Jesus Unmasked: The Truth Will Shock You (11 page)

The world tells us we are “all children of God.” In one sense, that is correct as God is the One who gives life to every living thing. But because of the Fall, our minds are actually at enmity with God. That is why we need Jesus. That is why He came to this earth, to restore us to a right relationship with God.

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
 
yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Col. 1:21–22).

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
 
And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (Rom. 5:10–11).

That is what makes grace so amazing. God does not just save sinless people. God saves wretches. God saves His enemies.

If you are in Christ, God is no longer your enemy. But if you are not, you are under the control of the devil.

The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8, cf. also: John 8:44; Matt. 13:38).

If you have rejected God’s marvelous offer of amazing grace, these words from Hebrews are for you.

How much
severer
punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the
blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, “
Vengeance
is Mine
, I
will repay
.” And again, “
The Lord will judge His people
.”
It is a
terrifying
thing to fall into the hands of the living God (
Heb. 10:29–31).

Why would you want that? Why would you want to continue living as an enemy of God when you could have God living in you?

You do not need to fall into the hands of the living God. You do not need to be on the receiving end of His wrath. You do not need to go to hell. Instead of being punished by God and separated from Him forever, He will deign to dwell in you now so you can live with Him for eternity.

A sinful man cannot endure the presence of Holy God. Jesus Christ tented among His people so that you could be cleansed and brought into the presence of your Maker. Why would you want to dwell in hell when you could tabernacle with the God who loves you and died to save you?

Repent and put your trust in the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God.

Chapter 12 — Read This!

This is the best chapter of the book. Why? God Himself inspired these words to be written just for you.

Now that you have the backdrop for covenants, sacrifices, and the tabernacle in the Old Testament, take the time to read these three chapters from the New Testament Book of Hebrews.

Witness the amazing cohesiveness of the Bible. Moses wrote about the old covenant and the tabernacle in the 15th century
b.c
. Hebrews was written in the 1st century
a.d
. It is impossible to imagine that these words are not inspired by God Himself. Man could not concoct such a brilliant scheme.

This translation is the New Living Translation.

Hebrews 8

Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who
sat down
in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven.
There he ministers in the heavenly
Tabernacle
, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.

And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and
sacrifices
, our
High Priest
must make an offering, too.
If he were here on earth, he would not even be a priest, since there already are priests who offer the gifts required by the law.
They serve in a system of worship that is only a
copy
, a
shadow
of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”

But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is
far superior
to the old priesthood, for he is the one who
mediates
for us a far
better covenant
with God, based on better promises.

If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.
But when God found fault with the people, he said:

“The day is coming, says the
Lord
,

when I will make a
new covenant

with the people of Israel and Judah.

This covenant will not be like the one

I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand

and led them out of the land of Egypt.

They
did not remain faithful
to my covenant,

so I turned my back on them, says the
Lord
.

But this is the
new covenant
I will make

with the people of Israel on that day, says the
Lord
:

I will put my laws in their minds,

and I will write them on their hearts.

I will be their God

and they will be my people.

And they will not need to teach their neighbors,

nor will they need to teach their relatives,

saying, ‘You should know the
Lord
.’

For everyone, from the least to the greatest,

will know me already.

And I will
forgive their wickedness
,

and I will
never again remember their sins
.”

When God speaks of a
“new” covenant
, it means He has made the first one
obsolete
. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.

Hebrews 9

That
first covenant
between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth.
There were two rooms in that
Tabernacle
.
In the first room were
a lamp stand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table
. This room was called the Holy Place.
Then there was a
curtain
, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place.
In that room were a
gold incense altar
and a wooden chest called the
Ark of the Covenant
, which was covered with gold on all sides. . . .

When these things were all in place, the priests regularly entered the first room
as they performed their religious duties.
But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he
always
offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle
and the system it represented were still in use.

This is an
illustration pointing to the present time
. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are
not able
to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them.
For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies — physical regulations that were in effect only until a
better system
could be established.

Christ Is the Perfect Sacrifice

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come.
He has entered that greater,
more perfect Tabernacle in heaven
, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world.
With his own blood — not the blood of goats and calves — he entered the Most Holy Place
once for all time
and
secured
our redemption forever.

Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.
Just think how
much more
the blood of Christ will purify
our consciences
from sinful deeds
so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a
perfect sacrifice
for our sins.
That is why he is the one who mediates a
new covenant
between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to
set them free
from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

Now when someone leaves a will,
it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead.
The will goes into effect only after the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect.

That is why even the first covenant was put into effect with the
blood
of an animal.
For after Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he took the
blood
of calves and goats,
along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool.
Then he said, “This
blood
confirms the covenant God has made with you.”
And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship.
In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with
blood
. For
without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness
.

That is why the Tabernacle and everything in it, which were
copies
of things in heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with
far better sacrifices
than the blood of animals.

For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was
only a copy
of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.
And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal.
If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now,
once for all time
, he has appeared at the end of the age
to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,
so also Christ died
once for all time
as a sacrifice to
take away
the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 10

The old system under the law of Moses was
only a shadow
, a dim
preview
of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated
again and again
, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.
If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year.
For it is
not possible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
That is why, when Christ
came into the world, he said to God,

“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings.

But you have given me a body to offer.

You were not pleased with burnt offerings

or other offerings for sin.

Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God —

as is
written about me
in the Scriptures.’ â€ť

First, Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses).
Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He
cancels the first covenant
in order to put the second into effect.
For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ,
once for all time
.

Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which
can never take away sins
. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a
single sacrifice
for sins,
good for all time
. Then he
sat down
in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet.
For by that
one offering
he forever
made perfect
those who are being made holy.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

“This is the
new covenant
I will make

with my people on that day,
says the
Lord
:

I will put my laws in their hearts,

and I will write them on their minds.”

Then he says,

“I will never again remember

their sins and lawless deeds.”

And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

A Call to Persevere

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
By his death,
Jesus opened a new and life-giving way
through the curtain
into the Most Holy Place.
And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house,
let us go right into the
presence of God
with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us
clean
, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. . . 
.