Deuteronomy 14-16

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2014-16&version=NIV


Deuteronomy 15:1-6 “1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you. 4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.”

The Sabbatical Year. At the end of every seven years, the people of Israel, those who were creditors, were to cancel the loans they had made to their fellow Israelites.

This is such a great, great foreshadowing of what Christ would do and has done for us.

Colossians 2:13-14 says, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

I feel that we as Christians too often take this for granted. As we near Easter, meditate on Colossians 2:13-14. How great it is that Christ forgave us all our sins and canceled the regulations of the Law that were against us and that stood opposed to us.

In John Piper’s book, 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die, he writes of this. In lieu of my thoughts, I would like to share his with you:

“If we are saved from the consequences of our bad deeds, it will not be because they weighed less than our good deeds. It will be because the “record of [our] debt” in heaven has been nailed to the cross of Christ. God has a totally different way of saving sinners than by weighing their deeds. There is no hope in our deeds. There is only hope in the suffering and death of Christ. There is no salvation by balancing the records. There is only salvation by canceling records. The record of our bad deeds (including our defective good deeds), along with the just penalties that each deserves, must be blotted out—not balanced. This is what Christ suffered and died to accomplish. The cancellation happened when the record of our deeds was “nailed to the cross” (Colossians 2:13). How was this damning record nailed to the cross? Parchment was not nailed to the cross. Christ was. So Christ became my damning record of bad (and good) deeds. He endured my damnation. He put my salvation on a totally different footing. He is my only hope. And faith in him is my only way to God.” (Page 33)

Today and this weekend and as we near Easter, ponder the thought that each day that we live the forgiveness under Christ is so much greater than the forgiveness given to the Israelites in the Sabbatical Year.

Soli Deo Gloria

Today’s post was submitted by Russ Shellhamer.