August 20

Psalm 50 “You thought I was altogether like you.” It is a principle about ourselves and all humans that we must grasp. You see we all tend to create God in our own image. We feel that we must be able to understand Him. We insist that He views things as we do; He feels as we do; He must do things the way we do them; His sense of justice must be like ours. We instinctively think that His standard of righteousness must be just like ours. By that standard, o sure, I am a sinner, but His justice will be satisfied with a sacrifice. A bull or a goat is something we can quantify, as if God could be quantified. We used to have a joke in seminary that our final examine would be to define God and give three examples. Can God be quantified? The purpose of the Old Testament Sacrifices was to teach of the awfulness of sin and look forward to the demand of God’s righteousness for forgiveness of sin as it was carried out on the cross. When I look at the cross, I see how much God hates sin. A simple sacrifice of a goat or bull does not express the awfulness unless I can identify with the animal as a sentient being who is being sacrificed for my sin. The cross also speaks of His great love, that He would give His only begotten Son to redeem those who had committed so great sin that He hated so much. He owns all the cattle. For us to give Him back something which we own is of no significance to Him. He wants us to learn from the horrible situation. He wants us to come to Him and be delivered from our horrible sin! I need to learn this every day, lest I begin to once again think that He is like me. Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor John