“And
every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all
time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God…” Hebrews
10:11-13 [ESV]
In Hebrews 10:11-12, the writer contrasted and compared the priests with Jesus. He said the priests stood daily to offer sacrifices. Jesus offered one sacrifice and then sat. He did not have to stand daily to offer again. The priests rise daily, but Jesus said, "It is finished." Compare this with when God finished creating the world, then rested on His throne.
People must rise daily to do things. These things are mundane compared to salvation, but we must do these tasks for survival or for a man-made reason. Some of us rise daily to compete to be better than other people. Others rise daily to do good works hoping to get to heaven, but never find assurance of that or rest. Each day we strive for something. Jesus strove for one thing, our salvation. His goal in life was His end game. The “end game” was to provide the only needed salvation for our sins so that any person who believes He is the Son of God, the Savior, will receive salvation and eternal life.
The questions this should make us ask ourselves is, “For what do we strive? What spurs us on and who drives us? Fame, fortune, and self or the Spirit of Christ within us pushing us to live out our faith so other people can know about Jesus.” Neither ways of living and doing earn us salvation. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation from our sins. Living life with the Spirit in us shows people we are Christians, we are saved. People can experience the real, living, and sacrificial Jesus because of our actions of letting the Spirit live in the world through us.
Jesus does not have to rise each day to offer sacrifices for the sins we did since the last sacrifice. His sacrifice was enough to cleanse each person who trusts in Him from all their sins and their consciousness of their sins. He's been sitting on the right side of the Father’s throne since He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The priests stand, they rise, each day to offer sacrifices because they are given by mortal, sinful men and are from the blood of impure and imperfect sources. Jesus, the pure Son of God, died sinless for all sinners then rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.
The priests rise each day. Jesus sits.
It is finished.
