Isaiah 53: 6
All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.
Just like sheep follow each other, even over a cliff, or stray from the flock getting lost; we will decide that we know better than God, and follow other people's ideas and ways, or otherwise turn away from God. We are our own gods.
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
Jesus came to be our sacrificial Lamb, fulfilling the personal sacrifice each person was to bring first, as described in the first chapter in the book of Leviticus. He died for each of us individually to save us, one by one.
He also fulfilled the other sacrifices, including the corporate sacrifice, for the whole Nation. This purchased for Him all of the Universe, as He shed God's own Blood, that has unlimited value and power. So we are all His property, making Him our Judge.
God has always saved people one by one. He chose one Nation to give them His Law, so that when they obeyed Him and lived according to His ways, they would prosper, and other Nations would see and want to know this Lord God, also.
And when they brought their own lamb or goat or calf to the priest for themselves, they laid their hand on the head of the animal, identifying with it. Then the priest slaughtered it, dying instead of the person, and sacrificed it on the altar, splashing its blood on the sides of the altar to cover his sins.
Jesus is the Lamb of God, Who is our personal sacrifice, taking our place in death, one by one, and His Blood splashed on the sides of His altar, the Cross, does not just cover, but actually takes away our sins. The Blood of God washes away the crimson and scarlet stains of sin, cleansing us completely to make us as white as snow, as white as wool (Isaiah 1:18). That's why He came.
That's how much God loves us. God is Love (I John 4:8), and He puts His Love into us when we let Jesus be our Lamb to die for us, as our substitute in death; then He puts His Life in us, His Holy Spirit, to make us alive spiritually.
Jesus came to be with us where we live, so that He could make us suitable and fit to be able to live with Him where He is (John 17:24). This has been God's plan from the beginning, from before He created Mankind.
And God is rolling out everything He planned, as He planned it to go, through the march of Time. He has told us in His Word the complete story of the Epoch of Mankind, from before the beginning to after the end (from Genesis to Revelation). The whole Bible is this one Story, His Story (history).
Open our eyes, O Lord, to see Your message to us, Your Love-Letter to us, so that we will know You and follow Your ways to cooperate with how You designed all Creation to operate in obeying Your rules.
And open our hearts, O Lord, to receive this wonderful Love You have for us. Help us to love You back and to love others with this Love of Yours.
Help Your people, Lord, to love one another with Your Love, so that the World will know that Jesus came; and find all the lost sheep that have strayed from His fold, that there will be one fold and one Shepherd. Unite us as one, Father, so that we will be one in the fundamentals of the faith, and all of our differences would be secondary.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
(Tune in tomorrow to read about this Love--it may not be what you think.)
