HOST: How long ago was that?
HOST: Guest, I see you have a poster called 'FORGIVENESS OF SINS.' Why did you choose that topic?
Talk Show Guest: It's because of the March or April holiday.
HOST: Guest, we probably all understand that the bottom half of this poster is about Jesus. But what is happening in the top half of this poster?
Talk Show Guest: The top half of the poster represents sins committed by any of the Israelites during the time of Moses.
Talk Show Guest: Right. Moses lived about 3500 years ago.
HOST: Okay. So, if one of those Israelite moms or dads or kids sinned, what did the family need to do?
Talk Show Guest: Great question. Since they did not want to die for their sins, they needed to choose a substitute to die in their place. Their substitute would be a lamb that was free of blemishes.
HOST: Yikes! That lamb was innocent of committing sins, but it had to die for that family's sins anyway.
HOST: After picking out a lamb with no marks or defects, what did they have to do next?
Talk Show Guest: They had to bring that lamb to the priest. Then, in front of the priest and any witnesses, they would say, "I confess I have sinned. This is what I did wrong." Then, they would list their sins.
HOST: What was the third step?
Talk Show Guest: They would place their hands on top of the lamb's head. Then, they would imagine that all their sins entered the perfect body of the lamb.
HOST: What was the final step?
Talk Show Guest: Then, the priest would sacrifice the lamb by killing it.
John 3:16 (NLT)
"For this is how God loved the world:
He gave His one and only Son,
so that everyone who believes in Him
will not perish but have eternal life."
HOST: Guest, tell us about the Scapegoat ceremony.
Talk Show Guest: Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would choose a scapegoat. He would imagine transferring every sin committed by any of the Israelites in the previous year into this goat. Then, another priest would take this scapegoat, supposedly full of everybody's sins, miles away into the wilderness.
HOST: What would happen if the goat came back?
Talk Show Guest: It's not in the Bible, but there is a Jewish tradition that states that the Israelites would panic and say, "Oh, no! Our sins are returning to us." So, to keep that from happening, the priest started to push the goat off the top of a mountain to its death.
HOST: Yikes! Poor goat! So, how often would they do this scapegoat ceremony?
Talk Show Guest: They would do this once a year from the time of Moses.
HOST: So that leads us to the bottom half of the poster. Tell us about that.
Talk Show Guest: The bottom half of the poster is all about Jesus. As John the Baptist said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
HOST: So, how did Jesus save us from our sins?
Talk Show Guest: Short answer. As it says in Romans 6:23, "the wages of sin is death."
But instead of us having to die for our sins and go to hell, Jesus volunteered to be our substitute. Even though He never sinned during the 33 years He spent on earth, He was willing to die in our place.
And because He was crucified on the cross and rose again 3 days later in that tomb, as long as we confess our sins, do our best not to sin again, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are saved from our sins and can spend eternity in Heaven.
In conclusion, as it states in 1 Peter 1:19, we are saved by the "precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God."