Hard Work

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

When I started reading Leviticus a couple of weeks ago, I decided to use colored pencils to mark the different types of offerings. The original idea was so I wouldn't feel overwhelmed with them, but it inspired me to do some extra reading on the meanings of the different types of offerings.

As I sharpened my colored pencils sometime during Leviticus 1, I had no idea how much of my Bible-study time each morning would be spent ... making boxes and coloring them in. It seemed like so much work! I regretted the commitment several times. I would be so busy coloring that I'd end up having to go back and re-read the entire chapter once I'd finished.

But honestly? The chapter was a lot easier to read with the highlights. And even if I wasn't reading the words, I could visually see where something required one particular type of offering, and where something else required multiple offerings.

So it felt like hard work, but it was worth the time and effort.

I say that it was "hard work," but really? I imagine it was a just a tad easier for me to box and color words than it was for the Israelites to actually make the sacrifices--finding the perfect animal, killing it, taking it apart as instructed, sprinkling the blood, setting the fire, burning the sacrifice, disposing of whatever wasn't burned, etc. That's a lot of work. I shudder to think of the violence of all the sacrifices that occurred on those pages of my Bible that are the most colorful.

In the Old Testament, they had to do the work. They had to atone for sin with sacrifices. They had to take all the steps and do all the things.

But now? All we need to do is believe. That's the work.* The "works" part of our faith flows naturally from believing. The sacrifice has been made. The hard work has been done. We can now be clean before God, acceptable to him through Jesus Christ.

*Yes, the work of belief can seem both monumental and nonsensicial to one who doesn't believe, admits the ex-atheist writing these words.