ix. 13, 14)

“For the Law having a shadow (or shadowing forth) of good things to come, and not the very image (or substance and reality) of the things, can never by those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Heb. x. 1). It was “therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens, should be purified with these, {48a} but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices {48b} than these” (Heb. ix. 23).

The passage last quoted follows verse 22, which declares, “without shedding of blood is no remission” (See also Lev. xvii. 11). But if it was impossible that the blood shed under the law of Moses (Heb. x. 4), should take away sins, it is evident that other blood _must be_ shed of which that was typical, and which should be effectual for the purpose, agreeably to Heb. ix. 15, referring to Christ; “For this cause He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” In the former sacrifices there was a remembrance again made of sins every year (Heb. x. 3). But after the one Sacrifice for ever it is said, “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (x. 17).

“And having made peace _through the blood of His cross_, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether things in earth or things in heaven” (Col. i. 20).

“In _the body of His flesh through death_, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight” (Col. i. 22).

Thus we are given to understand that the sins of future generations, should be atoned by the one offering of Christ, as well as those of past generations, so that all generations alike owe their salvation to the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, in whom “all are made alive, and who is the one only hope of glory. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. xv. 22) in such manner that if we are united to Him we partake of what is His, and shall find in Him all that we can need as a Saviour, Mediator, Intercessor, and Redeemer.

Nothing is of us; all from Christ. In Him is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9); full of grace and truth (John i. 14). All power is committed to Him in heaven and in earth (Matt. xxviii. 18). As maker and upholder of all things, blessings, spiritual and temporal, are in His hand (Heb. i. 2, 3); and in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. ii. 3), and “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. vii. 25).

Can we not now with reverent feeling enter into somewhat of the deep meaning of those few words of our Lord, “_That thus_ IT MUST BE” (Matt. xxvi. 54)? and of that awful scene which had just passed in the garden of Gethsemane, when He had thrice prayed—“_If it be possible_, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt”—when His soul was “exceeding sorrowful even unto death” (Matt. xxvi. 38, 39); and when “there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven strengthening Him (Luke