"In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him." Hebrews 9:22-28 (NIV)
Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. The unknown author relates the Old Testament animal sacrifices for the atonement of sin repeated annually by the High Priest with the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sin once and for all.
For believers, the blood of Jesus covers all of our sins. Our salvation is only possible because of the blood of Jesus, who was without sin, was shed for the remission of our sins.
Rev Wendell Wharton is a Christian and an ordained Baptist Minister offering Bible verse blogs and sharing his enlightened thoughts on various Bible verses, or Bible quotes, as daily "Bible Based Life Lessons", as part of a Christian Ministry of Bible study on-line, relating Bible verses to our everyday lives in order to provide daily devotional, inspirational, thought provoking scriptures to live by.
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