Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 156

June 5;   Hebrews 8:3;   212/260(I);   ‘The Perfect Offering’

Hebrews 8:3 And since every high priest is required to offer gifts and sacrifices, our High Priest must make an offering, too.      NLT

In the Old Testament, the high priest offered gifts and sacrifices to the Lord continually.  The Bible tells us that the blood of bulls and goats could not cleanse the Jews from their sins.  The animal blood merely covered their sins and had to be repeated over and over again.  What the Bible was doing was painting a picture of the sacrifice of the blood of the Lord Jesus.  The Old Testament picture was that the sinless blood of the animals was shed for the sins of the people.  Since the animal blood could not cleanse the people from their sins, the sacrifices had to be done on a continual basis.  The blood of the animals had to be shed even for the high priest, since they sinned like everyone else.  The tabernacle of the Jews in the wilderness, was a type of the real tabernacle in heaven.  The Lord Jesus Christ, was the High Priest for humanity.  He came to earth, led a sinless life and was punished for our sins, shedding His precious blood.  Unlike the blood of the sacrificial animals, in the Old Testament that merely covered sin, and had to be repeated over and over continually, the blood of Jesus was shed once, for all time, and His blood did not cover our sins, His blood cleansed us from our sins.  When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, after being crucified and dying for our sins, the Lord Jesus went to heaven and offered His blood in the heavenly tabernacle.  The offering on His blood, once, forever took care of sin.  Now heaven can be our home when we honor and accept the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Savior, thanking Him for His perfect offering.  God’s Word teaches what Jesus did and what we now do.