jack

Of course, a basic element is confession. I suspect that it was easier for a Hebrew who was about to slit the throat of one of the lambs that he had cared for since it was born to understand the enormity of his sin than it is for us who only have to bow our heads and pray. What is necessary for confession? It seems to me that a sense of how greatly our sin does offend God is necessary. Interestingly, that would seem to be deepened as we draw closer to God in fellowship. As people who have had the sacrifice already paid for out sin, our problem seems to be seeing that sin through God's eyes and understanding its destructive power. Perhaps that is why so many of us continue to feel guilty even after God has forgiven our sin and we are free of its power.

We are people created in the image of God and, despite the entry of sin into the world and our lives, we retain that fundamental need to fellowship with God. In fact, if that need isn't somehow met, we may find ourselves on the path to self destruction. It is our sin that stands directly in the way of that bond of fellowship. God's mercy to the Hebrew people was to provide them with a way of dealing with their sin so that a measure of that fellowship could be restored. This was necessary in God's eyes so that sin did not utterly destroy them. As we know from the teachings of Paul, the wages of sin is death, and nothing less. While the animal sacrifices did not atone in any final sense, going through the ritual with sincere belief in its efficacy did tell God that the individual desired to have his sin forgiven and to sin no more. The same is true for us. To go through a ritual of confessing our sin and claiming forgiveness through Jesus Christ with anything less than a sincere desire to restore our fellowship with God and to sin no more is worse that pointless; it is self deceiving.