13:36,37
Paul then makes the simple point that the Psalms cannot have been ultimately talking about David, for David died, was buried and his body did see decay. However, the words of the Psalm were meant to be taken literally, so they must have been talking about someone else. And that someone else is Jesus who did die, was buried, but did not see decay, for He was raised to life on the third day. David, along with other heroes of the Old Testament, was a type of Christ. He exhibited some of the characteristics of Christ, but was nowhere near the “real thing”. There is also an interesting point on how literally to take things. Up until the time of Christ, the “not seeing decay” part seemed as though there was no way it could be meant to be literally true, yet it was.
13:38
The upshot of all this is that “through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed”. Sin is our biggest problem. An awful lot of the Pentacheuch and the religious practice of the Jews was centred around the sacrifices, the need to atone for sin. As Hebrews makes clear, the blood of goats and sheep could not really take away sin. Only the blood of the Son of God does that. We might think that in our non-Jewish societies sin doesn't have the same significance, but it is true that guilt is a massive problem, and our failure in a multitude of ways is a serious issue. We normally try to deal with this by pretending that sin is not sin, or that we can do better next time. These are an illusion, only Christ is the true and effective answer.
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