WEBVTT

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Day 349, or December the 15th. I have nothing

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to add. Our thoughts today come from Hebrews

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chapter 10, verse 12. But when this priest had

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offered for all time one sacrifice for sins,

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he sat down at the right hand of God. And now

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the big picture surrounding this verse. The idea

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of offering regular sacrifices is challenged

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as we approach the end of the letter to the Hebrews.

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All Jews at that time would agree that blood

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has to be shed regularly because animal sacrifices

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are one -offs and very specific. Only the shedding

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of the blood of Messiah is adequate to cover

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all sins for all time. The Jewish readers of

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this original letter would have nodded knowingly

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and said, that makes such good sense, and looking

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back over our history, the history of God's own

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people, it is obvious that animal sacrifices

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are not enough. Repeating them over and over

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again does not solve our sin problem. We need

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a perfect sacrifice, once and for all, and it's

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Jesus. And now our action step for today. When

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a Jew sat down, it was in confidence that nothing

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else needed to be done. A rabbi would sit down

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to explain the law, not to add to it. In the

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Bible, when Jesus sat down at God's right hand,

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it signified all was now complete. He sat at

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God's right hand because that was the place of

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power. In Acts 7, verse 56, we read that at the

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death of Stephen, Jesus is standing at God's

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right hand, ready to take action to receive Stephen.

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But here in Hebrews, Jesus remains seated because

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no action is necessary regarding his sacrifice.

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Jesus has become the complete sacrifice, and

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the transaction has been completed, just as he

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confirmed when he shouted from the cross, it

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is finished. May we never add to it. Whenever

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we even think, never mind say, saved by the blood

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of Jesus, and we slip into error. The blood of

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Jesus alone saves us, and everything else is

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in addition to the gift of salvation from God.

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Thank God it's complete, because if we had to

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add anything to it, we would spoil it for sure.

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Thanks be to God.