"with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased"
~Hebrews 10:6~
Under the Old Testament law of God, burnt offerings were made as a reminder of the people's sin. It was offered from imperfect people by a priest who was also imperfect. But this is the way it was, at that time and place, by the command of God.
However, the Father always had another plan to deal with the sin problem of man. This was a way to remove sin from our lives instead of constantly recalling it to mind. Of course, transgressing the perfect law of God required far more than sin offerings. A perfect sacrifice needed to be offered in order to "clear the books" so to speak!
This is where the Savior, Christ Jesus, comes into the picture. Man could not help himself where sin was concerned. He had broken the laws of God from the Garden of Eden onward. Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God...the Son of Man, could live a life among us on earth and keep the law without blemish. And it was He who took our sins to the cross, and shed sinless blood in our stead.
This ushered in the period known as the "state of grace." Now, if people will only believe and confess their faith in Christ as the Son of God, He will confess our names before our heavenly Father. If we repent of our sins, and are baptized into Christ, we put off the "old man," (sinful), and put on the "new man," (sin free). In the eyes of God, we can now be righteous because of what Christ has done for us on that cruel cross!
Jesus makes this clear in the words of (Hebrews 10: 9-10) where we read:
"Here I am (Christ), I have come to do your (the Father's) will. He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
No longer do we bear the guilt and shame of sins. God has loved us so much that He gave us His only Son as the atonement for the sins of an entire world!
Yes, many of you already know this fact. But from time to time, I believe it's necessary to clarify the plan of eternal salvation for anyone who may be new, searching for answers in the Lord. For the rest of believers, it's just a great reminder of how loved we are in the care of God!
