Many people send Christmas cards out to family and friends. If your cards are at all religious, they will have scenes of Jesus in the manger, with Mary and Joseph, or of the shepherds with the angels, or perhaps the three magi. I remember several years back getting a religious Christmas card that was quite different. The card showed a close-up drawing of the Baby Jesus in the manger, and in particular His hand. There was a second drawing. This one was just of the Baby’s hand, and in the hand was a large nail or spike going through it. Light from a window in the manger cast a shadow on the ground in the form of a Cross. The message of that Christmas card was to show that the real reason that Jesus came to earth and was born was to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins upon the Cross. Our Scripture passage today from the New Testament Book of Hebrews highlights this truth.
From the earliest chapters of the Bible we read of the Fall of Adam, how our relationship with God was broken, and how man has been a sinner ever since. In order for that relationship to be restored with God, a sacrifice is needed. Throughout the Old Testament, man brought animal sacrifices, sheep, goats, cattle, to the Temple. However, these sacrifices could never fully atone for the sins of man. As Scripture says in Hebrews 10:4, the blood of an animal cannot take away sin. The men who made the sacrifices, the priests in the Temple, were sinners themselves. What was needed was a sinless sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice. That sacrifice would be made by the sinless Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, offering Himself as the sacrifice upon the Cross.
The opening verses from our Scripture (vs. 5-7) are a quote from Psalm 40:6-8. Animal sacrifices were not sufficient to cover the sin we have. For man to be redeemed, it has to be through the sacrifice of Jesus, His sinless Body upon the Cross. The Cross was always the purpose of Jesus coming to earth. God became man with the full intention that His Body was to be offered up in sacrifice upon the Cross.
What Jesus accomplished on the Cross was enough to save us (vs. 10). Nothing has to be added to it. Nor do we need to accept Jesus as Savior multiple times, over and over again. Every time we commit a sin, which we all do, we do not need to go and get “re-saved” again and again. Jesus has redeemed us “once for all”.
The old, repetitious sacrificial system was removed to make way for the new, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, who had obediently done God’s will (vs. 9-10). Jesus came to offer His Body on the Cross for us in a sacrifice that is completely acceptable to God. The only way to please God is by coming to Him in faith to be forgiven, and then following Him in loving obedience.
Bethlehem is just under six miles southeast of Jerusalem. The hill of Calvary is just outside of Jerusalem on the north side, so about six miles northwest of Bethlehem. As we look at the beautiful nativity displays this Christmas, thinking of the wonderful, miraculous birth of our Savior, let us not forget the real purpose and reason that He came. Jesus went from the manger to the Cross. Six miles northwest, 33 years later, He would give His life a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Have you accepted that sacrifice for yourself? Have you asked the Lord Jesus to be your own personal Savior? If not, do that today. Accept the gift that God gave for you, the gift of His only begotten Son, Jesus.
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