October 23: Hebrews 10:1-7
Key Verse: Hebrews 10:4
It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Devotion:
It does feel good to be able to sit down each morning and study God’s Word and be reminded of all Christ has done for us; it has been a long time coming after being hospitalised for so long and recovering too. I found I could not sit and study anything during this time – so I turned to prayers. During my time of ‘just prayers’ I was continually reminded of Christ’s mercy and the overwhelming fact He was still with me during all that time!
Today’s thoughts turn to how Christ explained to the Hebrews the real mercy and the love and hope behind it all. I have studied a bit about the old ways and how they would sacrifice endlessly to try and ensure their sins were covered; this would mean spilling blood and allowing people to see that blood so they could be convinced the sacrifice had been done according to God’s requests. Today we can read words like this in our bibles to remember just how far Jesus was willing to go.
God did not want the continual animal sacrifices because they were temporary and only covered sins which had already been done; it was a show of the repentance of the people at that time and was never meant to be a permanent solution to our sinful lives… So Jesus stepped forward and offered Himself as the greatest and final sacrifice to God the Father which would cover all the sins of the past, but also those which we continue to do nowadays!
This was not an act of martyrdom to get into God’s good books but a final and total submission of one man which would be sufficient to all mankind for all time. All of the Hebrew law pointed to this final act for the Son of God to be the sacrifice which would appease God the Father once and for all! We have this promise made by Jesus and have eyewitness accounts of just how Jesus was able to give up His own life because of His love for us. This does not mean we don’t have to do anything – we still do need to acknowledge Jesus as our saviour and worship Him.
Points to Ponder:
Does this mean we don’t have to do anything?
How often do you talk to Him, acknowledging Him as saviour?