Thursday after the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 19, 2023 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 sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Devotion
The natural inclination of all men is to be legalistic. Men want to live by the Law. They want to be declared righteous by the work of their own hands. When something goes wrong, they try to deflect blame from themselves. When praise is to be had, they try to take credit. Men also instinctively try to compare themselves to others so that they can use the standard of the failed man as the rule to measure their own performance. “Compared to others, I’m not so bad.”
But the real measure is God’s perfect, exacting standard. And since we cannot measure up to that standard, God allowed punishment to be put aside in exchange for sacrifices. The very nature of the animal sacrifices shows that they really cannot adequately cover for the sins we have committed. They have to be repeated over and over again. They were just a shadow of Righteousness to come. The sacrifices were pitiful substitutes for that which was really needed.
Christ was needed to make sacrifice for sin. In His body we are brought finally to the goal of justification and unity with God. His sacrifice was once for all. It does not need to be repeated. It is the perfect sacrifice that covers all men for all time.
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.
