Are you good enough to do what God wants?
Are you good enough to do what God wants?
Living a Christian life is not easy. We struggle each day with our failures and shortcomings. We examine ourselves often. How have we carried out our responsibilities as a spouse or single person, a parent or child, an employer or employee, a teacher or student?
We well might wonder if we are good enough to handle the Word of God correctly. He’s given his Word to us as a gift. Yet here too we look within our hearts to discover how we have carried out our responsibility to pass on the promise of forgiveness of sins through Jesus. God demands that we love him with all our heart, gladly hear his Word, and patiently endure affliction. Do we? No, we are dirty with sin and need cleansing. We are not good enough to do his work.
It was the same in Old Testament times. Not one of God’s people was good enough to do God’s work. God set his priests between himself and his people. He asked the priests to carry out detailed animal sacrifices that would point to the coming Savior, but God knew that not even one of the priests lived a good enough life to deserve that special honor.
So God designed the temple, the place for the animal sacrifices, with a sea in the southeast corner. The sea was a cast metal basin in which the priests washed each time they approached the altar of the Lord. That washing made them ceremonially clean—good enough to do the work the Lord had given them. After the washing, the priests put on special robes that were themselves ceremonially clean. God was training all his people that they must be cleansed before they can serve him.
We live in New Testament times. Jesus, the great High Priest, has come, and, with the sacrifice of himself, the Old Testament regulations about animal sacrifices and ceremonial cleansing were both fulfilled and abolished.
Now God calls all of us believers “priests” (1 Peter 2:9). He gives us work to do. We sacrifice our own bodies and lives (Romans 12:1). And as the hymn writer puts it, “And for your gospel let us dare to sacrifice all treasure” (Christian Worship 536:4).
But no one lives a good enough life to deserve that special honor. So for his New Testament priests the Lord also provides a place for washing. Baptism is our washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit. In our baptisms God connects us to his Son, Jesus, and declares us clean. In our baptisms we are clothed with Christ.
We well might wonder if we are good enough to handle the Word of God correctly. He’s given his Word to us as a gift. Yet here too we look within our hearts to discover how we have carried out our responsibility to pass on the promise of forgiveness of sins through Jesus. God demands that we love him with all our heart, gladly hear his Word, and patiently endure affliction. Do we? No, we are dirty with sin and need cleansing. We are not good enough to do his work.
It was the same in Old Testament times. Not one of God’s people was good enough to do God’s work. God set his priests between himself and his people. He asked the priests to carry out detailed animal sacrifices that would point to the coming Savior, but God knew that not even one of the priests lived a good enough life to deserve that special honor.
So God designed the temple, the place for the animal sacrifices, with a sea in the southeast corner. The sea was a cast metal basin in which the priests washed each time they approached the altar of the Lord. That washing made them ceremonially clean—good enough to do the work the Lord had given them. After the washing, the priests put on special robes that were themselves ceremonially clean. God was training all his people that they must be cleansed before they can serve him.
We live in New Testament times. Jesus, the great High Priest, has come, and, with the sacrifice of himself, the Old Testament regulations about animal sacrifices and ceremonial cleansing were both fulfilled and abolished.
Now God calls all of us believers “priests” (1 Peter 2:9). He gives us work to do. We sacrifice our own bodies and lives (Romans 12:1). And as the hymn writer puts it, “And for your gospel let us dare to sacrifice all treasure” (Christian Worship 536:4).
But no one lives a good enough life to deserve that special honor. So for his New Testament priests the Lord also provides a place for washing. Baptism is our washing of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit. In our baptisms God connects us to his Son, Jesus, and declares us clean. In our baptisms we are clothed with Christ.
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