You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?
Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink.
Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink. Sometimes I say, oh, well, that's done once for all. What does that mean? It means you never have to do it again. It's over and complete. Exactly. Well, the writer of Hebrews today is going to say that Jesus did something for us that's done once for all.
Such great news today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And we're sitting here at our dining room table like we always are.
And you are so welcome to be with us. And I don't know where you are, but here the weather is kind of changing. It's starting to be a little bit chilly in the morning and it feels like summer's coming to a close. Coming into one of my favorite times of year in the fall. Things change.
I know. We love the fall because it's just evidence that things are just done. They're quieting down and it's time for a change. So we're glad that you put down your gardening tools or your lawnmower and you're sitting with us for a little while as we take a look into the book of Hebrews in this solid food section where we're contrasting the old and the new covenant and the role of Jesus and all that as our high priest and the blood. Boy, we talked about a lot of blood last week. Well, we left off with that thought at the end of verse 22 in chapter 9 says, Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
And that's the key issue. That sin is the issue. If sin is not dealt with, I mean our sin, if that's not forgiven somehow, there is no way you're going to participate in the promises of God for good.
For the good He has in store for us. In fact, when we go back and we look at the whole Exodus story, by the way, we should tell people what we're going to do next. After we finish Hebrews, we've decided we're going to go and explore Exodus with you.
And I think that would just be a great thing because we keep coming back to it here. Well, the story is so central. I mean, that is the giant acting out of the salvation story. It is key to the whole Bible in many, many respects.
But it was a real event that really happened, and it teaches us a ton about the bigger, more substantial reality of us participating in God's promises for great life, which is what He promised to them in going to the Promised Land. So, I mean, we'll make all those connections. And it's very organic to go there after studying Hebrews, and that's often the way when I'm studying large passages of Scripture, they often lead me into what my next big study should be. I've been teaching women's Bible studies for a lot of years, and very often I don't have a clue what the next one will be. People are always asking, where are we going next?
I'm like, well, I don't know. Let's see where we get to from here. And so that's kind of how studying the Scriptures can work to take you into the Old Testament. You're like, well, you know, I've been referencing all of this stuff about the temple and the sacrifices. Let's go to Exodus. If that hasn't raised a curiosity about Exodus, I don't know what will. So that's where we're going after we finish Hebrews in a few weeks. And we'll keep pointing back to what we're talking about today in the next couple of weeks as we go back to Exodus, because He's doing it here.
He's presuming you're a Jewish reader, and you know Exodus by heart. Which we don't, because we're not. Because we're not. Exactly. But we have the story, and God makes sure that we can understand it.
So we can catch up and go read it. So that's what we're going to do. Anyway, so we are in the middle of chapter 9, and He's tying together why it is that the New Covenant is so much better, better, better than the Old Covenant, and how Jesus as our High Priest and as our sacrifice can bring us near through the blood of Christ into the presence of God Himself and into His promises. So that's what we're looking at. And the issue was the forgiveness of sins, and that's where the role of Christ's blood changes the whole game for us, because we have life imputed to us through His blood. Right. We can become the righteousness of God in Him, as we ended last week with 2 Corinthians 5, 21.
Right. So that's where we're going today. So we're picking up the whole story in chapter 9, verse 11. No, actually, we're moving into verse 23. 23. Sorry, yeah.
I flipped my pages. Yeah, I thought 11. Didn't we do 11? We already did that. Yeah, 23.
So 23. So I'll pick it up from here. Okay.
And we'll see what's going on. So he says, Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites. The copies was the old temple and stuff. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Let's just stop it right there. So that's what he's talking about. Remember, he talked about the fact that the temple and what went on with Israel and all that kind of stuff. But especially the temple. The imagery of the temple specifically designed by God to be a teaching tool to tell us about the more substantial but the invisible realities, the spiritual realities of living with God.
He says this represents all that stuff. So it was very carefully put together to be kind of a tutor to us, to be a teacher to us about how we participate in the promises from God for life. And so we're coming back to, he's saying right here, so look, Christ entered not into an earthly made temple or tabernacle, but he actually entered into the heavenly ones, the real ones, the ones in which we also follow with him to come into the presence of God. So while you're saying that, I'm thinking about, do you remember the Gospels record that when Jesus died, the veil in the earthly temple was torn.
Was torn, yeah. Top to bottom, and the Holy of Holies was exposed. So God made sure that when the reality happened in the real heavenly temple, the earthly temple was made to show it. The copy followed suit.
Yeah, I had never really put those two things together quite that way before. And in real time. In real, it happened in the instant.
Yeah, in real time. In fact, I'd written down, you can go look at those if you want to in Matthew 27. Oh yeah. Or Mark 15, or Luke 23, it's at the end of all those stories.
