By One Sacrifice He Has Made Perfect Those Who Are Being Made Holy

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”

First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Hebrews 10:5-14

Christ’s sacrifice redeems us totally. So in one important sense Christ did for us, what we couldn’t do for ourselves. He made us acceptable in God’s eyes when we place our faith in Him.

It is finished, as Jesus Himself said. Even though His sacrifice is complete and total, we spend the rest of our lives living into that spiritual reality – “being made holy.”

The fact that Jesus has finished something that’s still being worked out in our lives is hard to understand. When we are struggling spiritually, it’s encouraging to remember that Jesus’s sacrifice for us is complete…even if our living it out in this life is still a work in progress. Nothing can stop His intended end from being achieved eventually: being transformed into His likeness.

God is at work to make us who He intends us to be.

Our Daily Bread – August 20, 2018