The Super Bowl to End All Super Bowls

Hebrews 9:24-28

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%209%3A24-28&version=NIV;NLT

  

Imagine a world where there was a Super Bowl to end all Super Bowls.

Where Tom Brady and the Patriots would never need to snap another ball; run another down; score another last minute touchdown. Where players wouldn’t need to prove themselves year in and year out.

They wouldn’t need to make any more sacrifices of blood, sweat and tears because the “once for all time” Super Bowl had been played.

 

With the Old Covenant, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of goats and calves to sacrifice for the sins of the people. This sacrifice would make them ceremonially clean on the outside, but not the inside. Only God could accomplish that. Only God could offer the “Super Bowl” of sacrifices.

 

¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!       Hebrews 9 NIV

 

The world loves a system like the Old Covenant. In fact, the world is built on a system like that where you earn what you get; where you climb your way to the top; where you accumulate stuff as a sign of success. It appeals to our pride; our desire to control; our sense of being able to do it ourselves. In fact, this is a system where you can earn your salvation.

 

But God’s system is the exact opposite. It is based on what only He can do. Only He can provide for our salvation; only He can make it possible for us to be cleansed on the inside; only He can make the ultimate sacrifice.

 

^26b …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.    NLT

 

Jesus’ sacrifice is all that is needed. It is the Super Bowl to end all Super Bowls. Jesus didn’t go into a manmade sanctuary, but into heaven itself; into the very presence of the Living God so that we might do the same one day.

 

Imagine that, once for all time, being at home with the Lord.

 

 

 

You’re Fired

Hebrews 9:9-15

 (Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%209%3A9-15&version=NIV;NLT

 

“You’re Fired” was the phrase made famous on the reality TV show The Apprentice starring our newly inaugurated president, Donald Trump.

 

The premise of the show was that two teams of young business people competed against one another on a project or task. Whichever team lost had to face Trump in the board room to determine who contributed the least to their team; whereupon Trump would immediately tell that person, in no uncertain terms, “You’re fired”!

 

By doing this, the team would theoretically be a newer, stronger version of itself that

should be able to compete and possibly win the next contest. This concept of improving a faulty system by eliminating or changing the members can be seen in the Hebrew passage today.

 

In the Old Testament, God provided a sacrificial system through Moses. It involved the High Priest entering the Holy Place once a year to make a blood sacrifice for his sins and for the sins of Israel. But this was not enough because it had to be done year after year after year. The system was flawed.

 

⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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.            NLT

 

The perfect system came through the blood of Jesus Christ. He was the perfect lamb that was sacrificed once and for all. Nothing you or I can do, or have done, is too sinful or shameful for the blood of Christ to wipe away forever.

 

¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!       NIV

 

In The Apprentice, Trump fired participants because they were weak, because they

failed or because they weren’t good enough. In real life though, Jesus, through the Holy

Spirit, provided the perfect way for the weak, for those who fail and for those who aren’t good enough; to be perfected, to live with purpose and to spend eternity with our Heavenly Father.

 

  

(If God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)

 

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