Blood on the Altar, or Splatterings of Imperfection -- Stage Two.

Yes, it is true that the demand of righteousness from God would be satisfied by a sacrifice of some other innocent martyr of justice, instead of the guilty party. But the repetition of sacrificing animals has not become the once-for-all sufficiency needed to pay the immeasurable penalty due the sinfulness of men. There must be a necessary better sacrifice.

STAGE TWO -- "Better things have come: The Reality."

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1 Peter 1:17-21

Any time I share with anyone about some of the things that have happened to me in my life, I find myself awestruck at how wonderful it is to truly know God. The drastic constrast between what I deserve every moment of my life and what I am actually receiving is utterly indescribable. Like when I was chatting with a teenager about what I have been doing these last few years -- I seem to be often beside myself as if watching it all unfold in real time, absorbing all of the goodness of God as I describe it as a story. Praise God that she was also encouraged by the tale that He has so graciously woven into my life.

My imperfections, all of my sin, are splattered bright and wide across the sides of the altar of sacrifice. But it is another's blood that covers my sin and pays for it all, that I might go free. Formerly, it was the blood of bulls or sheep or goats. Presently, it has become a much more precious and enduring sacrifice: the Lamb of God. To meditate on the idea of such an act endows a humility upon me that drops me to my face in prostrate adoration of such a holy plan of an all-sufficient God.

The shadow of times past has become the noonday of a brighter existence. The precondition of true freedom, namely, animal sacrifices, has been superceded by the fully-atoning sacrifice of Jesus on His killing stone, the altar of the cross.

Although my own imperfect humanity tempts me to writhe in all of my filth, willingly time and time again, I have yet been ransomed once for all! Wretched man that I am, yet He has foreknown, as the all-wise and all-knowing King of the Ages, that Jesus would set me free. Not only because freedom is what I desperately desire, but so that I may know that He alone is the One that has accomplished it for me. Never did He "help me" to do this or to do that so that I may become a "better" person or free myself. Never could I be able to do such an impossibility! Never could I ever be able to breathe on my own, much less walk, or do anything of any sort of good. But He can. He did. And He does still. He is slow to anger and quick to forgive. No matter how many times I show how imperfect and sinful I truly am, He rises up within me with the all-atoning sacrifice that forgives even the gravest of sins. That sacrifice, Jesus willingly took upon Himself, knowing in advance that I would freely enjoy Him in it for eternity.

Blood well spilt.