The Power of Faith

Hebrews Bible Study Chapter 11

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 'All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth...

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise / Hebrews Bible Study Chapter 11

Hebrews Bible Study Chapter 11

Hebrews 10 Bible Study

It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins... First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them’– though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets asid the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.' (Hebrews 10.1-10, NIV)

More from David Hathaway on Paul's epistle to the Hebrews.

The things Moses and David did were a shadow of what things would be like in Heaven. David Hathaway investigates.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

As our High Priest, Christ is our Advocate, the mediator between us and God. He looks after our interests and intercedes for us with God. The Old Testament high priest entered the presence of God once a year to plead for the forgiveness of the nation's sins; whereas Christ makes perpetual intercession before God for us. Christ's continuous presence in Heaven with the Father assures us that our sins have been paid for and forgiven. This wonderful assurance frees us from guilt and fear.

God's promises are unchanging and completely trustworthy because God is unchanging and trustworthy. When promising Abraham a son, God took an oath in His own Name. The oath was as good as God's Name, and God's Name was as good as His divine nature.

Chapter 5 of Hebrews stresses both Christ's divine appointment and His humanity. The writer uses two Old Testament verses to show Christ's divine appointment. At the time this book was written, the Romans selected the high priest in Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, however, God chose Aaron, and only Aaron's descendants could be high priests. Christ, like Aaron, was chosen and called by God.