Werner Bergmann Hebrew 9,26b
edited by ERS
How God has eliminated sin
We open Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 and read the second half of the verse.
It says, "Now he (Jesus) was once revealed in the consummation of the ages to abolish sin by his sacrifice." The Lord Jesus came again and abolished sin.
Many believers are not sure what to do with Jesus. Many believers, even here in Germany, are indeed believing, but have no deep, no direct relationship with Jesus. This is a pity. It's like putting a frame on the wall without a picture. What really matters is the deep relationship with Jesus in the community, as God's Word says.
The first step a believer does is, to come to Jesus with his sins, believing that the Savior on the Cross has overcome the things of his personal guilt and sin. And we come and confess our sins on the basis of the Word of God: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just." So the Lord Jesus does not "become" faithful and just, but the Bible says he "is". God can do nothing but forgive, when we ask for forgiveness. Why? Because Christ has come to abolish sin. He is the center of forgiveness, atonement, reconciliation, restoration, healing. He is the savior.
Now the Lord Jesus wants not only that we are saved, that we confess our sins in faith and repent of them, because we have stood against God by nature.
But he wants to bring us into a complete change of being. And many believers do not grasp this. They remain, as it were, in the position they once came to Christ to receive new eternal life there. What the Lord wants is to take a next step into deeper communion with God. And that is the intention of Jesus, because through the next step we can then also be used by HIM in so far as we surrender our own will to Jesus.
As long as our own will, well, is still there as the distinctive, the will of God will have to remain in the background. The surrender of one's own will to Christ means that as children of God we no longer have our own will. No, on the contrary. There is no emptiness, no vacuum, when we give our will to Jesus. But instead of our will, God's will comes. So then, when we live in obedience, we are equipped with the will of God. This is only possible if we know the Word of God so that we can enter into this deep communion with Jesus. If we have fellowship with God, then we have completely handed over our lives and our problems to Jesus.
That's why we want to hear about the victim. In this world many sacrifices have been made according to God's will. If we think only of Israel, sacrifices have been made daily for many centuries. Daily the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice were brought in Israel. These were the constant daily sacrifices. And if it was a feast day or, for example, the Day of Atonement, many, many sacrifices were made. And when the time came for the Passover, a sacrificial lamb had to be slaughtered in every house in Israel.
So these Israelites only had this relationship to the blood of the animals. Many, many victims, millions of victims have been brought. Today we are looking at two sacrifices, the first and the last sacrifice, which tells us the word of God. Both victims are in a very close relationship to each other. The connection is the sin debt of man. According to the principle of God, there is no forgiveness without bloodshed (Hebrews 9:22). Therefore, the sacrifices that were not associated with blood, for example, the web sacrifices made in Israel were not for the forgiveness of guilt and sin. They had a different character.
These were more thanksgiving sacrifices that God demanded from people. Modern man, the modern man, does not love the word "guilt" or "sin" at all. He does not like it. And this modern man wants to be free and live free from guilt. He does not want to accept the forgiveness of the Word of God. He does not look for her either. He wants to introduce himself to his path. He thinks he is without guilt and without sin. And God says, no.
Man wants to redeem himself. Salvation through own thoughts and own goal setting. The Bible, God's Word, talks about this direction and calls it Philosophy.
So philosophy is a branch of science outside the teaching of the Word of God. Therefore, the apostle Paul says in Colossians 2 verse 8 that philosophy is vain deceit. So philosophers are a modern deceit, that is, if they believe in it and do it. They do not want to acknowledge God. That's philosophy. And they seek a salvation in the supposedly "good" of man. I have never found anything good in the fallen creation MAN. And as we'll see shortly, this modern self-releasing trend is not that new, it's been a long, long time ago. We will know immediately from which time this philosophical trend exists.
The first time we read in Genesis chapter 3 verse 7 is from this science of the devil. We just see, it goes back to the first humans. When they sinned there in the Garden of Eden, they realized that they were naked. So they put fig leaves together and made aprons. They made themselves aprons. When they realized that they had sinned, they realized they were naked. It is very interesting. Sin brings us into a state of knowledge. Knowledge is the consequence of sin.
Knowledge that brings sin with it. We read about it in different words in God's Word, and we are naked and exposed, perhaps not outward, but we are naked and just before God through sin. We think of Revelation chapter 3, there we have the last church, the church of Laodicea.
And then God says, "But you do not know that you are naked and blind and bare". We just see that we can be naked and bare on the one hand, and we know it. Here with the first humans, who recognized that they were naked and bare, because of sin. From the church to Laodicea, it is said, "You do not know that you are naked and bare." Even in the nude there is still a difference before God. And I think the deepest thing is when you are unaware of this wretchedness.
