A Perfect Priest And Sacrifice, Part 2B – Hebrews 7:26-28

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The Promises of the New Covenant, Part 3 – Hebrews 8:12

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the poor on every day of atonement, he offered the sacrifice first for himself, then he would do it for the sins of the people.

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And that was a reminder that he was just like the people, he was just as guilty as they were. No high priest could ever just march behind the veil and make an offering or a sacrifice and think that he had the right to do this and to sprinkle blood without first recognizing that he had to make atonement for his own sins.

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So the high priest had to deal with his own sins first before he could intercede on behalf of others. So he had to offer that sacrifice and every year when he did it, it was a reminder to him that yes, though you are representing the people and interceding for them, you're just like the people, just as guilty before God.

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Yes, you're a high priest, but you're a sinner, you're not innocent, you're not holy, you're not undefiled. Instead, that high priest had to offer a sacrifice first for his own sins.

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And he had to do this year after year, reminding himself year after year, yes, I'm a sinner, yes,

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I need an atonement and I need to deal with that before I can intercede for others. Then we read in Leviticus 16 verse 15.

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Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

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He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.

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When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.

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So after doing that for himself, he had to go back out, offer another sacrifice, take that blood, go back behind the veil and do the same thing for the sins of the people of Israel, sprinkling blood on top of the

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Ark of the Covenant and applying it around the base of the Covenant, sprinkling it seven times, making atonement for them and interceding for them.

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It was quite an ordeal, it was an all day deal. The incense, the preparations, the priestly garments, the bringing in of the sacrifices, the examination of the sacrifices, the offering of the sacrifices, the sprinkling of blood and all of the details for the day of atonement are all spelled out in Leviticus chapter 16.

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Offering first a sacrifice for his own sins and the sins of his household and then he could intercede for the sins of the people.

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And this was to take place every year on the 10th day of the seventh month, the day of atonement or Yom Kippur.

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This took place yearly from the time of Moses to the time of Christ, which was 1 ,500 years.

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15 centuries. Have you all seen the artist's renditions of the Ark of the Covenant?

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None of you have seen it. Even the one in Indiana Jones was not the real thing, but I have to believe that somebody somewhere knows where it's at.

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But have you seen artist's renditions of the Ark of the Covenant, right? Covered in gold, beautiful and shiny and glistening and the light comes down on it and it just reflects the light in beauty.

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There's only one point where the Ark of the Covenant would have looked like that. And it would have been between the time that it was finished being made and the first sacrifice.

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And that was not very long. Because when that Ark went behind the curtain, every year, twice, somebody went back there to sprinkle blood on top of the

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Ark of the Covenant. And as far as I know in scripture, there is no provision for washing the Ark of the

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Covenant. So unless it was transported outside during a heavy rainstorm without any kind of a cover on it, that Ark was covered with blood for the time of the first sacrifice until 1 ,500 years later.

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Nobody touched the Ark. The cleaning crew, the janitorial staff did not go into the temple behind the curtain and dust the

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Ark or wash it down or put some minwax on it and polish it up and make it nice and shiny. So that every year when that high priest stepped behind that curtain and stood before the

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Ark of the Covenant, you know what he saw? Blood. Centuries worth of blood, dried and crusted and sitting on the

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Ark of the Covenant. And he would be able to look at that Ark and see all of that blood and realize the blood that I applied last year at this time is still there, dried on.

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And here I am again applying blood again to this. And he would go back out after he applied the blood for himself at his own sacrifice and he would take the offering for the children of Israel, bring that blood back there and he would sprinkle it again and he would know the blood from last year, it's still there.

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And guess what I'm gonna do next year? I'm gonna be back in here applying more blood to the

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Ark of the Covenant. It was a reminder to the priest that it did not matter how much blood was applied to that Ark and no matter how often the blood was applied to that Ark, more blood would have to be applied to that Ark.

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The next year, that Ark was covered with dried blood. And every year the priest would know,

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I'm not the first guy to be back here doing this and I won't be the last guy to be back here doing this. There was no provision in the law for that to ever come to an end.

