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The picture given in Heb. 9:11-14 is one of Jesus coming from heaven to earth to be the perfect sacrifice. He then returned to heaven to “the Most Holy Place once and for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). This sacrifice of His own blood was fully acceptable to God resulting in our eternal redemption “so that we may serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14).
What Jesus did for us has always captured the minds of Christian song writers through the years. The words of an old hymn by J Walker in Golden Bells 193 present this favourite Gospel song:
“Down from the splendour of His everlasting throne; Came the Lord of glory, for our guilt to atone;
Son of God eternal, He the sinner’s surety stood, Paid the sinner’s ransom in His precious blood.
Glory, glory, glory unto Jesus! Anyone, everyone He can fully save.
Glory, glory, glory unto Jesus! Hallelujah! All who trust Him He will save.”
A contemporary (1989) song by Rick Founds presents a similar image of what Jesus did for us. “He came from Heaven to Earth to show the way, From the Earth to the Cross my debt to pay From the Cross to the Grave, from the Grave to the Sky, Lord I lift Your name on High.”
God provided this New Covenant way of salvation for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”(Jn. 3:16, 17). The Old Covenant way for the Jews through the high priests and priests using “the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer” (Heb. 9:13) was only able to take care of outward cleanness. The Son of God had to leave heaven, come down to earth as Jesus to provide “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God” (Heb. 9:14). The risen Jesus returned to heaven to present this sacrifice to God so that it will “cleanse our conscience from acts that lead to death” (Heb. 9:14). The purpose of all this was for us to be reconciled to a holy God “that we may serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). How is your service to God?
