FoundationsSample

The writer of Hebrews tells us that all the sacrifices we read about in the Old Testament were just a shadow of the real thing. They were good, but people kept having to make them! There never came a point where you had offered enough sacrifices to make yourself perfect. Those types of sacrifices - the blood of animals - could never take away sin. That makes sense, doesn't it? How could an animal's blood--an animal that doesn't think or feel like us, an animal that can't love God in the same way we can, an animal that can't choose to sin as we do--how could an animal like that atone for our sin?

It makes sense that we would need a sacrifice like us, with all the choices and freedom we have. We need a sacrifice like us, only the version of us that made all the right choices along the way. That's why Jesus matters so much. He was a sacrifice like us but without any sin, so he could stand in our place once and for all. And all the sacrifices we read about were pointing us toward him.

Think it Over: What do you feel when you think about the fact that Jesus intentionally left heaven so that he could be a perfect sacrifice for you?