Hebrews 10:1-39

Christ is all that we need.  He has accomplished all that is necessary for our salvation and He continues to work in our lives to prepare us for all that God has planned for us in this life and the next.  His work is complete and permanent.  We would be foolish to look to or for something of someone else.
CHRIST IS THE WAY OF FULFULLMENT OF THE LAW: Christ was able to perfectly keep the Law and in so doing He fulfilled the Law.  The Law had been given to show mans need of a Savior.  No man could ever completely keep God’s perfect Law until Christ came and did just that.  But Christ fulfilled the Law in that He provided the sacrifice for sin that the Law required.  He obeyed the Law perfectly but He also gave Himself to meet the just requirements of the Law.  Christ accomplished that which the Law and the priests could never do.  Because of His death we can rest in the hope of eternal life for the Law has been fulfilled in Christ and we can have true, lasting and complete forgiveness in Christ.
CHRIST IS THE WAY OF FAITHFULNEES TO GOD: The author of Hebrews was deeply concerned that his readers might be tempted to turn away from Christ because of the persecution that they were facing and the false teachings that they were hearing.  However, he gives three practical pieces of advice that we can follow if we want to continue in faithfulness to the Lord and protect ourselves from apostasy.  First we must draw near to person of God in faith.  Because of what Christ has done, we have accesses to the presence of God through our faith in Christ.  He has made us pure so that we can come to God in prayer and draw very near to Him.  We must never allow our relationship with God to grow cold.  Second we must dig deep into the promises of God in hope.  Whenever we take our eyes off of the promises of God recorded in His Word and start to look at the difficulties of our circumstances we run the risk of losing hope and straying away from the Lord.  We must study the Word of God so that our souls will be firmly anchored in the promises of God.  Third we must dive in to the people of God with love.  We need to be involved in the lives of one another in order to protect ourselves from our own sinfulness as well as the sinful society in which we live.  We are called to stimulate one another to love God and others as well as to correct and encourage one another.  These are the means by which Christ has provided for us to be faithful to the Lord.
CHRIST IS THE WAY OF FREEDOM FROM JUDGMENT: God is a just and holy God, He cannot ignore the sins of men and He will judge the sins of men with wrath and a burning anger.  There is no other means apart from Christ by which man can be saved from this impending judgment from God.  Those who reject Christ are completely without hope and there is no other sacrifice that is available to man through which he can escape for the coming judgment of God.  However, Christ has provided the way for us to be free from the judgment by simply placing our faith in the sacrifice the He has made on our behalf.  All other sacrifices that man may try to make are futile.  There are only two options: trust Christ and be free from judgment or face the righteous judgment of a holy God.  If we wish to be free from wrath we must trust Christ alone for forgiveness of sin.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isaiah 54:1-17

Hope is a wonderful blessing from God, without which we would be vulnerable to all kinds of destructive tendencies in our lives.  Today’s society is marked by depression, anger, fear, anxiety and self-righteousness, in large part, because of the sense of hopelessness that prevails in our culture.  Isaiah writes to a people who are about to be taken into captivity because of their sin.  God knows that they will feel rejected, threatened and hopeless so He reveals His future plans for the nation in order to give them hope in the midst of the coming trial.  Hope is the expectation of good based upon the promises of God.  Many times when our lives are marked by the sins mentioned above it is because we have forgotten or failed to focus upon the promises of God’s Word. THE PROMISE OF GOD: From the very first day that God revealed His plan for the nation of Israel, He promised numerous descendants.  God chose Abraham, not because he was more righteous than any of the other people of his
Read more

1 Timothy 2:11-15

Let a woman learn quietly   with all submissiveness.    I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.    For Adam was formed first,   then Eve;   and Adam was not deceived, but   the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.    Yet she will be saved through   childbearing—if they continue in   faith and love and holiness, with self-control. There is certainly controversy and confusion about this passage in many churches today.  The idea of a distinction between men and women and their roles in the family and church certainly goes against the flow of many cultures around the world.  Some would argue that the literal and plain teaching of this passage is no longer applicable to today’s culture.  However, it is always dangerous to discard biblical teaching or try to interpret Scripture based on the cultures in which we live.  Certainly, the Spirit who inspired this text was aware of the many changes that would occur in future cul
Read more

1 Timothy 1:1-2

Paul,   an apostle of Christ Jesus   by command of   God our Savior and of Christ Jesus   our hope, To Timothy,   my true child in the faith:   Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. The true sign of maturity is multiplication.  Believers, churches, and ministries that do not reproduce are not demonstrating true maturity.  One of the key characteristics we can identify in Paul’s ministry is that he was constantly reproducing godly believers who were faithfully following the Lord.  Evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training are the hallmarks of mature ministers and ministries.   THE APOSTLE: Paul was called by God to be an Apostle.  Though Paul converted after the resurrection and assentation of Jesus, he met Jesus in the road to Damascus and was instructed by Jesus in the desert.  Paul considered himself to be the least of the Apostles because he persecuted the church and did not walk with Jesus on earth like the other Apostles.  However, God had
Read more