Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Hebrews 10:1-18
Set – Isaiah 15-16; Hebrews 10
Go! – Isaiah 15-18; Hebrews 10
Hebrews 10:1-18
1We have seen how the law is simply a shadow of the good things to come. Since it is not the perfect form of these ultimate realities, the offering year after year of these imperfect sacrifices cannot bring perfection to those who come forward to worship. 2 If they had served this purpose, wouldn’t the repetition of these sacrifices have become unnecessary? If they had worked—and cleansed the worshipers—then one sacrifice would have taken away their consciousness of sin. 3 But these sacrifices actually remind us that we sin again and again, year after year. 4 In the end, the blood of bulls and of goats is powerless to take away sins. 5 So when Jesus came into the world, He said,
Sacrifices and offerings were not what You wanted,
but instead a body that You prepared for Me.
6 Burnt offerings and sin offerings
were not what pleased You.
7 Then I said, “See, I have come to do Your will, God,
as it is inscribed of Me in the scroll of the book.”
8 Now when it says that God doesn’t want and takes no real pleasure in sacrifices, burnt offerings, and sin offerings (even though the law calls for them), 9 and follows this with “See, I have come to do Your will,” He effectively takes away the first—animal sacrifice—in order to establish the second, more perfect sacrifice. 10 By God’s will, we are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus the Anointed once and for all time.
11 In the first covenant, every day every officiating priest stands at his post serving, offering over and over those same sacrifices that can never take away sin. 12 But after He stepped up to offer His single sacrifice for sins for all time, He sat down in the position of honor at the right hand of God. 13 Since then, He has been waiting for the day when He rests His feet on His enemies’ backs, as the psalm says. 14 With one perfect offering, Jesus has perfected forever those who are being made holy, 15 as the Holy Spirit keeps testifying to us through the prophet Jeremiah. After he says,
16 “But when those days are over,” says the Eternal One, “I will make
this kind of covenant with the people of Israel:
I will put My laws in their hearts
and write them upon their minds,”
then He adds,
17 I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory
as though they had never existed.
18 When there is forgiveness such as this, there is no longer any need to make an offering for sin.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Did you hear what Jeremiah told you in his prophecy? “I will put My laws in your hearts and write them upon your minds. I will erase your sins and wicked acts out of My memory as though they had never existed.” That’s what I want to do for you. I’ve done all that is necessary on My part to make that happen. But I created you with a free will. You get to choose whether you will accept My plan for your life. You get to choose whether I will erase your sins and wicked acts from My memory.
Covenants always involve at least two parties. I have done My part. You must do yours also for the terms of the covenant to be complete. Your part is to believe on Jesus, My Son, for the forgiveness of your sins. Believing, of course, is more than just saying He exists and died for you. It means acting on that belief. It means turning to Him for that forgiveness. It means repentance.
Almost everyone can quote John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son.” Let Me give it to you in a more modern translation. “For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. Here’s the point. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction.”
That’s the point. Everything available to you from the world will never save you from everlasting destruction. It can offer no lifeboat, no lifesaver, no instant cure for sin. Sin leads to everlasting destruction and only I can cure it. But like any disease for which you go to the doctor, you must accept the cure. It the same with My cure for sin. The only cure is Jesus’ blood, but you must believe in His cure and accept it. It means following Him. It means giving up your past life and living the life I want you to live.
The new covenant makes the cure for sin possible. It took the sacrifice of My Son to enact My part of the covenant. It takes your acceptance of the gift and following after Him to enact your part. You won’t be sorry we enact the covenant together.
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