Hebrews 10 - a look at the wonder of God's forgiving nature.

[Annie]

Originally Posted by Hebrews 10

1 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. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:


“ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’”

8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them ” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.


And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

this is one of the passages we looked at in church today. its really an amazing passage that i think Christians ignore too often. In it, we're assured of our standing in Christ - because we accepted that free gift of salvation, repented of our sins and turned to Him we stand perfect in the sight of God. He did it. He paid the cost and set us free because He made the one offering no mere man could make and by doing so has perfected us. Once for all, forever.

Originally Posted by Isaiah 63

5 I looked, but there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.
6 I have trodden down the peoples in My anger,
Made them drunk in My fury,
And brought down their strength to the earth.”

There is a lie that i've come across on more than one occasion in the church that Christ only did part of the job, we're not entirely forgiven. We need to work off the rest of our debt to earn God's forgiveness. But you know what? Thats impossible. Hebrews 10:11:

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

is reflected in other places in Scripture, the most famous of course is found in Ephesians:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

He made us alive. Not partially alive. but fully alive where once we were dead. We are the workmanship of God, our salvation is entirely a gift from Him. We could not save ourselves in part or in whole, which is why we needed Christ's atonement. We were dead in trespasses and sins. The dead man simply cannot revive himself. And all are under the same guilt, all have sinned. I'm guilty, you're guilty, Mother Theresa was guilty (Romans 3:23).

We can basically do all the good things in the world that would mark us, in the eyes of our fellow human beings, as great humanitarians, wonderful people, the salt of the earth. But aside from Christ's cleansing and redeeming blood we are still lost and dead in our sins. No amount of good deeds can tip the scales in our favour to save our souls or appear worthy in the eyes of God for salvation. We are simply dead.

Thats where Christ comes along. His death on the cross meant life for those of us that have humbled ourselves, and repented of our sins, turning away from them to follow the Lord, and recognizing that we are dead apart from His saving grace and what Christ accomplished on the cross in dying in our place bearing the wrath of God in our place and resurrecting on the third day.

When Christ died he said three words before He died and those words were "It is finished." What was finished? The price had been paid to satisfy the wrath of God against humanity due to our sinful nature in rebelling against Him. To all who would believe forgiveness is granted:

Originally Posted by Romans 3

21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

And once He had done this and the price had been paid, He sat down at the right hand of God. There was no more work to be done.

Originally Posted by Hebrews 10

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

We who are being sanctified in the flesh have already been made perfect in standing before God. Isn't that amazing? We have nothing to fear when our lives on earth are over because we know the wrath of God will not fall on us. Just like in Exodus when the angel of death came to Egypt the Lord's wrath passed over the doors of those houses covered by the lamb's blood so will the Lord's wrath pass us over when He looks at us and sees us standing in the covering of the blood of the One Perfect Lamb.

Yes we'll still sin but according to this passage we've been perfected *forever*. Because we sin we do not lose that salvation (although he should strive to live holy lives out of obedience to our Saviour - how we live our lives reflects what we truly believe, if we're content to live in rebellion against Him - do we really believe in Him or what His word says?). Where there is remission, there is no more any offering for sin because that price has been paid. Once for all. There's nothing we could do to make ourselves appear any more righteous in His sight.

How awesome is the freedom and forgiveness we've found in Christ that no other could offer us

[dancingwithangels]

Yeah, for my Bible study as a TIM(Teen In Ministry) at Camp Canyonview, we looked at Hebrews, and we discussed how it says Christ isn't standing at the right hand of God, but sitting, because His work is done and we are saved.