Thursday after the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 14, 2021 by under
Scripture: Hebrews 10:1-10 (NKJV)
10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been 3sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Devotion
The author of the letter to the Hebrews offers up a clear Law/Gospel message to the reader. All the actions carried out by those following the ceremonial Law of the Old Testament could not make them perfect. On the contrary, the sacrifices made them all the more conscious of their sins because of the simple fact they had to do these things year after year.
While God had indeed told them to do these things, as with all of God’s commands, sinful people cannot do God’s commands perfectly. Thus, “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.” God takes no pleasure in sinners trying to do His commands, because His commands are never done perfectly by sinners.
What is God looking for in man? Answer: Perfection! Christ is perfection in the flesh. God delights in Christ, for only Christ—true God and true Man—does the will of God perfectly. All the ceremonial laws that were carried out by sinners are now replaced by the Gospel, Jesus doing God’s will. Jesus does the will of the Father, fulfilling the Law by way of His infinite mercy toward us. Jesus is everything God is looking for in a man, and through our faith in Christ God sees the same perfection in us.
Prayer: O Almighty and most Merciful God, of Thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech Thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready, both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things that Thou wouldest have done; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
