You will pay for that!

I think, all of us still have memories of our childhood. Perhaps there were many good times. But, we can certainly also remember some things which we did, although our parents had forbidden it. When it was discovered, we usually received punishment, maybe a clip on the ear-hole or a slap on our backsides, maybe we were grounded, banned from watching television, or given less pocket-money, or something to that effect.

Many of us have outgrown this age, but also at school, at work, or even in a friendship or relationship, we sometimes do things, deliberately or subconsciously, which are not in order. Even though it differs from when we were children, our deeds mostly still have consequences, such as an entry in the class book, a letter to our parents, a lost promotion at work together with an additional warning or, in our personal lives, in worst case scenario a termination of a relationship.

This “cause and effect” is found very often in the Old Testament in the Bible. Whoever acted in accordance to God's will, whether as an individual or as a whole nation, were all right. However, those who did not keep the commandments, were punished. It was a circle of punishment and reward which started with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

But, even at that moment, it was evident to God that this was only a temporary solution. God loved the people whom He created in His image, and it also hurt Him to punish them, similarly to a father or mother feeling more hurt than the child when handing out punishment.

However, the problem is that God is so holy that He cannot have fellowship with sinful man. The Hebrew word for “holy” is “kadosh”, and means “set apart”. Thus, God is set apart, separated from sinful man. And this vast gulf was not so easy to overcome, not by God, nor by man. Only blood is able to bring about true atonement and purification before God. In this manner, the ancient Israel had to sacrifice animals for almost all offences. Dependent on the offence, the sacrifice had to be a dove, a goat or a large bull. The debt was only washed away once the blood had been shed.

It would have still been like this today, if God didn't have a once-for-all plan. He sent His Son to earth as a human being. In His divinity, Jesus was, even in his human form, entirely free from all sin and guilt. And as such, He was able to be the once-for-all sin Offer for all our sins, on the cross at Calvary. His blood was shed as a sacrifice for all our sins. His blood completely filled the vast gulf which stood between God and mankind.

Just as God was “kadosh”, we too are “kadosh” set apart from the world, once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. As such, we can enter into the realm of God's holiness and have fellowship with Him, through Jesus' sacrifice.

Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, once and for all!

So I wish you a blessed day in this fellowship with our God!

Rainer Gigerich