I just finished reading Leviticus. When I was in Chapter 19, though, something caught my interest, and this is it (from the Complete Jewish Bible):
Leviticus 19:5-8…When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to ADONAI, offer it in a way that will make you accepted. It is to be eaten the same day you offer it and the following day; but if any of it remains until the third day, it is to be burned up completely. If any of it is eaten on the third day, it will have become a disgusting thing and will not be accepted; moreover, everyone who eats it will bear the consequences of profaning something holy meant for ADONAI -that person will be cut off from his people.
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The Peace Offering, also called the Thanksgiving Offering, is the only sacrifice where the one bringing the sacrifice also shares in eating of it. They are to eat it there, at the Sanctuary where it was offered.
The sin and guilt sacrifices are followed by the peace offering, which is the last offering made and brings us back into communion with God. The ultimate role of the Messiah is to bring us back into communion with God, and Yeshua’s sacrifice is both a sin sacrifice and a peace offering because it removes our sins and brings us back into communion with God.
So, when I was reading this I thought that it was interesting that if the peace offering, which has been offered correctly and accepted, is misused later (by not burning up whatever remains on the third day), then that offering is rejected! And not only that, but the one who offered it and was accepted, but now has violated the regulation, is not just having that acceptance removed but is being cut off from the people!
There can be a number of meanings to being cut off from your people, called karet, but the one that I believe makes the most sense is that it means to be deprived of the afterlife. Someone who has their name written in the Book of Life will have it scratched out if they commit a sin that has karet as its punishment.
This is a direct and absolutely conclusive denial of the ridiculous traditional Christian teaching of “Once Saved, Always Saved.” Despite what some religious leader once taught, which has been retaught over and over, here is God, the ruler and king of everything and everyone, saying that even if you do what is right and are accepted, if afterward, you do wrong and do not repent you will be rejected!
Maybe this is one of the reasons why Christianity has often taught that Yeshua did away with the law: not only does that wrongful teaching open the door to eating pork rinds while watching the game, but it allows one to sin after accepting Yeshua as your Messiah and not have to repent of it.
OSAS is nothing more than a pathway to eternal destruction, and this passage in Leviticus proves that!
We may do what is right in God’s eyes, but later we can still screw it up by sinning without concern for our spiritual health. It is more than believing that we will always be forgiven without even asking: it is the idea that because we have been saved that we can never lose that salvation.
Too often I hear people say that no one can take away what God has given, which, by itself, is a truism. However, we can throw away that which we received, and the fastest way to throw off our salvation is to continue sinning without regard or regret or even asking for forgiveness.
It doesn’t matter what some religious leader says to you, or what your friends or family tell you, the Torah is very clear that, as far as God is concerned, no matter how righteous you may have been at one time, if you turn from that righteousness and sin, your last actions are what you will be judged on.
To put it in accounting terms, our salvation is not FIFO, but LIFO.
FIFO means First In, First Out and LIFO means Last In, First Out. These are terms used to value inventory when calculating the Cost of Goods Sold. FIFO uses the cost of the inventory based on the oldest items and LIFO from the cost of producing the newest items; depending on how much it cost to produce the item, at that time, your profit margin will change.
The fact that what we did last is what we will be judged on is confirmed in Ezekiel 18, where God tells us that the sinner is the one who will suffer, not the children; but, more than that, it also says that one who was righteous but sins will die for their sins, but the sinner who turns from his sins will live.
So, if your peace offering (your acceptance of Yeshua as your Messiah) has been accepted and even if you received the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), but you continue to sin you WILL be cut off from your people. To be saved doesn’t mean that you can’t be punished, and your salvation will be removed if you sin without repentance or asking for forgiveness; not that God will take it away, but that by your actions you will have thrown it away.
So remember that Yeshua did not change or do away with the Torah, but confirmed it by teaching us the Remes, the spiritual meaning of the commandments (this is clearly seen when you read Matthew 5), and by the way in which he lived his life.
None of us can be sinless, but we can always sin less, and that is my personal goal: not to be perfect, but to be better than I was. And the way to do that is to follow the instructions in the manual, which we call the Torah.
Salvation is a rope that God has lowered from the heavens for us to grab hold of and climb up. It is a difficult climb, and each sin we commit is like placing grease on the rope, making it harder to hold on. And each time we ask for forgiveness, it cleans off the grease.
So hold on tight, keep climbing and try not to grease the rope too much.
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That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
