Taking Hold of the Gift of God
Friday, October 02, 2009
I confess that I am sad indeed for those multitudes in the great framework of Sunday Christianity who know nothing beyond their plaintive and continuing efforts to be forgiven and to find mercy. They must come to the time when it is done, when they can stretch their hands toward heaven and say in triumphant faith "It is finished!"
This is the contrast between law and grace. In Old Testament times, every priest ministered daily, offering the same sacrifices that could not take away sin. Then came the revelation of the new covenant and the eternal, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the assurance of complete forgiveness:
When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. . . . Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:12–14, 19–22).
