The
American
Wisdom Series
Presents
Pamphlet 1969 Hebrews kc 16-1
And when
these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
Are you a child of God? If
so, did you know that your heavenly Father left you a "will", a testament,
full of "goodly" promises and blessings, including the incredible promise
of eternal redemption and salvation, which is the promise of eternal life...
if?
In fact, "it is written" that many of those "goodly"
things He has included in His will, i.e. has in store for those who love
and serve Him, are beyond our wildest dreams and imaginations! 1 Cor. 2:9
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart [mind] of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him." The thing is, even though you are an heir, even
a joint-heir with Christ under whose feet ALL THINGS have been put in subjection
(Heb. 2:8), you must still step forward and claim those promises.
Romans
8:17 And if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if
so be that we suffer with Him, that
we may be also glorified together.
Paul explained to us that it is the shed blood
of Christ, the perfect and unblemished Lamb of God,
who through His "eternal Spirit" offered Himself to God,
that our sins can be cleansed and purged from our consciences
forever and we can obtain the promise of eternal life.
In today's study, Paul is going to explain that it is
because He did pay the price and became our High Priest,
that He is now the one and only mediator of the New Covenant,
which means the one and only mediator between us and
God.
Hebrews
9:15 And for this cause [for this reason] He is the mediator of
the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first testament, they which are called
might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance.
It is by the power of His "eternal spirit"... you
know... after the order of Melchisedec,
that Jesus Christ is the sole mediator, the sole administrator
of the New Covenant.
In other words, we no longer need
the sacrifice of animals nor the intercession of fallible earthly high
priests.
You see, it was by His death in becoming our Passover,
the
one and only sacrifice for our sins,
that He made possible the redemption of the transgressions
under the first covenant
which neither the blood of calves nor goats could permanently
atone for.
We therefore need always remember
that those things and rituals pertaining to the earthly tabernacle
were but types and shadows of
the real thing, which was Jesus Christ!
And when He entered into the Holy of Holies once and for
all time
He became our High Priest who now sits at the right hand
of God as our advocate, making intercession for us!
Then too, it was also by His death that He made possible
the promise of eternal inheritance,
even salvation which is the promise of eternal life.
You see, our Father made out His
will, His testament,
and included many blessings and
promises in it to be granted to His heirs,
"those which are called" (vs.
15)!
Of course we all know that when someone makes a will,
the things contained in that will do not become effective
until the testator,
the one who made the will, dies!
Therefore, the promises contained in God's testament to
His heirs, such as redemption and eternal life,
were only made possible by His death. That is one of
the reasons why Jesus Christ died on the cross.
In other words, as Paul just said,
He died so that those which are called
might receive the
promise
of eternal inheritance!
The wonderful news is, that IF
you are one of His,
you can even step forward and claim
some of those many blessings and promises "To Day"!
Paul now explains to us about "wills".
[16]
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator.
A will by its very nature,
which is an account of things promised to the inheritors
upon the death of the one (the testator)
who makes the will and testament, is of none effect,
meaning it has no legal power,
as long as the testator is alive.
He or she must first die, then the will goes into effect
and becomes legally binding.
[17]
For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength
at all while the testator liveth.
[18] Whereupon
neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
Notice that the first testament was also inaugurated
by the shedding and sprinkling of blood.
Paul documents that for us.
[19]
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people
according
to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water,
and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all
the people,
"See" that it was not only the book that was sprinkled
with blood, but also all the people!
Then Moses said the following when he instituted the Old
Covenant:
[20]
Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined
unto you.
Here is the verse in the Law from which Paul quoted:
Exodus
24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said,
Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning
all these words.
And so it came to pass that the New Testament was
also enjoined
and placed in force with the shedding of blood,
only this time it was with the precious blood of the
perfect unblemished Lamb of God.
Here are the words Christ spoke when He inaugurated the
New Covenant:
Mark
14:24 And He said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which
is shed for many.
It is important to understand that Moses also sprinkled
all the things of the tabernacle with blood,
not just the book and all the people.
Hebrew
9:21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the
vessels of the ministry.
You see, according to the Law, almost all things
are "cleansed" with blood.
However, it is only the blood
of the Lamb of God that can spiritually cleanse our souls
and make our garments white:
Rev. 7:14 "And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.
