22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.------------------------------------------------
Can you imagine what it would be like to live under the mosaic law....a time where every year you are reminded of how little, insignificant, and how much of a failure you are in the eyes of God without the blood of Jesus. We would live under the shadow of our mistakes for our entire lives! Now, we live under such a promising covenant! It is such a great thing to know that our sins are sprinkled with Christ's blood and are remembered by the living God no more! Thank you Jesus for your redemption...one that lasts forever!!
26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left"
ReplyDeleteJesus came to save us from our sins, but He only came once for this purpose. The next time he comes is to bring judgment and salvation. So like it says in this verse, if we turn from God and continue to sin against Him and show him our back, there is nothing to save us from our sins again. After we accept Jesus we must live for Him! We cannot accept Him and continue to live of the world!
Jesus, I pray that for all of our sakes that we do not turn our backs on You. I pray that you will guide us in Your direction and that we will not lose focus on what is important. That all of my brothers understand that living for You means changing our ways and not living for this world, but for a much more valuable place, in Your kingdom. I thank You so much for salvation and I pray that we continue to fight and live and honor Your name. Amen.
As I was reading chapter I realized that the author has been talking about the same concept for the past couple of chapters. This theme boils down to this: Jesus paid it all. I think it's really neat how there was a seamless transition from discussing Jesus's superiority directly into His sacrifice, His role as our High Priest, and how His blood, the blood of a perfect sacrifice, is enough to cover all of our sins. The devotion of this amount of space shows how important this is...
ReplyDeleteIt's everything!
4 "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."
ReplyDeleteThis is a really simple verse, yet serves to drive us towards the necessity of Christ in our lives. It is because of this verse that Christ came to Earth, to be a perfect sacrifice for our sins, cleansing us in a way that was impossible through bulls, goats, lambs, ewes, etc., etc. And without Christ's fulfillment/creation of a New Covenant, we had no hope of reaching heaven, which makes Christ's sacrifice that much more important in our lives. It should be hard to go about our day-to-day lives without reflecting on the impact that Christ's sacrifice has on our life in light of eternity, yet we do so daily, relegating Christ's death and resurrection to the back burner behind things like dating or school or the fraternity. It's a sobering thought.
-DA
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14-16 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,"
ReplyDeleteSanctification is the sign of Salvation. The process of being make more like Christ is not something we can manufacture of our own strength. It is only by the Holy Spirit, who is the seal of our inheritance (Ephesians 1), that we can be Sanctified. Therefore, someone who is truly in Christ can know and be certain of their salvation by looking at the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The indwelling and in-working of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of salvation