The Final Super Bowl

Hebrews 9:24-28

Imagine a world where there was a Super Bowl to end all Super Bowls. Where Tom Brady and the Patriots would never need to snap another ball; run another down; score
another last minute touchdown. Where players wouldn’t need to prove themselves year in and year out. They wouldn’t need to make any more sacrifices of blood, sweat and tears because the “once for all time” Super Bowl had been played.

With the Old Covenant, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year with the blood of goats and calves to sacrifice for the sins of the people. This sacrifice would make them ceremonially clean on the outside, but not the inside. Only God could accomplish that. Only God could offer the “Super Bowl” of sacrifices.

 ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!       Hebrews 9 NIV

The world loves a system like the Old Covenant. In fact, the world is built on a system like that where you earn what you get; where you climb your way to the top; where you accumulate stuff as a sign of success. It appeals to our pride; our desire to control; our sense of being able to do it ourselves. In fact, this is a system where you can earn your salvation.

But God’s system is the exact opposite. It is based on what only He can do. Only He can provide for our salvation; only He can make it possible for us to be cleansed on the inside; only He can make the ultimate sacrifice.

 ^26b …But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.    NLT

Jesus’ sacrifice is all that is needed. It is the Super Bowl to end all Super Bowls. Jesus didn’t go into a man-made sanctuary, but into heaven itself; into the very presence of the Living God so that we might do the same one day.

Imagine that, once for all time, being at home with the Lord.

Eat Your Peas

Galatians 3:13-14

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A13-14&version=NIV;NLT

 

Do you remember the old metal kitchen table from the fifties with metal legs? Starting as a little girl, my wife would dump her peas inside one of the table legs when her Mom wasn’t looking. It wasn’t until they moved before her senior year of high school that her Dad found the cache of hardened peas.

 

My wife hates vegetables! And her parents were very strict about finishing her vegetables before she could leave the table. The rest of the family would be done and gone for hours, while poor Little Debbie sat alone at the table playing with her cold, stale vegetables.

 

Into her punishment, walked Bubba, her Big Brother. Oftentimes, he would sneak into the kitchen, grab a handful of veggies off Debbie’s plate and quickly pitch them into the trash. On occasion, he would even force the cold stale food down his own throat. In a sense, taking her punishment on himself.

 

That’s what Jesus did for you and me. He took all of our sinful thoughts, words, actions and desires; all the things that would nail us to the cross. He took them as his own so

that we wouldn’t have to suffer.

 

¹³ But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”        NLT

 

For my wife, as a little girl, Bubba took her punishment away allowing her to leave the dinner table. For us, Jesus is the only one who can take our punishment away. And what is the result of his sacrifice?

 

Paul wrote in Romans 8, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

 

The peas are gone in our life. There is no sin from the past, present or future counted against us. We are free to live without judgement; without condemnation; without shame. All of this because of Jesus.