Suppose you are a frustrated employer because:
1) Jed can’t follow directions consistently. Sometimes he gets things right, but too many times he gets things wrong.
2) Roy started really fired up about the job, but that lasted only until his first morning break. Now, he rarely shows up, and when he does, he plays flip the paperclip into the coffee cup.
3) Judy isn’t trustworthy. She’s dishonest in her actions, her words, and even her thoughts.
As their employer, you know you should fire all three of them. Clean house and start all over. But you care about them. In fact, you care so much, you can’t let them go. But who’s going to pay for all the mistakes, all the mediocre work, all the products stolen?
You make a decision. You will. You’ll take on all the mistakes, all the mediocre work, all the lost products. You’ll take the blame for all of it.
You call a meeting. You tell your three employees about their shortcomings. You tell them they deserve to be fired, but you’re not going to fire them. In fact, you tell them you’re going to place the blame for all their shortcomings on yourself. You declare them innocent of all the things they’ve done wrong because you have placed the blame on yourself.
That doesn’t sound like any employer anyone has ever known. Truth is, it sounds crazy. Yet, this parallels how God has operated with the human race. We’ve spent our lives messing up, doing bad things (even horrendous things), saying and thinking bad things. We deserve banishment from God forever.
His holiness requires that as well. Holiness and sinfulness cannot co-exist. It’s simple logic. Goodness and evil cannot co-exist. Light and darkness cannot coexist. One must overcome the other.
How does God fix this? He takes the blame upon Himself. Jesus leaves a perfect, holy Heaven and comes to earth. He lives a perfect holy life here, only doing good for others while forsaking Himself. He performs miracle after miracle, making life good for so many people. You would think the entire world would embrace Him.
Instead, they despise Him. Despite their hatred, He remains committed to taking all the blame for their wrongdoings upon Himself. Even when confronted with a horrible death on a cross, He is determined to take everyone’s sins upon Himself.
He knows it will be He who builds the bridge between God’s holiness and our sinfulness. Those six sacrificial offerings He commanded the Israelites to observe? Jesus fulfills all six with the sacrifice of His own life. Those six sacrificial offerings are deemed worthless.
We had nothing to do with it, other than being the object of God’s incredible love for us. It was His love added to His holiness which created the door we could walk through. When we leave our old life and walk through the door into our new life, God’s peace surrounds us. We now understand fully that His peace will never leave us. Feel free to take a deep breath.
This fits perfectly with Jesus’ profound statement in Matthew 11: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
We humans have devised a myriad of ways to make peace with God. In order to do that, we come up with our own definitions of holiness. Something like, “Well, I’ve never killed anyone, and the Big Guy In The Sky knows that.” Or “Me and The Man Upstairs have an understanding.” It’s amazing how we believe we can create our own peace with a holy God. Maybe we should ask Him if He agrees.
He might say something like, “Just come to me. You’ve tried so many ways to get peace with me. Why don’t you just trust me? Stop all your attempts—they’re mind-boggling and useless. Trust me and find rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Believe in me.” When we say ‘yes,’ incredibly, His peace follows. When we say ‘yes,’ we witness His holiness melding into His love—all for us.