Judica Sunday - extremely rough notes
March 18
Hebrews 9
Grace and mercy to you from God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is written in Hebrews chapter 9: 11 But Christ has arrived as a high priest of the good things to come. Through the greater and more perfect tent not made by hands, that is, not of this creation, 12 and not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once for all into the holiest place, obtaining eternal redemption.
Thus far the text.
A quick comparison of the material Jewish sacrifices of goats and bulls versus the spiritual Christian sacrifices of prayer praise and thanks.
The Old Testament altar is the place of blood sacrifices. A lamb would be sacrificed as an atoning sacrifice for sin. The lamb did the work. It shed its blood. The blood was sprinkled on the ark of the covenant. The body was burned on the altar for burnt offerings. This is the material sacrifice that was regularly repeated through the Old Testament.
How were the OT folks made righteous before the Lord? They were saved by faith In the promise connected with the atoning sacrifice.
The New Testament altar is a spiritual altar. The first my altar was the cross upon which Jesus died. No one notice that that particular cross was an altar. The fact was hidden from all people. Crosses were common for executions. Those other crosses were not altars. Christ’s cross was different because of the promise and the sacrifice.
Jesus is the promised Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is not a material lamb. Jesus is The spiritual Lamb. The promised Lamb. The announced One. This Lamb is God Himself.
No one can see that Jesus is God. They see a convicted man, not The Son of Man, God in the flesh. The sacrifice is hidden from sight.
Much like Abraham and Issac did not see the ram of grace caught in the thicket so also no man woman or child looked upon crucified Jesus and saw the Lamb of God entangled in the thicket of our sins. But there He was.
There is only one New Testament atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. That was accomplished on the altar of the cross.
The altar before you is a spiritual altar. It is not an altar for the atoning sacrifice for your sins. Your sacrifices are your pray praise and thanks. In that sense, it is an altar. It is a spiritual altar because it requires faith in Jesus.
There is only one atoning sacrifice for your sin but that one atoning sacrifice is delivered to you from this altar. You can’t see Christ’s body but the promise of God is that Christ’s resurrected and living body is here for you to eat. Why? To receive the promise connected to the bread the justification of your sins by faith in Jesus. ( whole burned offering)
Our Facebook