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The law did not provide an end date, an expiration date on that practice. It just said you were to do this and they did it every year, every year and it should have been an object lesson to the entire nation of Israel that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.

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No blood is enough blood. This can never come to an end. Every year, year after year,

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I'm reminded that we had to do this last year and I'll have to do this next year and my grandchildren will have to do this and my great -grandchildren will have to do this.

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Always for myself and then for the nation of Israel, blood after blood after blood on the Ark of the Covenant dried year after year, decade after decade, century after century for 1 ,500 years covering the

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Ark of the Covenant with blood. Didn't matter how much blood or how many times you did it, it was never sufficient. It was never enough.

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Why? Hebrews chapter 10, verses one through five. The law, since it was only a shadow of the good things to come and not the form of the things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually, year after year, make perfect those who draw near.

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Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If those sacrifices could perfect the worshiper, would those sacrifices not have ceased to be offered?

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Because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is the reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the bud of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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The high priest stepped behind the curtain and he looked at the Ark of the Covenant covered with blood every year.

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He had to think to himself, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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Something else was necessary. The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament was intended to demonstrate that something else was necessary to finally deal with the sin problem.

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Now, there's an interpretive issue and kind of what they call a Bible translation issue in verse 27 that I wanna make you aware of.

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I want you to see it. In verse 27, it says that Christ does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

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Notice that it says the high priest had to offer up sacrifices, or at least appears to say, the high priest had to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

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How often? Jesus didn't have to do this daily, right?

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Now, here's what they say is a Bible contradiction. In Leviticus chapter 16, in fact, in all of the Old Testament law, there was only one time when the priest was required to offer a sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, and it wasn't daily.

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It was yearly, and yet here the author seems to suggest that Jesus doesn't need daily to do this like the

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Old Testament priests did, offering a sacrifice first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people. So they say that's a contradiction there.

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The author of Hebrews simply doesn't know what he's talking about. He's unclear about that. He thinks that the

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Old Testament priest, high priest, had to offer a daily sacrifice for his own sins before he could offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people, and yet Scripture doesn't say that.

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The Old Covenant only demanded that the high priest do it one day a year, offer a sacrifice first for himself and then for the sins of the people.

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Do you hear the contradiction, what I'm expressing here? I hope you smell what I'm cooking with that.

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Okay, so here's the answer or the resolution to it. There are a few different ways that people have suggested that this can be resolved.

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I'll give you three bad ones, and then I will give you the way that this is resolved. First, some have suggested that the author of Hebrews was just mistaken, that he just got it wrong.

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He thought this was what the high priest did, offered a sacrifice for himself first. He did this every day. The author of Hebrews simply didn't understand the

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Old Covenant and what the work of the high priest was. Now, I reject that explanation out of hand. I think that's, look, the author of Hebrews forgot more about high priestly ministry and temple ceremonies than any critic of scripture has ever known to be true.

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Obviously, a cursory reading of the book of Hebrews shows that he understood this inside and out. He got it right, so there's no need to assume that he got it wrong, he's not mistaken.

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There's a second possible explanation, and that is that the author was telescoping the sacrifices. Telescoping is a literary device where you kinda take a whole bunch of stuff and you sort of condense it down, telescope it down into sort of one statement, and you're actually talking about a whole bunch of stuff even though you're really, sounds like you're specifically describing one thing.

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So someone suggested that the author is sort of grouping together all of the Old Testament sacrifices, all of those animal sacrifices, and describing it in terms of the

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Day of Atonement, and simply saying that with all of those sacrifices, the high priest had to offer a sacrifice for himself.

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Even though he's describing the Day of Atonement, he's really incorporating all of the sacrifices, and I don't think that that's what he's doing.

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The third option is to suggest that the author was referring to a series of dailies with the

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Day of Atonement. In other words, you take the Day of Atonement this year, and then the next year the Day of Atonement, the next year the

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Day of Atonement, and the next year the Day of Atonement when Scripture says he had to do this. And if you take out all the time in between and you put all those days together like a series of Days of Atonements, then it would be a daily thing, even though it was a yearly thing.

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That sound confusing? It is kinda confusing. And I don't think that you need to suggest that. There's a way that the author could have described a yearly occurrence.