And he said to me, These are they which came out of great
tribulation,
and have washed their robes, and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb."
[22]
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding
of blood is no remission.
So under the law, if there was no shedding of blood,
there could be no remission of sins.
Therefore, it was necessary that the "patterns" of things
in the heavens,
those physical representations (shadows) of the things
that are spiritual,
had to be purified (cleansed) with blood! But again,
those "earthly" sacrifices
were not able to cleanse the heavenly (spiritual) things.
It would take "better" sacrifices to accomplish that!
[23]
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should
be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these.
Only the "better" sacrifice,
the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
can purged sin once and for all,
leaving us with a clean slate and a clear conscience (Heb. 8:9)!
In other words, animals have no spirit that can
return to us and "purge our consciences" for evermore.
Only His "eternal spirit" can do that and give us comfort!
That is why we read in the next verse that Christ Himself
never entered into the earthly Holy of Holies, but into heaven itself!
[24]
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are
the
figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us:
Jesus Christ was the real
thing, the true high priest, the true tabernacle!
He never entered into the symbolic, worldly, model sanctuary
made with flesh hands.
Again, He has entered into heaven
itself and now sits on the right hand of the throne of His Majesty on high
to make atonement and intercession
FOR US!
Therefore, there is no other high priest or sacrifice
we need
and that is why Christ is the sole mediator of the New
Covenant and we are complete in Him.
Paul wrote it to Timothy like this: 1 Tim. 2:5 "For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus."
This means you can kiss all the
keeping of certain days
and rituals and traditions of men's
do's and don'ts goodbye and good riddance!
[25]
Nor yet that He should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth
into the holy place every year with blood of others;
Christ shed His blood once and for all time
thereby completely fulfilling the law,
i.e. all that was ever required by the Old Covenant.
To that end, Paul wants us to be
sure we know and understand
that it is because Christ was the
perfect unblemished Lamb of God
and our High Priest forever after
the order of Melchisedec,
there are no more blood sacrifices
required nor services of any other high priest needed... period!
Again, it was through His "eternal power" that He offered
Himself to God
and shed His blood one time and entered
in the Holy of Holies once and for all time.
The reason this is such an important point to understand
is because otherwise,
without that "eternal power", Christ's sacrifice
would not have applied to those who have already lived
and died in the flesh,
such as Adam and Eve, Noah, etc.,
who all lived and died in the flesh before He came to
this earth and paid the price!
But He did appear "in the end of the world" and paid the
price for all,
even those all way back to the beginning of this earth
age.
That is why it is written He went and preached unto the
spirits in prison
and offered salvation to all those who waited until the
promise of His coming was fulfilled (1 Peter 3:19-20).
[26]
For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the
world: but now once in the end of the world hath
He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
You see, the Plan of God was
ordained even before the "katabole",
the casting down and overthrow
of the Satan, the great red dragon in the first earth age.
(See appendix 146 in the Companion
Bible.)
[27]
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
One of requirements for salvation
is that each son of God
come down from above and be born
of flesh and die the first death,
the death of the flesh.
Actually, Christ explained this
in detail to Nicodemus in John chapter three.
The fact is, if a person is not
willing to come down from above ("anothen" in Greek)
and be born of woman, he or
she cannot enter into the kingdom.
Such was the case with the fallen
angels of Genesis 6
who came to earth without entering
in through the bag of water and who then took the daughters of Adam to
wife,
the union of which produced the
mighty Gibor, i.e. giants!
John goes on to explain that even
Christ was willing to come down from above
and be born of woman and tabernacle
in the flesh!
Remember we discussed this in an earlier study?
Our Father did not ask His children
to do anything He was not willing to do Himself, such as die once in the
flesh!
Note: Since it is written that it
is given unto all men ONCE to die, you can totally rule out the false doctrines
of reincarnation
[28]
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;
and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the
second time without sin unto salvation.
Things are happening fast in
this final generation as the events of prophecy unfold before our very
eyes.
We do look for Him to appear the second time,
knowing that the false messiah shall come first and cause
many to stumble and fall in the great apostasy.
So stay steadfast in His Word and look to those heavenly
things; for your redemption draweth nigh!
Luke
21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift
up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits;
to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, you accomplish both.
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