DAILY WORD 7/28/20

1. The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.

2. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

Hebrews 10:1–2 NLT

Today’s passage begins Chapter 10 of the Book of Hebrews and starts to get to the Meat of the Matter, (pun fully intended.) We have been talking about the “Strong Meat” of the Word and the graduation away from the “Milk” of Doctrine that babes in Christ need for their nurturing, this Chapter begins to explore the crux of the author’s main point.

He begins by addressing the Levitical priesthood and the inadequacies of its structure which worked for a time but had a fundamental flaw. That flaw is presented in Verse 1.

The original priesthood, as is stated in Verse 1 was a “shadow of the Good Things to come”, or in other words, it was close but no cigar. It held some of the necessary elements of the Perfect Priesthood that Jesus brought about but because of man’s imperfect nature and nature’s imperfections initiated by the curse Adam’s sin created, it needed an upgrade.

The issue was that not only were the sacrifices unable to “provide Perfect Cleansing” from the people’s sin but those same sacrifices had to be performed over and over again because of that inadequacy.

Here’s the point, if the offerings that the Levitical priests had been what they needed them to be, then there would have been no need for the annual sacrifices, one time would have done it.

Not only that but the guilt that came along with the sins that were only rolled back every year, not eradicated completely, would have been taken away from the people with a “More Perfect Sacrifice” as well.

Can you imagine what it would be like to ask God for Forgiveness and for Him to Grant it but to still be saddled with the remorse that accompanied it in the first place? That was the situation the Children of Israel faced under the Old Covenant.

This is why Jesus’s Sacrifice as the Perfect Lamb of God is so vitally important. It is not just because He Forgives us of our sins, it is because He Removes the guilt that comes along with it. That is why in John 8:36 it states “If the Son therefore shall make you Free, ye shall be Free indeed.”

Have a Terrific Tuesday, FB, and Stay Safe out there!