Grace for Your Day January 31

The Book of Hebrews has been called “the Riddle of the New Testament” because we do not know who wrote it or who it was written to. We do not know the circumstances of its audience or how they became Christians. However, we do know what the book is about because Hebrews 10:19-22 says:The Book of Hebrews is about drawing near to God. It tells us about the confidence that we can have as we approach Him because we do not have to come through the blood of sheep and goats anymore. We can come through Jesus Himself because He is our great High Priest.

The church does not have a priesthood today but a priest is someone who served in the Old Testament as a mediator between God and man. He existed so that, if you sinned, you could bring your sacrifice to him and he would offer it to God on your behalf as a token of forgiveness. The trouble with that system is that, since you kept sinning, you had to keep coming over and over again. You would have to keep going back to the priest repeatedly in order to find forgiveness which could be very discouraging because it never ended.

To solve that problem, the New Testament tells us that Jesus did away with the priesthood when He became our great High Priest. As the Son of God, He walked into the presence of God once and for all in order to offer a perfect sacrifice for our sins that did not have to be repeated. This is what Hebrews 10:14 means when it says that:The point is that this is so much better than anything the Old Testament had to offer. In order to show us this, the word “better” is used 13 times in the Book of Hebrews to show us that we have “a better hope,” “a better covenant,” “a better testament,” “better promises,” “better sacrifices,” “a better country,” and “a better city” now. The word “great” is also used 7 times to show us that we have “a great salvation,” “a great High Priest,” “a great Tabernacle,” “a great reward,” “a great cloud of witnesses,” and “a great Shepherd” because this is what we have in Christ. We have a Savior who is so perfect that He never leaves us wanting anything else. We do not have to go back to the Old Testament Law anymore because Jesus paid it all.

This is important because it is very common for Christians to sin and feel like they need to make it up to God. They disobey Him and, instead of going directly to Jesus, they try to make it right by returning to the Law again in order to appease their guilt. The trouble with that approach is that it never works. The Law cannot appease your guilt because the only one who can do that is Jesus and that is the message of this book which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

Please join us as we begin a new Series on the Book of Hebrews called “No Greater Saviour.” It will be a lengthy one because we want to make sure that we take the time to understand fully all that we have in Christ. However, this week will simply serve as an introduction. I just want to talk about the major themes of the book so we can prepare for what is to come.

The sermon will be livestreamed and made available on our You Tube Channel for all those who are not able to come in person. I look forward to learning more about our great Savior together! It is my prayer that this series will help you draw nearer to God and approach Him confidently each and every day. – Jeremy Cagle