Perfected Forever!

Points of Grace

Hebrews 10:12, 14  ¹²  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,  ¹⁴  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Preachers who preach the Grace of God often have a number of accusations aimed at them. That they: encourage an environment to sin, shun any form of confession, and believe God is never angry. They are accused that they fail to take sin seriously enough. I’m not minimizing sin, I’m magnifying Jesus.  People who want you to focus on your sin, they minimize sin, they are saying that sin is so weak that you can defeat it by your religious self-discipline.  The message is not that God doesn’t think sin is a big deal, in fact, it’s that He found sin such a big deal that He sent his Son to destroy it, and remove it from our lives forever.

It is actually those opposed to “grace” who fail to take sin seriously. They believe sin is a small enough debt that after Jesus makes the initial payment for our sin, that we are capable of assuming the payments.

A key to unpacking this scripture is to recall the audience.  Hebrews was written to the Hebrews.  It was for those who had grown up with the “elementary teachings” of the Old Covenant. In other words, the author writes for an informed audience. They know all about the law, sacrifices, and high priests. But what they don’t understand is that the law was only a shadow of the good things to come. The law points to the true high priest Jesus and His eternally perfect sacrifice.

Jesus has, not going to one day, perfected us forever.

“Perfected forever” is the strongest linguistic form of expressing the completeness of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross.

Perfected is the same Greek word ‘finished’, Jesus said it is finished!  It means perfectly perfect, never needs to be done again.  You may say that you’re far from perfect.  That’s true as far as your flesh, your “outward man”, but your “inward man/your spirit” has been perfected when you were born again.

Hebrews 12:23 ²³  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,

You were made perfect by a perfect sacrifice.  God sees you with no flaws, spots or imperfections, so honor His Word and the finished work of Jesus by saying, “Amen!”  Don’t doubt your perfection in Christ.  To see yourself as being far from perfect is not humble, but a failure to understand the perfect sacrifice that Jesus has made for you.

Your sins have been purged perfectly. Today, Jesus is seated at His Father’s right hand not because He is the Son of God (although that is true), but because His work of purging your sins is completely finished and perfect!  Live out of this revelation.

So instead of being conscious of your sins, which is to have an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22), you can have a perfect conscience, a conscience that is free from the guilt and condemnation of sins.

When you find yourself conscious of your sins, just say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your wonderful work at the cross. It is a perfect work that has removed all my sins completely. “Behold The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world!”(John1:29)  Stop beholding your sin and start beholding Him and sin will have no power over you.

Dell Young, Senior Pastor of GracePoint Church in Valdosta, Georgia