I Feel I Am Not Acceptable to God and PeopleSample

Jesus died outside the city walls

Most people live "outside" the wall. They build their own cities and believe that they are actually the ones who live within the wall.

There was a day when Jesus picked up a cross and deliberately walked out of the city gate to the unclean and the cursed to take their curse and impurity upon Himself. The cross broke open the "gate" that led back to the city. The city gate is open. Jesus made it possible for us to get back into the city – the place of grace and acceptance.

On the day of the crucifixion, the veil (a thick curtain) in the temple divided the Holy part of the temple from the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifices for the sins of the Israelites, but on that day, the veil was torn from top to bottom. This means everyone can enter the Holy of Holies and access God freely. Everyone who has his sins washed away has access to the throne of grace. Everyone may now speak directly to Jesus.

So many people go through periods where they feel rejected and unacceptable. At the well, the Samaritan woman (John 4) was rejected by her community, and from a spiritual perspective, she was seen as someone who was outside the wall. It was, however, "outside the wall" where Jesus came to give her living water. She ran through the gate and into the city and told the people who had rejected her and who had deemed her unacceptable: "Come, I have found living water outside the wall!"

To the woman caught in adultery (John 8:10), Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Do not sin further." If we translate the words of Jesus differently, they might read: "I invite you to come and stay within the city walls."

You might be saying, "But you don't know what I did!" You would be right because I don't know. Jesus knows and he invites you.