Sheryl

His first coming was to serve as Sacrifice; taking away our sins by forgiveness. His second coming will be as Savior; bringing salvation to those who hope and wait on Him; judgment for those who reject Him. The Jews expected the Second Coming. In order to bring salvation, their had to be suffering of the Sacrifice. That was the only way the sins of the people could be removed to make way for salvation. First, we must be saved from the guilt and slavery of sin, then from the earthly hardships and tribulations.

Jesus serves as mediator for us through His blood that he shed at Calvary. With His blood, the ransom was paid to God for our freedom from sure death because of our sins. Christ, the mediator, put us back in a right relationship with God, our Father, and now we can go to Him for favor.

Jesus was the sacrifice of the New Covenant. He was unblemished and sinless. Only His blood through the Holy Spirit could give us a guiltless conscience to enable us to approach God boldly and unashamed. The blood of an animal has no power to clear the conscience. It was just a traditional ceremony practiced by the Jewish religion that had to be repeated over and over again by the priest because of it's lack of power as atonement for sin. There was no finality in it.

Redemption means to be repurchased or bought back with a price. We were redeemed from being slaves to sin and the fear of death. We were also released from the penalty of sin which is death. The price for our redemtion was the death of the ONE who was sinless and perfect by His blood; our sacrifice, Jesus. Our redemption is eternally and forever!

External sacrificial regulations were unable to cleanse the conscience because they were just an outward or artificial ceremonial display. A guilty conscience inhibits us. Guilt prevent us from having the courage to approach the throne of grace. Guilt becomes a barrier like the veil was in the temple before Jesus became the sacrificial atonement for us. A tender and willing heart towards God is necessary for us to be able to come boldly to His throne.

The Old Covenant did not provide forgiveness for deliberate rebellion against God. The New Covenant does provide forgiveness for intentional rebellion against God. The requirements for receiving pardon is believing God by faith will forgive you, being humble in repentance of your sins, and receiving the pardon from God through His grace.

The Old Covenant failed because God's people did not remain faithful to the agreement that they made to God. Promises: God's law will become internalized in the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit; Togetherness with God; Personal relationship with God; and forgiveness of sins.

Jesus is described as holy, blameless, pure, set apart, and exalted above the heavens. The difference between Jesus as High Priest and human priests is the fact that Jesus atonement for sins are a one time only action and it is permanent. A human priest has to constantly make atonement for the sins of the people and for himself. There is no finality in his actions. The atonement is weak. Jesus' atonement for us is strong and final. In Jesus, my High Priest, I have special confidence in His atonement for my sins through his blood at the cross on Calvary, I have the assurance that my salvation is certain and final as I remain steadfast in faith, hope, and obedience to Him.

Jesus is able to save completely because he is indestructable. He cannot die and has power to intercede on our behalf. A priest's function is to serve as a go-between for us to God. He pleads the sinner's case to God. Intercession is the only means to have access to God.

A surety or guarantee is a payment of a debt or a promise or an assurance. The Lord swore Jesus to permanent priesthood and that He would not change his mind about this presthood. The oath that God made allowed Jesus to become the guarantor of a new and better covenant. Because of this oath Jesus was far superior to any human priest.

We Christians who are relying on Jesus as our hope and fulfillment have fled to Him as a place of refuge or safety. God promised us His safety,then secured it with an oath, making it impossible for the promise to fail for those who believe in Him and have "fled to take hold of the hope" that the Father has offered to us through Jesus Christ. We are to take hold of this hope actively so we can become steadfast, unwavering, and encouraged in times of trouble and danger as we seek refuge in Christ. Christian hope is different in the sense that Christians are sure in our trust of Jesus. We believe fully in the promises of God and we are fully persuaded in the power of God to uphold His promises. An anchor illustrates security and stedfastness. An anchor is firm and unmoved. Christian hope in Christ is unwavering as an anchor.

From a practical standpoint, restoring faith to one who has fallen away, seems impossible due to the weaknesses and the frailties of the human spirit. Dealing with lifes issues, hardships, disappointments and everyday trials can be factors in causing one to lose faith in God and abandon Christ.

Jesus is mediator of the New Covenant by God's appointing him as such because of his love for his children, wanting them to be obedient and in good relationship with him as their Father. By living in the flesh as a man, Jesus could experience all the temptations that men do, passing the test of faith in the Father's will by not sinning when faced with temptation, therefore transferring His righteousness from God onto us, even though we are fully sinful and undeserving of any righteousness. He brought us back into a right relationship with God. Jesus was confirmed as mediator by his death, his burial, his resurrection, and by his ascension to heaven where He lives forever.

