The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

“It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” – Hebrews 9:23-28 NIV

The context of Hebrews 9:6-28 is about the comparison between the blood of the animal sacrifices and the blood of Jesus Christ. Before the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, high priests only could wash their and their people’s sins away by the specific requirements that were given by God. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22) I think the book of Leviticus explains in detail of the animal sacrifices that had to be made. This probably means that people had to go to their priests for confession of their sins.

Unfortunately, animal sacrifices could not wash sins away because every human being has never been perfect. Hebrews 9:13 declares, “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.” This is probably one of the reason that Jesus Christ had to be crucified for our sins. I believe God’s intention for Christ’s crucifixion is that He is trying to make people inwardly cleaned. When God had assigned Samuel to choose a person to be a king of Israel, He said, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) The writer of Hebrews continues on from the verse 13 and proclaimed, “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!”

What happens if we accidentally sin, even though we know that eternal life is secured because of the faith in Jesus Christ? While I was reading ‘God’s Word for Today’s World’ by John R. W. Scott, I guess I learnt about salvation of God in the context of John 13:1-17. We know Jesus was talking about feet washing when He said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (John 13:8) Peter replied, “Then, Lord, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” (John 13:9) Jesus proclaimed His disciples and we only need to wash feet washing, which probably means a daily forgiveness from God, followed by our repentance. The main reason for this is that every believer is saved spiritually as means of justified or regenerated by God through the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:14-15 states, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Overall, God is able to forgive us if we repent to Him wholeheartedly because of His steadfast love (Psalm 103:8). We do not have to go to High priests, in order to confess our sins; we can go straight to God through faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 1:8-2:2).

Since we have been saved spiritually by God and we know that eternal life is secured because of the faith in Jesus Christ, we just have to follow the Spirit of God, who has given to us by God (Romans 5:1-5). This does not mean that we have to become perfect by our own strength. If we are believing in Jesus, then the Spirit is going to make us perfect in Christ (Hebrews 10:14). My mentor keeps on disciplining me not to rush to have perfect knowledge and passion of God but just to follow the Spirit. She told me that they come as we mature in the faith of Jesus Christ. I think I was rushing into them as I have been wanting to become a faithful and obedient child of God. Therefore, not rushing into things and following the Spirit are the ones I have to work on as a follower of Jesus Christ with complete reliance on God (Proverbs 3:5-8). If we believe in Jesus Christ, then God is going to provide everything for us (Romans 8:31-32). Moreover, we would not be condemned by God. Instead of His condemnation, we would have eternal life and enter the kingdom of heaven at the end of the age (John 3:16-18). In fact, we become His children (John 1:12-13) and would get citizenship of heaven (Philippians 3:18-21) as soon as we come into the faith of Jesus Christ. Thus, let us take what Apostle said in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 into our own contexts and trust in God wholeheartedly. I cannot wait that I will be brought up into kingdom of God at the end of my physical life and spend eternity with Him. I guess I have to consider 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 as one of my main life Bible verses.