“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshippers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:1-3).
The Torah is made up by the first five books of the Old Testament, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. However, the law starts in the book of Exodus when Moses descended the Mount Sinai in Arabia. The book of Genesis it is when there was no law whereby the age was on pure grace. However, this book was marked as the Torah, maybe it is because most of the laws were emanated from it or for the fact that it is the book of Moses. We do have tithing in the book of Genesis and its laws were stipulated and reinforced in Leviticus and also burnt offerings.
From the book of Genesis we have seen the shadows of the good things to come until the last book of the prophets. Now please, do not throw away Hebrews 10 verses 1 to 3, just keep it in your pocket somewhere because it is where the crux of this message is based. In the book of Genesis we have the shadow of our Lord Jesus which appeared immediately after Adam and Eve sinned. The Lord killed animals and made covering for them with animals’ skin. Let us read below:
“Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). When the Lord clothed them with skin of animals, it means that they were covered by the blood of the animal that was being killed. Remember that these animals were innocent, they did no wrong, but the Lord killed them on the behalf of men that men’s generation may be preserved. Adam and Eve were forgiven of their sin from that time onwards, but the consequences of their sin remained forever. So the animals the Lord took the skin to clothe Adam and Eve is the picture of our Lord Jesus. Another example is between Abel and Cain when they gave their offering before the Lord. Let us see the story below:
“And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4:3-5). We have to be careful not misconstrue these offerings and end up making huge mistakes of our life.
Cain here is the picture of someone who has the self-righteousness syndrome, always thinking that he is good and right by himself. I believe that these two sons were very much different characters before their parents. Cain being the good at all times, respecting his parents, in a nutshell, a well-behaved son. Meanwhile, Abel was a mischievous son who was always found in trouble and Cain his brother saw it. This is the reason why when Cain brought the offering before the Lord that he brought the offering that had no blood.
Cain is conscious of his own righteousness and how perhaps his parents are giving him the compliments due to his behaviour. Remember that, in the previous chapter, the Lord cursed the ground and Cain brought his offering from things grown in the cursed ground. Now when Cain saw the Lord accepting the offering of Abel, he was furious and his countenance fell because perhaps he knew himself as a well-behaved son. Then, when he saw the Lord rejecting his offering he was furious as to why could the Lord accepted his younger brother over him.
Now, I need you to focus, Abel was conscious of his ill-mannered character, therefore he gave the offering which is the shadow or the picture of our Lord Jesus. The fat and the blood which he offered ascended before the throne of the Lord just like the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus on the cross and the Lord forgave him his sins. But as for Cain, the man who was right within himself, his sins remained with him. Did he sin that he was a sinner?
No! The sin of their parents impacted the whole earth and everyone who would come from their loins. Now fast-forward to the law, the Israelites had to learn about the burnt offerings, the trespass offerings and the sin offerings. Although I may not go deeper pertaining those offerings, but the Lord always wanted those offerings, but in short the Lord always wanted those offerings to be without blemish.
Let us read this, “If anyone of the people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering” (Leviticus 4:27-29).
Here is the revelation, when the Israelites sinned they would bring their offering on the altar of the burnt offering, lay hands on it and kill the lamb. Have you received the revelation? The Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin became a sin offering, trespass offering and burnt offering for us to take away the sin of the world. Now, the law had to be fulfilled, He was without blemish, without sin, and sinners laid hands on Him when they tortured Him, and they brought Him to the burnt offering altar and that is the cross. Now with this offering, it took away the sin of the world once for all forever.
In Leviticus what we see is the shadow of what would take place on the cross 1 500 years to come. When this happened 1 500 years later, the sin of the world was taken away, for bulls, sheep and goats could not take away the sin of the world but kept on covering. Now with this offering, the worshippers have no more consciousness of sins, because they have been purified. But with the offerings of lambs, goats and bulls, they continued to have consciousness of sin.
We have to understand that, these were not yet the substance but they were only the shadows. So all the offerings in the bible had to do with sin of the nation of Israel; we can also include the sacrifice of Gideon in this, because the Israelites had sinned and for seven years the Lord allowed the enemies to oppress them. We can see that the Lord loved Israel even during this time and He never departed from them, but only wanted them to repent from their sin, so He made things to be difficult for them by allowing the enemies to overpower them for seven years.
So when you are a believer in Christ, the Lord does not leave you even when you sin although He is not tolerating sin. I know that this may sound like heresy, I would like to quote this for clarification: “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). These words were directed to the children of Israel from the prophet Moses.