Years ago, by profession, I had an office in the city center and it was on the first floor and downstairs I heard a lot of noise. So I got up, went to the window and opened the window, who is screaming down there? And there I saw a merchant who was one floor lower and a driver to drive the big trucks. The two had a fight. And then I heard the following: One says to the other: You are totally stupid. And then the other one says, I know that I'm stupid, but you're stupid and that's even worse and you do not know that you're stupid. And that's exactly this variation. So there is a stupidity in consciousness and then there is a stupidity in which the people in their ignorance and stupidity are unaware of things. Laodicean New Testament was not aware of nudity.
Well, the opposite of naked is covered. I was very astonished when I read in the Word of God that it is a judgment of God, that the earth is bare. The bare earth is barren and desert, it is said. So, now we see that God created the creation in a variety of plants. There were bushes, green lawn and trees. When the earth is put under the curse of God, for the sake of sin, there arises desert and wasteland. And then God's Word says that the earth is naked. Here we see something. Well, I would never take a day's vacation in the desert, simply because there is nothing to see there but desert and stones. You do not need to drive away to see something like that. It is not attractive.
So we stand before God, as sinners by nature. We stand like a piece of desert and wasteland before God if we do not have the cover of Christ. The Lord Jesus covers us. So these first humans came into the state of having sinned, and then they realized that they were naked and bare. And the first thing was that the devil, who was actually the author and the chief culprit of the fall, deceived and deceived them, of course, the first humans were lying and cheating and God had warned them, but they knew it better, an accent of our flesh, that we know much better than God. It's a terrible fact, but it's true. And that's why the first humans came into fellowship with Satan. And that's why the devil said to them, gave them a philosophical word, you must cover yourself. And what did you do? They went to the tree and tore down the leaves and braided aprons together.
They wanted to be covered again. They realized that this uncovered was a thing that was not given by God. They were bare and naked. They realized that they had sinned and therefore they made aprons. So, in the end, we can say that sin has made us naked. We are bared before God. Not only God, but also the first humans, recognized these connected terrible consequences of sin, namely, they had listened to the voice of the serpent and by listening to the serpent words, they had maintained fellowship with Satan. The success was death. The devil had told them to redeem themselves. And now they started this experiment. Therefore, they covered themselves with these leaves from the fig tree. Right here at this point is the beginning of self-redemption. Salvation through God is to be denied with this own action. The devil wanted to forestall God. Therefore, he invented the covering of man with his own methods. So he wanted to cut the way for the salvation of God.
Just as the enemy has torn to death the first human parents by saying, "With nieces you will die," Satan now tries to deceive fallen people with their salvation. That's the next one. So first he rides her to death and he knows the purpose of God for salvation, now he tries to cut off the path of salvation for man. So he wants, because he no longer has mercy, so he also wants to tear man in his entirety with him to death. The self-redemption, the self-covering, she does not want to acknowledge God.
Now we are directed according to the first sacrifice of the Holy Scriptures. Therefore, we read in Genesis 3 verse 21, "And God made skins of Adam and his wife of skin, and covered them." Now God covers her nakedness and skins are used. These skins came from animals. Animals had to give up their lives so that people could be covered. Here we have the first clue to the substitutional atonement for people on Christ. And what people did, we read, they made aprons. There was just one place covered. And what is God doing? He makes skirts for them. There they were around closed. We see what man does on his own behalf, is and remains fragmentary, even in what may be right now. And God now gives him an all-around, namely a coat of fur. These skins are now derived from animals that had lost their lives.
Here we experience for the first time how in consequence of the sin a substitution in the victim was chosen. Blood must flow, because without blood there is no forgiveness. The first victim, the animals and the last victim, that was Jesus. The first and last sacrifice God himself brought to man. And the second to the penultimate sacrifice brought people. But even the first one to the penultimate one was not able to finally do away with the sins. But the last sacrifice, that was the perfect one, given by God.
The first victim could only cover the shame, but not take away the sins. Therefore, in the blood of these first sacrificial animals here in the Garden of Eden, there is only one reference to Christ, the Coming One, who was to leave his blood. And the last sacrifice, Jesus Christ, no longer covers the sins, but as John says and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." This means that all the sacrificial animals of the Old Testament, those millions of sacrificial animals that were slaughtered, had nothing to do but that they were still there, only the blanket of forgiveness, by means of the animal blood, lay above it. But under the cover, as it were, all the mud of sin was still present. But when Jesus came, he did not cause any cover, but a removal of sins. When we read in Hebrews 10 verse 17, God's Word says that he never wants to remember the sins.
