Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9:26
By now you know that I like to cook. And because of the way I think and what happened to me as a child, the biggest sin that I can make when cooking is to overcook something. Anything overcooked in my book just needs to be thrown away.
So, how did I come to this conclusion? How did I arrive at the place where overcooking is the worst sin in the cooking world? What drove me to this place where the unpardonable sin in the kitchen is to overcook something. Well, like most things in my life, there’s a story.
My mom was a great cook and a not-so-great cook. I know that sounds like a pile of trash, but that’s the truth. There were some things that she was head-and-shoulders above everyone else. And then there was the rest of everything else.
Mom could make pasta from scratch. But not just pasta from a machine. Not on your life. With a fork, she hand mixed the flour and eggs till they just came together. She then kneaded the dough till it formed a perfect ball of pasta goodness. She then rolled and rolled it out by hand till you could almost see through it. It was so thin and tender that it cooked in just a matter of a few minutes in boiling salted water.
And then there was everything else. Her ability to create and cook each and every day was not the stuff that legends are made of. She consistently overcooked everything. It didn’t matter what it was, she overcooked it. Here are just a few examples about how she overcooked our food.
Her fried and scrambled eggs were hard as a brick.
Broccoli and cauliflower plopped on the plate liked like mashed potatoes.
Even with gravy, her roasts felt dry in your mouth.
The edges of her cakes had this charred blackness to them.
This is why I own four instant-read thermometers to make sure that I never, ever, never overcook anything. I’m more than just a little bit fanatical when it comes to not overcooking anything. I’m always, always, always testing the temperatures to get something just done.
Baked potatoes are cooked to 200°F.
Chicken breasts are cooked to 155°F and covered till they reach 165°F.
Cheesecake is baked to 145°F.
Pork chops are cooked to 135°F and covered till they reach 145°F.
Funny thing about cooking something. You can always cook it more but there’s no way to un-cook anything. I once overcooked spaghetti sauce to the point that it was black on the bottom of the pan. There ain’t no way to undo burnt spaghetti sauce.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Let me tell you – we tried. And tried. And tried. We called everyone we knew. We called in every favor, we even offered money for someone, anyone to share the secret for how to un-burn spaghetti sauce. But the truth is that once burned, there’s no going back.
The same thing is true about what Jesus did for us all. He came once and for all so that he could do away with sin once and for all. Jesus wasn’t like every other priest that had to keep going in and making sacrifices over and over again. First, a sacrifice for himself and then another sacrifice for the people needing forgiveness.
So, why is the writer making a really big deal about this to the Hebrews. Because it’s a completely new and different approach to forgiveness of sins. No more repetition of sacrifices. No more wondering if all their sins were forgiven. No more coming back again and again. And while this is a reason, it’s not the biggest reason of all.
Remember where the Hebrews are. Or, what they’re going through. They’re facing persecution from every corner of their lives. From every corner of the world. The Roman government is pushing them around, kicking them out of their homes and cities. Sometimes arresting, torturing and killing them. Their own people have turned their backs on them. So, what can this writer offer these people? What is it that they so desperately need?
Hope. In a word, that’s what these people need. A hope that doesn’t disappoint. A hope that will never leave them or forsake them. The hope is that since all their sins are forgiven once-and-for-all, God is completely satisfied and will receive them into his glorious presence forever.
Because the complete debt of all sins has been taken care of through the one-time death and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, they can go through the difficulties in this world. Yes, there is pain and hardship in our days here on Earth, but an eternity with God our creator and savior is guaranteed. It’s done.
No one said that these Hebrews wouldn’t continue to feel the pain and heartache in this life. But they had a blessed assurance that no more sacrificing was needed because Jesus had already paid it all, giving us hope and peace till we see him face to face.
Noodling Questions
How do we know that something’s done in this life?
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” how should we respond? How do we respond?
Why is our debt with God so crushing?
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