OCTOBER 19 READING…HEBREWS 4
The key to understanding Hebrews is also the essence of understanding biblical Christianity. That is, now that Jesus has come all things are fulfilled in Him. God gave the Law to His people in the Old Testament through Moses. That Law could never save, nor could any attempt to keeping the Law bring salvation to anyone. The Law did two things for mankind…the Law demonstrated the absolute righteousness and holiness of God…and the Law shows the absolute unrighteousness and unholiness of mankind. Jesus came to fulfill the Law…that is to fulfill why the Law was given. He did that by being the only human to ever live the Law perfect…and He did that by paying the penalty for we Law breakers. Once the Law was fulfilled by Jesus its purpose has been fulfilled. So, we no longer live according to the Law, but we live by the grace of God through Jesus, because we are made righteous through His righteousness, and not according to anything we have done.
The Old Testament saints could never enter into full rest, for they were waiting for the promise of Messiah, so God gave them the Sabbath as a gift of rest. Unfortunately, like so many things from God the religious minded people turned the Sabbath into the “thing”, forgetting that it was given to them as a gift from God. So, that’s why Jesus when confronted about keeping the Sabbath tried to clarify to the religious leaders that God made the Sabbath for mankind, not mankind for the Sabbath. To the biblical believer today we should understand that Jesus is our Sabbath…our Sabbath is a person, not a day. We are to rest in Jesus all the time, every day. Verse 10 tells us how this manifests itself to us…as Jesus has entered His rest, we now enter into our rest in Him…our Sabbath. This truth is the “sharp” two-edged sword which is the Word of God…dividing truth for us, and touching our inner-most being. Jesus is everything to us…even our great High Priest, who sympathizes with us in all things. We no longer need the Old Testament priesthood…we have Jesus. We no longer live by the Old Testament Law, we live by faith in Jesus…who is the absolute fulfillment of the Law.
Please share your thoughts from today’s reading.
TOMORROW’S READING…HEBREWS 5
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