March 21 March, 2018

10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Year after year, festival after festival, faithful worshippers of the one true God would sacrifice valuable animals and agriculture. But when would it be enough? When would God be satisfied, when could I be confident that God and I were on good terms? I couldn’t.

But this is why the arrival of Jesus is good news. The rituals were only announcements, signs that God was going to do something better and complete. Jesus offers himself, the perfectly obedient Son of God, as a sacrifice once for all.

God is satisfied, we can be confident we are on good terms with him. Jesus was the final sacrifice, and three days later he proved it by raising from the dead.

God, you and I are good, because I don’t bear the weight of my sin. Jesus bore it for me once and for all.

Written by Andrew Mellor