Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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Do you ever get the feeling you’re missing something? I do it all the time. I’ve mentioned before that I create a video daily devotion. You can watch it daily by going to youtube.com/dailybibledevotion. One day last week, I was about go head to my office to film a few devotions. So I’m all ready to go, and I get this feeling that I’m forgetting something. First I check the obvious things. I’ve got my keys, I’ve got my wallet, I’ve got my iPad. I’m fully clothed, so that’s not it. Eventually I convince myself that I’ve got everything, so I left the house and drove to my office, only to realize that I forgot the one thing I needed to create the devotionals: a camera.

It’s easy to overlook things, isn’t it? We get so caught up sometimes with the details or struggles of life that sometimes we forget to pay close attention to the most important things. And when it comes to our faith, remembering the most important thing makes all the difference.

Read Hebrews 7:26-8:6

The beginning of the passage we read summarizes much of what we’ve read in Hebrews up to this point. Verse 26 reminds us that Christ is holy, innocent, unstained. He’s separate from sinners, not in the sense that He would not be near them, because He actually spend most of His time showing compassion to sinners such as ourselves, but in the sense that He doesn’t partake in our sins along with us. And Christ is exalted above the heavens. When He ascended, He went past the stars and past the universe that we can see, the heavens above, and ascended all the way to the throne of the highest heaven. Verse 27 reminds us again that His sacrifice was perfect and final. It doesn’t need to be repeated, because His sacrifice fully accomplished what all the sacrifices of the Old Testament could not. It accomplished our salvation. And verse 28 reminds us that Christ is absolutely perfect, and that He perfectly accomplished everything He set out to do. This means He’s our perfect and final high priest. And Christ will be our high priest forever if we trust in Him.

And then chapter 8 begins with the point of everything written so far (v. 1-2). We have such a high priest! He is ours! This isn’t merely theology, but reality. We ought to be in awe of this Christ! It’s easy to slowly drift away from the main point. We’re so easily distracted. We might blame it on instant coffee, instant dinners, instant answers, instant everything. Or we might blame it on the rise of ADHD. But the real reason we get distracted in life from the most important things is sin.

Jesus is not someone to be in awe of for a moment, and then move on to something else, as if something else is just as awesome. No, Jesus is most awesome. There’s more than enough depth and majesty and wonder to Jesus to focus on Him for all eternity. So we ought to forever be in awe of Him.

But so often we begin to focus on commands rather than Christ. We embrace Christ as Savior, but then we latch onto certain commands as if they’ll save us. Loving your neighbor will not save you. Baptism will not save you. Having a healthy marriage won’t save you. Only Jesus Christ can save you. So Jesus Christ Himself ought always to be our focus, not merely His teaching.

Christ is even the focus of the Old Testament. Even though we never read the name Jesus in the Old Testament, all of the Old Testament points to Him (v. 5). Even the commands in the Old Testament were not to be the focus, but what, or rather who, the commands pointed to. All the commands, all the sacrifices, all the symbolism of the whole Bible points to Jesus. And yet so often we focus on the commands themselves. The Bible is full of wisdom. And we ought to practice what the Bible commands. But we’re always to obey God while being thankful for Christ.

And sometimes we focus on the symbols rather than Christ. One of the greatest symbols of Christianity is the cross. When we see the cross, we’re reminded of the death that Jesus died. But we’re also reminded of His victory over death! We don’t find Jesus on the cross, because Jesus rose from the dead! We don’t have a high priest who is continually sacrificing Himself over and over again. We have a high priest who sacrificed Himself once for all, and who rose from the dead, conquering death, and ascended to the right hand of God the Father in heaven!

I think it’s so fitting that we have a cross in our baptistry. Think of how much symbolism is packed in such a small place! Baptism symbolizes the washing away of our sins. And it also symbolizes our dying to self and having new life in Christ! And it symbolizes how after this life, we’ll be raised from the dead and be completely clean! And the backdrop of all of this symbolism is the cross, which made all of this possible. Because Jesus died on the cross, we can have life! And when we put our faith in the Jesus who died for us, all our sins are washed away. Such rich symbolism! And all of it is meant to direct us to focus on Christ. But many now hold the cross to be merely a good luck charm. Listen, the cross means nothing without Christ. Christ should be our focus.

Our lives should be all about pointing to Jesus Christ. He is our high priest. He is our Savior. He is our God.