Sunday Guest Post By Alicia

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Hebrews 8-10

So many glorious verses in this section of scripture today! Wonderful stuff high above man's thinking.
I really liked the following verse:
"If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

"How much more...." oh, indeed! It's a verse that pounds you with the severity and the significance of what Christ has done for our sin.

However, I was intrigued more by the verses in Chapter 9 (16 +17) that spoke of the death requirement for covenants. So I went to John Mac Arthur's Commentary for Hebrews.

"A testament, by it's very nature, requires the death of the testator. Covenant, or testament, is from the Greek diatheke, the basic meaning of which corresponds closely to that of our present-day will. A will does not take effect until the one who made it dies. Until that time, its benefits and provisions are only promises, and necessarily future. The point being made in verses 16-17 is simple and obvious. (really John MacArthur? LOL. Well, maybe when you're John Mac Arthur!!!:)
It's relevance tot he Old Covenant, however, was anything but obvious to the Jews being addressed here, so the writer briefly explains how it applies. Building on verse 15, he is saying that God gave a legacy, an eternal inheritance, to Israel in the form of a covenant, a will. As with any will, it was only a type of promissory note until the provider of the will died. At this point, no mention is made of who the testator is or of how Christ fills that role in life and death." (Okay, now I'm catching on better.......Am I Jewish???)

My confusion was in how the covenants were therefore valid in the OT when they were not made with the blood of the testator. So, here he explains to me that once again, the rituals are symbolic of things to come. Completion in the future is shadowed. In order for them to be forgiven there had to be blood (and yes, like any good Lewis fan, I was having "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" flashbacks) but the real true will and testament of God had not really been made yet.

This brings me to the next segment that was intriguing to me:

"But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year." Heb 10:3

I've thought of the sacrifices as rituals of forgiveness, and I've thought of them as symbolic of Christ work to come, but I had now thought of them as reminders of sin. I mean, really, how can you forget that you sin!!? I know I can't usually. Yet, then, I remember that the Holy Spirit, given to me, had not been sent out then! These people in the OT times needed a real, bleeding reminder that they were sinners and needed a savior! Through Christ's finished work, I have this reminder all the time. John Mac Arthur states:
"Even the covering of the sin was temporary. It lasted only until the next sin. It was a burdensome, disappointing system."
I am, like them, reminded of my sin. Yet unlike them, I am consoled by hope in forgiveness. The people of Israel needed to be reminded but once they remembered they had to also realize that their sin was not cured, it was just cleared each and ever time through sacrifice.
"Suppose you get sick and the doctor gives you a prescription. You get it filled and start taking the medicine. If it works, every time you look at the bottle you are happy and are reminded that you are cured, that the sickness is gone. But if it does not work, every time you look at the bottle it reminds you that the medicine is ineffective and that you are still sick. It may sometimes give relief from the symptoms, but it does nothing to cure the disease. A person who must take a medicine to stay alive cannot be said to be cured.
The Old sacrifices and ceremonies had somewhat this same effect on Israel. Instead of removing her sins, they only gave temporary relief and were a constant reminder that her sins were still there. Another year, another lamb, another sacrifice- and the sins were still there. The sacrifices kept reminding the people that they were sinful, and that they were at the mercy of God and could not enter into His presence. Far from erasing sin, the Tabernacle and temple sacrifices only served to call attention to it."

Well, you might say, I still sin! The significant difference is found in Chapter 10 ironically also verse 16-17:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,
AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,"
He then says,
17"AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS
I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."

Through Christ, God sees our sin no more! We are cured! The Holy Spirit testifies to this! Even as he works to convict us of our sin so that we may live for the Glory of God more and more and be conformed to the image of the Son, our status is clear despite our sanctification process. We are justified! The people of Israel were not.

I have to say, it's good to be on this end of the will, the Covenant, the Testament of God's redemptive plan!



Tomorrow's passage: Heb 11-12:29