Rabbi Schneider — Forgiveness Released
God bless you and Shalom, beloved ones. I'm gonna be sharing with you today one of the most important words that I've ever delivered in my whole life. I originally preached this Word during the holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. But the profound truth contained in this message, beloved one, is applicable to our lives 365 days a year.
I'm calling the message Releasing Forgiveness, releasing and receiving the forgiveness that's ours which is at the center, beloved, of what Jesus brought to us. I want you to know, the truths that I'm gonna proclaim today, they're not new. And yet I believe Father's gonna apply them to your heart in such a way that through his grace, you're gonna enter into a new level of enjoying his presence and building healthy relationships in your life.
Some of you are gonna be able to let go of people that you've been offended with. And you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna be released yourself into the freedom of Jesus. God bless you, beloved. I love you and Shalom.
You know, one of my favorite Scriptures, beloved ones, is found in the Book of Leviticus. We call the Book of Leviticus in Hebrew the Book of Vayikrah. And in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 11, we read these, get this now, foundational; these words are just so foundational.
I mean if you want to memorize some Scriptures, this is one of the most fundamental Scriptures to memorize, to have a foundation for your faith in Jesus as being the only way to God. Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 11 says this: The life of the flesh, the Lord said, is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar, saith the Lord, to make an atonement for your soul; for it's the blood, saith the Lord, by reason of its life that makes atonement.
You see this is a phenomenon that is really outside of the mind of modern men. It's outside the genius" of modern" men. In other words, if we as human beings that are functioning in the natural realm ask ourself what is the seat of, of, of, of life?
In other words, if you look at a human being and ask what is the seat of their life? Many people will say, well it's their heart. The heart is the center of their life force. Some people might say, no it's in the mind, that it's the mind that's the center of life. But you know what? The Word of God tells us that, that man's life is fundamentally located, get this now, Church, not in the heart and not in the mind, but that somehow man's life is centered, get this now, in the blood; for it's the blood, the Lord said, by reason of its life that makes atonement.
We don't understand the mystery of blood and what's in the blood. You see, when Jesus was on the cross his fulfillment of completing that which he came to do which was to provide forgiveness of sin, it didn't happen, listen, until the soldier took the spear and put it in his side so that the blood ran out.
Man's life is focused in the blood. And God covers man's sin, listen now, when an innocent life is given on behalf of the guilty one, and the symbol of the life having been given is when that, that life's blood is shed.
We see this concept beginning to unfold, beloved, all the way back at Passover. What happened at Passover? God was about to move through the land of Egypt and judge for sin, but he wanted to protect his people. His people were guilty too. No one's perfect. His people also were guilty and the Bible says, the soul that sins, it shall die; that none are without excuse, that all are guilty before God.
So when Father God's judgement was about to move through the land of Egypt, beloved ones, 3500 years ago; forgive me tonight for continuing to mess with my ear piece here but I'm gonna kind of have to keep doing that, so bear with me.
When he was about to move through the land of Egypt, beloved ones, to judge sin, what did he tell Israel to do? He told them, get this now, to take a lamb, an unblemished lamb. Why did the lamb have to be unblemished in the Book of Exodus, chapter 12? It had to be unblemished because it was a symbol of the fact that the lamb was sinless.
The lamb had to be selected, an unblemished lamb without defect. And then they had to get familiar with the lamb. In other words, the lamb became one of their own. They brought the lamb into their home. It became a familiar friend. And after the lamb had become a familiar friend, what happened?
They took that lamb, beloved, and they sacrificed that lamb. And what they did was they took the blood of that lamb after eating it; they had to partake of the sacrifice. And after they ate of the sacrifice, beloved, they took the blood, get it now, once again the principle of the blood. They took the blood of that lamb and they applied it on their door post.
And God's Word tells us that when he moved through the land of Egypt that night, when God, when his angel of judgement moved through the land of Egypt that night to judge for sin, the Scripture tells us that every home that was under the blood, the blood was on the door post, judgement passed over. Now tonight we're talking about Yom Kippur, but I want to just begin to give you a historical trail how it's always been the blood that has provided the means for atonement.
This is the Day of Atonement, and what we're gonna find, beloved, is that Jesus fulfills this principle of what I'm calling substitutionary sacrificial atonement that we see modeled first in the Old Testament in the Torah; that an innocent one had to die in the place of the guilty one. The innocent had to become a substitute and it had to be sacrificed in the place of the guilty one for the guilty one to be able to go free and to escape judgement.
Again, I like to call it substitutionary sacrificial atonement. Here's what you need to understand, beloved one, this is so critical. The way that Father is able to forgive sin is not to just pat somebody on the back and say, you know what, it's no big deal.
Let's forget about it. That's not how sin is forgiven. It's impossible to forgive sin on that basis because to simply pat us on the back and to say forget about it, it's no big deal, beloved, that does not satisfy, get this now, God's justice.
You see, the Lord told us in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 18, verse 4, these words; hear the Word of God: Behold, the Lord said, Ezekiel, 18:4, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
We see this evidence with Adam and Eve. The Lord said as soon as you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Lord said, you will die. You see, the wages of sin is death. And so Father God cannot forgive sin just simply by waving it away and saying it's okay, let's forget about it. It wasn't a big deal. No, his justice has to be satisfied. And what is the penalty for sin?
We just got done reading in Ezekiel, 18, the soul who sins will die. Paul tells us the same thing in the New Testament, that the wages of sin is death. So the way that Father is able to forgive sin and satisfy his justice at the same time is when an innocent one dies in the place of the guilty one. And when an innocent one dies in the place of the guilty one, God can forgive the guilty one on the basis of an innocent one was just sacrificed for him.
And in so doing, Father God is able to fulfill both his, get this now, his justice and the attribute, hear me now, beloved one, of his mercy. You see, it's only in Messiah Jesus that God could satisfy both his need for justice and his desire for mercy. And Father's desire to show mercy is even greater than his desire to sow justice.
But because of his moral make up he must show justice. And so the principle that we see executed in the Hebrew Bible and then fulfilled in Messiah Jesus is that Father is able to satisfy both his justice and his mercy by providing a sacrifice for sin. When an innocent one dies on the guilt's behalf so that Father can forgive the guilty one.
An easy way to understand this would be this. If you owed somebody a million dollars, and Jesus told this parable, if you owed somebody a million dollars; he didn't use these exact terms but he used the same concept. If you owed somebody a million dollars and could never repay them, how could you ever get free from that monkey, from that burden, from that debt on your back?
How could you ever be released from that debt that you could never repay? Only one way, if you could never repay it, the only way you could get released from it, beloved one, hear me, is if someone paid your debt for you. That's exactly what Jesus did.
It's like you owing somebody a million dollars that you could never repay and having that on your back, crushing you down, but then somebody comes up and pays that one you owe money to. And he says, here's a million dollars. On his behalf, on her behalf, release them now. I've paid their debt. And on the basis of that, beloved, you've been freed. That's what Messiah Jesus did for you.