Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more - This verse is found in Hebrews 10. What an amazing verse this is, what an awesome truth that we can hold on to.
When God forgives, He also forgets. How often do we forget when others hurt us? How often do we forget when others say things about us? We might say that we forgive them, but to forget about what has happened is a whole different ball game.
I think we should be thankful that God doesn't treat us as we treat others. I thank God that He chooses to forget my past so that I can have a future. Let's thank God today that He doesn't hold grudges, that He doesn't condemn us for our past sin when we come to Him, that He has paid the price for our sin, that when He says forgiven He also means forgotten. I think we should try and do the same.
In today's chapter of Hebrews the writer compares the Old with the New. He shows us that under the old law the Priest wasn't worthy of offering the sacrifices of the people to God as he was a sinner himself.
This is why Jesus was perfect for the job. He was and is the only sinless one, the only man that could ever pay the price for the sin of the world. He was and is perfect and so because of that His death made everything right. He could pay the debt through His perfect sacrifice, unlike the Priests in the Old Testament that were sinners themselves who had to consecrate themselves just to be able to carry out their ministry. In fact if God wasn't pleased with them they could loose their lives during the act of sacrificing.
We can and should never forget what Jesus did for us that first Easter. He paid our debts and left us free. We don't have to go to a priest and ask him for forgiveness, we have a Saviour that's done it all for us - lets Praise Him and put away the old and receive the new today!
Hebrews 8 speaks of Jesus bringing in the New Covenant, that is the new law, the new way to live. Under the old law, there had to be a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. The person that needed forgiveness would take a sacrifice to a priest and then the priest would offer the animal or grain to God as atonement for whatever the person had done. If the person did the same thing again, he would repeat the sacrifice and so it went on. This became more of a religious ceremony than something that they did for God. This became more of an outward showing of being sorry than actually being sorry, which is why God brought in the New.
Under the new law, the debt for sin was and is paid once and for all. Jesus died just the once, so that the sin of the world would be dealt with. This means that we no longer have to make a sacrifice for the things that we have done. It means that all we have to do is come before the Throne of Grace and ask for His forgiveness. How glad am I that I live this side of the cross? Let's face it, if I didn't things would not look too great for me. Firstly the thought of having to kill anything bigger than a spider doesn't make me feel overly enthusiastic, and secondly, as a gentile woman I would be so far down the chain of blessing that the only person lower than me would be a gentile girl child.
I really am so blessed and grateful for being born this side of the cross. I just want to take the opportunity to thank God right here and now for what He has done for me through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus was the Ultimate sacrifice. God doesn't ask for religious ceremonies, He doesn't require us to put on a show of being sorry. All He asks is that we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour and follow Him.
On reading Hebrews Chapter 7, I must be honest I thought that I wouldn't really have anything to write, as it continues with the theme from Chapter 6. However, as I continued to read the chapter a single word jumped out of the page, and that word was hope.
When we look at the world today and the mess it is in, where is the hope in the lives of those we meet? When we see the news that is full of terrible things from murder and war, to starvation and floods, not to forget all the financial problems that face our world, where is the hope?
We are so fortunate as Christians, we have a hope and that hope is Jesus. I remember as a child going to church or chapel as we call it in Wales, and singing a hymn, 'My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness'
The world we live in needs hope. Our government needs hope. Our towns and cities need hope. Our neighbours need hope. The person in flooded Bangkok needs hope. The person stuck in the rubble in Turkey needs hope. The people of Libya need hope. The list is endless, but we all need hope. The only hope for this world and everyone in it is Jesus. He is the light of the world, He is the Saviour of the world, He is the only one that we can truly put our hope in.
I will let you down, not through choice, but because I am flawed, Jesus will never let you down, He is perfect, He is the way, the truth and the life. Whatever your situation, whether it be health, financial, family problems, job problems or anything else, put your trust in the HOPE of the world today, put your hope in Jesus
In Chapter 6 of Hebrews, the writer ends by showing how God always keeps His promises.
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no-one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised
If we remember back to this story in Genesis, God promises Abraham that he would become the Father of Nations. Abraham and his Wife Sarah were really old, but in spite of that God kept His promise.
The amazing thing about our God is that He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. This means that He still keeps His promises to us. If God says, "I will never leave you" then we can guarantee that He will NEVER leave us. If God says, "I forgive you" then that's it - we're forgiven.
When God makes a promise, then that promise is a given, unlike us. When we make a promise its not always guaranteed. We need to make sure that we remember that we serve a God who will never let us down, who loves us unconditionally, and who is always there through the good and the bad times.
Let's praise God today for His faithfulness, and ask Him to help us to keep our promises to Him and to others.
Today's study is from Hebrews chapter 5. It speaks of Jesus being THE High Priest, and of how He was called by God into that role.
The role of the High Priest was to offer gifts and sacrifices on behalf of himself and the people. In Jesus case, He was the sacrifice and not for Himself, but for us.
It also says in this passage,
During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission
When Jesus was living among us, He offered up prayers and petitions even then. And there is some more great news that goes with this, He still offers them to the Father today. We have a Saviour that speaks on our behalf and intercedes for us.
What a great picture that paints, our Lord and Saviour speaking to God for us. Telling God the Father how worth it we are, how we should be forgiven and how much He loves us. Let's remember today that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - that means that He believes we are worth it - let's make sure that we show Him our gratitude and that He didn't make the ultimate sacrifice in vein.
Today's passage of Hebrews speaks of 'entering God's rest' Through our belief and faith in God we enter His rest.
Rest is so important that God even made a commandment to rest on the Sabbath. In our fast food kind of lives we are sometimes so busy rushing around doing the stuff that we forget to rest in His presence. Sabbath or Sunday is not just about going to church, or even fellowship with like minded people, its about resting in God.
We need to spend time with God, we need to come into His presence and just be close to Him. When we don't set time aside to share with God then we end up feeling further away from Him than before. We are the first to say where is God? What we should be saying is where are we? God doesn't leave us, in fact He says in His word that He will NEVER leave us. He just asks us to spend time with Him. Let's do ourselves a favour and rest in Him. Allow Him to minister into our situations, allow God to take control.
