Jesus’ Sacrifice: Complete and Once and for All

What is the New Covenant message? Now, the New Covenant message can be summarized into four points. Which are:

1. We are dead to the law. Romans 7:4.
2. Free from the law and not under the law. Galatians 5:18.
3. Not supervised by the law. Romans 7:6.
4. Christ is the end of the law. Romans 10:4.

If you have confusions on this, you need to check out here. If you think that this is about the moral law and ceremonial law, check this here.

Key-verse

We read in Hebrews 10:1–3,

“For the law possessing a shadow of the good things that are to come, not the form of things itself, is never able, year by year, by means of the same sacrifices which they offer, without interruption, to make perfect those who would draw near. For otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the ones who worship, having been purified once and for all, would no longer have conscience of sins? But in them there is a reminder of sins year by year.”

We are Purified Once and For All

So what is the point the author of Hebrews is trying to make? He is saying that if the perfect sacrifice ever existed, and if it was offered, that means we would have been purified once and for all, right? In the Old Covenant, there was no such pure, perfect sacrifice. We did not have such a sacrifice.

However, it says here in the New Covenant, Jesus is that perfect sacrifice. That means he has purified us once and for all. What does that mean? That means your past, present, future sins, everything has been taken care of once and for all. Jesus does not have to die for you again.

What about Daily Confession?

But you might say, “No, no, no, I’m forgiven up until salvation and now it’s up to me to ask for forgiveness.” We should remember each and every sin that we have done and we should confess it that day or else we will be in trouble. It is certainly religious. It has an appearance of something really good, but it’s not the New Covenant.

Let me ask you, we might think that we are forgiven up until salvation, and after that it’s all up to us. So, how many sins have we done in our life? How many sins have we asked forgiveness for? Let’s take a look. About today. How many sins do you think that you have done? There are sins which you are aware of, there are sins you’re unaware of, there are even sins of omission. That means you have sinned and if you forget to ask for forgiveness, that means you will not enter heaven, is it? See, you see where it gets a little bit messy there, right? Our sins were in the future when Christ died for our sins 2000 years ago. Everything was in the future. So, He forgave our sins, even in the future as well.

You just have to receive the forgiveness of Jesus, which is already available to you. You do not have to keep asking for forgiveness over and over and over again to God, who has already forgiven you.

So what if a believer falls into sinful lifestyle – so they just come back?

Repentance means to turn back, so the one thing that we expect from someone who comes back is that he is not in that sinful lifestyle anymore. Like this in Ephesians 4:28, where Paul talks about a thief who was, who used to steal.

And what is Paul’s response about this? He’s saying, “He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.” Paul is not saying that you need to ask for forgiveness to God over and over again. And once you feel that you have forgiveness received, that’s when you need to—you are forgiven—but he’s saying, “He who steals must steal no longer,” right?

That means he’s saying change your direction. Change the direction of your life because that’s not who you are. Really inside, in the Spirit, you are one with the Spirit of the Lord, according to 1 Corinthians 6:17, and you are in Christ.

Jesus is not getting on the Cross again

Imagine a Jewish man who would walk into the temple every year. He would walk into the temple, and while he comes back, hypothetically, let’s say, there is an interviewer who stands there and asks, “Excuse me, sir, I noticed that you were very broken when you walked in. You were really sad and perplexed. But when you got back outside, you have a spring in your step. You’re full of joy. What happened? Did you mention each sin of yours?”

He would say, “No.” “Did God tell you that he would do something for you?” “No.” Then why? Every person, every person in the Old Covenant is going to say, “That is, by the blood of bulls and goats, I am forgiven. Every sin that I did for the last one year, or the Day of Atonement, it was going to be forgiven. Every sin.” He didn’t have to mention every sin that he had committed.

Similarly, for Jesus, He doesn’t. The Bible says that Jesus does not have to go on the cross again. He does not have to do that. Jesus died for your sin once and for all. In the New Covenant, we have been forgiven of everything I have done until now and everything that will be done in the future.

Perfected in Christ

I am completely forgiven. It is finished. It is finished. This is something that we need to understand because if you understand this, it will transform your life. We have been perfected forever. Our future sins, our past sins, and our present sins have been forgiven.

And also, on top of it, we have been sanctified. We have been perfected. You can see this in Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” I believe this is a perfect offering, a perfect verse that will be a final nail on the coffin for people who have said that we are not perfect.

And who say that our future sins are not forgiven and those who say that we are not sanctified. Here it says, by one offering, which is that offering of Jesus Christ at the cross. He has perfected for all time. That means you and I are perfected in Christ Jesus for all time, for all time. Those who are sanctified means those who have been set apart. You and I have been set apart.

See, in 1 Corinthians 6:11, it says, “Such were some of you. You were washed, but you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our Lord.” That means you and I have been sanctified. It’s not that we are progressively being sanctified into the image of Jesus. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus.

Why are we sanctified?

Because we are in Christ Jesus. For by one offering, He’s perfected for all time those who are sanctified. We are perfect forever since we are in him. We are sanctified. We are justified. We are glorified. We are also crucified with him. We were buried with him, and we are seated with him at the right hand of God.

But we might say, we have to come near to God. We’re out of fellowship right now. But that’s not what the Bible says. It says that you are one with him in the Spirit. You cannot get closer than this. The lack of closeness, which you feel, is in your mind. But when you realize that you are as close as you can be, you’re one with him in the Spirit.

