Day 7 The Church’s Hope

The Church’s Hope

Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own … But now he has appeared, once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him  Hebrews 9:25-27

When the writer says ‘he has appeared, once for all at the end of the ages,’ the word ‘ages’ means something that joins onto something else to make either one or both of them complete. The old age and all that went with it was coming to an end. The events of Jesus’ life and death were bringing the old dispensation, the old covenant, to its fulfilment, to its completion, its goal and so, its close. At the same moment, the long promised and awaited new age was dawning; and as Jeremiah had noted, the central characteristic of that new age was that sins would now be forgiven once and for all (Jeremiah 31:34).

Any Jew reading the above text would be thinking of the Day of Atonement. On this single day each year the high priest would enter the Most Holy Place. He carried the sacrificial blood to make atonement for the sin of the nation. His re-emergence out from the Tabernacle tent declared that the God-ordained ritual for forgiveness had been completed.

Jesus, the true high priest, has gone in to the very presence of God, into the heavenly sanctuary. His followers are eagerly waiting for Him to reappear. But this second coming reappearance won’t be in relation to sin. The work of reconciling man to God is finished. ‘The blood of Jesus … purifies us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7). When Jesus reappears, it will be with one aim: to save those who are waiting for Him, to transform them (Philippians 3:20,21) so they become the people God wants them to be as citizens of His new creation.

Are you eagerly waiting His reappearing from the heavenly sanctuary? Do you long for His second coming? This is the hope of the church, the final consummation of the age. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus, come!

To listen to this message, download in MP3 here.

Categories

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top