Offering sacrifices to God through love

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; It is helpful to remember that there was no chapter divide when the author wrote his letter. This verse begins with “for,” so he was bolstering his admonition to enter into God’s Sabbath rest by drawing near to the throne of grace where Jesus sits as their high priest, full of mercy and grace. He was building their confidence to draw near by highlighting Jesus’ humanity. He became a man so He could know intimately how to help them. This verse began a section where the author compared the Law’s appointment of a high priest and God’s appointing Jesus as their high priest. There are some similarities that we’ll consider over the next few days as we look at this section. Today, let’s be encouraged by this: God, against whom we sin, must love us greatly to appoint someone to act on behalf of His people to deal with our sins. Sins are the things we do that pertain to God. This reality is implied in 4:13 when he wrote about “Him with whom we have to do.” Everything we do pertains to God, because He made us, and it is to Him that we will give an account. In love, God appointed a high priest for His people, so when Jesus came, we could understand what He was sent to do. Look at the love and wisdom of God in providing a movie trailer, so to speak, to tell us of the good things to come in Jesus. The Levitical Law appointed priests to perform the duties of offering gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people, and as the author later stated, was “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things (Heb. 8:5). The author will speak more about the priests’ ministry later, but we can be encouraged today that all of the gifts and sacrifices required by God’s Law pertaining to our sins has been completely and perfectly offered to God, once and for all. We also learn from this verse that Jesus was appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins on our behalf. We should be overflowing with gratitude to God that He appointed His Son to intercede for us. He has rooted us in Him, and as we live to love with Jesus, we are partaking in the benefits of His service to us. The apostle Paul connected living to love with Jesus and offering sacrifices to God when he wrote to the Ephesians, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Ephesians 5:1). Jesus is still offering gifts and sacrifices to God through us as we walk in love with Him.