Perfected By One Final Sacrifice
‘then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. ‘
Have you ever washed your storm door, looked at how beautiful and clean it was, and then watched your spouse walk up and say “Oh, great, I’ve been meaning to clean this.” and then they spray windex all over it and clean it like it had never been cleaned?
That’s never happened to me either.
That second cleaning nullified the first. It was like you never even cleaned it after it got cleaned that second time.
That’s a tiny tiny way of looking at what Christ did for us and the Law. The Law of Moses was really good, but Jesus came along and did everything that Law was meant to do. Not only did Jesus carry the effect of the Law into the world, but He carried it into our souls and — with us — into the Heaven of God.
The priests in the temple had to go perform sacrifices every day to cover up sin. Especially on the Day of Atonement to cover all of the sins of all of the people.
But it’s kind of like covering up a cheerio on the floor. It didn’t make it go away. The temple sacrifices put off judgement until the end.
And if you’ve ever stepped on a dry cheerio, you know the judgement is swift. What was one object becomes hundreds!
But when Christ offered Himself, His single sacrifice was complete. There is no chair in the temple or the tabernacle because a priest can never rest from his work. When Jesus finished His work, He sat down because the work was done. No more sacrificing is necessary.
Not by Jesus, who is the High Priest, nor by us, who are His priestly people.
Meditate on that for a little bit. The Bible says everyone who is in Christ has been perfected. By His one single offering, Jesus made you perfect. Sure, you might not always live perfect, but no sin can approach God and the book of Romans says we can go boldly right up to God’s throne!
Jesus is sitting down. His work to make you perfect is all done. The sacrifice office is permanently closed and it’s number one Employee is done sacrificing. He did it completely the first time.