Category: Redemption

The historical narrative of the book of Exodus is well known to most of us. It is a favorite of Bible teachers of children, allowing for an important and powerful message of God’s glorious power and His faithfulness to the people He chose through Abraham.

This was the time when God chose to establish the descendants of Abraham as a nation. During famine, Jacob (Israel) had taken his family to Egypt. Because of the favor showed his son Joseph, initially the family was well treated. God treated them well too. He greatly blessed the family to the point that Israel’s family became a numerous people. This frightened the Egyptians causing them to enslave the Israelites. Exodus 1:8 states after Joseph’s death, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” Because of the number of Israel’s descendants, he said, “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land” (1:10). From that point on the Israelites became the slaves of Egypt. Continue reading “A Purpose of the Exodus” →

God promised Abraham a son, though Sarah had been barren for their entire marriage, and both Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children. But, it was a promise of God. Sarah did have initial doubts, but as the text indicates, she “received strength to conceive seed.” Therefore though past the age of childbearing she had Isaac.

Sarah knew that God could and would give her the child. She “judged Him faithful who had promised.” We too need to have faith in both God’s ability and willingness to keep His promises. “Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides” (Psalm 119:90).

The significance of the birth of this child of promise can not be overemphasized. God had a plan. The plan began with Abraham, and was continued through Isaac, his son Jacob, and Jacob’s (Israel’s) sons. A great nation was born out of Isaac’s seed because of the faith of Abraham and Sarah (as good as dead, regarding siring children) as they believed the promise of God.

It is the same with our redemption. It is through Isaac that we are blessed as well. Jesus descended from Abraham, through Isaac.

The universal problem of sin means that God had to plan for the redemption of man through His Son Jesus.  Fortunately, this plan, formed from the beginning, was accomplished in Christ’s sacrificial death.

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An examination of Romans 10, where Paul establishes clearly the limitations of justification by the Old Law of Moses, as contrasted with salvation through faith in Christ. 

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Because the problem of sin’s guilt has been dealt with in Jesus’ offering of Himself, we can now truly have an intimate relationship with God. Unlike under the Old Covenant where access to God was limited, the Christian can be bold to appear in God’s presence!

This is the the new and better way brought to us by Jesus. By His flesh (in His sacrifice on the cross) the Hebrew writer tells us we can pass through the veil (symbolized by the tent separating the Jews from the Holiest of Holies in the tabernacle). This “new and living way” has been consecrated by Jesus, meaning He has dedicated it exclusively for the one who comes to Jesus through faith.

Therefore, we approach God completely cleansed of sin. In baptism, our sins are “washed away” (cf. Acts 22:16). We are pure heart and soul. In other words, it is no longer figurative, we are literally cleansed from our sins. This allows us full assurance as we approach God.

It also gives us a reason for full confidence regarding our salvation. God has promised it to the faithful God keeps His promises!

We have recorded in the gospels various prayers of Jesus, offered up to His Father in heaven. For example, in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 we have what is called by many today, “The Lord’s Prayer.” It was in response to the request of one of His disciples who said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). The designation of “The Lord’s Prayer” is inappropriately given to this prayer. It was a model prayer designed to teach the disciples. There are other prayers much more personal to our Lord.

One example of this is the prayer that Jesus offered up in John 17. He first prayed for Himself (17:1-5), then His intimate apostles (17:6-19), then the rest who believe in Him which would include you and me (17:20-26). According to John, this prayer was offered on the same night of His most intimate prayer, recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 15 and Luke 22. It is this prayer in the garden of Gethsemane that we want to examine now. Continue reading “The Garden Prayer” →

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:1-4).

Our verse does a good job disclosing what is not evident from Jesus being born over 2,000 years ago. What had come before, all the prophecies and inspired writings compiled leading to that point, were a preamble to Jesus. As Paul so eloquently put it, “But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Galatians 3:23-25). Continue reading “He Speaks Through His Son” →

In his effort to show the superiority of the New Law to the Old, the writer here emphasizes the inadequacy of Old Testament sacrifices. Later in the chapter, the contrast is given by noting the sacrifice of Christ Himself under the New.

