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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 63.
Here is the main point.
We have a high priest who sat down
in the place of honor beside the
throne of the majestic God in heaven.
There he ministers in the heavenly
tabernacle, the true place of
worship that was built by the
Lord and not by human hands.
And since every high priest is required
to offer gifts and sacrifices, our
high priest must make an offering too.
If he were here on earth, he
would not even be a priest.
Since there already are priests who offer
the gifts required by the law they serve
in a system of worship that is only a
copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven.
For when Moses was getting ready to build
the tabernacle, God gave him this warning.
Be sure that you make everything
according to the pattern I have
shown you here on the mountain.
But now Jesus, our high priest, has been
given a ministry that is far superior to
the old priesthood for he is the one who
mediates for us, a far better covenant
with God based on better promises.
If the first covenant had been
faultless, there would've been no need
for a second covenant to replace it.
But when God found fault with
the people, he said, the day
is comings, says the Lord.
When I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and Judah.
This covenant will not be like the
one I made with their ancestors.
When I took them by the hand and led
them out of the land of Egypt, they
did not remain faithful to my covenant.
So I turned my back on
them, says the Lord.
But this is the new covenant
I will make with the people of
Israel on that day, says the Lord.
I will put my laws and their minds
and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God and
they will be my people.
And they will not need to teach their
neighbors nor will they need to teach
their relatives saying, you should know
the Lord for everyone from the least to
the greatest will know me already and
I will forgive their wickedness and I
will never again remember their sins.
When God speaks of a new covenant, it
means he has made the first one obsolete.
It is now out of date
and will soon disappear.
That first covenant between God and
Israel had regulations for worship
and a place of worship here on earth.
There were two rooms in that
tabernacle in the first room where
a lamp stand, a table, and sacred
loaves of bread on the table.
This room was called the holy place.
Then there was a curtain, and
behind the curtain was the second
room called the most holy place.
In that room were a gold incense
altar and a wooden chest called
the Ark of the Covenant, which was
covered with gold on all sides.
Inside the ark were a
gold jar containing manna.
Aaron's staff that sprouted leaves, and
the stone tablets of the covenant above
the ark were the cherub of divine glory
whose wings stretched out over the ark's
cover the place of atonement, but we
cannot explain these things in detail now.
When these things were all in place, the
priests regularly entered the first room
as they performed their religious duties,
but only the high priest ever entered the
most holy place and only once a year, and
he always offered blood for his own sins
and for the sins the people had committed.
In ignorance by these regulations,
the Holy Spirit revealed that the
entrance to the most holy place.
Was not freely open as long as
the tabernacle and the system had
represented were still in use.
This is an illustration pointing to
the present time for the gifts and
sacrifices that the priests offer are
not able to cleanse the consciences of
the people who bring them for that old
system deals only with food and drink and
various cleansing ceremonies, physical
regulations that were in effect only until
a better system could be established.
So Christ has now become the high priest
over all the good things that have come.
He has entered that greater, more perfect
tabernacle in heaven, which was not
made by human hands and is not part of
this created world with his own blood,
not the blood of goats and calves.
He entered the most holy
place once for all time and
secured our redemption forever.
Under the old system, the blood
of goats and bulls and the ashes
of a heifer could cleanse people's
bodies from ceremonial impurity.
Just think how much more the blood of
Christ will purify our consciences from
sinful deeds so that we can worship
the living God for By the power of the
eternal spirit, Christ offered himself to
God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
That is why he is the one who mediates
a new covenant between God and people,
so that all who are called can receive
the eternal inheritance God has promised
them for Christ died to set them free
from the penalty of the sins they had
committed under that first covenant.
Now when someone leaves a will,
it is necessary to prove that
the person who made it is dead.
The will goes into effect
only after the person's death.
The person who made it is still alive.
The will cannot be put into effect.
That is why even the first
covenant was put into effect
with the blood of an animal.
For after Moses had read each of God's
commandments to all the people, he
took the blood of calves and goats
along with water and sprinkled both the
book of God's law and all the people
using his branches and scarlet wool.
Then he said, This blood confirms
the covenant God has made with
you, and in the same way, he
sprinkled blood on the tabernacle
and on everything used for worship.
In fact, according to the law of Moses,
nearly everything was purified with blood.
For without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness.
That is why the tabernacle and
everything in it, which were copies
of things in heaven had to be
purified by the blood of animals.
But the real things in heaven had
to be purified with far better
sacrifices than the blood of animals.
For Christ did not enter into a holy
place, made with human hands, which was
only a copy of the true one in heaven.
