Monday 23 Jan 2023

January 23: Hebrews 9:24-28

Key Verse: Hebrews 9:28
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.

Devotion:
When I look back at the history of Israel in the Old Testament I wonder how people could make sacrifices like they did and think that was normal in any way; yet that is what life was like back then. As history goes by societies change and people make new rule and laws to live by. The more mankind lives on, the more we should be making life better for all – at least that should be our collective goal.

Unfortunately life does not always go that simply because we have bad things in our history. A couple of the things which continue to be in the news are racism and sexism; both of which segregate people from others based on their physical differences. This is not how God wants us to live. He wants us to love our neighbours and that means living together in harmony and not fighting each other.

What these verses boil down to are the things which separate us from God, our sins. God cannot abide sin and so we cannot take it with us when we want to be with Him. He wants us to leave it behind and to come before Him and people who have not sinned. This makes our lives a bit difficult because we have so much sin behind us.

So, God gave us a way we can come to Him as if we have never sinned before. The only way was for someone who has not sinned to take out place when it comes to receiving the punishment. Jesus willingly stepped forward to be in our place because He loves us so much. He does not have to do this over and over again for each person or for each of the things we do wrong, He did it once and for all as a perfect way of cancelling all of our sins.

Points to Ponder:
Do you carry the burden of sin around with you?

Will you ask Jesus to take your sin debt away?