The Word This Week
Hebrews 9:1...
In moving toward the conclusion of his argument for the superiority of Christ over the Old Covenant Law, the author of Hebrews now helps us to examine all God designed into the Mosaic Law specifically to demonstrate the need of everyone, (including Gentiles,) for The Messiah – AND - the symbolism designed into the Mosaic Law so The Messiah could not possibly be missed.
Here we see, perhaps more clearly than any other place in God’s Word, how picturesque God’s Word can be by His Divine design.
All men are born with a fallen nature. The nature the Jews are born into is no less fallen than the nature the Gentiles are born into. God, as a means of helping all men understand the gravity of their sin, designed blood sacrifice into the Law so men could be radically confronted by the fact sin causes death. What a picture! It is inescapable.
Blood sacrifice became the means by which these fallen men could maintain any sort of relationship with their Holy Creator God. The covering of blood sacrifice was very sobering, and it was meant to be. Perhaps the knowledge your volitional sin would cause the death of one of your prized animals would inhibit your unrighteous conduct. God’s Law was meant to indicate His code of conduct, which is the absolute illustration of God’s love for all mankind.
But there was much more to come. The Old Covenant Law of God was a picture. It was not meant to be anything more than an indication of the ultimate sacrifice which would be offered by God when He invested Himself in human form to become the only TRUE perfect sacrifice for sin once for all. And His death was necessary to prove this was so. His death in perfect flesh was required to prove the promise of His resurrection. (A will is only in effect after the author of the will has died.)
The New Covenant had been promised within the Old Covenant as the ultimate Will and Testament of God, in the same way the blood sacrifice had been given as a picture of the ultimate sacrifice of God Himself in Christ. To even begin to consider a return to the picture of God’s ultimate design – rather than the reality of the fulfillment of it – would be the height of willful blindness, and in truth, foolishness.
Pastor Bill
In moving toward the conclusion of his argument for the superiority of Christ over the Old Covenant Law, the author of Hebrews now helps us to examine all God designed into the Mosaic Law specifically to demonstrate the need of everyone, (including Gentiles,) for The Messiah – AND - the symbolism designed into the Mosaic Law so The Messiah could not possibly be missed.
Here we see, perhaps more clearly than any other place in God’s Word, how picturesque God’s Word can be by His Divine design.
All men are born with a fallen nature. The nature the Jews are born into is no less fallen than the nature the Gentiles are born into. God, as a means of helping all men understand the gravity of their sin, designed blood sacrifice into the Law so men could be radically confronted by the fact sin causes death. What a picture! It is inescapable.
Blood sacrifice became the means by which these fallen men could maintain any sort of relationship with their Holy Creator God. The covering of blood sacrifice was very sobering, and it was meant to be. Perhaps the knowledge your volitional sin would cause the death of one of your prized animals would inhibit your unrighteous conduct. God’s Law was meant to indicate His code of conduct, which is the absolute illustration of God’s love for all mankind.
But there was much more to come. The Old Covenant Law of God was a picture. It was not meant to be anything more than an indication of the ultimate sacrifice which would be offered by God when He invested Himself in human form to become the only TRUE perfect sacrifice for sin once for all. And His death was necessary to prove this was so. His death in perfect flesh was required to prove the promise of His resurrection. (A will is only in effect after the author of the will has died.)
The New Covenant had been promised within the Old Covenant as the ultimate Will and Testament of God, in the same way the blood sacrifice had been given as a picture of the ultimate sacrifice of God Himself in Christ. To even begin to consider a return to the picture of God’s ultimate design – rather than the reality of the fulfillment of it – would be the height of willful blindness, and in truth, foolishness.
Pastor Bill