With Foreign Blood

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the religion of the Old Testament, the high priest entered the holy places every year in order to make sacrifices for his sin and the sins of the people. The sacrifices needed to be repeated each and every year. For they themselves did not purify the people of their sins, but acted as a sign of the covenant, in which the people had faith that One would come who would eventually save His people from their sins and restore their righteousness and their relationship with the Lord God in heaven.

Even as the sacrifices were being offered, the people of Israel were in need of new sacrifices. There are not enough bulls and goats and lambs in the world to atone for the sins of mankind. Sin is persistent. The old Adam – that bottomless sinful nature – is an excellent swimmer, and is not easily drowned, even in blood.

In this, you are no different than the children of Israel who stood before Moses. Idolatry, lust, anger, envy, jealousy – all manner of immorality flows from your heart. You would do your own thing, and forsake all others to get your way. An eye for an eye – or a head for a foot. Your heart is an idol-factory, and your old Adam excels in setting up false gods for you to worship, appetites for you to serve, desires for you to satisfy.

The sacrifices for sin needed to be repeated year after year, just as the same confession of sin was made over and over again, because the character of the world does not change. The devil prowls about in every age, and his lies tempt men of every generation to false belief and despair.

Despair is a great shame and vice, as you pray to be delivered from it in the Lord's Prayer. Despair is a sort of reverse idolatry, where you regard the Lord God as not powerful enough to save you from your problems, or that He cannot or will not fix the problems and suffering of this world. To fall into despair is to believe that there is no hope, that there is no one to save, that the covenant of grace is of no account. Despair keeps one from seeing that the Lord is God, and there is no other, and that He is powerful to save His people out of all tribulation. Despair tempts you to believe that the world is worse than it was a week ago, and that things are only trending downward, that everything is getting irretrievably worse, while God simply watches us struggle.

Despair is a great shame, because it separates you from the love and joy which come through the forgiveness of sins. For sin is expiated, as is required by the Law of God. Your conscience knows this, for you know your sin. Inside, you, like all men, cry “out, damn spot, out!” The Law is written on your heart from conception, and you know that you have sinned and done what is evil in the sight of God.

But the Lord offers the forgiveness of sins to you, as He has offered it to every generation of the people of God. For this reason, in days of old the high priest entered into the holy places with blood not his own. Even the high priest, the keeper of the Law of God, could not enter into the presence of God of his own accord, but only in foreign blood. Blood must be shed for the forgiveness of sins. And since your blood would not be enough to atone even for your sins, the Lord offered up another. He offered foreign blood for you.

In former times, the unholy high priest entered the holy places with foreign blood to make an atoning sacrifice for his sins and the sins of his people. This had to be repeated, because all the actors in this were sinful and doomed to death themselves. However, there is now a new great high priest.

Now, in this age, our Lord Jesus Christ has come as the one holy great high priest to offer the sacrifice for sin. He is the holy priest who enters into the unholy places to offer the sacrifice of Himself, of His own blood. He has appeared once for all, as our text says. He has been lifted up in glory, sacrificed once for all the sins of the world. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has been offered once for all to bear the sins of many upon the cross. He is the pure, spotless Lamb of God who bears the sin of the world. He also the high priest who enters into the holy places to drench the mercy-seat of God with the sacrificial blood.

But our great high priest has entered not into the tabernacle, or even into the Temple. He has entered into Most Holy Place not made with hands, but into the courts of heaven. He has covered the mercy-seat of God in blood, because He Himself sits on the mercy-seat for you. His blood covers your sin. His head has borne your sin away; it is no more. Christ, our great high priest has appeared to all, His glorious bloody ensign shining forth through this world's darkness for all to see.

Our Lord Jesus Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Now, in this way, He has brought about the consummation of the age. You are now in the kingdom of God, you are in the last days. The kingdom of God is at hand, because Christ is at hand. And He shall be evermore, just as He promises: “Lo, I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age.” He is with you, now and always, because He has consummated the ages by His appearing in our age, for us men and for our salvation. He has consummated the ages by the sacrifice of Himself for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

And though you do not see Him face to face now in your day, Jesus Christ is yet with you now and always. And He will indeed come again, not to offer Himself up again, but to call you to Himself, into His Father's house.

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” You who are eagerly waiting for Him need not despair about the events of this life, nor the state of this world. For you have nothing to fear. You have already died to sin and bee raised to life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Your sin is dealt with, just as surely as Christ died upon the cross to extend forgiveness, life, and salvation to all mankind.

Your great high priest has come not only to enter into the holy places, but to enter into the unholy places. For the Holy One enters into you, into the midst of your sin-burdened body and soul. He enters not with foreign blood, but with His own holy and precious Body and Blood. He enters into you to forgive you all your sins, to purge away your iniquity, to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The great high priest enters into your heart, that He might purify His throne and sit upon His mercy-seat within you. As surely as He lives, so He reigns within you and His life flows in and through you. It is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you.

Sin is drowned in the blood of the Lamb. Death is buried. You are judged, and found not guilty. There is no longer any condemnation. Your great high priest has offered the sacrifice for sin once for all, for you and for your life. Christ has appeared and and has consummated the age.

Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.