Freedom!

Perfected forever…Hebrews 10:14

Jesus, by His ultimate sacrifice, did everything necessary according to the law to reconcile us to God. More than reconcile us; He justified us; He sanctified us. We are as close to God as we can be. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect, Hebrews 10:1 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins, verse 4. 

These sacrifices pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world. Jesus removed our sins as far away as the east is from the west. Or, in the words of the poet, as far as one nail from the other. It is Christ who fulfilled the first to establish the second, verse 9. Verse 10: by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. What the blood of animals could not do, Jesus did, once for everyone for all time. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified, Verse 14.

This is freedom. We now enjoy the full effect of reconciliation. Nothing more need to be done to get closer to God. We are in Christ and He is in God. We also enjoy the full effect of justification. Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Romans 8:33. We enjoy the full effect of sanctification, by God’s will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ—once for all, Hebrews 10:10. We have been freed from earning righteousness, but to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, Romans 4:5.

Paul spoke of this foolishness of thinking otherwise. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3:3. Why would anyone return to the slavery of works based salvation? We who were dead in our sins have been made alive in Christ, forgiven of all our sins, Colossians 2:13. Verse 14: having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 1 Corinthians 1:20. Yes. Accept your new life in Christ for by His blood He has set you free. And who the Son sets free is free indeed, John 8:36