We Are Waiting!

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

WE ARE WAITING

Heb 9:16-28

16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, "This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep."   21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 23 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. 24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. 25 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. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

NIV

How else are we going to have the forgiveness of our sins, unless there is blood that is shed? It is clear that without the shedding of blood, there is absolutely no forgiveness of our sins. Again, we are faced with the comparison between the old way for the forgiveness of sins and the new way. Of course, the old way had to be done over and over again every day, all day, the priests would slaughter sacrifices on the altar shedding the blood of goats, lambs, bulls, doves, or whatever the determined correct sacrifice was called for depending on the sins committed. However, it was still the shedding of that blood that was the needed action. Moses had to sprinkle blood on the Tabernacle and everything in it to purify or cleanse it. We live without the commands or the law of the Old Covenant because Jesus became the eternal sacrifice for all the sins of the world. Jesus did not have to suffer over and over again, like the animals did under the old covenant, by the hands of the priests, or the hands of men. Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood by the hand of God. Of course, men carried out the actions, but it was at the command and the hand of God that caused it all to happen so that the shedding of blood once and for all was accomplished by God himself. How blessed we are to have a high priest who entered the heavenly Tabernacle by the shedding of his own blood so that our sins are always forgiven forever and ever. We are free from the penalty of sin, free from death. We will have to lay this body down, it must die, for it has yet to be transformed from corruptible to incorruptible nor from perishable to imperishable, nor from mortal to immortal, but the day is coming because unlike those who are still living in this dark world, we are living in the light of Christ, and we are waiting for him to appear a second time to bring us our complete salvation. A day is coming when He will call us to rise up and meet Him in the air. We are waiting and watching with great expectation when that day will come. In the meantime, we are now the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, and we sacrifice ourselves as a living sacrifice which is our reasonable act of worship, while we wait for his return. And we are waiting! We have not busied ourselves with the things of this world, although we must live here until Jesus comes for us, but we are waiting!