As I dozed on the living room couch waiting for the coffee
pot to finish brewing my eagerly awaited cup of morning coffee the words “Hebrew
10: 11” came to my mind. The thought was
very clear. I knew that I had to read
that verse and find out what God wanted me to learn. I reached for my bible even before getting my
first cup of coffee. I opened the New
Testament to Hebrews 10. Verse 11 didn't
make much sense in and of itself so I put it into its context by reading the
verses before, after, and then the entirety of Hebrews 10. I know that Hebrews 11 is called the faith
chapter. Hebrews 10 prefaces the
examples of the faithful lives recorded in Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 10 showed me that God established the second as He
took away the first. Hebrews 9:26 says
that God appeared to the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hebrews 10:9 and 10 tell us that once and
for all we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Christ said to God, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God”. God, through His redemptive plan, His Son’s
death and resurrection, took away the first, the Law, to establish the second,
GRACE through Christ.
In the first, in the Old Testament, “the priest stands
ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins”, Hebrews 10:11. In the
New Covenant, the second, Christ gave His life once and for all to bear the
sins of many. I could picture the
"ark of the covenant of Yahweh".
The people could only approach the Holy of Holies up to the veil which
separated them from the Holy of Holies where only the priest could enter. For sin atonement the people would come back
year after year to offer their sacrifices of bulls and goats. It was a temporary atonement. The people still had the consciousness of
their sins and knew they would have to return in the future to repeat their
sacrifices over and over again.
Hebrews 10: 19 and 20 gave me a new understanding of the veil
of the Ark of the Covenant. As God’s
people, we now have the boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
“By a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil that is
His flesh”. My opened spiritual eyes
could see the veil of the covenant being rendered in two as Christ’s body hung
on the cross rendering all other sacrifices powerless to atone for our sins. His flesh IS that Veil which now makes us
able to come directly to the Father, entering into the Holy of Holies through
Christ. This was God’s plan all
along. The law and sacrifices, “having a
shadow of the good things to come” could never permanently erase our sins. In verse 7 Christ said, “Behold, I have come -
in the volume of the book it is written about Me - to do Your will, O God”. God’s plan of redemption is seen throughout
the Old Testament, the book which Christ is referring to. Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament and reading
about fulfilled prophesies increases and grows my faith. Knowing biblical history and learning about
the lives of the people in the Old Testament help to give me a better
understanding of who God is, what his promises are, and how He is directing my
life. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever.
Jesus Christ is the final sacrifice, the final atonement for
our sins. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that “It
is by Grace that we are saved, through faith, and not of ourselves; it is the
gift of God”. Christ has set us free
from the law and our own works. We could
never be good enough or offer enough of our own sacrifices to atone for our own
sins. Christ IS God’s plan. In God’s mercy, Jesus’ life was sacrificed
for us on the Cross of Calvary. By God’s
Grace alone are we saved when we believe.
The Holy Spirit teaches us and convicts our hearts. We do have free will. We have to choose to believe and receive
God’s gift of faith. Romans 10: 9 thru
13 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘whoever believes on
Him will not be put to shame’. For there
is no distinction between Jew or Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to
all who call upon Him. ‘For whoever
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’.”
Call on Him. He will
hear you. You will never be the
same. Christ has done it all. All you have to do is choose to believe. Your faith will go from a head knowledge to a
heart knowledge. You will be made new as
the Holy Spirit fills you with His love, peace, and joy. Just say, “yes I believe”, the Spirit will do
the rest. As we read in Romans, you must
tell someone of your decision. Confess
with your mouth what you believe in your heart and you will experience God’s
gift of Faith and Salvation.
I know that God gave me this message today. He knows who reads my blog. I want Him to use me to sow His seeds into
someone’s life. The rest is between you
and God. He will help you to grow in
wisdom and understanding. I am excited
about what God can do and will do in each of our lives. May we all grow spiritually as we continue on
our individual faith journeys. We are
part of the “Family of God” and we are children of The King. We enter into His Kingdom the moment we
believe. In His Kingdom our spiritual
ears and eyes are opened and we see life more completely; not just as we did
when only in the physical world system.
Physically, we live in the world but spiritually we enter into a greater
understanding and deeper dimension in our life when God is a part of who we
are. Let us live in anticipation of what
the Father will be doing in each of our lives as we grow in Christ and are led
by the Holy Spirit.
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