On the earth is a great ladder, and staircase which ascends up into heaven; there is no way up into heaven but by this ladder. No man can ascend by anything he has made, or done.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

In days of old great high altars were made, Ziggurats which men would ascend and make sacrifices. Yet even our greatest sacrifices are unclean, for we are unclean, tainted with our sin. Even our best efforts are as filthy rags. God does not take pleasure in sacrifices, in the senseless killing of animals, but man has done this in history so that he can approach God:

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of burnt offerings of rams; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. (Isaiah 1:11)

In history, man knew that he was separated from God. In our days modern man has rejected this idea, but look at the state of the world! Isn’t it obvious that man is seperated from God?

In ancient times men had the fear of God – the begining of wisdom – and did all that he could to bridge the gap, between us and God. The Jews learned that this seperation was because we had sinned; mankind had corrupted the world – God’s perfect creation – with wickedness, and was continuing to corrupt His world with evil.

We may consider ourselves without responsibility, but consider this: Adam, the father of all mankind sinned once, and that sin brought all of creation into the bondage of death, corrupting perfection, destroying the lives of all that would follow them. How many sins have you committed? Our sins corrupt the world, even as the first sin.

All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)

Yet God sought to save mankind even though we have corrupted His perfect creation. God taught the Jews who came to understand that only the death could remove sin from the world… but now all things were corrupted by sin, and so ALL THINGS must die.

To attain cleansing from sin, the ancient Jews would pray, and seek to lay their own sin upon and animal so that they could kill the animal in their own place. But just as it is written that all our righteousness is as filthy rags, it shows that sinful man resorted to violence in order to save himself. God sees animal sacrifice as murder:

He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man… (Isaiah 66:3a)

And indeed, and animal’s blood never had power to save anyone:

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)

So then, if our sins corrupt the earth, and even our best efforts at becoming clean are as murder unto God, what can we do? If even our best efforts are like filthy rags, how can we get to heaven? In heaven nothing unclean, or impure is allowed; God won’t look past our sin because He loves us any more than one would look past a murderer’s or a pedophile’s past simply because they were a relative.

Our sins have seperated us from God:

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)

Yet God’s love reaches out because He has made us to be in fellowship with Him. The world can never be fully righted, and will be destroyed, but the one whose relationship is restored with God will live on with Him forever.

But how can we know Him? Only in that He, Himself has made a Way.

God has built for us a ladder, a True stairway to heaven. Because God loves us, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus was made as a man of flesh and blood, but was, Himself God.

He came with flesh and with blood untainted by sin so that He could be the perfect sacrifice which no animal could ever be, as it is written of Jesus Christ:

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, “Sacrifice, and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me: in burnt offerings, and sacrifices for sins thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, ‘Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will O God.'” (Hebrews 10:5-7)

God prepared a body for His Son because He was not pleased with animal sacrifices, and rituals. Jesus willingly came to do God’s will by using His body – His flesh and His blood – to end all need for death.

Willingly Christ took your sin upon Himself and carried it to the depths when He died in your place, for you and I deserve death for our sins.

Put faith in Christ, friend, accept His sacrifice today. Although He died for you, yet your salvation is not automatic because He died. You must renounce your sins, and put them away. Confess your sin to God, admit you have done wrong, and put faith in Jesus Christ. I guarantee you will receive eternal life if you do this, for it is written, speaking of the Christ:

Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near; Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6 & 7)

Trust Jesus, friend.