Jesus Christ, Who Became Our Atoning Sacrifice

Judas Iscariot, who was entrusted with the money, followed Jesus because he had seen his power. But as the hardship went on, he began to sit in judgment on the Lord’s words, and in the end, thinking that no reward would come back to him, he sold Jesus.

Animal sacrifices had to be offered again each time someone sinned, but Jesus Christ gave his own body once for all as the atoning sacrifice. The very one who had said that eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would bring death went to the cross and died to take that word away himself. “It is finished” is the declaration that sinners have been set free from death.

The church is the body of Jesus, and his people are its members. Whoever weighs the grace of God by the values of the world can only come to the same end as Judas Iscariot. Remembering the grace received, giving thanks, and quietly bearing the work entrusted to each one in their own place: this is the life of those reconciled to God.