Sacrifice.

As I read through Leviticus, I've been noticing a common theme throughout the book. While the book is generally about the laws God gave to the Israelites, the majority of all the laws given are about sacrifices. Who was supposed to give the sacrifices, what caused a sacrifice to be needed, how the sacrifice was to be performed, everything! It's interesting to contrast the way that the Israelites had to handle being "unclean" at that time, and what Christians can do now.

It’s so interesting to read all that God required of the Israelites. They couldn’t just pray to God and ask for forgiveness, they had to really give something of themselves. Whether it was their livestock, their money or just their time, it involved something personal from the individual. They were not given the opportunity to just pray and instantly receive forgiveness; they had to give of themselves for God’s sake.

After reading all that God required, it seems to give some insight into God’s view of asking for forgiveness. Seeking forgiveness isn’t just muttering a short prayer to relieve a guilty conscience. It is intended for the person seeking forgiveness is actually willing to give something up because of their sin so that it doesn’t happen again. It reminds me of this quote I read recently:

It’s so easy to simply ask for forgiveness without truly putting forth the effort to eliminate the sin. I think half the time I ask for forgiveness simply for my own sake rather than as a sincere apology to God. I’ve been taught to think that when you apologize, the only way to show that you are truly sorry is to not do whatever you did again. If you really do feel badly for whatever you have done, then you should be sorry enough to not do it again. You know what I mean? Not to say that you don’t mess up because trust me I have done that plenty of times, but in theory that is how it should work. If you continue to do whatever you apologized, then you in theory aren’t genuinely sorry.

I feel like apologizing to God and asking for forgiveness is almost easier than apologizing to another person. It seems like it can be so easy to apologize to God without meaning it because all it involves is a prayer. No confrontation, no face-to-face interaction, nothing like that to really make you feel convicted. I mean I know my conscience gets to me, but there’s nothing really stopping me from doing it again you know?

But the thing is that it is wrong to repeatedly ask forgiveness without changing anything in my life. If I really want forgiveness, that means I give of myself and prove that the apology was sincere. It’s not fair to ask God to forgive and forget when I can’t sacrifice anything of myself for God.