Horizon Church Christmas Advent Bible Reading Plan: The Joy of Every Longing HeartSample

For thousands of years, faithful men and women worshipped with a deep longing for salvation (Psalm 14:7). Every time a Jewish worshiper brought a lamb to be sacrificed, he or she enacted a colourful prophecy of the future sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Every drop of blood predicted the blood of Jesus that would be shed on the cross. Every gasp as the sacrificial animal drew its last breath foretold the moment Jesus would cry out, “It is finished!” as He gave up His spirit and died (John 19:30).

One sacrifice to replace them all.

Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, forever fulfilled the need for sacrifices. So we now receive forgiveness by the work He finished on the cross. He died once and was raised back to life so that someday soon, we will also be raised with Him for all eternity. And while Jesus’s sacrifice was necessary only once, we need to avail ourselves of it daily.

While faithful Jewish people would buy their doves or lambs to be slaughtered, we receive forgiveness as a gift from our God, “who is rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4–5). So we come to Him, boldly and confidently, confessing our sins and receiving divine pardon because of what Jesus did on the cross. (1 John 1:9–10). We keep confessing, and we continue surrendering ourselves to God, walking in obedience just as Jesus Himself obeyed all the way to the cross (Philippians 2:8).

And we wait…with deep expectation and with hearts filled with longing—we wait for the day when we will be raised with Jesus to His glorious throne. We wait for the day when we will be set free from our nature of sin and death. We wait for the day when we will finally see our precious Saviour face to face, the joy of our longing hearts.

“Come, Thou long-expected Jesus / Born to set Thy people free!” We wait for You.