“…for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

This is a powerful and profound verse. We often focus on the word repeatedly and thus miss the words ‘foundation of the world.’ If it were necessary for Jesus to die on the cross to forgive sin, then he would have had to do so every day once Adam and Eve entered the world outside of Eden. All of the sacrifices you read about from Abel to Jesus could not take away the sin of the world. It did do something about individual sins but not the ‘sin of the world.’ The entire creation came under the penalty of sin and none of those deaths and none of that blood could change that. Only the blood of Jesus, the sinless Son of God, could banish the cost of sin.

When Jesus was sacrificed, he was sacrificed for the sin of the world. He took care of your sins and my sins and He righted the wrong that was done in the garden. The garden is restored. The way back to the garden is now assured. At the end of the pre-Jesus world, all that had been before was erased in the blood of a new and perfect high priest who is the mediator of a new and perfect covenant which provides a new and perfect garden with God.

Task for Today: You can choose today to be a part of the new world or you can choose to stay in the world that was which was dominated by sin. The new world is without that sin. Those in Jesus are in the new world and they are free from the penalty of sin. Jesus has taken care of sin by the cross and by the shedding of His blood. Be washed in the blood. Have your sins forgiven. Arise, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Paul went straight to baptism. What about you? Today is the day of salvation.