![]() ![]() The singers arranged the music in their folders, found a comfortable position for standing, and held the folder where they could see the conductor just over the top. The conductor stood on the podium, his eyes scanning the choir and orchestra. Read: Hebrews 9:11-22 | Bible in a Year: Micah 4-5 Revelation 12 Jesus takes our sin and gives us His salvation.Ĭhrist came as High Priest of the good things to come. I am deeply grateful that Jesus was willing to die on the cross, giving His blood for me, so that forgiveness was available when I needed it. So now, whenever a person cries out in faith to God, repenting of his sin and pleading for forgiveness, his prayer for salvation is answered. ![]() It was the death of Christ-the shedding of His blood- that satisfied the demand of a holy God as payment for our sins (Hebrews 9:12,22). First John 1:7 states, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” ![]() There is another supply of blood that is one of a kind and always available to those who ask for it. Then the card made this eye-catching statement: “The rarest blood type is the one that’s not there when you need it.” The rarest, AB-Negative, is found in only 1 in 167 people, or 0.6% of the population. ![]() The card showed the percentages of people who have different blood types. When I donated blood some time ago, a nurse gave me a card to read while a pint of the vital red fluid was flowing out of my vein. By accepting His sacrifice on our behalf and putting our trust in Him, we get a new start at life-and the rules have already been kept by the One who has rescued us. Think of that-Jesus did not come to administer the rules but to keep them and put away the sin of our failures, faults, and wrongdoings. He took our punishment and cleared the record of our wrongs by giving Himself on the cross for us: “He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:2). The One who perfectly played by the rules then took the punishment for all of us who have failed to keep the rules. “Yet without sin” is the beginning of the story of humanity’s rescue. Jesus obeyed the rules perfectly, for the Bible tells us: “We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). But, because we could not rescue ourselves, God the Father sent His Son, Jesus. Our first parents broke that rule and plunged humanity into the mess we continue to find ourselves in today. They knew the rules, that is, until our spiritual enemy convinced them that the rules were what he said and not what the Creator had established. Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the garden of Eden, our first parents were given what, on the face of it, would seem to be one simple rule. It is absolutely vital that the game is played according to the rules, or else the results don’t mean anything at all. The men in blue, charged with administering the rules of the game, didn’t know the rules of the game. In that case, it didn’t affect the outcome of the game, but in another sense it was worse. Even worse, later in the week, one manager was able to effectively convince the umpires that the rules were what he said-not what the rulebook says. One game’s outcome was wrongly determined because a home run was ruled to not be a home run-even after it was checked on video replay. Last week was not exactly the finest hour for several umpires in Major League Baseball. Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. ![]()
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