Hebrews 9:11-15

Hebrews 9:11-15 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

As Christians, we are not like those who have no hope, for IN CHRIST we have received our promised eternal inheritance. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Our hope does not rest in an earthly tabernacle or in pleasing God through the law and religious rituals. These are but shadows of the spiritual realities in heaven that can only deal with the outward man, not his heart, but through Jesus Christ, God transforms the heart. Jesus Christ substituted his life and his works for ours, purging us from sin and placing us in right standing before Father God. Now we no longer depend on our fleshly works to please God because we glory in Christ by depending entirely upon his sacrifice. We praise his work, not ours; we worship him, not us. We do not need a yearly Day of Atonement, for He is our continuous atonement, our righteousness, our rest. In Christ, we lie down in green pastures by cool waters, satisfied with who we are and who He is. We know we are God's eternal children, no longer resting in the kingdom one day and then the next day fighting the flesh to be in the kingdom and assessing our acceptability to God by our spiritual successes. Jesus Christ accomplished all we need when He made us children of the Most Holy God. In the veritable game of life, Jesus is God's last card on the table: He is the winning hand, the way. No other card, no other way, can present us righteous before God: only Christ and his works are acceptable to God. He who hath the son, hath life.

From the beginning, God's created beings failed to trust him with their lives, their existence. This failure to believe in God's plans brought sin into the world; man's will, his sinful nature, became the dominant force in life. “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” was Satan's lynchpin to our waywardness. Questioning God contaminated man's heart to choose evil continually. After dealing with the first generation with the flood, God chose Abraham and his progeny to receive his special blessing, known as the first covenant. As the people before the flood, Abraham and his descendants had trouble serving God honestly and uprightly, even after the law was established during Moses' time. At the very start of the first covenant, Abraham and Sarah questioned God's plan by scheming to have a son through fleshly means, and along came Ishmael. Their grandson Israel, Jacob, earned the name schemer, deceiver. His own sons sold Joseph, his favorite, to Egypt, and they lied to their father about their actions. Much later, we see the Israelites in the wilderness, troubling Moses with constant grumbling and scheming to have their own way. They even balked at entering the Promised Land. When they finally entered the Promised Land, they eventually chose kings to lead them rather than God through his chosen priesthood. The first king of Israel, Saul, abandoned God by seeking a soothsayer to determine his future. We see the next king, David, committing adultery and his son, Solomon, failing as a father. The succeeding kings, good or evil, seemed unable to establish God's perfect kingdom on earth. The Israelites, his chosen, rebelled rather than let God or his laws lead them. They even persecuted and killed his messengers, the prophets. The first covenant was annulled because it could not change hearts: they needed a new and better way to God.

However, Jesus fulfilled the first covenant by doing God's will and establishing the new covenant on his righteousness and not ours. As He pleased God by living a perfect life, He became the ultimate ransom for our sins. By giving his life for ours, He freed our conscience from dead works that could not buy our freedom and released us from our rebellious nature. As He substituted his life and nature for ours, praise God, He became our substitute, the eternal sacrificial lamb. He paid the ultimate price so that we can have peace with God, and HIS BLOOD CONTINUALLY WASHES AWAY OUR SINS. Through Jesus, God's will is done on Earth as it is in heaven. We are his on our earthly journey, and we will be his forever in heaven. We praise CHRIST AS OUR MEDIATOR, THE PEACEMAKER BETWEEN GOD AND US, and sing songs of worship to God because we are alive in Jesus, now known as God's children because of Christ's works. Since we owe God everything, let us live our lives with that thought, and we will shine as stars in the universe, happy and contented in everything we do.