Bear with me as I think out loud...
Just as the sacrifices of the Old
Testament were only efficacious for the people if the Lord God recognized them
as being so (in other words, someone offering a sacrifice did not obligate God
to forgive them), so Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross is only efficacious because
God recognizes it as efficacious. Because Jesus willingly laid down his life –
God granted him the position as judge. Any person that Jesus judges as worthy
of the Kingdom, God will recognize Jesus’ sacrifice as efficacious for that
person, not holding that person’s sin against them. If Jesus does not recognize
them, then they stand on their own, with an accusation against them and no
defense (Matthew 7:21-23). I guess the realization here, for me, is that Jesus didn’t
die for sins per se – he sacrificed/laid down his own life in faith that God
would recognize his sacrifice as covering over sin for others. This is exactly
how the sacrificial system worked – there wasn’t anything about the animal
dying that made any difference to anybody for anything; it was the fact that
God accounted the sacrifice as atonement. The sacrifice was representative of
the obedience, humility and repentance of the one offering it. This is what David
is getting at in Psalm 51, “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer
one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken
spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Maybe the
difference here is too nuanced to be meaningful…difference without distinction
in other words, I’m not sure.
