GOAT

“How can someone be so much better than the best?” my brother mused one day. We were talking about Wayne Gretzky, hockey’s “Great One,” who remains without question the best who’s ever played the game. The GOAT (greatest of all time) debate is a bit less settled in some other sports, though many would single out basketball’s Michael Jordan or football’s Jim Brown as standouts over and above an unabridged listing of their peers, and when it comes to the weightier matters of world leadership, the GOAT designation is even more elusive.

Israel’s King Solomon—glorious as he was in wealth and wisdom—looked forward to a Ruler so great as to be without peer. “All kings will bow down to him and all nations serve him,”¹ he wrote. What would elevate this Sovereign above all the others? “He will deliver the needy who cry out ... the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak ... and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.”² It would be His divine nature to love and His eternal power to act on such love that set Him apart from all others. Who wouldn’t want this Royal?

The King has come; His name is Jesus. He came first to deliver us from our sins—a merciful scapegoat, bearing our justice—and to build His kingdom “not of this world.”³ And herein lies another difference between the heavenly King and all earthly rulers: our risen King does not rule by external decree, but by inner transformation. He changes our hearts to rescue the oppressed, and His love overwhelms us to the point of overflowing to others. We give to His kingdom not through heavy-handed taxation, but through open-handed generosity; we fight His enemy not as a people conscripted into battle, but as a people convicted of His cause.

Jesus will come again, this time to rule over all. Sin will be vanquished, and all will be new. At that time—and at His name—“every knee [shall] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”⁴ There will be no GOAT debate; everyone from great to small will honor Him. So, why wait? Let’s worship Him with submitted lives now.

Father, thank you for loving us so much as to send your Son. I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Send your Spirit to lead me in your way today, that this life would bring glory to you. Amen.

¹ Psalm 72:11
² Psalm 72:12-14
³ John 18:36
⁴ Philippians 2:10-12

How many goats are you worth?

“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Hebrews 2:17

In a state of exasperation, I called my mother one Sunday evening in June 1981. “Mom, over the past ten years, I’ve prayed, read the Bible, gone to church, listened to testimonies, begged and pleaded with God, but I’m just not getting it.... I know the Bible teaches salvation comes through Jesus’ death and resurrection, but why?!? Why couldn't he just click his heels together three times and that be good enough?”

Well, Mom was a Bethel Bible Series teacher and she gave me that two-year course in about five minutes! She shared with me Leviticus 17:11, where God made it clear that “...the life of the creature is in the blood ... it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life” and also Hebrews 9:22, which says, “...without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” Then, pulling it all together, she said, “In the Old Testament, it was the blood of bulls and goats that was shed for atonement. But how many goats are you worth? The life of the creature is in the blood and only God’s life is able to save your life.”

At that point, everything clicked. After saying our good-byes and hanging up the phone, I went to my room, knelt beside my bed and entrusted my life to Jesus and his atonement for my sins.

So what of this sacrifice of God Incarnate, this Christ who was “made like his brothers in every way” and sacrificed his life for ours?

Though we were made in Jesus' image, he became like us, so that he could suffer and die in our place. He was “made a little lower than the angels” and “suffered death, so that ... he might taste death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9).”

Made “perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10),” Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for us.  While Jesus has always been perfect, he had to live a human life in perfect faith and obedience – tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin – so to fulfill the law and the prophets and ultimately to become an unblemished sacrifice for us.

Jesus destroyed Satan and his reign of death. The Son of God “shared in our humanity,” so that, dying a human death and rising again from it, he might forever “destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil” and free us from our fear of death (Hebrews 2:14).

Jesus became a priest who intercedes for us forever. He “had to be made like [us] in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17).” 

He died in our place.  He became our sacrifice.  He destroyed death.  He lives to intercede for us.

So I ask you, can your goat do all this?  Neither could mine.