Hebrews 9:23-28
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
I struggle to stay with the writer in Hebrews 8 and 9 in his description of Old Testament laws, rituals, rules, and requirements. They seem like so much rigmarole to me. They seem tedious, endless, petty, and impractical.
To some extent that’s exactly the point that is being made. The Old Testament laws, rituals, and rites were, according to the apostle Peter, “yoke … that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.” (Acts 15:10). But what man could not do, Christ did. His life required no atonement for sin. He never had to offer a sin offering. He kept the law from his heart and then offered himself as the atoning once-for-all sacrifice for our sins.
Sometimes our religious rigmarole might get in the way of others in their search for God. Sometimes our religiosity and trappings get in our own way. Whatever rites we may perform, or rules we may embrace, we must never think they are the means by which we are saved.
God channels his grace to us by his word of grace and truth. He seals those promises in baptism and communion. In these gifts we are invited into the very presence of God with Christ. Let them never become obligations of religious performance, but remain treasures of his grace in Christ.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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