“Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:23-28 ESV)
I admit, when it comes to the book of Hebrews, I am no scholar. I find parts of it very difficult to understand, but other parts of it are much easier for me to follow. And I think a lot of that is because I was never a Jew and I obviously did not live on the earth at the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection, when God did away with the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial, purification, and dietary laws and restrictions, including the requirement of circumcision. So, I did not experience, as the Jews did, this transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
So, to the best of my understanding, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I will share with you what I believe is the message here in this passage of Scripture that is for us today who believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives. And the main theme of the book of Hebrews, I believe, is to help the Hebrew Christians to transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. So the author of Hebrews (possibly Paul) detailed for them how things were under the Old Covenant, versus how they are now under the New Covenant, to help them to make that transition, for it was difficult.
But that is not the only theme of the book, for it also talks much about holy living and self-sacrifice and what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. For example, in chapters 3-4 we learn that if we hear the voice of the Lord that we are not to harden our hearts as the Israelites did in the wilderness when the majority of them died because of their rebellion against the Lord and because of their deliberate and habitual sins against the Lord and their unwillingness to repent of their sins and to obey God. And so God said that those who rebelled and who did not repent would not enter his eternal rest.
We who believe in Christ are instructed here to exhort one another (within the body of Christ) every day so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And if we hear his voice speaking to us that we are not to harden our hearts in rebellion against him. For if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not godly living, and not obedience to our Lord and to his commands, then we will not have eternal life with God. We will not enter into his eternal rest because of our disobedience, which the Bible describes for us here as “unbelief.” So, belief in Jesus Christ = obedience, and if we refuse to obey the Lord, heaven will not be our eternal destiny.
Back to Hebrews 9.. under the Old Covenant the temple of God was a physical building where the Jews went to worship the Lord and to do what God required of them in the form of sacrifices and such. And they had human priests who made sacrifices to God for the forgiveness of people’s sins, but that was only temporary. But when Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross, it was to die for all sins for all time so that we do not have to have human priests any longer to make sacrifices for our sins. And now the temple of God is Jesus Christ and the body of Christ, his church.
The Old Covenant requirements were just a shadow of what was to come, which was Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:17). Now Jesus Christ is our high priest. He entered into the “Holy of Holies” once and for all to make sacrifice for the sins of the people of the world, but not into that which was a physical place on the earth, but heaven itself. And he died on a cross taking upon himself the sins of the entire world for all time, and he put our sins to death with him so that by God-persuaded faith in him we might die with him to sin and now walk in holiness and obedience to his commands, by his grace.
Now when Jesus Christ came to the earth the first time it was to deal with sin, i.e. it was for the purpose that he would one day die on a cross, putting our sins to death with him, so that one day we would die with him to sin and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. By faith in him we are crucified with him in death to sin so that we will no longer let sin reign in our mortal bodies. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, its end is eternal life with God.
So, when Jesus comes back to the earth a second time, it is not to bear the sins of the world as he did the first time, but now it will be to save those of us who are eagerly waiting for him. But those of us who are eagerly waiting for him must be those of us who have died with him to sin, who are dying to sin daily, by the Spirit, and who are walking in obedience to his commands, in practice. For our salvation will not be complete until Jesus comes to take us home, and we will only go to be with him for eternity if we are living for him today in walks of obedience and no longer walking in sin.
For we are all going to stand before the Lord one day and he is going to judge each one of us according to our works, our deeds, our practices. And many will stand before him claiming him as Lord of their lives, and claiming all the things they did in his name, but he is going to say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” Why? Because, like the Israelites in the wilderness, they did not obey the Lord but they went their own way, instead, and they made sin their practice, and not obedience to the Lord Jesus. So repent of your sins today and obey Jesus.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31]
Full Release
An Original Work / April 15, 2012
Walking daily with my Savior
brings me joy.
Loving Father; precious Jesus;
He’s my Savior and my Lord.
Gently leads me; follow Him.
I’ve invited Him within.
Now abiding in His presence,
oh, what peace.
From my self-life
He has brought me,
By His mercy, full release.
Hope and comfort,
peace and safety Jesus brings
When I daily bow before Him;
Obey freely; do His will.
Follow Him where’er He leads.
Listen to Him; His words heed.
Now obeying his words fully,
oh, what love
That He gives me
through salvation,
By His Spirit, from above.
Loving Father; precious Jesus,
He’s my friend.
With my Savior, by His Spirit,
I will endure to the end.
Share the gospel, tell what’s true.
Witness daily; His will do.
Tell the world of how their Savior
bled and died.
On a cruel cross He suffered
So that we might be alive.
https://vimeo.com/115169203
No comments:
Post a Comment