The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
With salvation comes the remission and forgiveness of sin. God is able to forgive each of us our past, present, and future sin because Jesus paid the price for your sin as the ultimate one sacrifice for all sin.
Jesus Christ, God the Son, took the form of a human so that He could pay the price for our sin and save us from hell. Romans 5:8–9 tells us that “God commends (reveals) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
Throughout history, every culture has known that blood sacrifice is necessary for the appeasement of sin. The problem with most people groups has been that their sacrifices were to false gods. Even the sin sacrifices ordained by God to His chosen people, Israel, in the wilderness were only temporary. They had to be done over and over again, in precise fashion, and at specified intervals for particular transgressions and cleansing. The shedding of blood in animal sacrifices in the Old Testament was clearly required for God’s people to retain righteousness before the just and holy God of Scripture but those sacrifices gave only limited forgiveness. During the life of each person a variety of annual animal and grain sacrifices had to be offered in order to maintain religious purity and favor.
Jesus’s voluntary sacrifice on the cross, His shedding of His own blood, was the final, permanent, and only acceptable sacrifice for God’s requirements of righteousness. His sacrifice replaced all temporary sin sacrifices forever, eliminating the need for periodic sacrifices in that He bore “our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24).
He was so eager to forgive us our sins that, as He was dying, Jesus called out to God, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
When He died, the veil in the Temple at Jerusalem, that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy place and the world, split open from top to bottom (Matt. 27:50-51). This signified both the end of the need for animal sacrifices and the end of separation from God. It was the beginning of hope and the promise of fellowship with God for eternity.
“To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (Eph. 1:6-8).