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He could have just said year after year, time after time. But he doesn't, instead he does say daily.

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So what does he mean? What is he talking about when he says Christ doesn't have to daily offer the sacrifice like the Old Testament priests had to do when they would offer a sacrifice first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people?

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Because the Old Testament high priest didn't have to do that daily. He only had to do it once a year. You'll notice that the word daily, this is the solution to it.

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The word daily is not a reference to the activity of the Old Testament high priest. It's a reference to whom?

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Christ. He does not need to do this daily.

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Why would he say that Christ did not have to do this daily? Up in verse 25, he makes reference to the fact that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us.

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How often does Jesus make intercession for those who are his? Daily. He ever lives to continually make intercession for us daily.

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How often did the Old Testament priest make intercession for the people of Israel? Yearly.

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So their intercession was annual. Jesus' intercession is daily. Before the Old Testament priest could intercede for the nation of Israel, for the people of Israel, he had to offer first a sacrifice for his own sins, and then the sins of the people.

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Jesus, on the other hand, is not like that. Our Jesus, who intercedes for us daily, does not have to daily offer a new sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people.

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Before the Old Testament priest could intercede for the people, he had to offer a sacrifice first for his own sins. How often did he do that?

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Once a year on the Day of Atonement. But our high priest, who intercedes for us daily, he does not have to offer a sacrifice for sins, first for himself, and then for the sins of the people.

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If he had to do that, as often as he intercedes for us, just like the Old Testament priest had to do that as often as he interceded for the people, how often would

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Jesus have to offer a sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people? He would have to do that how often?

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Daily, but because our high priest is holy, innocent, and undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens, he does not have to offer a sacrifice for himself first, every time he intercedes for his people, verse 25.

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So he doesn't have to do it daily, because he intercedes for us daily. So the word daily doesn't refer to the activity of the

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Old Testament high priest in offering a sacrifice, first for himself, and then for the sins of the people, that was annual. The word daily refers to how often our

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Lord does not have to do it, does that make sense? That's the resolution of that possible contradiction.

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Now notice that the author intends for us to take note of the singular nature of the sacrifice of Jesus. This he did, verse 27 says, once for all, when he offered up himself.

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It was a one -time sacrifice, once for all. And the word for all there is not talking about the number of people for whom he died, the word all there is, once for all, it's a time demarcation, it's saying once for all time, once to never be repeated.

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It's once and one time only is the idea behind that. He's talking about the number of times that Christ had to die.

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He had to do this one time, one sacrifice. It is difficult, I think, in our context to truly appreciate how many animal sacrifices took place at the temple and in the tabernacle under the old covenant.

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It's difficult for us to appreciate that, to understand, to envision what that would have been like. Because at the tabernacle, and then later at the temple, there were daily sacrifices that took place.

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There were the morning sacrifices, and there were evening sacrifices. On top of that, there were weekly sacrifices that took place, on top of that, there were annual sacrifices that took place, and then there were the

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Passover sacrifices that took place, and there was provision for the priest to offer sacrifice for himself at various times, and then while all of those sacrifices are going on, there were provisions for children of Israel, the believing members of the

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Israelite community to bring sacrifices for themselves and for their families. And there were sacrifices for firstborn, so you would redeem the firstborn by offering a sacrifice on its behalf.

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And then if you became ceremonially unclear, you would bring an animal, unclean, you would bring an animal sacrifice to clean up your ceremonial uncleanliness.

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And then there were special events in the Old Testament where thousands of animals were offered in one day.

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In 1 Kings chapter eight, verse 62 and 63, at the dedication of Solomon's temple, we read this.

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The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the

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Lord, 22 ,000 oxen and 120 ,000 sheep. That was all offered on one day at the dedication of Solomon's temple.

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So the king and all the sons of Israel dedicated their house to the Lord. That was all part of one celebration. 22 ,000 oxen and 120 ,000 sheep.

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And Passover, when every family would bring their Passover lamb to the temple in Israel, it is difficult for us to even imagine it was a virtual slaughterhouse.

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Day after day after day, month after month, year after year. It would not be an overstatement to say that in the 1500 years between Moses and Christ that there were millions of animals offered.

