Day 349, or December the 15th. I have nothing
to add. Our thoughts today come from Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 12. But when this priest had
offered for all time one sacrifice for sins,
he sat down at the right hand of God. And now
the big picture surrounding this verse. The idea
of offering regular sacrifices is challenged
as we approach the end of the letter to the Hebrews.
All Jews at that time would agree that blood
has to be shed regularly because animal sacrifices
are one -offs and very specific. Only the shedding
of the blood of Messiah is adequate to cover
all sins for all time. The Jewish readers of
this original letter would have nodded knowingly
and said, that makes such good sense, and looking
back over our history, the history of God's own
people, it is obvious that animal sacrifices
are not enough. Repeating them over and over
again does not solve our sin problem. We need
a perfect sacrifice, once and for all, and it's
Jesus. And now our action step for today. When
a Jew sat down, it was in confidence that nothing
else needed to be done. A rabbi would sit down
to explain the law, not to add to it. In the
Bible, when Jesus sat down at God's right hand,
it signified all was now complete. He sat at
God's right hand because that was the place of
power. In Acts 7, verse 56, we read that at the
death of Stephen, Jesus is standing at God's
right hand, ready to take action to receive Stephen.
But here in Hebrews, Jesus remains seated because
no action is necessary regarding his sacrifice.
Jesus has become the complete sacrifice, and
the transaction has been completed, just as he
confirmed when he shouted from the cross, it
is finished. May we never add to it. Whenever
we even think, never mind say, saved by the blood
of Jesus, and we slip into error. The blood of
Jesus alone saves us, and everything else is
in addition to the gift of salvation from God.
Thank God it's complete, because if we had to
add anything to it, we would spoil it for sure.
Thanks be to God.