559. Being Made Perfect Hebrews 10_14

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry Sr. I'm grateful that you're joining us today. So today I want to talk about Hebrews 10:14 "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." That was from the English Standard Version.

Do you ever think about the word sanctification or what sanctification means? In a way, it just means to be set apart for something special. We dedicate certain things may have good dishes, maybe putting out your Christmas dishes right now, as you hear this. In this chapter, the author is talking about the Jewish sacrifices, and it begins in Hebrews 10:1.

He points out that the sacrifice has never finished the job. They had to sacrifice over and over and over again for thousands of years. But the sacrifices never made them right with God, for the long haul. To be holy or to be sanctified, that means to be totally dedicated for a special use. Sacrifice is only substituted for the payment for our failure.

God allowed the Jewish people to make a sacrifice to pay for their failures. The next failure had the same problem though. They had to sacrifice again. The sacrificial system was only designed to point people to Jesus. This passage states that Jesus completed or that he perfected for all time, the sacrificial system. He ended it.

I often, when I mess up, when I spend time not thinking about God, when I overeat or when I behave in some way, that's just not God honoring, sometimes I feel like I have to give penance, or I have to make some penalty. And I think that goes back to, what's built into us around these sacrifices. This passage is telling us that Jesus finished this job.

Now I confess, I don't understand God. He went to a tremendous amount of trouble to save us. I can't fathom the extent of the trouble and I can't even imagine the expense and the difficulty. But Jesus has made it all seem so easy for us. Our salvation is complete. We experienced this one offering that completed for all time those who are sanctified.

And yet there's still a job for us. There's a calling for us to continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus too.  I would like to concentrate on the piece of this that Jesus has finished. I've been set apart for God. Now there's still growth that needs to happen in my life.

And that growth is sometimes called sanctification as well. But I have been set apart. I have been completed; my sacrifices have been completed through Christ. I've been freed so that I can join Jesus in his work in our world. My seat with Jesus is reserved and therefore I'm free to take part in Jesus's work in our world.

Today, let's enjoy being completed. Let's enjoy being God's perfected people. No, we're not perfect. We don't live out the perfection, but the credit for that perfection, as far as it stands in our relationship with God is credited to our account. We're free to help others move closer to Jesus today because of what he's done for us.

How might that affect your plans for today? Might that change the way that you interact with the people that you come in contact with today? I hope it does. I hope today that we can focus our energy and our faith on how we live because of what Jesus has done for us. We're free to now take part in helping others move one notch closer to Jesus.

And that's what ministry is. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of others. Let's remember today that Jesus has completed the payment for us. And it's our job to simply live as his friends and his children and invite other people to move one notch closer with Jesus.

Thanks very much.