There is powerful stuff in Hebrews 10: it’s not priests and ritual. The sacrifice for sins is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10.11 – 14, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.\u201d And this was predicted in the Old Testament – the covenant in Jeremiah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,\u201d then he adds,\u201cI will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.\u201d (Hebrews 10.16, 17, ESV, quoting Jeremiah 31.33, 34)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And then the follow-up as I wrote about when I was comparing Hebrews 4 with this section of Hebrews 10<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot neglecting to meet together\u2026\u201d – compare Hebrews 3.13, \u201cEncourage one another daily.\u201d My Alcoholics Anonymous friends are onto something. For new people they say, \u201c90 meetings in 90 days.\u201d I have a friend who is nearly 15 years sober and still goes to a meeting every day. Why? Because it\u2019s easy to drift. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And we don\u2019t want to drift:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hebrews 10:26-31 (ESV), bulleted for clarity<\/p>\n\n\n\n Depending on your theology, you may want to look for ways to explain why this passage doesn’t say what it appears to say. But my friend and Navigator Hero Skip Gray<\/a>, whose memorial service we attended Sunday, would say: \u201cI don\u2019t know all that that means, but it\u2019s a bad scene, and I don\u2019t want to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hence, we need to keep encouraging one another and \u201chold fast our confession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called \u201ctoday,\u201d that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3.12 – 14, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is powerful stuff in Hebrews 10: it’s not priests and ritual. The sacrifice for sins is complete. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the … Continue reading Hold Fast!<\/span>