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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Re: sinner by birth, sinner by choice
Message-ID: <1501@pucc-h>
Date: Tue, 20-Nov-84 02:44:55 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1501
Posted: Tue Nov 20 02:44:55 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Nov-84 19:06:35 EST
References: <909@aecom.UUCP>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Crypt
Lines: 37

A response to one point in Eliyahu Teitz's first article on this topic:

>   2. I would feel like an utterly useless, helpless person if the only way
> I could atone for my sins was to get someone else's help ( even jesus ). Why
> can't I approach G-D by myself and ask for myself. Why the intermediary?

I know so little about Judaism as practiced nowadays that it's hard for me to
answer in appropriate terms.  But, beginning at the time of Moses, the high
priest served in some sense as an intermediary between God and the people,
bringing the blood of animals as an atonement.  Jesus, as both High Priest
and sacrifice, fulfilled this once and for all, removing the necessity for
the periodic sacrifices of animals.

Another nifty way to look at this is that under the old covenant, the people
sacrificed -- completely gave up to God -- healthy animals, without blemish
or spot, which were then killed.  Under the new covenant, we are called to
similarly completely give our blemished selves to God -- but the "death" of
our munged selves brings new life in us; we are called to present ourselves
as living sacrifices.  Under the new covenant, God shows Himself as so much
more accepting than under the old -- perhaps because of my previous paragraph,
i.e. that since the ultimate unblemished sacrifice has been given, tearing
the curtain hiding the Holy of Holies, no one is unacceptable; we may all
boldly approach the throne of grace.

But note that I did mention the sacrifice, the death, of our selves.  This
does mean admitting that you can't help yourself, you can't save yourself,
you can't make yourself keep God's law 100%.  Helplessness, powerlessness,
is one of the least attractive feelings there is.  But if, rather than
avoiding it, we accept it, we will be reborn to a new life of growing
abundance and power.  If you want to be resurrected, you have to die first --
by definition.

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
"I'm not asking for anyone's bleeding charity."
"Then do.  At once.  Ask for the Bleeding Charity."