The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
January 14, 2007
In
This Issue:
Priests
Offer Sacrifices
by
Steve Klein
I
Have Good News for You
by
Patrick Farish
Priests Offer Sacrifices
The word priest probably conjures up one of two images for most of us; we either think of the Levitical priests of the Old Testament or we think of Catholic clergymen with black robes and backwards collars. But when we think of someone who is described by the term priest do we ever think of ourselves?
As Christians, we are priests of God. We are "are a chosen generation" and "a royal priesthood" according to 1 Peter 2:9. Revelation 1:5-6 states that Christ "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father."
Priests offer sacrifices. This was one of their primary functions in the Old Testament (Hebrews 10:11; 5:1), and it remains an important part of the priests' work today. The purpose of being made "a holy priesthood" is to enable us "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5).
Webster's Dictionary defines the noun "sacrifice" in part to mean "an act of offering something precious to deity," and it defines the verb "sacrifice" to mean "to suffer loss of, give up, renounce, injure or destroy for an ideal, belief or end." According to these definitions, to offer a sacrifice is to go beyond giving what you want to give; it is giving what you wanted to keep. It is going beyond doing what you want to do, or what you feel like doing, and doing what you would rather not have to do. It is not just giving your spare time and your loose change; it is giving your precious time and your last dollar.
Hebrews 13:15-16 mentions three kinds of sacrifices that we as priests are to offer. It says, "let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." God expects us to offer the sacrifices of thankful praise, doing good and sharing with others. It may not always be easy for us to make these sacrifices. That's why they are called sacrifices. If they were always easy, they would have been called conveniences. But these are our duties as priests. This is our priestly work. To fail to perform it is to fail in our sacred duty.
--Steve Klein
Insulin; a parachute; a spare tire: these are rescuers, they save us from dis-tressing situations of various dimensions, and we value them. A rescuer of another sort, able to save from the most terrible of all perils, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, "the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16); and it is the most important rescuer of all.
The word "gospel" means GOOD NEWS. The good news is, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Men "perish" because of sin: "...the wages of sin is death". The soul-sickness called "sin" is of epidemic proportion: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). It is personal, not inherited, sin that makes man soul-sick. He does not perish spiritually because of what his father did, nor because of what anyone else did: "the soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4).
The problem with this epidemic of sin is intensified because man has not been able to cure it -- nor will he become able to cure it: "For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the fool-ishness of the preaching to save them that believe" (I Corinthians 1:21). Man contracts this disease by his own choice, so he deserves its outcome as stated in Romans, "the wages of sin is death"; but unlike most bodily ailments, when man contracts THIS disease he is powerless to cure it.
More than that, one infected by sin is in the most desperate condition. He has displeased God, ·'who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). The normal outcome of the disease of sin is spiritual death, variously described as "the eter-nal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41), and the place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:42). In Luke 16, Jesus alluded to the exper-ience of a man who finished this life unprepared. Our hearts are pierced by this lost man's cry that "I am in anguish in this flame"; and we are the more troubled (but also motivated) by the realization that he is and evermore will be, "in anguish ..."
This grim picture is not overdrawn. The one who yielded to temptation and sinned, is lost: and, he is helpless; and, he is hopeless; and "all have sinned". Not only persecutors of Christ, like Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:4) have sinned; also splendidly moral men, like Cornelius (Acts 10:1, 2; 11:14) have sinned. "All have sinned".
YOU have sinned.
Obviously, you do not reach for the insulin -- or the spare tire -- until you are convinced that it is needed. Jesus said, "They that are whole have no need of a phy-sician, but they that are sick" (Matthew 9:12). We hope that these words will help convince you that you need to be rescued from sin and the effects of sin; because, though you cannot provide such a rescue, God has. Read in Romans 6:23 what man earns ("wages") and what is grace or favor ("free gift"): "For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". Good News! The free gift of God is eternal life. Man cannot earn it -- if he gets what he earns, he dies!
Jesus saves! The Great Physician desires to save everybody, Titus 2:11 -- but He will not force anybody to be saved. So, the ones He saves are the ones whose fear of hell, and whose desire to be with Him eternally, will lead them to seek Him by obedience here: He is, "unto all them that obey him, the author of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9).
The gospel is the good news of salvation from sin. Its message demands the obedience of faith, to make the beginning and to complete the course. Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Will you reach for the rescue; will you obey Jesus, the Author of eternal salvation?
-- Patrick Farish
-- Via Weekly Bulletin of the church of Christ, West Pleasant Run Road, Lancaster, TX, 11/6/88