Building Christians Up From The Foundation & Unto Perfection

Hebrews 6:1-3

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The Blood Of Jesus Christ

If you read the study we did on why salvation is needed then you are aware that God is Holy and will be the judge of us all in the end. He will give those who have accepted Jesus as Lord a place prepared for them by Christ. To those who have not done so and die in their unrepentant sins He will banish them to a place of torment.

So there is a choice to make. Will we accept Jesus as the only one who can save us or not? What makes Jesus different? How is He able to save us?

The Lamb Of God

Genesis 22:18:4

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

Abraham offers his son.

At first glance this story is one of the hardest ones to understand in the Bible. Abraham was told to take his only son and sacrifice him. Why would God do this? Many people have thought very harsh things about God from this.

But there are a few things we need to understand to really make sense of this.

  • Isaac was human…that means he was not going to be an acceptable sacrifice in the first place. God is Holy and accepts nothing less.
  • They went up the mountain without an acceptable sacrifice.
  • Everything in the old testament is for our example. (1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11, Jude 1:7)

So what example is this trying to set? It shows a few things. Our sacrifices are not enough. No amount of good works, or happy thoughts are going to be good enough.

Hebrews 7:11

11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?

Hebrews 7:26-27

26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

Jesus is the lamb.

If the sacrifice of animals was enough, or the sacrifice of anything for that matter was enough then they would have continued. But since animals are not perfect and we are not either there was no way for us to be saved. Because if someone wants to pay the debt for another they must first pay their own if they have any.

We all have sinned and all of creation is under that curse. The debt of sin is death. The only way we could have our debt of death paid was by someone who did not owe the same debt pay it for us.

That is what Jesus did. He lived a perfect and sinless life. And then He paid the debt for us by giving His own life as payment for our sins. It is the death of Jesus the Christ and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ that paid our debt.

Genesis 22:11-13

11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

God provided a lamb. They had nothing to offer God…except their lives. So God gave them what they needed. It was a replacement. The innocent for the guilty. And this was an example of how Jesus gave Himself for us…like a lamb.

The Resurrection

No death.

The story of the lamb doesn’t end with His death. Only three days later He was raised from the dead. This is the most important part of the puzzle. How could we trust that the lamb was accepted by God? How could we have known for sure that Jesus wasn’t just another good man?

Romans 1:3-4

3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

No miracle could prove Jesus was the perfect lamb. Even if He was never caught by people in a sin it would not prove His innocence. The only thing that would prove it is death not having dominion over Him. That is what makes the resurrection so important! It is the proof!

1 Corinthians 15:17

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

We have a living hope because Jesus lives!

July 13, 2015 at 4:50 am | | No comment

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