And it also has a really interesting way it's stated. It says that the curtain was torn from top to bottom. From top to bottom. Which says. Who did the tearing? It was initiated from the top. Right. Well, who can reach up to the top of that?
Nobody can. It wasn't a man-made thing, but it's something that God himself did. Symbolizing the way into my presence is now open because of the death of my son.
And God opened it. Yeah, I don't think anyone missed that symbology. It was pretty evident.
Pretty evident. Well, I don't know. I can only imagine the horror on the faces of those who were serving in the temple when they suddenly realized that the Holy of Holies was exposed. Well, and any schmuck could just walk into it. I mean, any of the, I could see the Pharisees just having fainting spells saying, oh, the masses of the unwashed will now just walk into the presence of God. You go, well, yeah, actually. Well, you know, they wouldn't have all been in there to see it happen.
I don't know. There's a lot of room for kind of imagination here. But those three gospels recount that for us. I mean, it was clearly important in their minds.
Yeah, yeah. But one of their roles in their thinking was to protect people from going into the Holy of Holies. Right. So now that has all been busted and busted by God. So their job about keeping men out of God's presence, that was their job, now has been superseded and turned on and said with Christ, our high priest, who gets men into God's presence. It's just really, it's a remarkable reciprocal change. Yes, it's really something. So, yeah. Okay, so the writer says here that he went into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Is that where you stopped? Yeah. So in this passage we're going to look at today, this word appear in English shows up three times, but they're all different words in the Greek.
They're related, but they're all different. But this one, he exhibits himself in person in the presence of God. Yeah.
Like, I've been there, I've done it, and here I am. Right. Now remember, the writer called him a forerunner who goes ahead of us, the captain who we follow behind.
That's exactly what he's done. He's gone into the presence of God, not in a man-made temple, but in the real temple, in the real, what do you want to call it, the real living place of God to come into his presence. And he, the son of man, our representative, is standing before God exhibiting the reality that now we are welcome there through what he has done for us, his sacrificial death. Yeah.
So Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are just copies of the true things, but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. He's there representing us to speak for our good. Right.
He's gone in ahead of us and said, there's more to follow. He didn't just come here, do the thing, and go home. Right. Right.
The whole purpose of it was to open the way for us. Right. And that's why I was saying, as a high priest, his job as a mediator is to bring men into the presence of God. And the Old Testament high priests, they were told, don't let anyone in here except the high priest once a year.
So they felt from a very privileged position that their job was to keep people away from the presence of God because, well, you'll die. Right. Holy, holy, holy, you can't come in here. Right.
And Christ says, nope, we're bringing them in. Here we go. Right.
Yeah. So he's appeared in the presence of God, in the presence of God, in the presence of God. Which, according again in the Old Testament, was something you never wanted to consider.
Nobody could be there. You just don't want to know, and it's because of our sin. So now, on our behalf, he goes into the presence of God, on our behalf.
That's a perfect role of a mediator, someone who is between us and God, and who facilitates our coming to the nearness of God. Yeah, that's just a great picture. 25? Yeah. You know, we say these things, and I just come to a complete stop. It's kind of stunning.
It is stunning. Yeah. What can we say? Yeah. Yeah. But just hold still and hold our tongues in the presence of this reality.
Yeah. And I have to admit, when I put on my Jewish cap, and I think about how a Jew would think, you know, the presence of God, the presence of God is toxic to man because man is wholly sinful, and there's no one who escapes that sinfulness. And so that's a message out through the Old Testament, and in the New, is that our sinfulness is toxic, and it actually deserves the wrath of God. It separates us from God. Yeah, it separates us.
And man, it's just a tremendous problem. So for a Jew to think, you mean to tell me that you're saying that Jesus, this man, is some kind of super-duper high priest who can go into the very presence of God on our behalf for us, for our benefit? It's like, no. So really, all the way through this, a Jewish mind is just kind of breaking all the way through this. It's like, no, this is against everything we've ever thought.
You cannot come into the presence of God and live. That's just, we know that because we're sinful creatures. But that's how complete and that's how perfect the payment of His blood is and how superior it is on our behalf because now we can because, as we said from last week, there is forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ. Should we move forward? Yeah.
We can just keep blabbering all day about this stuff. Okay, verse 25. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest entered the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the completion or the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Okay, we have to stop there because, first of all, we have this appeared again. As it is, he's appeared once for all.
So this is a slight kind of a variation on the previous word. It means to make it real, to make it visible and real once for all. So that phrase is going to show up, and we've already seen it a couple times in Hebrews, but it shows up three, four more times, shows up in Romans, shows up all over the place once for all. Yeah, I saw that one in Romans 6, Romans 6-10, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So Paul is pulling from that imagery in the temple again right there in Romans 6. It's really something, and even as you read through the rest of Hebrews too, this once for all theme is pretty dominant. We've already seen it a couple places already, and there will be more.
