“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)
The Law mentioned in our verse is the Levitical Law. In the Levitical Law, the blood of an innocent creature was offered to God for the atonement for sin. Its life for the life of the offender. “For the wages of sin is death...” (Romans 6:23) Its blood had to be shed. “For it is the life of all flesh...” (Leviticus 17:14) It was an example of how the sin of the whole earth would be cleansed and forgiven through the Messiah. It was a pattern of the heavenly that was to come. “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrew 9:23) The heavenly, spiritual pattern would remove all sin, past, present and future of everyone, who lived, lives and will live. Just as blood is necessary for natural life, the blood of the Lamb of God is necessary for spiritual life. It is found only in Jesus, the Messiah.
This sacrifice in the Old Testament was earthly. It was not perfect. It didn’t remove nor forgive sin forever. The sacrifice had to be done year after year. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (Hebrews 10:1) The blood of bulls and goats could not and didn’t take sin away forever, eternally. (Hebrews 10:4) The next verse is powerful. Jesus in His divinity was ready to come to earth to be that sacrifice that would not only remove sin, forgive sin and reconcile man to God, but make him perfect (Hebrews 10:14), said, “...but a body hast thou prepared me:” (Hebrews 10:5) He was willing and ready to do the Father’s Will. “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7)
As our High Priest, He offered His blood. “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:11-14) The sacrifice of Jesus was made once and for all. (Hebrews 10:14) It was so precious in the sight of God that it satisfied completely the payment for sin. “Then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:9-10) The imperfect and earthly was replaced with the perfect, divine and eternal.
Jesus did the will of the Father. He died and rose from the dead being seen by hundreds “And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.” (1Corinthians 15:4-8) Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, took death for us, His blood paying the debt of sin, now lives. “But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.” (Hebrews 10:12-13)
He hasn’t abandoned us. He sent the Holy Spirit to us so that we are always connected to Him and the Father through the Holy Spirit. And He intercedes for us when we “miss the mark.” “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” (1John 2:1) When the enemy accuses us before the Father, Jesus is right there advocating for us, making a remembrance of the blood that He shed.
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