About CFC
Its Barbecue time!
By David Pinkerton
16th February 2012 | Category: Join the Journey 2012
Key Verse
“You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.”
Central truth
Central Truth: Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice…however…Main Content
BBQ v grilling?
Its February in Northern Ireland and what am I thinking about?
Barbecues… Obviously!!
I like projects and my next one is to build a barbecue from an old tank I have. When we think of BBQ here we think of armadillo sausages: crunchy and burnt on the outside, raw in the middle!
Travel across the pond to the US of A, and we find that our definition of BBQ isn’t quite right. What we call BBQ here is called grilling in America, and barbecue is actually a whole different thing: 15hr cook times, rubs, marinades, injections, charcoal, wood chunks, huge slabs of meat cooked “low and slow”.
Our definition of BBQ in N Ireland, while not being entirely wrong, isn’t the complete definition.
A Full Definition
Today’s reading in The Plan is from Leviticus, also known as The Book of Sacrifices. Already I hear people saying in the words of Hebrews 9:28, “so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many…” and that’s entirely true;
Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate shedding of blood, so that we could be washed clean, found acceptable to a pure holy and blameless God. It’s an amazing thing to think about, and an amazing place to live out of.
We have to remember Jesus’ words concerning the law that He did “not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mt 5:17). In doing so we realise that Jesus death is a fulfillment of the requirements of all these sacrifices.
For us, reading Leviticus and the Old Testament as a whole can help give us a fuller definition.
Just because Jesus is now the sacrifice, doesn’t mean we don’t have a part to play.
The animals in Leviticus didn’t just walk or fly into the tabernacle to be sacrificed. There was an intimate relationship between the sacrifice and the person needing atonement. He would have bred and cared for the animal, chosen his best, blemish free animal, walked or carried it to the Priest at the door to the tabernacle, placed his hand on its head, and with a confession of sin, killed it. Then he would have cut it open, washed its innards and presented them to the Priest to sacrifice.
For us to walk fully in our freedom in Christ, we have to cultivate our relationship with Him, we have to give of our best, be that money or time or gifts, we have to walk daily in our calling, and have to continually sacrifice our old selves, laying our hand on Jesus and confessing our sins. Only when we do this on a regular basis will we really begin to grasp the full definition of what Jesus really has done for us.
Consider:
As you read Leviticus, and its descriptions and explanations of the sacrifices and laws, look for a “fuller definition” of Jesus’ fulfillment of these.
How can this enrich your relationship with God?
Do you intimately know the sacrifice that made atonement for your sin?
How can you increase that intimacy?
David Pinkerton
David S. Pinkerton is married to Rebekah S., and is a member of Antrim, GSOH, likes to meet with like minded people to welcome the kingdom where it is needed, enjoys baking, eating, taking pictures and pottering in a tool shed, if he had a Tool Shed (so just likes pottering).