Made perfect is refering to finishing the job that was assigned to the Son by the Father. That is why Jesus cried out on the cross that it was finished. His job assignment was completed and accomplished.

Jesus learned obedience by staying on the path that God had chosen for him by obedience through suffering in order to accomplish God's will for his life through death on the cross. Jesus' learning process was different in the sense that our consequences are a direct result of our sin. Jesus' consequences had nothing to do with sin on his part, but the sin was ours.

The throne of God is a place of compassion and favor for those who believe and is not a place for judgment. The promises of God's mercy and grace in time of need. God is able to offer grace and mercy to believers on the basis that God desires the best for us. He want us to find rest in him. He is just, yet forgiving.

Jesus also experienced temptations in the same way that we experience them. Jesus was tempted, according to the passage of scripture, in every way, yet he did not sin. They had to be more difficult. To sin is easy. Not to sin, as we all know, is far more difficult. I assume he was tempted in every aspect of life. The same as us. It is very comforting to know that because He hears our cries, understands our pain, removes our shame, and as a result of his love and his faithfulness to us, strengthens us in our weaknesses.

The importance of holding fast to our confession, is through this confession of faith we have the hope of salvation. We as Christians profess that Jesus is Lord and Savior. He is the Way to eternal life with God. Only by remaining steadfast and continual in our faith in Christ can we receive the promise of eternal life with Him.

God planned for Jesus to become human so that he could be tempted as we are and to understand through experience in order to be a mediator for us so that we could receive the mercy of God in times of temptation. By Jesus having lived in the flesh of a man, he could plead our case before God from a human perspective and in turn we receive grace and mercy in times of trouble.

Jesus tasted death for everyone by his death on the cross at Calvary. He took the sins of the world upon himself and paid the penalty with his blood in order that we could be returned back to a relationship with God. God could only accept payment from one who had no sin and without the blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus, God's grace could not be given. We are now set free from condemnation by God.

Jesus was mocked, harassed, threatened, insulted, spat upon, beaten, and killed. When we decide to walk in the ways of Christ we will be hated by some, laughed at, cast aside, and humiliated by others. Suffering has great value. It keeps us dependent on God and on our knees in prayer. It keeps us humble. When we try to avoid suffering we end up instead drifting away from our Father's protection or covering.

The truth of salvation has been cofirmed to me through supernatural miracles that in no way could have come from anywhere but from God himself. He has shown to me many times and in undeniable ways time and time again that He is real and so is His salvation. What greater signs are there in establishing God's truth in the ministry of Christ as Savior than when you see people who were far away from God, didn't care anything about pleasing God, and then to find salvation in God and to testify without shame but with great excitement and passion to anyone who dare to listen about God's love and mercy. I say again, what greater sign is there than these. I would have to say what convinced me was Exodus 14, the parting of the Red Sea, when the Israelites were being pursued by the Egyptian army.

We are not immune to drifting away from the gospel when we stop putting the reading and studying of God's word at the top of our priority list. We start drifting away when we neglect praying to God for wisdom in living holy and acceptable according to His standards. We continue to drift away from God by getting consumed by sinful living and by conforming to the world's standards and opinions that are contrary to the ways of God. The moment we take our eyes off Jesus we began to drift. We can successfully resist the tendency to drift by guarding our hearts and minds and by being cautious of what we hear from the world's view versus Jesus perspective. Jesus described it as one who hears the truth but then gets carried away or caught up in the world's opinion and as an end result the truth is lost.

These two verses are describing the power of God's Word. The preceding verses are expressing the importance of being obedient to the Word because that is the only path to find rest in Him. The Word is described as LIVING and ACTIVE. Living in the sense that it is powerful, active in the sense that it is dangerous. In other words, not to be taken lightly.The Word of God is effective in tearing through our mask of pretences and expose our true selves. We need to continue in the Word of God so that we may grow to maturity in Christ, so that we may be convicted in our hearts when we sin, humbled in our spirit so that we may have ears to hear the truth in order to live obediently as children desiring to please God, our Father.

The promise of rest is referring to eternal rest with the Father in heaven. We are urged to make every effort to attain that rest by not falling away and by believing the promise of Jesus to give us this rest. Apostasy is completely turning away from God and His principles. It is total rejection of God. Falling into sin is what all Christians do because we are sinful by nature. We can't help it and no matter how hard we try, we are not nor can we be sinless because we are not perfect. We will always sin and fall short. That is why we must continue in our faith in God in believing in His forgiveness of our sins and His gift of righteousness to us as believers.