Whoever, O Lord, was Your instructor, that You should acquire knowledge from him? Who ever were Your counselors, that You should learn wisdom and understanding from them? [Isa 40:13-14]
12th THE ASSURANCE OF FAITH: POSSESSION OF THE BETTER PROMISES. These heroes of faith received the promises, having seen them from afar off and having embraced them…the great promise of Christ Jesus and His redemption and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit…but died not having received the fulfillment of these promises.
The glorious perfection of the New Covenant
In these closing verses, we have the summing up of the entire chapter, as well as the entire letter to the Hebrews. The superior excellence of the New Covenant is stated to be this: that we have some better thing, something perfect, which the saints had waited for but had never possessed. The Book of Hebrews was written to set before us the glory of these better promises God has provided for us through Christ Jesus His Son…promises that have perfected us:
- Christ has inherited a better name.
- He has brought us a better hope.
- He is the surety of a better Covenant enacted in better promises.
- In Him we have the better country and the better substance.
- To them God spoke in the prophets; to us in the Son.
- To them was offered the rest of Canaan; to us the Promised Rest of God.
- Their high priest was a man who died; ours is High Priest forever, in the power of an endless life.
- Their sanctuary was on Earth, and even that had its veil; ours is the true Heavenly Sanctuary, with the veil taken away.
- Theirs was the Old Covenant, in which they had no power to faithfully keep; ours is the New Covenant, with the heart made new by the Holy Spirit.
- Theirs was the blood of bulls and goats; ours is the Blood of Jesus.
- Theirs was a sanctifying cleanness of the flesh; ours an eternal cleansing through the Blood, and the sprinkling of the heart from an evil conscience.
- Theirs was a worship that made nothing perfect; in ours we are perfected forevermore.
- Their worship was a witness that access into the Holiest was not open; ours is the blessed experience that in the new and living way to God dedicated for us by Christ, we have living access into the Holy of Holies and the very Presence and love of the Father.
- Their Law made nothing perfect; Christ, by His sacrifice, has perfected us forevermore.
- Apart from us they would not be made perfect; for us the blessing of some better thing, of being made perfect, has come.
Friends, brothers and sisters…
There is one absolutely necessary preparation for every living soul on the face of this Earth, for the soon coming and imminent return of Jesus Christ…the one preparation that will irrevocably determine in which neighborhood you will spend all eternity, whether in Heaven or in Hell. You must be a born-again child of God. I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s Kingdom. I tell you the truth, no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying you must be born again. [Jesus…John 3:3-7]
If you have never been born again,
or you are not sure whether you have been born again,
or you have been living your life as a lukewarm Christian and would now like to recommit your life and enter into a deep and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus in preparation for the soon coming marriage supper of the Lamb…
then I counsel you to get alone with God, read the solemn marriage vows you must make to become the bride of Christ and thereby be born-again, [https://preservechristianfamily.org/2019/01/21/bride-of-christ/], and with sincerity of heart from within the depths of your being, acknowledge before God, “I DO.”
It’s not in trying but in trusting:
Preserve Christian Family 