When The Replacement Is Better Than OEM
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.’ (Genesis 22:13); ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.’ (1 Peter 3:18)
Typically, nothing is a good as the original. There was Johnny Carson, or Rush Limbaugh; both men set the bar early on in their respective genres of entertainment, and no one can top them, at least not yet. In baseball, though they played long ago, Ty Cobb, Cy Young, and Babe Ruth still are mentioned as the greatest players of all time, though their records may have fallen they are still seen as complete and the players to base current performance upon.
Replacements are often discussed as ‘just as good’, or ‘almost as good as the original’. I had to replace a motor and gear assembly in our water softener a while back with a non-OEM assembly, and though it is metal as opposed to plastic in its gearing, it is not the original gearing nor is it original in the gear ratio. It seems to work, but in the back of my mind, I’m not certain if it is as good as what the original gearing was, and if it will last as long. We often ask this if we need to replace parts in our automobiles with those found in the auto parts stores – is this going to last as long as the OEM (original equipment manufacturer)’s part?
Thankfully, the one replacement we do not have to question is Jesus. It may not be the first thing we attribute to Him, but the Gift of Salvation He provides is being our replacement. The illustration provided in Genesis 22:13, where Abraham, in obedience to God, was about to kill his son Issac as a sacrifice to God, when God provided a ram to replace Issac as the sacrifice. The ram was a better sacrifice for Abraham (and assuredly it was better for Issac as well). In this case, the replacement was better than the original, and it worked out to be better, as Isaac became the father of Jacob, who was renamed Israel and became the father of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.
As the nation of Israel and mankind as a whole moved forward, God gave us His Covenants (Abrahamic and Mosaic) and with it the laws and precepts we were to live by. It was with animal and grain sacrifices that were to be made to atone for sin; the animals were put to death to pay for the sins of the people. However, the sacrifice of animals and grains were not a sufficient replacement to pay for the consequences of our sin. God gave us a 3rd and final Covenant, the New Covenant, in Jesus.
Jesus became the Ultimate Replacement; in place of inferior sacrifices and in place of the consequences we faced as a result of our sins, as stated in 1 Peter 3:18, Jesus took it upon Himself to be the Sacrifice that would more than suffice for all the sin of the world; He replaced the need for sacrificing animals, He replaced us upon the cross so that we do not have to suffer the eternal consequences of our sins.
As with the ram, Jesus, in His Ultimate Sacrifice, is far better as a replacement. But, like having to go to the auto store to request the replacement part, we need to go to Him and ask Him to forgive us for our sin and accept Him as Lord! If you’ve done this, go and tell others where they can claim this free offer!