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Millions offered. I worked in a slaughterhouse some years ago. Well, I shouldn't call it a slaughterhouse.

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It wasn't really a slaughterhouse, it was a butcher house, but we would go out in the slaughter truck and four or five animals in one day, that was a good day's work for a couple of guys.

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Four or five the whole day to slaughter. A lot of blood, leading.

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I can't even imagine 120 ,000 sheep, what that would have looked like. And how messy that is, it gets all over you.

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This Jesus did by offering one sacrifice. See, this is why

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Jews had such a hard time understanding how what they have in Jesus Christ is sufficient.

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Imagine that you're a first century Jew and you have grown up in a devout family that several times a month you brought a sacrifice to the temple.

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Every Passover you brought a sacrifice to the temple. Every Yom Kippur you were there watching what went on at the temple and the tabernacle with the animals that were there.

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And you knew that day after day, and when you would go up to the temple with your family, you could smell the blood, you could smell the burnt offerings, you could smell the incense, you could smell all of that.

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And you could see all of the blood and all of the garments and everything that was going on while the animals were being sacrificed. And you knew that this went on to the tune of tens of thousands of animals every month or every year you saw this happening.

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And the whole priesthood was involved in it. And the number of people that it took to sacrifice that many animals and to keep everything going at the temple for all of the devout

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Jews, it would have been a mind -boggling enterprise. Now imagine that you are used to seeing thousands upon thousands of animals sacrificed in your lifetime as part of the devout worship of the

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Jewish people. And then along comes a Christian and says, we have a better high priest and he has made a sacrifice on our behalf.

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Oh really? How many sacrifices has your high priest made? One. Is it one sacrifice?

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Just once, he offered it one time. He doesn't need to do it yearly. He doesn't need to do it every week.

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He doesn't need to repeat it. It's just been done once and once and for all, never to be repeated.

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You're trusting in that one sacrifice to save you. When I have watched millions of animals die on behalf of guilty sinners, you're trusting in one sacrifice to atone for all of your sin and to take it out of the way.

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When you as a Jew are used to thinking in terms of multitudes of sacrifices needed to do this and a never ending continual sacrificial system to atone for sin.

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And then you're told that your high priest has made one sacrifice one time for all time and that is sufficient to save you, to take away your sin, to secure every heavenly blessing on your behalf, to sanctify you and to preserve you everlastingly all the way to heaven and no other sacrifice is necessary.

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No animal, no work, no good deed, nothing else is necessary but simply to believe and trust in that one sacrifice.

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Can you see how hard that would be to believe? When you are used to understanding your sin with such gravity, why is it that it is only one sacrifice and one sacrifice alone?

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Because he is holy and innocent and undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens and having offered one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the

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Father's right hand forever. It's done. He is that one sacrifice.

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Now if you are familiar with the Roman Catholic doctrine of the mass, then you understand how different, how difficult, sorry, how different the

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Roman Catholic doctrine of the mass is to what we are reading here in Hebrews. Because Rome teaches and believes that every time the mass is offered or practiced, that another sacrifice is taking place and that as the bread and the wine are there, transubstantiated into the body, the literal body and the blood of Jesus Christ.

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They believe that the sacrifice of Christ, the body and the blood, are being offered and sacrificed all over again.

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And further, Rome believes that it is a propitiatory sacrifice, meaning not that it is symbolic, but that it actually satisfies the wrath of God and does something to atone and to forgive sins.

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It is a means of conveying grace. And this, they believe, happens every time mass is done, performed, every time a priest does it and that sacrifice is made, that the sacrifice of Jesus is done over and over and over again.

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The Roman Catholic system has more to do with their view of mass, with the Old Testament, Old Covenant sacrificial system, than anything that scripture teaches.

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Scripture teaches Jesus died once for all and that no other sacrifice is necessary. And we're gonna get into this a little bit more and I'll give you the

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Roman position on it, how they deal with the book of Hebrews later on, because in chapter 10, the fact that Jesus had to die one time, that the author makes a great deal of that in chapter 10 and he sort of explains the implications of that and talks about why that is significant and so we'll save that for later.

