Heb. 13:8-16, The Power of the Cross (4)

The Language of the Altar (Sacrifice)

·       The sinner was in need of an adequate sacrifice, the shedding of blood.  As we have seen, everything we have considered was dependent on the blood of the Savior shed on the cross.  Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Heb. 9:22).  For generations, men sacrificed animals.  Day after day, year after year.  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins (Heb. 10:4).

·       The Savior, Jesus Christ, was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29).  This Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God (Hb. 10:12). 

·       The cross was the altar on which Christ was sacrificed. Unlike the blood of bulls and goats, the blood of Christ offered to God is able to cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hb. 9:14).  This altar was outside the gate of Jerusalem, and it is where Christ suffered (Heb. 13:10-12).

·       The choice is faith in Christ.  Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.  For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come (Heb. 13:13-14).

The Language of the Morgue (Quickening)

·       The sinner is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13).  Not lethargic.  Not lazy.  Not unconscious. DEAD!  Though Adam and Eve lived hundreds of years after they sinned, yet they died spiritually when they sinned.

·       Of the Savior, Jesus Christ, it was said: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (Jn. 1:4).  And again, He said, I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (Jn. 10:10).  To give life He had to destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:14-15).

·       To destroy the one with the power of death meant that He, the Savior, had to die.  Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up (crucified), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:14-15).

·       The choice is one of faith.  Jesus said: Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believe in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life (Jn. 5:24).

There are “constants.”  The sinner is hopeless in every language.  The Savior is just that, the Savior, in every language.  In Rome the emperor was called “Savior” because they depended on him to meet their needs.  He himself, the emperor, was doubly hopeless: in need of a sinner and unable to redeem his citizens from sin.  In every language, the key is Christ on the cross!  Every language!  And the only response to receive from the Savior is to receive the Savior.