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commit incest with him as he lay unconscious, and call him righteous' (2 Peter 2:6-8).

And therein lies the hope for all of us: a hope that is so succinctly explained in Hebrews 9.

Strangely enough, although it is made abundantly clear in scripture, most Christians seem confused as to why Jesus' blood, shed on the cross, is able to pay for their sins. It's simply a doctrine that most Christians accept without understanding how it works. But God has not left us without explanation.

Hebrews 9:22 makes clear that: "almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

Notice particularly that it says here, "by the law", because we will be re-visiting that point shortly.

A few lines earlier, in verse 15, we are also told, "for this cause [Jesus] is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

None of which, as yet, is a especially startling revelation in itself. Most Christians have been able to add two and two and make four from these scriptures before.

What most people have seemed to miss, however, is the significance of those words in verse 22: "almost all things are by the law purged with blood".

The astonishing revelation that this unveils is a profound truth that, as I said before, runs right the way through the whole Bible. What is revealed here is that it is not sin that requires blood to be forgiven; it is law that requires blood for the forgiveness of sin.

If at first that sounds like a tautology, in fact, it is not.

You see, Jesus categorically said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil the law. This he did by satisfying the law's requirement that blood be shed for sin, by giving up his own for us, once and for all, for ever.

Right there and then, on the Cross, Jesus rendered the law impotent and, by his death, drew out its sting. Which is why, in Romans 8, the Apostle Paul tells us:

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after

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