Moses was God’s representative, what He spoke was what the Lord spoke to him. These people had made the covenant with the Lord which also the Lord swore that He would never forsake them, and today the same applies with us because the covenant is made with our Lord Jesus Christ. This covenant is not dependant on your self-efforts works, but on His works. What Moses said to the Israelites above applies to you because you are under the covenant of Jesus, the covenant which is far above the covenant which the then Israelites had with the Lord and yet the Lord could still say that He would never leave them nor forsake them.
Now imagine today with the covenant which is made through the blood of Jesus. When the Lord said ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’, in Greek we have two words which are ‘ou mē’ for I will never, which in English are a double negative strengthening the denial; for example not at all, not anymore and nor ever or not ever. We can never reason the Lord out with our peanut brain; like for example, we hear people trying to explain how can one lose their salvation, which makes sense when you come to think about it. But listen to me; we must have the Holy Spirit to start writing and preaching about the Lord so that He can teach us the depth of His divine nature.
In our nature as human beings, we are definite, our kindness has frontiers. But when it comes to the Lord, it is different; He is able to bestow His lovingkindness to us freely if we can only believe in the sacrifice of His son. If it was man who had given his life, man would expect a certain payment prior to the gift. Now it would not be a gift anymore because the person holding it paid for it. The Lord is wise enough to enable us to see this hidden truths pertaining to His Son, this is, if we realise that we received His salvation free of charge, we will be able to take a good care of it.
Now, when I am saying this, you cannot become legalistic. You receive the gift by faith, and you are expected to work out your own salvation by works towards others not towards the Lord. What do I mean by this? Don’t be like: ‘Oh I got to do this, I got to pray, I got to give to charity' etc. Just be in rest not in anxiety. The Lord wants you rested my friend. Those who are of the law, they always want to appear better than others, like for example in fastings and all night prayers. Let us consider this parable of Jesus as an example: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess’" (Luke 18:10-12).
Now looking at this prayer, there are Christian institutions that still practice the Old Covenant practices and feel like other Churches that do not practice such are not good and they even undermine them. They have this kind of attitude towards other institutions. For that reason, I preach that people should not earn their way to the Lord, but should depend on His grace. If you believe in the finished works of His Son Jesus Christ, His grace is sufficient for you. It’s not your works; that includes fastings and sacrificial prayers, praying is right, in fact in grace we pray a lot knowing that Christ is always on our side.
We are not praying for the Lord to come near us, we are praying because the Lord is already with us. Praying is communicating with the Lord, you constantly communicate with someone who is close to you. Now, the Pharisee in the parable was not praying to the Lord but with himself, you got that? When you pray and remind the Lord what you have done you are like this Pharisee. Because of you are reminding Him of your works. Below is the verse that affirms that we do not have to reflect on our works for justification:
“What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness’” (Romans 4:1-3). The Lord looks at your faith and not your works (flesh). Cain is the kind of a believer who rivet on their works of the flesh, while Abel is an allegory of a believer who depends on the blood of Jesus. When you depend on the blood of Jesus, you show your faith to the Lord and that is enough for justification.
So my friend, you are forgiven of your sins by grace, Paul says, ‘It is the gift of God lest anyone should boast’ (read Ephesians 2:8). The word gift here in Greek is dōron, which is in English in this context is the sacrifice. Wow! It is quite interesting to know that this grace gift is not cheap. So know this; that I am not preaching cheap grace but the sacrifice of God. Nevertheless, I want you to be cognisant of this, that the blood of Jesus forgave you of your sins, both past, present and future. How so? God lives outside time, He is not confined the time zone, He is able to go to your past and forgive you and heal all your broken heart and also be in your present, and go to your future to do the same.
When Jesus died on the cross, did that for you, He forgave you of your past sins, your sins and your future sins. By the way, your past sins were future sins when He died anyway, so you had no past sins to be forgiven of because you were not born yet. Jesus forgave us of the sins He had not committed. So if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, I want you to do so right now.
Follow me through this prayer: ‘Father in heaven, I am the righteousness of God, in spite of my failures, my sins and my iniquities, I thank You, for Your righteousness in me is greater than all my weaknesses, the new in me is greater than my flesh, the Holy Spirit who indwells me is greater than the devil, I thank You, for You are on my side, if You are for me, who can be against me, nothing in this world, including financial meltdown and viruses, no weapon formed against me shall prosper, my righteousness is from You, thank You Father, because Jesus is my righteousness, in Jesus’ name, amen.
You are forgiven, act like a forgiven man and pray being conscious of your forgiveness. The bible says of you starting from now after you have given your life to Jesus, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:8). The words will not in the Greek again is ou me, the double negative strengthen the denial. So your sins will not be imputed on you because they were imputed on Jesus once for all. Even when you sin, just say I thank You Father for this sin is forgiven me, and with this mentality, you will see yourself sinning less and less and end up not sinning anymore.
Stay in health through grace and favour...
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