THE FINAL ATONEMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Such a High Priest truly meets our need—One who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

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.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about Me in the scroll—I have come to do Your will, My God.’”

First He said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then He said, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says:

“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”

Then He adds:

“Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

Hebrews 7:26-28, 9:18-26, 10:1-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Anyone who places their belief in Jesus has every sin they have ever committed atoned for.

Every.Single.One.

No sinner has to do anything to gain this atonement. There is no action required to gain salvation, no to-do list that needs checked off in order to get right with God. Ditto for any payment from us to God in order to pay the sin debt we may have accrued.

God’s gift of forgiveness is free to all who believe in Jesus, granted solely by grace and mercy and love, but no Christian should ever forget that their assurance of eternal life was cost-free. No, a great sacrifice was need to purchase our pardon, one of epic proportion and Jesus was that sacrifice as He interceded for all transgressors and redeemed them through His shed blood on Calvary’s cross, necessary because God had instituted that there would be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.

Jesus wasn’t like any other intercessor, the Old Testament high priests who would “need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for (their) own sins, and then for the sins of the people”. Rather, Jesus, the holy, supreme High Priest met our deepest need by sacrificing Himself to cover the sins of all mankind “once and for all”. After Jesus’ crucifixion, no other sacrifice would ever be needed.

For His willingness to perfectly fulfill His Father’s plan and become the final atonement ever needed for sinners, God rewarded His Son by bringing Him back to life, exalting Him above the Heavens, and placing all creation under His authority. Now, Jesus sits in all sovereignty at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for every sinner who chooses to believe in Him as Savior and waits for the day when He will return, the time “when His enemies (will) be made His footstool”.  

Friends, there is hope in no other name except the name of Jesus because it is only by way of His name that any sinner can be saved (Acts 4:12) and find their way to God (John 14:6). If you have placed your belief in Him, give thanks for all He has been, all He is, and all He is yet to be, offering Him the highest praise and honor each and every day you are blessed with.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.