Jesus, our hope and confidence

As I read this verse, I’m reminded of what God the Father said when Jesus came into the world. It’s found in Heb. 1:5. “‘YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’?  And again, ‘I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME.’” In Heb. 10:5-6, our Live to Love Scripture Encouragement, we see what Jesus said when He came into the world. “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.’” The author continued to show that Jesus is God’s appointed high priest sent to bring us to God and present us cleansed and with perfect consciences so we can serve the living God. He had been explaining the weakness of the old covenant and the powerlessness of the sacrifices for sin. In these verses, our hearts take great encouragement from Jesus’ knowledge of what pleases His Father. He came into this world, given a body through the agency of the supernatural impregnation by the Holy Spirit of Mary.  Jesus stated it clearly. He came into this world to sacrifice the body God gave Him so that He could remove sins. That was and is the pleasure of the Father. Jesus knew from the beginning that God was not pleased with what was taking place in the temple. As we have learned, it was only a shadow of Him. He was the good thing to come, the form and substance, the reality of which the entire old covenant was a type.  The writer’s point has been this. Jesus’ coming made the old covenant obsolete. God has provided His own Lamb, His own Son, as the sacrifice for the removal of sins. This harkens back to the story of Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac on the altar. Remember the story. Abraham told Isaac that God would provide for Himself the lamb when Isaac asked, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  This is the love of God that captures our hearts and springs up like a fountain, which turns into a river in our lives. We have come to Christ because we are thirsty, and like the deer pants for the water brook, we drink of Him until He satisfies our souls. Our encouragement today is that we know God is pleased with the sacrifice of His Son, and He is our hope and confidence before God. As we abide in Him and drink our fill of His love, His grace pours out from us to bless the nations.