Take a moment to read Hebrews 9:11-28 before reading the devotional below.
Today’s passage is a bit longer, but this section has one main idea: Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. In modern America, we don’t really have a good framework for the idea of ceremonial sacrifices (specifically involving killing animals). But the first-century Jewish readers of this letter would have a very visual concept of a sacrificial system. It was messy. It was bloody. It was very specific and precise. The death of an animal was considered a payment for sin because sin and death are intertwined. God established that reality very clearly the moment Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.
Verses 16 and 17 offer an analogy we might understand better: a legal will doesn’t go into effect until a person dies. Death activates a specific legal contract that is binding. When we think about the payment collected for sin, it is important to understand that death activates that payment. Jesus’ death was far more valuable than the death of any animal or any of us. His was the ultimate death because of his divine status as God. His death paid for all sin for all time. The old sacrificial system is no longer needed.
Jesus is the priest, the sacrifice, and the God to whom the sacrifice is offered as payment. He fills every role in the play. He’s the judge, the defense lawyer, and the jury. I love the way this chapter ends in verse 28: “He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation…” Jesus has dealt with your sin. It’s taken care of. He’s not coming back to yell at you or to condemn you. If you are “eagerly waiting for him” then he’s coming to rescue you. He is everything you will ever need.