a temple. Yes, we have a High Priest. Yes, He will return personally to us, never to leave us again. Yes, He ever intercedes for us before His Father, with the wounds He received in the house of His friends forever present before that Throne. Perfection personified. The original Lamb forever. The third Temple is the original, of which the two on earth were ever but a copy.
There has never been, nor will there ever be, a sacrifice on earth for deliberate sin. Folks, how many of your sins did you not mean to commit? The last time I checked, most of mine, I did! How much good is sacrifice for me? When Paul said “I die daily” what was he talking about? I commit sin worthy of death every day!
If that cross did not somehow perfect (complete) that original heavenly sacrifice of the Lamb before the Throne before the world began, of which the earthly rituals were but a copy, then I don’t know what is going to save me. Someone is going to have to die every day for me to live!
As far as I can see, it is deliberate sin that plagues this planet, and that is a problem this planet has never seen, but once, an Answer to. All my hope is in that Once, ever interceding in that heavenly temple, for me; dying once for all my deliberate sin, and for yours, so that we can live forever. Halleluah!
Amen
Hi Laurita,
“If that cross did not somehow perfect (complete) that original heavenly sacrifice of the Lamb before the Throne before the world began, of which the earthly rituals were but a copy, then I don’t know what is going to save me.
Are you saying that the effects of the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world wasn’t really finished or complete. That it, the basis of everyone’s grace that restores life, was less than adequate until Yeshua died on the cross? As I’m trying to understand what you said it seems that you are saying what Yeshua did on the cross was needed to finish and complete whatever happened when “the Lamb who has been slain” way back before the world’s creation, instead of Yeshua’s death being that which was effectively instrumental in solving our greatest obstacle, death.
I’m just trying to reconcile whether you agree or disagree with Skip’s premise in “Cross Word Puzzles.” I’m trying to figure out if the lamb being slain before the foundation is part and partial to what happened on the cross or if it is two separate yet complementary events, the first being an established basis of grace for all since the beginning, (we are saved to life via his grace – something somehow represented by the lamb slain way back then) the second being the solution to all of our problems, that is, death, and what to do about it. Yeshua’s sinless death, being not a sacrifice such that satisfied Levitical sacrificial requirements, and therefor unqualified as that kind of sacrifice, but was the necessary event that was needed to annul death itself. Now, after Yeshua’s sinless death, death is certainly and completely defeated and itself killed to death. Death died. Something very beneficial and dramatically effective for us once we actually die.
Just trying to think through this issue that has dominated my thinking nearly my entire life.
Any further clarification?
Grace, to answer your question (and, by the way, I am just about as far along as you on this, I think) WAS perfected from the get go, but grace, which keeps us alive IN our sin, thus providing us another chance FROM our sin, still does not actually give us the life we need, free from that sin. That would be the resurrection, specifically. The resurrection returns us to the freedom of life beyond sin (as long as we choose to remain in that place) so that we can again enjoy the free flow of love through us. My choice to obey gives heaven permission to express itself through me (the life that love provides), which is my design. Grace is not obedience, however, nor does it replace it, thus grace gets me up to the gate, but I still need the freedom that life returns me to (to be able to obey) to get me through that gate, that door, to eternity. Life, however, is what the Cross was about. All we can seem to see of it this side of our sin, is the death part, but that is the pagan in us, I think (hence, all those crucifixes, with a very dead Person still hanging there). However, what I understand we should be focusing on, is what the early church was focused on; they did not seem to care about the death part; it was the RESURRECTION part that was important. Yes, He had to die to get there, but the resurrection seemed to be the real key to it all. The new, exciting Life was that new crack at the present; at reality; at the freedom that I have to be operating in to be ABLE to obey. The Lamb had to die to save us from death, but the Man had to live again to return us to the freedom we have to have to be able to love. Love does not set me free: love is only possible when I AM free (from the shackles of sin). Grace strikes those shackles; negates the death sentence; separates me from my fractures (I have to be fractured from (die to) fracture, which never ceases to tickle me, but then, I think heaven has a great sense of humor!), but life is what I need before I can love again. The cross was not about the dying Lamb; the cross was about the resurrected Man.
Laurita,
Hmmm, thanks for the additional comments. It is still fuzzy in my thinking. Still working on it.
Largely, this issue, in my thoughts, is a disjointed collection of tidbits that are floating around without solidity so far. My challenge is to form these thoughts in to something visual that I can grasp and stand on. It is yet to happen.
One day . . .
From Shadow to Substance
~The Law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming–not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship ~ (Hebrews 10.1)
One and Done
~ For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified ~
(Hebrews 10.14) Holiness, both imputed and imparted. To sanctify is to “set apart” for a special use. Your best tableware is reserved or “set apart” for use on “special” days.
Is it possible for any man to “add” to what Christ has done for us? Someone “gifts” an $80,000 Porsch to me. (thank you, thank you very much..) Here, let me contribute $10 towards the purchase. Lol! Friends, a gift is just that. A Gift. ~ Sorry, Cain. ~ It is the Gift of God —NOT of works, lest any man should boast! ~ So then, where is “boasting?” Yes, oh yes, I (too) will GLORY in the cross!!! And what He has done! The Work HE has accomplished. If, (no, “since”) the “Bill” (my sin debt -DEATH) has been “Paid In Full” [Tetalesti!] what else is there for “me” to contribute? Nothing left but Praise, Adoration and Worship!!! His Name IS Wonderful!!! O, the cross!!!
What a Victory!! Death? Defeated. The Grave? Gone. Satan? Stripped. He defeated Death by dying! Death IS dead! The Grave? Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down!! “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” Christ has conquered!!
Friend, ~ we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all!! ~ (Hebrews 10.10) Full atonement? Can it be? Hallelujah! – What a Savior!
Mission Accomplished
~ [And] when this Priest had offered for all time one Sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God..~ (Hebrews 10.12)
~ Yeshua also suffered outside of the city to sanctify His people by His own blood ~ (Hebrews 13.12)
~He [Yeshua HaMashiach] did not enter [the holy of holies] by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption for us ~ (Hebrews 9.12)
How Much More
~ How much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ~ (Hebrews 9.14)
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of Love I owe..
Here LORD, I give my self away
‘Tis all that I can do.
~ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”… (Revelation 5.11-13)
Amen and Amen!!
Shades of Steve Jobs.. — One More Thing!
~ He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, — how shall He not with Him, also freely give us ALL THINGS? ~ (Romans 8.32)
It truly is “The Gift That Keeps On Giving!”
Most terrifying if most of our sins/transgressions/disobedience/rebellion are intentional!
When that is the case, we do well to be on our knees seeking YHWH’s mercies, and NOT pretend to be ignorant.
It is so beneficial to us when we can have the right spirit to draw “from the experience of disobedience, guilt and conviction” to earnestly seek YHWH to walk in His ways as a sign of repentance seeking His mercies.
“In the absence of the Temple and the temporary abeyance of the sacrifices, acts of charity, prayer and meditation are substitutes for sacrifices, but they are not permanent replacements (though not permanent replacements, plays a vital part towards our seeking for His mercies)
any more than Yeshua’s death on the cross replaces any of the Torah commandments” Amein.
“then we will go back to the Temple and honor Him with our sacrifices. ”
That would be a joyful day, with the Temple restored, we can celebrate Feast Days in proper order.