Have you ever been wronged?

A question like this opens a floodgate of memories and emotions for many of us. Scars ache as we unravel the mental note that lists our offenders. We see their faces, hear their names, and remember how they made us feel in those dark times. Sadness turns to anger. Anger to contempt.

We all share this experience. We have all been wronged, and usually, it’s not hard to recite those instances because of the deep wounds they leave behind.

But the wounds we sustain are often felt more than the wounds we inflict.

Everyone who has been wronged has also done wrong. This is common ground we aren’t as quick to discuss.

Most of us would feel a bit awkward if asked about a time we wronged someone. If we’re honest, we struggle with that notion. Many will remember somebody being hurt by something they did or said, but this recognition is handcuffed to a caveat or justification of why it was an overreaction. Perhaps we see the conceit in claiming perfect innocence, so we try and come up with something “respectable” to show that we are self-aware but far from the criminal on the news.

The fact that we are wrongdoers doesn’t invalidate or silence the call for justice for what we have suffered. The wrongs we have done do, however, issue their own cry for justice.

Thus, we are not simply plaintiffs in this life with a pile of cases against our offenders. We are also defendants for whom there is a line of people out the courthouse doors ready to make their case against us.

This realization ought to be a wake-up call. The retribution price we rightly desire from others is a boomerang that comes right back for us.

That’s not the worst of it, though. We know that there are right and wrong present in this world only because of the One who has given us a conscience to detect them. So, our crimes are not only against the created but much more so against their Creator.

It is here where the impossibly dense weight of the cost we each owe is felt. A sinner sinning against a sinner is one thing. But one sinning against the sinless creator God? Surely, there is no payment they can make to adequately level the scales of justice. What they need is atonement.

Atonement is a strong word. It washes away the cosmetic deceit from the hideous face of sin. Biblical atonement demands death. Only death and torment, of the physical body and the eternal soul, atone for something so opposed to God and His holiness as sin. These cover what true justice says is lacking when any crime against the Almighty and His creation is committed.

Atonement means somebody dies because of sin – but not the sinner. Justice will be served – but not by the guilty.

Leviticus 16 describes a process God put in place in ancient Israel to provide grace and justice simultaneously. As Aaron, the first priest, approached God in the Holy of Holies to make atonement each year, he deserved to die for his sin. The people whom he represented deserved to die for their sins. Yet, it was the blood of an unblemished bull that Aaron presented for himself and the blood of an unblemished goat that he presented for the people of Israel that satisfied God’s wrath.

In His grace, God instructed Aaron and all the other priests after him to sprinkle the blood of these spotless animals on what He called the mercy seat. But one priest was different. He needed no bull blood. He had no sin of his own to atone. It was His righteous blood that the bulls and goats pointed towards. They were merely a placeholder until He arrived.

Jesus, the great high priest, shed His spotless blood for the sins of the world. That includes both the wrongs done to you and the wrongs that you have done.

God presents Him to be received by faith, as a gift.

He offers not only a better way to live, or an example to follow. He offers Himself. And in Himself, everlasting life, the forgiveness of sins.

Your sin means you deserve death and hell. But Jesus, in His death and resurrection, delivers your atonement. Your living hope, the anchor for your soul.

Have you received Him?

Check out the texts below for more!

Leviticus 16

Hebrews 9:11-28

Romans 3