So this once for all. And I like it too because he says at the end of the ages to put away sin, he's appeared once for all. So he's kind of saying if you stand back and you look at the entire timeline of human history, it turns out that in the timeline of human history, Jesus comes into that timeline in this one spot, and in that one spot, he puts away sin for all time.
Paul uses the expression in Galatians, at the fullness of time, at the fulcrum of everything, the word became flesh. Now for the Jewish mindset of a messiah, this is really wrong because the messiah is supposed to be a kingly guy who brings justice through his power and rakes over the coals, the guys who personally benefit from injustice they bring on other people. He's a righteous judge in that sense, and he's powerful, and his kingdom never ends. So when you see right here that the messiah himself is not only our high priest, which they could probably swallow that, but he is indeed our sacrifice, and the sacrifice himself. So you're saying that the messiah has to sacrifice himself? Right to put away sin. In order to put away sin and to complete his mediator role. That's just a brand new thought. To put away sin once for all. Once for all. So he's literally abolishing the repetitive sacrificial system. Yeah, it's just a massively kind of what, effective thing is what that is. So he's done this, he's sacrificed himself, this is just a brand new thought for a Jew, and it's blowing their mind once again, but he's appeared once for all at the end of the ages.
Do you realize that the first century was the end of the ages? The fullness, the completion of the whole process. Yeah, yeah. To put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And then he kind of caps it off in 27, and he says, so just as it's appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, well so Christ, having been offered once, that's the death once, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, he will appear a second time. But not to do with sin, but to save those who eagerly waiting for him. Right.
Ooh. And he will reappear to be clearly discerned. Right, right. And there is no do-over, he doesn't need to do a do-over. No, done.
It's done. So now the process is in place for us to benefit and participate in the promises of God. And sometime soon, we hope, he's coming back, and that's really good news for those of us who eagerly wait for him, who eagerly wait for him. I mean, that reminded me in the end of Paul's second letter to Timothy, when he closes that out, he talks about how he's going to have this crown getting at the end of the race. And he says, and not just to me, but all those who loved his appearing.
I just like that. So it's really an interesting idea, when you think about the second coming of Christ, to a vast amount of mankind, it's not good news. There is a sense in which their conscience is telling him judgment is coming. But for those who eagerly await his coming, it's just the best news ever.
It's only good news, because it is the completion of the whole story. Yeah. And because 2,000 years ago, he bore our sins. Yeah. Yeah. So the phrase that always has really attracted my attention here is in verse 27, just as it's appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.
Yeah. So what did Jesus have to say about that? When do we die? We already made reference to Romans 6, where Paul says he died to sin once for all. So when do we as believers die?
Right? It is when we come into Christ and enter his substitutionary death for us. So let me just remind you here, Jesus said in John 24, John 5, 24, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. So we have in some hugely real way died when we entered the life of Christ. And that was a huge shift in my thinking, it has been a number of years ago now, when I stopped thinking about me getting more Jesus into my life and started understanding that what really took place was I entered the life of Christ. And all that remains for me now is the death of this body, because the dying to my old life already took place when I came to trust him for my salvation. I just don't think that that is clearly understood by a lot of believers. The you that was you died.
Right. Because I've been crucified with Christ. I've been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. I just don't think we grasp the reality of that.
Yeah, yeah. So for listeners, I would say go to Romans 6 and read the first 10 or 11 verses where Paul kind of unpacks that. Have Romans 6, like 1 to 10 or 11 open in front of you, look at John 5, 24, and put those things together. And then we just quoted Galatians 2, 20, it's not I who live, but Christ. Put those together and ask yourself, what does that mean for me? Have I died to my old self and become a new creation? Yeah.
Yeah. And Paul uses so often that phrase, Christ in you. Christ in you. Christ in you. Christ in you.
Christ in you. And that's not just kind of a throwaway phrase. Well, he says that's the mystery that God has been unfolding in him, and you in Christ. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
This mutually in each other kind of thing. So when we talk the New Covenant, we're talking about something that's radically different than trying to please God by sacrificing goats. Or sacrificing anything. Or sacrificing anything. I mean, that sacrificing brought a constant reminder of the fact that it affirms our conscience that says, boy, deep down inside, we are really nasty things. We're nasty work. No, we're just broken at the very core.
We're just very broken, yeah. And so the New Covenant actually goes to, how do you want to say this? To fix that problem. Yeah, because God says, I'm going to give you a new heart.
