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Daily Bread - July 8, 2026 (The Fourth Day - Genesis 1:14-19)
1 Peter 2:24 – Who Himself carried our sins in His Own body upon the tree, so that being dead to sins, we might live righteously, “by Whose wound you were healed.”
There was a hand leaning rite in the Old Testament which would, in effect, transfer the sins of the people unto the sin offering. The Day of Atonement exemplifies this transference of sin by the hand leaning rite. Aaron the high priest would place his two hands upon the goat and confess the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:21). In this way, the sins of the people would be transferred to the goat, and the goat was sent to a desolate place – to Azazel (Leviticus 16:8, 22). The hand leaning rite was also used for the sin offering of any individual who would bring their sin offering, and lay their hand upon that offering to which the sin would be transferred (Leviticus 4:4, 24, 29, 33).
The sins of all mankind were transferred to Jesus as Father laid upon Him all our sins, and not only ours, but the sins of the whole world, thus making Him the sin offering (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:26, 28, 10:10). If we sin, we are to confess our sins, and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus removes those sins (1 John 1:9). Yet, Jesus is much more than a vicarious, or substitute, offering on our behalf, for as Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ”(Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6). In fact, the New Covenant is the Covenant of the Life of Christ! Therefore, in communion, we eat His flesh and drink His blood, thus declaring that we live by Him (John 6:51-57; Galatians 2:20, 6:14).
The Greek word used here for “being dead” to sins is ‘apogenomenos’ which is a compound word and means“to be removed from” or “to cease”. It is only used one time in the whole Bible, and therefore, its unique usage demands as literal a translation and understanding as possible. There is no doubt the sacrifice God made for us with His Own Son indeed removed our sins (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 10:4,12; 1:3; John 1:29; Revelation 1:5).
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
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