Old Testament sacrifices for sins were not sufficient. This truth is indicated clearly in verse 4 of our text. In fact, they were never intended to take away sin. They were a type of what was to come, the blood of Jesus Himself.

This sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son is uniquely capable of bringing redemption for sin. This is why His sacrifice only happened once. It accomplished the task. With the blood of bulls and goats under the law there remained a consciousness of sin. The Jews each year had a sacrifice of atonement, designed to deal in whole with the sins of the previous year. This sacrifice accomplished “the purifying of the flesh.” But the sacrifices had to continue year by year, as the Jews did not obtain the complete purification that would come from a better sacrifice. “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year” (3).

Chapter 9 ends the argumentation contrasting the worship and priesthood under the Old Covenant with Jesus and His New Covenant. It is a stark contrast.

As high priest Jesus’ ministry is in heaven, not the tabernacle. “Heaven itself” is better than that sanctuary made by the hands of men. The atonement sacrifice of Jesus, as it is contrasted with the blood sacrifice of the high priest yearly, is also better. Jesus did not offer Himself often because His sacrifice on the cross finished the work of atonement. In effect, the sin problem that had plagued mankind from Adam and Eve was resolved. Now, through faith in Jesus, all men can received God’s grace and redemption. This happened because Jesus’ blood was shed as the final sacrifice for sin. The writer indicates this by noting if Jesus’ blood was not sufficient (like the blood of bulls and goats), His sacrifice would have had to be offered from the time of Adam until the present.

So, though Christ remains as High Priest. That aspect of priestly service is done. He offered the sin sacrifice of Himself. Because He did, such sacrifices are no longer needed!

One synonym of “covenant” is “testament.” The Hebrew writer uses that concept here. As we know, a testament (or will) goes into effect at the death of the one making the testament (or will). As it relates to Jesus’ testament, will, covenant – it was not until Jesus died that it came into being or “in force” (17).

This means that when Jesus died, the Old Testament was no longer in force. It was superseded by the New Testament of Christ. Christ’s testament is superior to the Old Testament, ratified by God’s servant Moses. Moses took the blood of calves and goats, sprinkling it on the covenant, tabernacle and the people to solemnize the agreement that the Jews had with God. “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you” (20).

Blood is required for there to be remission of sins. Such remission is found under the New Covenant, rather than the Old Covenant. This shows that the blood of the bulls and goats that Moses used could not solve the problem of sin (cf 9:13-14; 10:4). Only in Christ’s blood, in the New Covenant, can remission be found! (cf. 10:10).

As we note the superiority of Jesus Christ as High Priest, the writer says that He was “fitting for us.” In this final dispensation, the achievement of God’s scheme of redemption for man is accomplished by the fitting character of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.

Jesus is holy. As Peter wrote, “who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). He has been exalted by God (cf. Philippians 2:9-11). Because of its efficacy, the sacrifice for sins (Himself) accomplished our redemption at a single stroke. The difference between Jesus and the High Priests of the Old Covenant (men as sinners who had to sacrifice for their own sins as well) is stark.

The Divine oath of God, promising Christ as “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (21), shows the covenant under which Jesus serves to be better than the old law (Mosaic) which appointed men who had weaknesses (sins).

This truth, that Jesus ministers as a Priest under a new covenant, shows this covenant to be superior, a point which is found in chapter 8.

God chose to save the world through the gospel, the truth concerning the advent, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father reigning on His throne.  When we hear that gospel, our actions or lack thereof will determine whether we are saved . What must we do?

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Note:  PPTX presentation and verses supplied by Emberly Cox, age 9.

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On one of the occasions of Israel’s rebellions against God during the time of the judges, God chastised them. We are told that because of God’s anger for their idolatries, “He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon” (Judges 10:7). After eighteen years of harassment and oppression, “the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘We have sinned against You, because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals!’” Continue reading ““The gods which you have chosen”” →