Daily Devotions
Ephesians
"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and given Himself for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma."
Text: Ephesians 5:2
CHRIST AS THE PERFECT OFFERING
Paul presented Jesus as the one and only Perfect Offering and Sacrifice to God. He was not the only writer in the New Testament who described Jesus in this manner. Let us look at some of the other New Testament writers who held to the same idea.
1. The apostle John
John carefully recorded the proclamation of the forerunner,
Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world!
JOHN 1:29
2. The apostle Peter
Peter, one of the foremost apostles wrote,
Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,
like silver and gold…
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot.
1 PETER 1:18-19
THE BOOK OF HEBREWS
We are most indebted to the writer of the Book of Hebrews whose insights into the significance of Christ as the perfect sacrifice are truly breath-taking.
For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant,
by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions
under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance.
HEBREWS 9:13-15
The following truths may be highlighted:-
1. Jesus is that perfect “offering and sacrifice” offered to God.
2. Through that perfect sacrifice, our consciences are fully cleansed.
3. Through His death we have received redemption from all our transgressions.
4. Through Christ’s sacrifice for us, we have now received the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Let us never take for granted the Lord Jesus, the Perfect offering and sacrifice.