The Daily Word of Righteousness

A Giant Step Forward, #24

But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."  Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."  And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. (Hebrews 10:12-18)

The Lord Jesus Christ was an Offering for our sins. Christ is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. In other words, the forgiveness has come. Now we are waiting for the deliverance, that is, for the enemies of Christ in us to be brought under His feet.

The Lord writes His laws in our heart and mind. He also remembers our sins and lawless acts no longer.

The two have to go together. The new covenant is not complete when our sins and lawless acts are forgiven. The new covenant also makes us a new creation by carving the eternal law of God in our heart and mind. We are made a new creation as the old adamic nature dies and the new Nature of Jesus Christ is created in us.

These two actions must go together. In order to be redeemed we must be forgiven; then we must be transformed into righteous people. If no transformation takes place in our inward nature, if the eternal moral law is not inscribed there, then the program of redemption has been aborted and we shall perish in the wilderness of unbelief and disobedience. We shall not enter the rest of God's perfect will. This is the thesis of the Book of Hebrews.

Notice again:

Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14)

The only believers who are made perfect forever by the one sacrifice of the Lord Jesus are those who are being made holy. We are made holy only as we are following the Spirit of God each day in putting to death the deeds of our sinful nature. We have to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. If we do not, we are not partakers of the salvation that is included in the new covenant.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, But only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26,27)

It is fashionable today to discard such passages as the above as not applying to Christians. If the above two verses do not apply to Christians, then neither do any of the other passages of the Book of Hebrews apply to Christians, including Chapter Eleven, the "faith chapter" (an account of actions taken under the old covenant, thus revealing the continuity from the old covenant to the new covenant and thereby invalidating the concept of a "new dispensation" of "grace").

To be continued.