The Thursday after the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 10, 2024 by under
Scripture: Hebrews 10:1-1 (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
“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.”
An image or photograph may show us certain qualities or properties of a particular item, but a shadow is far more vague. All the Old Testament sacrifices were but the shadow of the Light to come, Jesus. Even though the Old Testament sacrifices were required by God, in and of themselves they were of no effect. The act pointed to the power and promise of His Word. These sacrifices were to be looked upon in faith that God’s forgiveness of sins was real, and the payment would be made through His Messiah. Jesus stood behind those Old Testament sacrifices (“which are offered according to the law”) as God’s Promised One.
Unlike the blood of bulls and goats, the blood of Christ does what the blood of animals could not—it pays the price for the sins of the world. The Only-Begotten Son of the Father willingly becomes incarnate and dies to pay the price for sin. Such love is truly beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Yet our lack of the ability to understand such love does not make it any less real, for Scripture clearly teaches, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Collect: 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.
