Sunday 26 September, 2021

23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

The Jewish Christians who first heard Hebrews were longingly looking back at the tabernacle and the system of sacrifices. But these were only symbols pointing forward to Jesus. He’s the reality they were pointing to. He deals with the sin that separates us from God once and for all. Symbols could never do that.

Rather than looking back, we have our eyes focussed on the future. We have already been saved by Jesus death, but we also “eagerly wait” for Jesus return (v27 in the NLT), and the completion of all things and the fullness of our salvation. We have already been saved fromsin by Jesus death. We look forward to the fullness of eternal life as God’s children that we are being saved for. In place of hopeless nostalgia, we have hope for the best future ever.

So how does that hope change me today? How much of that hope will I pass on to other people?

Jesus, thankyou for the salvation you have already bought for me. Thankyou for how your resurrection life is playing out today. And thankyou for the hope you give as I eagerly wait for the fullness of salvation when you return.

Written by David Cornell