Why? He will never again remember the sins that have come to forgiveness. That's wonderful. That could never be found in animal blood, because even the sins of the Old Testament were finally atoned for in the sacrifice of Jesus. Thus, all these animal sacrifices were merely and only one hour's rest on the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And that's what God has brought us, this last sacrifice. While the sacrifices with animal blood could only cover the sins, which is the sign of the Old Testament, the sacrifice and blood of the Lamb of Jesus now completely removes sins as signs of the New Testament.
We read in the first letter of John chapter 3 verse 5 that it says, "And ye know that he (Jesus) was revealed to take away our sins," so do not cover it, but this is about taking away that the things of sin no longer remain with us.
In our text of Hebrews 9 verse 26, it says "but now". It indicates that we are being referred to the last sacrifice, the sacrifice of Jesus. For millennia, animal sacrifices had been made. "But now" - that's a whole new thing. That has not happened yet. That will never happen again. He, Jesus, was revealed to abolish sin. The Lord Jesus abolished sin, while all previous victims only covered sins, but Jesus takes them away "to abolish sin." And how did the Lord do it? By his victim, it is said. The Son of God has gone to the cross for mine and at the same time for yours, for all our sins. And there alone on Golgotha sin has been abolished, nowhere else. All human beings are by nature completely lost and they are lost, whether we belong to a church or a free church or community or anything, or nothing at all, the moment we stay as we are by nature, we get lost forever.
And that is the sacrifice of Jesus, given that Jesus came to change us. That is, we naturally need a change. But now we have the possibility of change. What are we changed in? In the sacrifice of Jesus. Because Jesus came to do away with sin. And since Jesus came, it can be said that sin has become old-fashioned. She should not be attached to us any more. Today, you want to be completely modern. But now that which is modern in the eyes of God is something very different. Jesus came to abolish sin. And because we have forgiveness in Jesus, we would be terribly outmoded and old-fashioned if we did not avail ourselves of this glorious offer of God. We would be old-fashioned if we were still carrying our sins with us. But that is a wonderful thing, that Jesus took away my personal guilt and my own sin. He took away my yesterday.
He takes her away completely. I can not imagine anything better than to live in this consciousness, in this communion with God. Jesus took away my sins. But he does not take it away automatically. For many, it costs a fight on the knees before God. There it is necessary to pray until light becomes light. The Lord Jesus automatically gives this salvation to no one. This is a gift of grace. "By grace you are saved". But we have to be saved. We have to come to Jesus. The Lord Jesus does not force anyone to be saved. He does not think about it. Salvation cost him his own life. Let us remember the whole passion story of Jesus up to the crucifixion. It also costs us something: we have to confess our sins, as far as we have recognized them. We must not hide them, we have to unpack our hidden things. All people are lost if they can not be saved by this sacrifice through Jesus. And this salvation is for the once-for-ever sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, according to Hebrews 10 verse 10.
The Lord Jesus will never again suffer. He did that once and for all. The Lord Jesus never comes again in the flesh. He only came once in the flesh to suffer. And in the same chapter 10 verse 14, we read, "For with a sacrifice he made perfect for ever that are sanctified." The sacrifice of Jesus is so perfect, who accepts this salvation in Jesus and according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, everyone gets the Spirit of Jesus. For this assumption of the sacrifice of Jesus is connected with a new birth, with the birth according to the spirit, a rebirth. And here there is only one thing, we have to be sure of this rebirth. And the more intensely we, after coming to Jesus, cultivate communion with the Lord in prayer and Bible reading, the more powerful is the event of communion with Jesus. That's up to us. This is a matter of our walk in the discipleship of Jesus, how intensively we live out communion with Jesus in our daily lives.
There are believers who live so superficially. They do not experience much joy in Jesus' heart. And others take it carefully and are faithful in reading the Word and in daily prayer and in the search of the Scriptures and pondering about it. And then God leads them to these wonderful still waters and green meadows, where the Lord is presented to us as the right and right shepherd. He leads us there. And if we are not found in it in this fellowship, we are foolish, then we have not yet understood how to be found in this deep communion with Jesus. For the sacrifice of Jesus is so great and mighty, that we too are now so abundant in all the riches of God's Word that we can burst with joy. I can say that, and that the peace of God is so great, that all people can rage about us, so we can go on peacefully. We can go through all the things of life with the peace of God.
And in Romans chapter 4 verse 25, the apostle Paul says, "Which one was surrendered for our transgressions, and who was raised for our justification." So the Lord Jesus is given to death because of our sin. Heavenly Father sacrificed Him because of our transgressions. Because of our injustices and our sins. And so that he could now justify us, he raised his son. Jesus was only dead for 3 days. That was the victim. A victim is only a victim if it hurts. The greatest sacrifice, the sacrifice of Jesus, hurt the Father bitterly. I do not believe that we can understand and comprehend that. But the Lord makes us part the deeper we penetrate into the community of his Word. And that is also the intention of God to let us part in the divine things.
