More than 400 years before Jesus’ birth, the prophet Zechariah quoted the pre-incarnate Christ in an amazing statement that really stirred my heart this morning.
Zechariah 3:9 says all the sins of God’s people would be atoned for in one day.
Wow.
The one making this statement was the Angel of the Lord, a term used to describe Christ in His Old Testament form.
What is even more interesting is that this Old Testament Christ was actually quoting something His heavenly Father had told Him earlier. An excerpt of that quote is below:
“I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (3:8-9).
Consider what is happening here in this vision given the prophet.
The chapter’s first portion describes how the Old Testament Christ, appearing in angelic form, is speaking to Israel’s high priest of that day named Joshua. God is there. Satan is there making accusations of sin against Joshua. A bunch of angels are there.
This high priest had just been restored from a sinful status and given new priestly garments because of the amazing grace of God.
The Angel of the Lord then tells Joshua that salvation and a valued place of leadership for Israel can be restored to him if he’ll walk in God’s ways and keep God’s requirements.
For the recently sinful high priest, this offer and roadmap for ministry had to have been incredibly encouraging.
But Joshua was likely clueless about how all of Israel’s sins could be removed in one day.
A thousand years of sin by countless millions of people — literally billions of sins — gone in a matter of hours? How is such possible?
It was too abstract, too massive of a mission for God’s people to comprehend in advance of Calvary.
Even today, when we have the Bible, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and centuries of faithful role-modeling by believers, we still struggle to comprehend how the blood of one man on the cross can cleanse sin’s stains from souls who obey the Gospel with verbal and baptismal confession.
It certainly is comforting to know that God’s merciful nature is a lot older than I am.
It’s even more comforting to know that God saw my future need before I ever saw my first forbidden fruit.
The day that Jesus died on the cross, the tyrant of sin was conquered and all who chose to have a new King on their heart’s throne could walk with earthly and eternal peace.
As you celebrate Christmas in two days, remember not only the day of Christ’s birth in the manger but also the day of His death on the cross.
Remember that Christ who paid for all the sins of all mankind for all time in one day is the same Christ who longs to have you live for Him every day of this life so that you’ll live with Him when time is no more.
As always, I love you
Martin
