His for Yours :: Hebrews 9:15-22

Apart from the pouring out of blood, there can be no forgiveness. 

Today, 23 men in the state of Missouri sit imprisoned on death row. All of these men, in a court of law, have been found guilty of murder. Once their appeals are exhausted, they’ll have only one source of hope ... the governor. In the end, the governor ... and no one else ... will have the power to authorize their execution. Only four clemencies have ever been granted in Missouri. Three hundred and seventy four have been executed. 

I speak of these people only because in the just and righteous eyes of God, we are just like them. We are no less guilty. It’s true that none of us have ever “murdered” anyone ... at least not that I know of ... but if we were to stand trial in the heavenly courtroom of God, we’d all be declared GUILTY. In the heavenly courtroom ... God, our Righteous Judge ... would find us guilty of murder and we would be sentenced to eternal death and sent to hell’s death row. 

Why? Because we are sinners and we are guilty. Guilty of sin ... even murder. 

Every ... one of you. And yes, me too.

Every time we hurt or harm someone in thought, word, or deed, we murder them.

Every time we harbor hate or anger in our hearts against our neighbor, we murder him. Every time we fail to come to the aid of our neighbor ... to help and support him in every physical need ... we murder him. 

Spiritually, we spill his blood. And as God declares in Genesis Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed (Gen 9:5-6). 

Now are you ready to talk about your idolatry? Adultery? Theft? False witness? Gossip? Covetousness? Can we even begin to number our sins that have shed blood?

In God’s righteous courtroom, we are under the same judgment as those 23 men who sit on Missouri's death row. For the Law says the wages of sin is death. I know temporally, some of us feel completely separated. Pandemics exacerbate this problem. But we have a more pressing problem spiritually.. 

The governor of Missouri has the authority to grant clemency, to suspend a death sentence, and to allow a guilty man to live. God does not have such a prerogative. As he declares in the book of Numbers, God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. 

Under the Old Covenant, the covenant of the Law, God, our righteous Judge says ... if there is serious injury ... you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 

So now you see the origin of our death row in Missouri. Take life for life. 

To be clear, God didn’t give us this law to condemn the world. He gave us this law so that we could live with him. The Law is for the good of us and our neighbor. It benefits us and our neighbor. 

However, as the Apostle Paul so astutely observed, we won’t obey the law: None is righteous; no, not one. no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good; not even one. 

Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this passage from Romans is about you and me.

It is a harsh truth to bear, isn’t it? 

So, you see Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we are facing ...

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

We, like those men on Missouri’s death row, have only one source of hope. We have only one place to turn. There is only one name by which we will be saved from the blood-guilt that covers our souls. There is only one hope for a pardon from the unquenchable fire and darkness of hell.

That one person is our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In our reading for tonight from Hebrews chapter 9, we discover that our Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15). 

Christ, our high priest, has entered the holy place, the more perfect tabernacle and has secured eternal redemption for you. He did this not with the blood of goats and bulls, but with his own blood, shed for you. He is the great high priest who didn’t need the purification of sins for himself before he entered the holy of holies to redeem his people. He is in himself holy. He took his own blood there to purify our conscience.

He did this for us because he loved us. He did this because he promised. 

Jesus has established a new life for you under a new covenant sealed by his own blood ... a new covenant that set us free from our own death row. 

Upon establishing this last will and testament, in the upper room, a last will and testament we fondly remember as the Lord’s Supper, Jesus sealed the deal by taking your place on death row. In just a little while, we remember how Jesus went to the garden, where his betrayal is completed. He will soon be mocked, and beaten, and condemned for nothing. 

He who knew no sin took our sins upon himself. He was beaten for you, bloodied for you, crucified for you. He was pierced for your transgressions. Jesus died for you. Because God is righteous and just, he poured out all of his wrath for the sins of the entire world upon Jesus ... He did this for you, for me ... for yesterday, for today, for tomorrow, forever. And in exchange for taking the punishment we deserve, 

HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOURS. 

Only Jesus could do this. You couldn’t do this for your loved ones. 

Because only Jesus lived a life without sin. He was born without sin, unlike you. He never committed a sin, unlike you. Jesus was the sinless Son of God, unlike you. Jesus has done something none of us could do, he placed himself under the Law of the Old Covenant in order to offer his life in exchange for yours.

And by doing this, Jesus has fulfilled the Old Law completely. 

He not only actively obeyed every jot and tittle of the Law ... living a life of perfect righteousness and dying a gruesome death in perfect justice ... but by doing so he has brought to light the grace of the New Covenant inaugurated with all his blood. 

This new covenant is a covenant that enables you to live in freedom from sin, freedom from death, freedom in paradise forever. 

To receive this pardon, we need not submit a plea in any earthly court of law. God the Father in heaven has already heard our plea and he has declared not just clemency but your innocence. Jesus took your guilt ... all of it ... so that you who believe in Jesus will be declared innocent. 

I have paid the price with my own blood, he declares. You are forgiven and free.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, throughout these forty days of Lent, we devoted ourselves to the repentance of our sins. That is, in our God-given faith, we mourned that we are sinners in need of pardon. We turned to Christ in faith, recognizing that he alone could save us through his mediation with the Father. 

And he has done this ... Jesus has poured out his own blood for the forgiveness of your sins. For apart from the pouring out of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Thanks be to God. 

And now because Jesus has shed his blood, we have a sure and certain faith. 

In faith, we hold fast to the promise that through Christ’s saving work on the cross, the forgiveness of sins is yours. It is not something you have to grasp. You have inherited the kingdom of God because of the death of Christ. For where there is a will, death is necessary to bring the will into force. For a will never has strength while the one who made it is living (Heb 9:16-17).

Christ sealed his last will and testament with his own blood. 

In this way, the blood of Jesus commutes our death sentence ... not just for murder, but for all our deadly sins ... our pride, anger, gluttony, envy, greed, lust, and sloth ... and yes, even those so-called minor sins. Where there is the pouring out of blood, there is forgiveness. Your forgiveness. 

I am sure you know now that on this Maundy Thursday, I long for the Lord’s Supper with you more than ever before. 

And you know why. It delivers to us the forgiveness of your sins. 

We should never forget why he has given us his body and blood now. And we should never forget why we should do it as often as we meet. He says ... This is my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. 

JESUS HAS GIVEN HIS LIFE FOR YOURS

Now because of it, you have life and salvation. Eternal life is yours. 

Now ... you truly can depart in his peace, forgiven and free.