We Have an Altar

Grace Bible Church

Hebrews 13 warns believers not to trust in strange doctrines and rituals with sacrifices and meats, such as the old Jewish religion under the Mosaic law. Rather, believers must be established in God's grace, His Gospel, our salvation through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.Those who have been preoccupied with animal sacrifices, physical rituals, and strange doctrines have never received any profit from what they are clinging to.The Gospel grace that establishes our hearts comes from our spiritually feeding upon Christ's body and blood – not some ridiculous notion of transubstantiation, or trust in the eating of the symbols of the Lord's Table.Any religion that requires a continuing physical offering for sin or other works of the law – the meats that Hebrews is warning against – will not profit anybody.But even worse, those who still partake of those abolished and worthless physical things are barred from eating at the Altar of Christ, His sacrifice, and His priesthood. If you are still serving at the Old Testament Mosaic sacrificial tabernacle – or any other sacrifice than Christ's – you are barred from Christ and all His benefits.The Sacrifice of our Altar lives forever, and presents His sacrifice before God forever for us!All others have no right to partake of Christ's Altar at all, which is profoundly sad, since what they depend on provides no life and no food at all.That's because, under the rules of the Mosaic altar, the bodies of the Day of Atonement sin offerings, which Hebrews has focused upon, could not be eaten, but were taken outside the city walls and burnt up.In the end, the animal sacrifices provided no food to eat at all.