Devotions

Dr. Joseph Parker, a nineteenth-century preacher in London, admitted in his autobiography that he began to give too much attention to the modern theories of his day, theories that tried to make the fundamentals of the word of God intellectually respectable and palatable. He didn’t realise that these teachings were getting a grip of him. Suddenly, tragedy struck. His wife took ill and within a few hours was dead. He relates that in the weeks that followed he walked around his empty house with a heart that was breaking. He could find no rest in modern theories.

It was then, he says, “in those hours of darkness, in those hours of my soul’s anguish when filled with doubt and trembling in fear, I bethought myself of the old gospel of redemption alone, through the blood of Christ: the gospel I had preached in those earlier days- and I put my foot down on that! And my brethren, I found firm standing. I stand there today and I shall die resting upon that blessed, glorious truth of salvation alone through the precious blood of Christ.”

The book of Hebrews was written to encourage and reassure believers who were suffering persecution. Over and over again the writer draws their attention to the blood of Christ. The greatest-indeed the only truly reliable and lasting-comfort anyone can have is to rest upon the truth that Christ, by His own blood, has obtained eternal redemption for you. The blood atonement provides comfort in life and in death.