Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Leviticus Study: Part II

Christ cannot live where there is evil. He will not dwell with it.
So what of when we sin? Does he leave us when we sin - when we allow sin in, do we put Christ out? But how can it be?
"I will never leave you." What of this promise?
He taught the early Israelites which offerings to offer when and for what trespasses against God. There were atonement offerings, sin offerings and, oddly enough, guilt offerings. He gave them an offering specifically for guilt. A way to escape that feeling when you're not sure what's wrong, but you have a feeling something is. That still small voice that whispers in your ear to let you know, even if you were unaware of it, somewhere, somehow, you have strayed.
Perhaps Christ is that voice. Of course he is. What I mean is, perhaps he is the guilt we feel that pressures us to force the sin we have - sometimes unwillingly - allowed in, out. Because he cannot live with it, but he has promised never to leave us.

Sin nature:
This seems an oxymoron to me. Sin is one of the most unnatural things there is. Pain. Lust. Deceit. These and other vices are unnatural, but these and all the rest are born of sin.
Sin was never meant to be in this world, just as we were never meant to know pain or suffering. We were meant to live in a paradise where only good things would prosper. Sin was not meant to exist. So how can it - in us - be called natural?

And if our God is so powerful, why has he allowed this? Why has he not abolished sin - made it unavailable to partake of? But then, he gave us a choice in this. He presented the tree to us with simple instructions and man allowed himself to be swayed. And we continue to be swayed by forces that were never meant to be known to us.
It was, is, and ever will be, our choice.

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