Convicted by sin and saved by grace

"Oh!  The rememberance of my great sins, of my great temptations, and of my great fear of perishing for ever!  They bring afresh into my mind, the rememberance of my great help, my great supports from heaven, and the great grace that God extended to such a wretch as I."
~John Bunyan~

I usualy didn't think about it, I just assumed that each time I commited a sin, there I was pleading Gods forgiveness.  To put that into a human perspective, just think of being hauled into court on a criminal offense.  As the trial progresses, the judge suddenly stops the proceedings and declares "I see NO evidence to convict the accused, you're free to go"  However, despite the judges grace, the accused stands before the judge who just set him free and pleads "Judge, PLEASE, have mercy on me!"  Anyone see anything wrong here?  I, we, fail to recognise that despite our best efforts to be good christian soldiers, we all fall short of the glory of God!  The law of the Old Testament (Let's say "Old Covenant") put forth guidelines of what not to do, even rules for dealing with sin.  I guess they realized the law itself wouldn't take away sins but merely make people know what was sin?  Yet, the Old Covenant only provided a "temporary covering" of the sins of man.

"Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,  and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins."
Hebrews 9:22 ESV

This scripture being important, seeing blood sacrafice as a condition for the forgiveness of mankinds sin.  On the Day Of Atonement, the high priest was to take two male goats for a sin offering, one of the goats was sacraficed as a sin offering to the people of Isreal (Like most, I didn't fit into that catagory)  So, what about that second goat?  Well, the high priest would lay hands on the live goat and confess over it "All the iniquities of the people of Isreal."  The second goat was then set free into the wilderness, symbolizing the removal of the sins of the Isrealites.  So, I asked myself, if that second goat had the sins of the people of Isreal (NOT all mankind, mind you) placed upon it, if it was still alive how could we honestly say that the sins of the nation of Isreal had been removed if only a blood sacrafice could provide for that?  It wasn't until Jesus arrived on the scene that this was accomplished.

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him, and said, "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
John 1:29 ESV

Remember that scripture that calling for the shedding of blood for forgiveness of sins?  Well, here is Gods response to our sin issue.  Jesus became the complete, final sacrafice required for the forgiveness of sins.  Not just for the Isrealites, but for all mankind.

"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcission of your flesh, He has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespesses.  Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
Colossians 2:13-18  NKJV

Sounds to me like we don't need a goat to symbolize our removal of sins anymore.  As is usually the case, Gods plans are better than ours.  We no longer need to plead with the judge to have mercy on us in order to forgive our sins, that's been taken care of through Gods loving grace on all mankind.