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But I just want you to notice what Hebrews says, it is one sacrifice done once for all time.

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And notice that he offered up himself. This perfect sacrifice only needed to be offered once because he offered himself, not an animal, not a bull, not a goat, not a lamb, not a ram, instead he offered himself.

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This is the first time in Hebrews that we are told that Christ offered himself as a sacrifice. Even though we're told that he's a high priest back in chapter two and three, five and six, this is the first time where we are told what he offered as a high priest.

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It was difficult for a Jew, and it should be difficult for us, to think in terms of a priest without also thinking in terms of the sacrifice.

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Because if you were told as a first century Jew that there is a high priest who sits in heaven, Jesus the son of God, and the first question you would want to ask is what sacrifice did he offer?

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It was impossible to think of a high priest existing without him offering, in some sense, some sacrifice. Without the sacrifices of the

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Old Testament, there is no priesthood of the Old Testament. And there can be no sacrifices without priests to offer those sacrifices.

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So they're inextricably linked, sacrifices and priesthood. So we have a high priest who sits in the heavens, what sacrifice has he made?

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He has sacrificed himself. And notice the voluntary nature of that language. He was not sacrificed on our behalf, he sacrificed himself on our behalf.

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So our high priest is both the priest and he is the sacrifice that he as a priest offers on behalf of sinners.

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And this sacrificial language, this voluntary language is used all the way throughout the scriptures when they speak of the death of Christ.

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I'll give you some examples. First, from the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 53, written 700 years before the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah describes in the most graphic terms in the Old Testament, probably paralleled only by Psalm 22 off the top of my head, the crucifixion of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the nature of his death. Isaiah 53, verse 10. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief, if he would render himself as a guilt offering.

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Notice that. The Lord was pleased to crush him, but he rendered himself as a guilt offering.

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He will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied.

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By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors.

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Yet he himself bore the sins of many and interceded for the transgressors. He rendered himself as a guilt offering, and he poured out himself to death.

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Jesus described this in John chapter 10, when he said, I'm the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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That's the language, not of a victim, but of a volunteer. One who willingly lays it down.

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In John chapter 10, also, verse 17 and 18. For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, so that I may take it again.

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No one has taken it away from me. I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

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Galatians 2 .20, Paul says that we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and what? Gave himself for me.

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This is the language of scripture. A voluntary offering, not a victim. Hebrews 9 .14, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God.

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Titus 2 .14 tells us that we are to live righteously and soberly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of Jesus, who gave himself for us.

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It's the language of a volunteer. If you were to just be an observer in that week, when the

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Lord Jesus Christ, his last week on earth, and you were just to observe from a distance, it would look from that vantage point, as if he were the hapless victim, carried along by the demands of a feckless crowd that wanted to crown him as king on Sunday, and then called for his blood on Friday.

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It would look like he was just the wrong person, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, offered up by Pilate to a bloodthirsty crowd to satiate their demands.

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That's what it would look like. It would look like everything was outside of his control, spinning outside of his control, that somebody from amongst his own company of disciples, whom he lived with and spent three years training and teaching, went to betray him, and that the

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Pharisees and the Sadducees colluded together to bring false charges against him and get him arrested and have him murdered.

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It would look as if he was the victim of all of those things, and everything would be out of his control and happening much to his dismay.

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But if you saw all of that, and that's what you concluded, you would be concluding the wrong thing. There is not a single thing that happened in the life of the

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Lord Jesus Christ that was an accident, and there was nothing outside of his control. He said in John 10, I lay down my own life.

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Nobody takes it from me. And it was already common knowledge by John chapter 10 that the

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Jews in Jerusalem wanted him dead, and they were plotting his murder. And Jesus said, nobody takes my life from me.

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I give it up on my own accord. I have the power to lay it down. I have the power and authority to take it up again.

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He gave himself for us. He was not, it was not an accident. He was not a victim.

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He was a volunteer. He, the holy, innocent, undefiled, one separated from sinners, offered himself up on our behalf, never flinching from the divine mission, completed his task, all that the

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Father gave him, and fully accomplished every last thing that he intended to do, which was the salvation of his people by dying in their stead.

