Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.  For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

 
 
 

Going to Jesus

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Thought for Today
Jun. 24

EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON JESUS, PART TWO

"For Sins That Are Past"

Twice in the New Testament, we are told that Jesus died for sins committed before he came to dwell among men. In Romans 3:25, Paul wrote that Jesus' sacrifice provided remission "for sins that are past". In Hebrews 9:15, we are told that Jesus' death provided "redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament." Everything depended on Jesus.

This is the reason that Abraham, long dead and in Paradise, rejoiced to see the day that Jesus came (Jn. 8:56). Abraham's sins may have been forgiven, but they had not been blotted out of God's book, for animal sacrifices could not do that. His sins, David's sins, Moses' sins, the sins of every human who had ever lived, whether those sins had been repented of and forgiven or not, were still in God's record books. Nothing but the blood of the Lamb of God would be able to remove them. Old Testament sins were forgiven if people repented of their sin and offered the required sacrifice, but God forgave those sins "on credit", so to speak. God forgave those sins only on the condition that Jesus would come and make the ultimate sacrifice so that God would blot out the forgiven sins still recorded in His books.

It is as if when a person sinned before Jesus came, and then repented, God forgave them and then placed a big "X" beside that sin to designate that it would be erased from His record books by the blood of Jesus. The sins of those who did evil and did not repent before Jesus came will remain in God's books of recorded deeds until the Day of Judgment. John saw in a vision the terrifying scene: "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened . . . And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their deeds" (Rev. 20:12).

What a frightening scene! Dear God, please help us to be able to stand before You on that day!

For Job, whom God Himself described as "a perfect and upright man", everything still depended on Jesus. For Noah, who also was "perfect in his generations", everything depended on Jesus. Jesus suffered and died for the sins of the whole world (1Jn. 2:2), whether the people in that world lived a thousand years before he came or a thousand years afterward.

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