Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Charles H. Brent
One Mediator
Today, we don’t need several priests sacrificing animals over and over again, because there is only One Mediator, and it’s the God- Man, Jesus Christ. Animal sacrifices never really took sins away; they only covered them, but they had to be repeated over and over because they (like we) continued to sin, so it is exactly as the Apostle wrote to Timothy, writing “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1st Tim 2:5).
A Better Covenant
The Old Covenant wasn’t really the problem; it was the nature of the Israelites (like us) who were constantly disobeying God by not believing what God had said, so it wasn’t the covenant that was the problem…it was their heart. That’s why Jesus’ priesthood is superior to all of the Levitical priesthood, just as the author of Hebrews writes; “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb 12:24). Jesus’ blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1st John 1:7) and takes our sins away.
A High Priest Forever
The Old Testament sacrificial system could “never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near” (Herb 10:1), “Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year” (Heb 10:2-3). The fact is, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:4), so Jesus Himself had to do “away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:9-10).
Conclusion
For those who have repented and trusted in Christ, there is no more condemnation because they’re at peace with God (Rom 5:1, 8:1), but only because of Jesus Christ. By His own body, that wall of separation has been rent in half, just like the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom at the moment Jesus died. Now we have access to the Holy of Holies; the Mercy Seat of Heaven through Jesus Christ the Son of God, the High Priest and Mediator who made this possible…and to all Him, we owe all.