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Charles Spurgeon saying it as only Spurgeon could. He said this, when he bowed his head, it was because he willed to do it and willingly yielded up his soul, committing his spirit to the

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Father, not under constraint, but he offered up himself. Oh, this makes the sacrifice of Christ so blessed and so glorious.

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They dragged the bulls and they drove the sheep to the altar, they bound the calves with cords, even the cords to the altar's horns.

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But not so was it with the Christ of God. None did compel him to die. He laid down his life voluntarily.

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He had the power to lay it down and he had the power to take it up again, close quote. And this he did for the unrighteous.

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That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He gave himself up in our stead, not for people who considered themselves his friends, not for people who were willingly championing his cause, but for rebels, people who hated him and were at war with him, and enemies of God in our minds through wicked works, people who had no desire to either divorce or forfeit their sin, but instead wanted to wallow in that sin and drink fully all of the consequences and joys and delights of that sin.

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That was us, and he died in our stead. He did this for the unrighteous. And in his death, he secured our salvation, not just purchasing our forgiveness, but securing for all those for whom he died their repentance, their faith, their salvation, their righteousness, their security, and their perseverance all the way to the very end.

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And now he, having offered that sacrifice, which secured every spiritual blessing for all those for whom he has died, he sits at the

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Father's right hand where he makes intercession for us and uses all of the power of his endless life and his indestructible life to plead our case and to apply the merits of his sacrifice to us as our advocate, where he oversees our drawing and our salvation and our security and our perseverance, our faith, our repentance, our righteousness, all of it, he oversees all of it to the very end, securing everlastingly the salvation of all those for whom he has made that sacrifice.

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That is what scripture teaches concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, to quote

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Spurgeon, there is an almighty and divine one in heaven who ever lives for our highest benefit.

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Let us adore him most lovingly. This should show us how great our need is, that we always want a living

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Savior to interpose for us. A dying Savior was not enough. We still require every moment of our lives a living

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Savior engrossed with the care of our spirits, interposing on our behalf in all manner of ways and delivering us from all evil.

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Our hour of necessity is ever present, for Jesus is ever guarding us. Herein should lie our great comfort.

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We should fall back upon this truth whenever our burden presses too sorely upon our shoulders.

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Jesus lives. My great Redeemer lives for me, lives in all the fullness of power and glory and devotes that life with all that pertains to it to the preservation of my soul from every ill.

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Can I not rest in this? With such a keeper, why should I be afraid? Must I not be safe when one so vigilant and so vigorous devotes his life to my protection?

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What innumerable blessings must come to those for whom

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Jesus spends the strength of his endless life? Close quote. What innumerable blessings must come to those for whom

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Jesus spends the strength of his endless life? If he intercedes for you, God has already given to you the kingdom, the inheritance,

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Christ, and everything. One sacrifice. In the words of chapter eight, verse one, we have such a high priest.

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It was fitting for us to have this high priest. Chapter eight, verse one, we have such a high priest.

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He spends the strength of his indestructible life on behalf of all those for whom he dies to make sure that they are saved and sanctified and secured forever, infallibly.

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It cannot be otherwise because he cannot fail to do what he intends to do. Let's praise him for that.

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Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank you for your great mercy and love.

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We thank you that it was fitting for you to provide a high priest like that for us, to save us and to secure us.

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We thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ even now sits at your right hand, pleading and praying for us, interceding for us, ensuring our salvation, keeping all the sheep for whom he has made a sacrifice, and applying to us the merits of his sacrifice.

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We thank you for our forgiveness and our righteousness and all that is secured for us because of what

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Christ has done. We love you and we thank you and we pray that you would help us to cast our hope and our confidence and our trust upon him and him alone and to understand the glory of that sacrifice, the blessedness of being counted as his.

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And may we rest in that and may that assure our hearts before you constantly in prayer. May that be something that we rest in as we trust in your sovereignty and your goodness.

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And may we never forget that everything must come, all blessings must come to those for whom

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Christ is spending the strength of his endless and infinite life. We thank you that we are in him and we thank you for the glory of the salvation that is ours because of that.