This GREAT Salvation

⁸ First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. ⁹ Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  Hebrews 10
 

This is an amazing paragraph to me.  The whole book of Hebrews was written to the Hebrews, who I can only imagine, found a difficulty in leaving ALL the ordinances they had practiced for cleansing of sin all their lives.  But leaving for what?  The truth concerning Jesus Christ and the temple now in the heavenly places.

That the blood of Jesus had now been offered in the presence of the Father God in the Most Holy Place – the everlasting blood – to make us holy before God as the GIFT of God.  It must have been a shocker too, that God was offering this privilege to the Gentiles.  What?!?  We are talking about a bunch of heathen people.  But it’s worse than that.  We are talking about dead people as Ephesians describes, in trespasses and sins……Adamites, the FALLEN.  God is calling people out of the OLD into the NEW in Christ Jesus!

Yet Paul wrote in Romans that the ALL men were in the same condition – DEAD.  And that the salvation of God was greater than had been disclosed in previous times, but was now being revealed to the Apostles.

These Hebrews, in order to leave the traditions as once prescribed by God, were taught the revelation of Jesus Christ – that through faith in Him and His work; they are now forever cleansed and acceptable to God in His Son, by HIS BLOOD.  And I imagine the awe they felt when, after years of knowing only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place, they were invited through faith in Jesus, to come into the Holy presence of the Father as a son.

That’s us too!  Some of this paragraph from the letter to the Hebrews also comes out of Psalm 40.  Please read:

How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,
And has not ^[c]turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
⁵ Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count.

^6 [d]Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have ^[e]opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is ^[f]written of me.
⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.”

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  What is God after in us?  Why does He chasten us?  Is it just because we do bad things sometimes to ourselves, to others?

I would like to propose it’s because our ears need opening.  My husband, Gary said something profound years ago and I’ve never forgotten it.  He said, “The veil was rent over 2,000 years ago and we’ve spent the last years ‘sewing it back up!’”

The true and real transformation we are looking for in our lives will NOT come through our fleshly, weakly efforts to be like Jesus.  Surely, God’s salvation is greater than this!  For before the cross, God proved man’s flesh was so weak and so dead, and Romans speaks of this. 

No, I believe the Word is telling us, if we want to be transformed into the beautiful image of Jesus Christ, it starts with and will end with our faith in God’s Son, His work, and the way GOD has provided for us.  BELIEVE HIS WORD, but LET HIM REVEAL HIS WORD TO US!  This PERFECT PERSON dwells in us.  We are called to RECEIVE from HIM, BELIEVE ONLY in HIM and HIS WONDERFUL ABILITY TO produce such godly fruit in our lives.  I’ve seen what my flesh “tries” to do.   Christ is indeed our HOPE of glory!

And I will close with something God inspired Paul to write as another spiritual reality of God’s message to us in HIS SON:

¹² Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, ¹³ and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil ^[e]remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. ¹⁵ But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; ¹⁶ but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Thank you God, for your unspeakable GIFT of CHRIST!

And today’s special on the menu:  God turns messes into HIS glory!

Sue Gaither

Scriptures pasted from New American Standard, Bible Gateway