In the Old Testament, every year the priest had to go to the holy of holies. With this going in, the sacrifices had to bring forgiveness. The effect reached into the past and into the recent present. The priest slaughtered the animal and brought it in on the altar. Now he had forgiveness for the sins that lay behind him, from the last year to the present, to the present day. That was the end of the forgiveness. If he then went away from the temple and had the first evil thought against his neighbor, then he had no more forgiveness for this sin, for the animal blood had to be brought over again and again. Therefore, the daily sacrifices that were made made atonement for all the people, but not for personal sins. And so every year someone had to bring his own sacrifice to the temple so that every year, at least the past sins would be forgiven. This forgiveness was only a deferment. The forgiveness was always incomplete. Until Jesus Christ came.
That was forgiveness in the Old Testament. The forgiveness in the blood of the Lamb is New Testament. It has a completely different effect. When we come to Jesus, he takes away the sins of the past and we also have forgiveness in the present. And now comes the next, the Lord Jesus once and for all has brought the sacrifice of forgiveness, even for the future. For the Lord Jesus brought the sacrifice almost two thousand years ago, and today it is just as effective as it was then. If we come to Jesus in the true faith, it works immediately. "For what he died, he died for sin, once for all time." Therefore, the Lord does not need to come down from heaven every year to die again.
What we have here now is the whole effect of the glorious sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Someone who has come to Jesus in faith, who has this new life, no longer needs an hour to be found in sins before God. Jesus made such a perfect sacrifice that sin was abolished. It is sad but so real: "When we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
That is the fact that God sees sins daily with us.
But, as much as this fact should humble us before God, it is really wonderful that the sacrifice of Jesus has the power that we do not have to sin at all.
We can still sin, but we do not have to sin.
And the Lord Jesus wants us now to grow into communion with him, that when we have sinned, we immediately condemn our own sin and bring it into forgiveness.
The Lord Jesus does not want us to have great deep guidance to become aware of our own sin. The Lord Jesus, through His Spirit, wants to lead us daily, hourly, every minute. If we have sinned, we have a great high priest. The lost world that is not yet saved has no high priest. The world has the cross of Jesus. She has a savior. But are they also automatically saved? No. We are saved. We know that. We have the testimony of God. We no longer come to Jesus as lost sinners. If we come to Jesus then because we have polluted again. In the Old Testament, daily washing was necessary for this purpose. It was not washed the whole body, but only the hands and feet.
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This is the account of how we have the cleansing, even today. We have 2 options today. Once with the forgiveness of the blood of Jesus (1 John 1: 7), "if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ of his Son cleanses us from all sin." And the second kind of purification is the one we find in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 25 and 26.
"as the Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her, purifying her by the bitterness of the Word, that he might glorify the church that did not have spots or wrinkles or anything like that, but that she is holy and impeccable. " There is talk of washing by means of the word. The water of the Word is the Word of God, which condemns our sin. Through the Word, we have purification when we acknowledge the truth. And the Lord Jesus now wants to make it clear to us that what we have heard today goes with us and stays with us.
If we are saved, if we have the Spirit of Jesus, if we have the Holy Spirit, if we have this new birth, then we seek to please the Lord.
When we live in obedience and seek His will in the surrender of our own will to Jesus, we are in accordance with the Scriptures. And if we are not saved yet, that we have not yet come to Jesus, let us pray so long and call to the Lord, that the Lord Jesus will come into our hearts and fill us until we become overflowing in his joy, in his Peace, in all his grace and gifts.
For completeness, a few words on the abolition of sin. There will be no sin in the future. When God starts his reign, when the history of humanity will be over (the Last Judgment), everything will be new. Satan will end up in the lake of fire after the millennium (Isa 14,11): To the sheep of Sheol is your splendor, and the sound of your harps: maggots are spread out to the camp under you, and worms are your cover). In the new Jerusalem, it will be like this: Rev 21,4 and 5 And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither sadness nor shouting nor pain will be more; because the first has passed. And night will be no more, and they do not require the light of a lamp and the light of the sun; for the Lord God will shine upon them, and they shall reign for ever and ever.
This is Israel saved. The new humanity on earth.
These are the survivors from the 70th year week. They also got eternal life. Eternal life on earth.
Also, there will be no sin in heaven, since Satan was removed from heaven (Lk 10,18 And he said unto them, I saw Satan fall like a thunderbolt from heaven). But in heaven are the saved, the children of God, the bride of the Lamb. Of course without sin. This, too, can be found in the Revelation of John.
Amen.