An Allegory and the Truth

Let us say you are arrested and brought into the court on serious charges; charges that meant your death if you were found guilty. Suppose further that the evidence is so overwhelming concerning your crime that there is no doubt, and you are without hope. The court turns in the verdict: guilty, sentenced to die to satisfy the court’s justice. Suppose further now that there was a clause which could save you. An animal, a lamb as it were, was brought into the courtroom and stood between you and the judge who condemned you. While you are pondering what this meant, the judge explained.

The God of Glory

Moses once beseeched God that he might see God’s glory, and God indeed revealed His glory by passing by His servant on the mountainside. Such was the power and radiance of the Lord that Moses’ face shone with the splendor of that encounter with the living God, and the children of Israel were actually afraid to approach him afterward. When the tabernacle of the wilderness and the temple of Solomon were complete God’s shekinah glory filled both, so that the result was no man could approach to sacrifice or worship. Jesus, in the prayer mold He taught to believers, ascribed the kingdom, power and glory to God alone, as was befitting Him. The natural world declares the glory of God, the psalmist explains, and the universe in all its tremendous complexity declares His amazing power, creative ability, and utter genius that surpasses all human industry or understanding. The Old Testament prophets called the salvation of God glorious. God’s revealed arm and will were glorious to His children, who looked for naught but death, and instead found eternal life and present consolation. The appearance of Jesus Christ revealed God’s glory, and the ministry of Christ is indeed the ministry of glory, as Paul told the Colossian believers of his day.

What about Sin?

Greetings. I was hoping to pursue the topic of sin in today's world, and seek what our Lord has to say concerning the subject.
Strong’s Concordance defines sin as an offence and its penalty, to miss (the mark); hence to sin, or forfeit or lack. The word sin is first employed in Genesis 4:7, though it is obviously implied earlier. God is speaking with Cain, and tells him that if he does well he will be accepted, otherwise if not, sin lies at the door, and its desire is for him. One would imagine this meant to rule over him, but God tells Cain that he should rule instead over sin, that is, his sin nature. Likewise God told Eve that her desire would be for her husband, but that he would rule over her. As the wife should be ruled by her husband and not allowed to dominate the marriage because it is not God’s will, sin should not so overcome us that we allow it to direct the course of our lives. God describes it to Cain as lying at the door, that is when you leave God’s presence it will pounce on you and have you, and there is no escape. But if you do well, that is if you hear God’s words and apply them in faith, you will be accepted. Abel was accepted and his gifts bore witness to it. Why? He brought the offering God told him to. He acted in faith, he heard what God said, believed it, and responded in humble faith without adding or subtracting from the word. I have heard a wonderful saying by a man named John Stott which said, “The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God; the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man.”