Remember the
Book of Hebrews was intended for Jewish converts
to the faith of the
gospel
and believers similar in belief to those at the church
at Jerusalem, who had been used to the sacrifices which were required under
the old
covenant.
But now.He.has
made
us accepted.
Paul
is showing throughout Hebrews that the priesthood of Christ is so much
greater than anything to do with the now defunct
old covenant, that it now takes precedence
for all time.
Some however
in this new era,
after sinning, felt that they should still offer a sacrifice as had been
done before, thinking that this was needed to be righteous in God's eyes.
Under the old covenant as
described in the Old
Testament part of the Bible, the people annually came to the
ancient temple to receive forgiveness of sins by a ceremony conducted for
all by the Levitical
priesthood:.Leviticus
16:21. This placed all sins 'under
wraps' as it were, for thousands of years until Christ came to remove
all sin for all time, all sins of the past, present and any future ones:.John
1:29.
Paul is emphasizing that
Christ's sacrifice was so great that it is impossible to go back and be
accepting it every time you sin, because once was good for all time. That
would be tantamount
to making a mockery
of what Christ was on the Earth for.
Upon hearing new covenant
things, some people adhering
to a different mindset
became upset:.Acts
18:11-13; 4:1-4;
Romans
10:2,3.
Christ is able to keep us
from falling and keep us in a perfectly righteous stead
with the Father.(Jude
1:24; 2Timothy 4:18; Hebrews
2:18; 9:15;
Colossians
1:22).so
keep
into Him.
It does not say in Ephesians
1:7 that we are to be accepted because we keep the commandments
or any other part of the ancient Mosaic Law
or because we do this or because we do that.(Ephesians
1:6 "To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made
us accepted in the beloved.").
He has made us accepted. We can now have the same relationship with
the Father, the Great Infinite One, that Christ has. Christ, has
made
us acceptable and accepted and equal
with the Father:.John
4:23 "But the hour comes and now is, when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeks such
to worship him.".It
doesn't say the Father seeks those to worship him who adhere
to whatever the religious rules may be, according to what religious doctrines
one may espouse.
We need to tell
the world that they.have
been forgiven.and
that, if this is important to them, then God has called them into a relationship
with Him.(not
that they will be forgiven if...).and
that they are now clean in His sight.(not,
will be clean if they do...whatever; all spiritual good things are free
gifts, no works necessary to get them:.Romans
8:32).and
that they should accept their rightful place in the Family
of God Christ made possible for them, leading to
the resurrection of the just.(because
Christ's work has made you just:.Ephesians
1:6).and
the
reward; resurrection referring to rising from the
death provided by the low consciousness we all
came here with and up to the high consciousness God has:.Romans
8:30,31.
Emmanuel
preached about repentance.(repentance
is deciding to change, deciding for something better:.Matthew
4:17; Mark 1:15).because
He knew He was to be the one to take all the sins of the old
covenant away, which covenant was still in effect during His life until
His
death and resurrection. The apostles
preached
the same things.
Forgiveness is 'in' Him
and if His holy nature is in
you, you got it!
Peter was saying.(he
was talking to the people of Israel:.Acts
2:5,14,22,36).to
change.(repent).from
old covenant practices and call upon the risen Lord, deciding.(verse
21).to
now be immersed.(baptized).in
Christ.(means
to accept His nature of love to be yours).and
into the remission of sins that is in Him:.Romans
3:24; 8:2; 1Corinthians
1:30; 2Corinthians 5:19.
Now, there is only
righteousness
imputed
unto humanity. That is the good news gospel
message that people must hear in order to accept Emmanuel the Christ's
free gift of righteousness, placing one into a relationship
with the Father.
We have been telling the
world to accept Christ and their sins will be forgiven, when in fact we
should have been telling them to accept Christ and you will receive His
righteousness, because all sin, for all time has already been forgiven
and that God no longer sees sin of any kind in you and
never did!
It has already been done!
The work He came for is finished!.John
4:34;
5:36;
17:4.
He did it. He finished it.
If sins do not matter to
God, why do they matter so much to us? They will if we still use Old Testament
laws as a measuring stick for righteousness. Many still ingrained in legalism
think this way. Paul
was
that way too.
God tells us in many places
to be thinking like Him, just as we in the physical, take on the outlooks
of the family we are brought up in, the family that we were exposed to.
Religionists.(good
sincere and helpful people many of them).impose
burdens upon themselves that make it harder
on themselves than even that which was required for a person living
under the extreme severity of the old covenant with its onerous
rules, of which there were so
many. Back then, they only remembered their sins annually:.Hebrews
10:3. Some Christians and other sincere spiritual persons in many other
faiths, think about their sins daily and are reminded of them weekly in
church, groan! Such is religion. Many churchgoers have their minds more
on their sins than on Him, more on being wrong than the gift to them of
righteousness.
Sure admit errors.(1John
1:9,10), see how you can improve
and decide to, but know that existing sins do not harm your relationship
with God any more than they are in your mind of belief that they may
be doing so.
Know being in Christ is way
more powerful than one's weaknesses, weaknesses which do not cut you off
from a relationship with God. It is all a thing of the mind and what is
important to each individual mind. To some, fighting sin is important.
To others, allowing Him is important. We are all on the pathways which
at the time seem like the one we should be on:.Ephesians
4:13 "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fulness of Christ."
God sees you now as holy,
righteous
and perfect. If you.think
that your sins do harm to your relationship with the Father, you are on
your way toward alienation
from that precious relationship with the Father.
And you would only think
that way if you were comparing yourself using a law of rules and regulations
to measure righteousness by:.2Corinthians
10:12. When you are His perfect righteousness through belief in Emmanuel
Christ, there is nothing inferior in your mind to compare with.
It is a trick of
ego, the deceitful selfish self responsible for our deeds of evil,
commonly called the
devil.(1Timothy
4:1).to
get you thinking that you have to adhere to something other than the faith
of Christ making you perfect. This type of thinking can weaken anybody:.Ephesians
6:10-12. But many
still do adhere to a rigid set of rules.
...
