When I was younger, I came across the scripture that said, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins." And I, being a reasoning and curious person felt a giant "why?" swelling up inside. When God finally put the full picture together for me, I was absolutely amazed at his genius. What he showed me is what I wanted to tell you guys about.
The first thing that God pointed out to me was that He was both merciful AND just. When I stopped to think about it, I realized (or, rather, he let me realize), that these two qualities usually don't go together. I'll explain.
Let's say you borrowed $3 from me. If I make you pay that $3 back then I'm just, but I'm not merciful. If I forgive the debt then I'm merciful, but I'm no longer just because the debt hasn't been paid. What's so amazing about this simple thought is that God found a way to fulfill BOTH justice AND mercy.
After I understood that, God showed me my debt. Romans 6 says that the wages of sin is death. And death is the forfeiting of life. So when we sin, we have earned a debt. What we owe is our lives. We have to hand them back over. Then, God showed me in Leviticus where he was instructing Israel to not eat animals with their blood still in them. He said that we "… shall not eat animals with the blood still in it, for the LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD. Therefore, we shall not eat animals with LIFE still in them". (I tried to quote as closely as I could from memory, lol)
This was the key. God had answered my question. When we sin, we owe our life. And the life is in the blood. That's why there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. And that's why there were temple sacrifices set in place. They were there to point straight to Jesus.
That is why Jesus had to be a man. We sinned against God and our blood was owed because of it. Jesus came with no debt and paid ours for us with his own perfect blood. God is just and, therefore, has to make sure that every bit of the law he put in place is fulfilled. And in his genius, he found a way to do that AND forgive us of our debt. But He didn't just forgive us, He adopted us.
So God had taught me why Jesus had to come as a man. Naturally, my next question was obvious. Why did Jesus have to also be God? The answer was also in Leviticus.
When God was saving Israel from slavery in Egypt, he used plagues as a great sign to Pharaoh. The final sign he used was the death of all the firstborn throughout the country. He instructed Israel to slay a sheep and paint the blood above their doors, and the angel would pass over their houses, sparing their firstborn. Down the road, when God was setting up the temple activities, He told Israel to give all their firstborns to Him for service in the temple. Then, as an illustration of Jesus, God told Israel that he wanted the tribe of Levi INSTEAD of their firstborns.
When I kept reading, the answer to my question was evident. Each individual Levite took the place of ONE firstborn. This legally illustrated the obvious: that one man is equal to one man. So if Jesus had just been a man, and not also God, then he would have earned the forgiveness of ONE LUCKY DUDE! But God's life is of infinite worth, so he could, therefore, earn the forgiveness of ALL mankind.
So Jesus, being both a man AND God, is the only one who can save us. I hope this excites you as much as it excites me. We were dead men and God didn't just leave us there. He put his genius to work and came up with the perfect plan to save us. Now, all we have to do is accept the offer.