That is when you can live out that life of unity in Christ Jesus. You can live it out into the natural and manifest as sons of God and daughters of God in Christ Jesus.

Our High Priest Sat Down

In Christ Jesus, all your sins you’ve forgiven, your past, present, and future sins, and you have a high priest in heaven who is resting. You see this in

Hebrews 10:11–12, “Every high priest, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.”

What does it say? In the Old Testament, when the high priest did his duties, he was not supposed to sit, but rather he was going to stand and perform his duties. He was very busy. And this was a picture, according to the author of Hebrews, of him having a lot of work to do.

But our high priest, Jesus Christ, offered for all time one sacrifice for all sins, and He sat at the right hand of God. So, that means that He is sitting—His work is all done. He said, “It is finished.”

It is Finished or Is it Finishing?

The question we should ask is, are you seated with Jesus saying, “It is finished,” or are you trying to get it right? Are you trying to make things right on top of what Jesus did? You’re not in the process of being forgiven, but rather you are forgiven.

We will not be judged for our sins because Jesus was punished for our sins. He said this in John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

License to Sin?

So, is this a license to sin? It’s not a license to sin. In fact, the grace message is never a license to sin. Read

Remember what Jesus said to the woman who was caught in adultery. He said, “I do not condemn you; go and sin no more.” So first, it was “I do not condemn you,” and then, “Go and sin no more.” Grace empowers you to live a holy life.

Think about this. The law does not give you power; the law empowers sin. It increases transgressions, and it increases the sin in a person. Paul says, “I would not have known sin if the law was not given.” But the law took that opportunity to evoke every sort of covetousness in him when he heard the law.

This is mentioned in Romans 7, where he said, “When I heard the law, ‘You shall not covet,’ it evoked every sort of covetousness in me.”

What are You Conscious about?

If you are conscious about who you are in Christ Jesus, if you’re conscious that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, if you’re conscious that your past, your present, and your future sins have been forgiven, if you’re conscious that you are pure, if you’re conscious that you are anointed in Christ Jesus, if you’re conscious that you are justified in Christ Jesus, if you’re conscious that you have been raised with Him in Christ Jesus—

You will not go out of your character to keep on sinning. Sin will be of no interest to you. You will understand that you don’t have to lower yourself to the level of sin. It will not be attractive anymore.

Now, think about this. If you keep preaching the law-based message all the time, what happens? It creates more sin. Because, let’s say you have a room full of trash, and you have a room which is spotless clean. And then, if you’re out of time and someone gives you trash, you have to throw it somewhere. Are you going to throw it in the clean room, or are you going to throw it in the trashy room? I can bet you’re going to throw it in the trashy room. Why? Because it’s already full of trash—one more doesn’t hurt.

This is what happens to believers who think they are sinners saved by grace. They identify themselves as sinners. They identify themselves by saying, “Oh, I have a sinful nature.” And they say, “I’m a sinner.” And when they say that, and when the opportunity to sin comes, they’re like, “Okay, one more sin. What harm does it do? I’ll just add it to the pile.”

The Real problem is lack of Knowledge

2 Peter 1:3-9 says that

“Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.“

Now, it talks about certain virtues: self-control, knowledge, brotherly kindness, love. Then it says in 2 Peter 1:9, “He who lacks these qualities is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.”

Basically, Peter is saying that if you do not see fruits in the life of a person, that’s because he has forgotten his purification from his former sins. It’s because you are identifying yourself as a sinner. That’s the reason why you are not showing the qualities of someone who’s righteous in Christ Jesus.

Do you see what’s happened here? Do you see that the Old Covenant was a tutor to the New Covenant? The purpose of the Old Covenant was not so that we could keep on doing it perfectly and say, “Oh, I’ve done it perfectly,” because Jesus came. He did the law perfectly. He fulfilled the law, and He showed the Pharisees who claimed to be fulfilling it that they were not even close.

He, in fact, showed that you can never keep the law. And having been placed, having been predestined in Him, what happened is that we became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

New Creation

Being in Him, you are as close as anyone can ever be to Jesus. You are one with Him. That means in the Spirit, you are one with Him. That means you are not recognizable in the Spirit. That means that’s how much your unity is in the Spirit. You are of the divine nature. You are born of the divine seed.

That’s why it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

The old has passed away. We don’t have to keep holding on to the old. You have been purified once and for all. You have been perfected once and for all.

We saw that we have been sanctified. We saw that we have a high priest who sat having finished everything. You don’t have to keep running from place to place, from conference to conference, hoping that they will get something new, that someone would lay their hands on them, someone would give them a new anointing, someone would do something great for them all of a sudden.

Paul says in Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

So that means you do not have to run from conference to conference asking for anointing. Live out your righteousness. It says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and in your spirit, it is one with the Spirit of the Lord.

Conclusion

The only thing that is blocking is your unrenewed mind. Which we will discuss at some other point. I discuss that in Renewing Your Mind: Steps to Unveil Your Identity in Christ.

And we should start agreeing with Jesus that it is finished. He said, “It is finished.” Just agree with Him. Just agree that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Start speaking this way. Start behaving that way. Behave out your righteousness. Behave out who you are.

And that’s when you will see a manifestation and a metamorphosis, like it’s mentioned in Romans 12:2, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” You will see that your transformation happens.

Oh, if you knew the joy that is available in the assurance of what God has given to us.