Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross, was buried and rose the third day. He then ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. But why did Jesus sit down?

We have to understand the Old Covenant priesthood to see why Jesus sat down.

Under Israel’s Law, the high priest had to constantly do work, standing in the Temple, offering sacrifices for Himself and the people. It was a never-ending job.

Hebrews 10 “For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. ² Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? ³ But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. ⁴ For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.^“

The wages of our sin is death – and therefore the only thing that can forgive our sins is the death of an innocent and blameless substitute.

But under the Old Covenant, they didn’t have the perfect sacrifice:

• the blood of animals cannot take away our sins
• the high priest represents the people. If the high priest is perfect then the people are declared righteous. But under the old covenant, the high priest himself was a sinner and therefore he could not obtain forgiveness for the people.
• This is why the high priest under the Law had to constantly offer sacrifices for 1500 years because their sins were not taken away.
• This is why the high priest could never sit down in the Temple because his work never ended – their sins were not taken away under the Old Covenant.

But then Jesus Christ came as the New High Priest under the New Covenant:

Hebrews 10 “⁹ then he (Jesus) has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, ¹⁰ by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, ¹² but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, ¹³ from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Jesus is the sinless High Priest AND He is also the perfect sacrifice.

His death on the cross took away our sins once and for all…..because He never sinned.

He made us perfect once and for all by His death and resurrection.

He never sinned but lives forever unlike the sinful high priests of the Old Covenant.

Christ SAT DOWN because He has taken away ALL our sins for the believer in the New Covenant.

Hebrews 10 ” ¹⁵ The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, ¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them:  ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;’” then he says, ¹⁷ “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.”

¹⁸ Now where forgiveness of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”

If we believe in Jesus, then God promises to never judge us. He will never account our sins anymore because Jesus took away our sins by His final sacrifice.

Christ SAT down because there is no more sacrifice for our sins.

His death on the cross was the ONE-TIME PERFECT SACRIFICE that took away our sins forever.

Jesus will not die again because we are permanently forgiven forever as believers.

We are forgiven past, present and future sins.

Hebrews 1 “³ His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus finished the work and that is why HE SAT DOWN.

He made the believer PERFECT FOREVER.

And this is why, we are ALSO now SEATED with CHRIST, saved by grace, forgiven permanently, never to be judged!

Ephesians 2 “⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,“

Let us rejoice and live in the freedom of GRACE.