Devotional and Reflection Questions: Christ My Savior (Hebrews 9:22-27)

Christ My Savior

Hebrews 9:22-27 states, “ In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

     Mankind has a severe problem that has only one heavenly solution.  The problem is that all of mankind is born in sin, the original sin of Adam and Eve.  We ask, how can something so long ago affect our lives today?   That is a good question.  Well, to start with, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, and sin affected all of God’s earthly creation. Initially, all of creation was perfect; moreover, man was created perfect as  God is perfect.  The world was without sin.  Man’s rebellion in the garden of Eden introduced sin into this world and poured it out upon the earth.  Once introduced, it covered and infiltrated all things.  The earth began to groan, the perfect relationship between animals was perverted, and mankind began to pursue self over God actively.  Sickness and death were now a reality.  Man’s body would now physically deteriorate over time to experience physical death as well as spiritually be condemned to an eternity apart from God, a spiritual death.  Man, through pride and rebellion, introduced to earth the same element, which caused Satan’s downfall and condemned himself to the same eternal destination.  Mankind was doomed on its own and needed a heavenly solution.

     John 3:16 tells us that God loved mankind, which was created in His image, and provided a solution.  God established blood sacrifice from the very beginning of the fall of mankind to atone for sin.  In Genesis 3:21, God slaughters an animal and provides its skin to cover the sinfully naked body of Adam and Eve.  In making this covering, blood is spilled.  Blood, a fantastic biological product, contains the necessary elements to sustain life.  If we lost more than forty percent of our blood volume, we would cease to live, so it is appropriate that God should select this life-giving substance as the payment for sins.  God accepted the sacrifice of blood to pay for sin in the Old Testament age, essentially, a life for a life.

     The problem with animal sacrifice was that it too came from a world immersed in sin and was impure.  It was only a temporary solution for the generations.  God inspired biblical writers to foretell of a perfect and final solution that would one day come from heaven.  Isaiah 53 speaks of  this solution, a messiah to come in a future appointed time.  Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, the perfect unblemished sacrifice was the Messiah.  The willing substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross serves as the exclusive way that God atoned for all of mankind’s sin then and now.  In John 19:30, Christ states on the cross, “It is finished.”  His sacrifice brought an end to the Old Testament sacrificial system of animals and forever atoned for mankind’s sin.  His willing sacrifice for mankind brought about a new covenant relationship with God that we now call the New Testament.  If we accept Jesus’s sacrifice, specifically the spilled blood of Christ on the cross, we are substitutionally justified in God’s sight.  Our sins are covered in Jesus’s blood, and we are declared innocent, thus propitiating the wrath of our Creator.  The sacrificial solution has been provided.  The solution clearly a heavenly one that man could not achieve through human effort.  The individual response remains ours to decide.  Will you accept the sacrifice offered by Christ or perish in the fallen state of this world?

Reflection Questions

1)      Was there anything that mankind could do in human effort to rectify this sin issue?

2)      Why was a heavenly solution the only possible way to permanently atone for all of mankind’s sins?

3)      Now that I know why Christ died for sin, what do I need to do in response?