Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 392
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
10:6-24
“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.
But you have given me a body to offer.
You were not pleased with burnt offerings
or other offerings for sin.
Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—
as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”
First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or
burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them”
(though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he said, “Look, I
have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put
the second into effect. For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the
sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar
day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never
take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at
God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made
a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he forever made perfect
those who are being made holy.
And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,
“This is the new covenant I will make
with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
Then he says,
“I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds.”
And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more
sacrifices.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy
Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and
life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since
we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 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.
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God
can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one
