June 21, 2010
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The Good News of Jesus Christ
Hebrews 10:14 "With one sacrifice He (Jesus) accomplished the work of setting them apart for God forever. (Good News for us because if we are in Christ, though we continually sin, because as we think and our hearts are deceitful, so are we and our actions; when we have Jesus as our Lord and Savior, Jesus continually cleanse us and pleads to God for our sins, Jesus doesn't give up <though this does not mean we have the license to sin> on those whose hearts are receptive to God's calling to be what He wants us to become-- holy in His eyes, not the world's eyes. as God is the One that see's the true condition of our hearts.)
In Deuteronomy 12:23 we discover that God considered blood to hold the very life of a creature. But by God's decree, instead of requiring the Israelites' lives as the price for their sins, animal sacrifices (such as those described in Leviticus 1) were to be offered as a replacement, and the blood of the animal atoned for their sins. This ritual needed to be repeated continually because the Israelites continually sinned (as do we) and the blood of a mere animal was not sufficient to take away sins (see Hebrews 10:3-4).
However, Jesus' blood covered all sins of all people of all times. His divine status enable Him to atone for all sins in one sacrificial act. This "lamb" that took away the sin of the world (see John 1:29) had been foretold for hundreds of years (see Isaiah 53:7-12) and replaced the temporary payment of animal sacrifice with a permanent payment that completely satisfied God's righteous wrath (see Hebrews 10:8-12).
from: The Case for Christ Study Bible
Turning from Doubting
You cannot perhaps hinder the suggestions of doubt from coming to you any more than you can hinder someone in the street from swearing as you go by; consequently you are not sinning in the one case any more than in the other. Just as you can refuse to listen to the doubts or join in with them. They are not your doubts until you consent to them and adopt them as true. When they come you must at once turn from them.
Give up your liberty to doubt forever. Put your will in this matter over on the Lord's side and trust Him to keep you from falling. Tell Him all about your weakness and your-encouraged habits of doubt and how helpless you are before them. Then commit the whole battle to Him. Tell Him you will not doubt again, putting forth all your will power on His side and against His enemy(the devil) and yours. Then "keep your eyes on Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2), looking away from yourself and away from your doubts, holding fast the profession of your faith without wavering, because He who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23). (One specific Promise of God is the Promise of Salvation through Jesus Christ alone, that though we will die, our eternal soul will live forever spending eternity in heaven with God and His Son) Rely on His faithfulness, not on your own. You have committed the keeping of your soul to Him as the faithful Creator, and you must never again admit the possibility of His being unfaithful. (How can you not love God in return?)
Cultivate a continuous habit of believing, and sooner or later all of your doubts will vanish in the glory of the absolute faithfulness of God. (How can you not love God in return, when His PROMISES are TRUE, and nothing is impossible to Him. Know God's unbroken Promises in the Old and New Testaments and be secure and confident that with God on our side, who can be against us? but our own selves who doubt in His Promises.)
from: Women's Devotional Bible
Hebrews 10:14 (The Messsage) Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies (as children of God's wrath, we were His enemies) to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I'm making with Israel
isn't going to be written on paper,
isn't going to be chiseled in stone;
This time "I'm writing out the plan in them,
carving it on the lining of their hearts."
He concludes,
I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there's no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
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