Ouachita Stories

I love the feeling of a completed task, whether that is looking over my lawn after a day of mowing, marking the last item off a "to do" list with a triumphant check, or, when I was in school, the joy that came from turning in the last big paper of the semester. Many of you, no doubt, are currently working on papers and looking forward to that feeling in the near future.

When it came to the work of an Israelite priest, his work was never finished. The author of Hebrews tells us that day after day priests repeatedly offered sacrifices for people who repeatedly sinned. In addition to the never-ending nature of the task, Hebrews 10:11 says that those sacrifices were actually unable to accomplish the task of taking away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.

Hebrews 10:12-13

The author of Hebrews wants to make sure we realize that Jesus is a priest unlike any other. Those who follow Christ have an advocate who was able to accomplish what other priests never could with the single act of offering himself as a sacrifice. Now, not only is Jesus done with offering sacrifices to pay for sins, but we are as well. Though it's tempting to think of our good deeds as some kind of make-up for the bad we've done, they are as ineffective as the Old Testament sacrifices at taking away sins. Because of what Jesus has done, God says, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Remember that Jesus sat down. The God who once rested after creating the world now sits down after redeeming it. Having completed his task, he sits, rules and waits. There's nothing you can do that would force him to have to stand back up and offer another sacrifice. He's done it all.

With faith in Jesus Christ, take comfort that your acceptance before God does not depend on what you did yesterday or what's on your plate today.

By James Taylor, Director of Campus Ministries