Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 391
9:16–10:5
H e b re w s
379
God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty
of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
Now when someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that the person
who made it is dead. The will goes into effect only after the person’s death.
While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into
effect.
That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood
of an animal. For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to
all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water,
and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop
branches and scarlet wool. Then he said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.” And in the same way, he sprinkled blood
on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship. In fact, according
to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
That is why the Tabernacle and everything in it, which were copies of
things in heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real
things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood
of animals.
For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands,
which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven
itself to appear now before God on our behalf. And he did not enter heaven
to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who
enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. If
that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever
since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the
end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes
judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take
away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins,
but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.
The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The
sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year,
but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came
to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices
would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for
all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year
after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sins. That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,