Give you a new heart. I'm going to write my laws on your heart, and you will know me. Yeah, exactly. It's no longer about checking off the boxes on the list. It's about who you are internally, in me. And now we're returning back to that Jeremiah 31 thing that he quoted, and says, yeah, and you won't say to each other, they'll know me, because they'll all know me. Well, how can we know God unless we can come into his presence, and how can we come into his presence unless we are sinless? Our sin is forgiven and cleansed away, and God does not remember it anymore. Right, that's what he explains at the end of that Jeremiah passage, because he's just forgotten it.
It's not going to be between us anymore. I like that because when I talk to people about real forgiveness, real forgiveness isn't denying the fact that sin exists. I mean, sin exists, you've been offended, you've been hurt, I mean, and those are real things. You don't want to say, well, it's not that bad. It is that bad. It is that bad.
Yeah, it's really that bad. And God's perspective on forgiveness is not saying that it didn't exist. Or that it didn't matter. Or that it didn't matter, yeah. What God says is the payment has been paid for that sin, and now we're just not going to bring it up anymore. Right. Indeed, it mattered so much that there was no other remedy than for God himself to absorb the cost of it for us, because we could never pay.
Yep, yep. And that contrast, the contrast of our conscience telling us that deep inside of us at our root, we are twisted. And yet deep at our insides in a place that we can't fix, but God can, the blood of Christ has changed us. And we died. We died. We died. We died with him. And entered a new life, right? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, if you're in Christ, old things have passed away.
They have died. New things have come. They're a new creation in Christ. So the new covenant applies to my life the moment that I give my heart to Jesus. The moment that I believe him that what he did counted for me.
Yeah, yeah. That's why the new covenant is just so remarkable. It fixes us, finally. Where all the frustration in the past was that, and he said this, is that the law and the old covenant, it can't fix anything.
All it can do is tell you, boy, you were really messed up. In fact, I like it when Paul in 2 Corinthians talks about the new and old covenant. He calls the old covenant a ministry of death.
That's right. A ministry of death. Because all it does is it points to the fact that what you're doing is causing death. But then he contrasts that the ministry of death, he calls the new covenant the ministry of the Spirit. Right. And the Spirit gives life. And the Spirit gives life. And in another place he calls, it's the same place actually he calls it not only the ministry of death, the old covenant, but the ministry of condemnation.
Right. And that's what the law did. It tells us how messed up we are in contrast to it's now the ministry of righteousness. He's creating in us righteousness because of the righteousness of Christ. What a huge contrast, a huge contrast that is in the new and the old covenant. So no wonder when he says we're eagerly waiting for him, we're going to see him face to face when he comes back that second time, clearly discerned.
It's possibly that completion of that time of reformation that the writer of Hebrews had referred to in back in chapter 9, he says all of that is just a picture until the time of reformation. Yeah. Until the time, until things are really fixed. Until things are really put right ultimately and finally.
Finally. Which is that word perfect again, telios, the end point until we get to that end point. But we're not at that end point yet.
But it's coming pretty soon. So you know there's a lot of people who think, even some Christians who think when they die they're going to face God and there's still going to be this you know, well did you do enough good stuff, were you good enough, were you bad enough, are they good enough to get into my heaven. But this passage says hey, you die once and then that, then comes the judgment, right?
So for we who are in Christ that death happens in us at the cross of Jesus when we come to the cross and believe that that is sufficient for my life. Then we've died and judgment has taken place on our sin. Now we will face to face with Jesus and be evaluated.
We will. Paul says that we're all going to have to give an account for what we did in the flesh. But that's not a judgment unto life or death for believers. So you know this is really important for us to understand. It's appointed to die once. And after that comes judgment.
Yep. And the simple truth is in the New Covenant what you need to do is embrace Jesus as your high priest and embrace him as your sacrifice lamb who's died on your behalf. And if you think any amount of your works on your behalf can make you any cleaner than his blood can make you, then you're actually blaspheming God himself.
So actually this is what we are proclaiming when we drink the symbolic wine in communion. His death counted for me. His life I am taking into myself and it is becoming me.
I am becoming alive in him. I'm taking part. That's the covenant we're proclaiming by that symbolism. Yeah.
Yeah. Remarkable changes. Next week he's going to continue this discussion because this is all mind bender in so many ways.
Oh there's more. So we hope that you join us as we continue to look at this. But the symbology of the Old Testament is not lost in a Jew. A little lost on us but we keep kind of coming back to Exodus and filling in the cracks.
It requires some mental work. But it's really, it's an astonishing view into God's big plan for us and the reality. Not the shadow and copy but the reality of our salvation. So I'm Jim.
And I'm Dorothy. Join us next week on More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content.
To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org. There we go. There we go. Practice makes perfect. Exactly.
