JESUS, THE ONLY WAY

• Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
  

 

• Hebrews 7:26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

Only someone sinless could qualify to be the sacrifice that would definitively cleanse the sins of mankind. The final cleansing was to be done in the Most Holy Place in heaven, at God's throne, and there the blood of animals and birds of the fallen world could not enter. That is why the sacrifices brought under the Old Covenant, under the Mosaic Law, only covered the sins of those who brought them, therefore when they died, they could only go to “Abraham’s bosom,” which was part of “Sheol” (the place of departed spirits), and not heaven.
 
After being resurrected, Jesus went to the Father, and in the evening of the same day He appeared to the disciples. This means that the visit to the heavenly throne room was short, and had a specific purpose, which involved the presence of Jesus (John 20:17-19). Father God and Jesus were and are always in contact, the only exception was when the Son took upon Himself the sins of mankind. If He just needed to talk to His Father, there was no need to go up to the heavenly throne room. But the Lord had to go personally to the Father, to bring the perfect blood of His sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins to become effective (Hebrews 9:12, 24). Let us remember that the Old Testament is the foreshadowing of the New, and in the Mosaic Law, the High Priest had to sprinkle the mercy seat with the blood of the atonement sacrifice, brought for the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:15). The mercy seat covered the ark of the covenant that was in the Holy of Holies, and there God met with the High Priest to give him the commandments for the people (Exodus 25:22).
 
Only the perfectly pure blood of Jesus was able to enter into "the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation." (Hebrews 9:11b), to cleanse the sins of mankind forever. Jesus who never succumbed to sin in any way was able to die for the sins of mankind, and could be resurrected, because He had never sinned. His blood was pure and perfect as God wants each of us to be. That is why we must be born-again, and without it no one can be saved. The new birth is produced by the Holy Spirit, who restores our spirit to its original, pure, perfect state, as it was created by God in Adam before sin. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can return to what God created us to be and through the cleansing of sin through the sacrificial blood of Jesus, we are reconciled to God. The sin that separated us from the heavenly Father has been erased, the accusations that Satan brings against us have no basis anymore, we are truly clean, righteous, that is, without sin! The charges have been cleared! Hallelujah!!!

• Romans 3:25 Whom (Jesus) God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

 

• 1 John 2:2 And He (Jesus) Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

 
If you still haven't reconciled with God yet, and you want to, it's not too late. Forgiveness of sins becomes real for all who believe in Jesus, love Him and live for Him. In the article "Salvation - the eternal salvation of the soul" you will find the biblical basis of the steps to salvation and the verses that will help you understand how you can become born-again.

• Romans 6:6, 17, 18 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.[...] But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

 
Jesus did everything for our forgiveness, His sacrifice was offered once and for all. It is up to us to understand that after the Holy Spirit has convinced us that we are sinners and we have sincerely asked for forgiveness, we have died to sin and are no longer under its bondage. This means that as we renew our minds with the Word of God, we understand more and more who we are in Jesus and what we have in Him, and as we desire more of what God wants for us, we are transformed becoming more like Jesus. God is love and as we grow in our love for Him, we change and start to love ourselves as our heavenly Father wants and implicitly we will love people as our Lord asks us to do in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
 
God is the most wonderful example of love. He gave His Son to die for our sins so that we can be redeemed from sin and become His children. That's how much He loves us and wants us to be His! When we understand how amazing God's love is for each of us, and receive it, we can truly love Him and others too. No matter what we go through, God's love is perfect, His love does not change towards us, and if we choose to trust Him, we will see how He cares for us and how He uses evil for our good. When we love others, it is easier to forgive, harder to be offended, and as a result we have more peace and enjoy our lives more. If we accept that we are truly forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus, and adopted by the heavenly Father, we desire to live as His true loving children, and we are really free from the bondage of sin. And when we err, we ask for forgiveness, and we know that God "is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9b).
 
Let us never forget that Jesus,
 
„… went once for all into the Holy Place [the Holy of Holies of heaven, into the presence of God], and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, having obtained and secured eternal redemption [that is, the salvation of all who personally believe in Him as Savior].” - Hebrews 9:12 (AMP)
 

Carmen Pușcaș