He entered into heaven.
Its itself to appear now
before God on our behalf.
And he did not enter heaven to
offer himself again and again, like
the high priest here on Earth, who
enters the most holy place year after
year with the blood of an animal.
If that had been necessary, Christ
would have had to die again and
again ever since the world began.
But now once for all time, he has
appeared at the end of the age to remove
sin by his own death as a sacrifice.
Just as each person is destined to die,
once and after that comes judgment.
So also, Christ was offered once
for all time as a sacrifice to
take away the sins of many people.
He will come again, not to deal with
our sins, but to bring salvation to
all who are eagerly waiting for him.
The old system under the law
of Moses was only a shadow.
A dim preview of the good things to
come, not the good things themselves.
The sacrifices under that system
were repeated again and again year
after year, but they were never
able to provide perfect cleansing
for those who came to worship.
If they could have provided perfect
cleansing, the sacrifices would've
stopped for the worshipers, would've been
purified once for all time, and their
feelings of guilt would've disappeared.
But instead those sacrifices actually
reminded them of their sins year after
year for it is not possible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins.
That is why when Christ came into the
world, he said to God, you did not want
animal sacrifices or sin offerings,
but you have given me a body to offer.
You are not pleased with burnt
offerings or other offerings for sin.
Then I said, look, I have
come to do your will.
Oh God, as is written
about me in the scriptures.
First Christ said you did not want animal
sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt
offerings or other offerings for sin,
nor were you pleased with them, though
they are required by the law of Moses.
Then he said, look, I
have come to do your will.
He cancels the first covenant in
order to put the second into effect.
For God's will was for us to
be made holy by the sacrifice
of the body of Jesus Christ.
Once for all time under the old covenant,
the priest stands and ministers before
the alter, day after day, offering the
same sacrifices again and again, which
can never take away sins, but our high
priest offered himself to God as a single
sacrifice for sins, good for all time.
Then he sat down in the place
of honor at God's right hand.
There.
He waits until his enemies are
humbled and made a footstool
under his feet for by that one
offering, he forever made perfect.
Those who are being made holy.
And the Holy Spirit also testifies
that this is so for, he says, this
is the new covenant I will make.
With my people on that day, says the
Lord, I will put my laws and their hearts
and I will write them on their minds.
Then he says, I will never again remember
their sins and lawless deeds, and when
sins have been forgiven, there is no
need to offer any more sacrifices.
And so dear brothers and sisters, we
can boldly enter heaven's most holy
place because of the blood of Jesus.
By his death, Jesus opened a new
and life giving way through the
curtain into the most holy place.
And since we have a great high priest
who rules over God's house, let us go
right into the presence of God with
sincere hearts, fully trusting him.
For our guilty consciences have
been sprinkled with Christ's blood
to make us clean and our bodies
have been washed with pure water.
Let us hold tightly without wavering
to the hope we affirm for God can
be trusted to keep his promise.
Let us think of ways to motivate one
another, to acts of love and good works.
And let us not neglect our meeting
together as some people do, but
encourage one another, especially
now that the day of his return is
drawing near Dear friends, if we
deliberately continue sinning after we
have received knowledge of the truth.
There is no longer any sacrifice
that will cover these sins.
There is only the terrible expectation
of God's judgment and the raging
fire that will consume his enemies.
For anyone who refused to obey the law of
Moses was put to death without mercy and
the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Just think how much worse the punishment
will be for those who have trampled
on the son of God and have treated the
blood of the covenant, which made us
holy as if it were common and unholy
and have insulted and disdained the Holy
Spirit who brings God's mercy to us.
For we know.
The one who said, I will take revenge.
I will pay them back.
He also said The Lord
will judge his own people.
It is a terrible thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.
Think back on those early days when
you first learned about Christ.
Remember how you remained faithful even
though it meant terrible suffering.
Sometimes you were exposed to
public ridicule and were beaten,
and sometimes you helped others
who were suffering the same things.
You suffered along with those
who were thrown into jail, and
when all you owned was taken from
you, you accepted it with joy.
You knew there were better things
waiting for you that will last forever.
So do not throw away this
confident trust in the Lord.
Remember the great reward it brings you.
Patient endurance is what you
need now so that you will continue
to do God's will, then you will
receive all that he has promised.
For in just a little while, the coming
one will come and not delay, and my
righteous ones will live by faith.
But I will take no pleasure and
anyone who turns away, but we are
not like those who turn away from
God to their own destruction.
We are the faithful ones
whose souls will be saved.
This concludes today's
Immer reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.