Click here to watch the video version of this study
How many times have you heard the phrase “we are sinners saved by grace”? It’s a common phrase in Christian communities. And most people agree with it. Another one is “God sees you in Christ”… that is a very true statement; God does indeed see you in Christ today. However what I want to share with you is why He sees you in Christ, and the totality of what that statement means. Because we have started to accept a distorted, lesser view of who we are and what we have in Christ Jesus today, than what is actually true, and God wants us to see all of who He has made us to be.
You see, most believers have this idea that they are actually still a sinner, still dirty, still unclean, but that because of what Jesus did on the cross, that God can somehow “look passed” all of that filthiness and see you clean, as if your cleanliness was some kind of trick or fraud or just an illusion. That is not the truth however, your righteousness is not just a mere illusion, and we will see why today.
We begin today with Hebrews chapter 10, because this part of scripture compares and contrasts in a very detailed way, the Old Covenant and the old way of doing things, versus the New Covenant and what has been accomplished. Look at the first three verses of Hebrews chapter 10:
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.”
So right from these three verses, we can learn quite a lot. First of all, we know that Hebrews was written to (not surprisingly) the Hebrew people, those who had the Law, those who had the traditions handed down from their forefathers. These people were now being told that there is a new way, that the Messiah – namely Jesus [yeshua] – had come, and now there was a New Covenant, a new way.
Many of these people were still clinging to the old Law and traditions for a variety of reasons, ranging from peer-pressure, religious indoctrination, even from their Jewish brothers, and their own family. And we actually see the very same things happening today to Christian believers. Many Christians are still clinging to the Old Covenant, for the very same reasons: be it pressure from traditions (this is the way we have always done it, I’ve believed this way my whole life), religious indoctrination (my pastor told me this so it must be true), and yes even pressure from your brothers and sisters in Christ, your church family or home family (if I stand-up for this truth I’ll be an outcast).
Believe me, I understand those feelings, but there is one relationship that should be valued above all the others, and that is your personal relationship with God, and if He is telling you something about what He accomplished for you, it would be wise to listen closely. Look at what is said in these verses here:
The Law [that is the Old Covenant of Moses] having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices offered year after year make those who come, perfect.
This tells us some things about the Law of Moses. First it tells us that the Law, is not the “good things to come” – it is only a shadow of the good things… sort of like how a photograph may in some ways remind you of a person or an event, but the photograph is not the actual person or event. Likewise, the Law is not the good things, but merely a shadow of them. It would be odd if while you were out with your friend, you refused to talk to them directly and just kept staring at the photograph of them, even when they are right their with you. Yet that is exactly what many believers are doing today – clinging to the Old Law, gripping it with both hands and refusing to let it go, even when Jesus has finished it and brought us into a new and better covenant with better promises, where He is always with us.
Look at the second-half of the verse again… the Law can never with those yearly sacrifices make those who come perfect. The Old Law System, the old sacrifices never actually made anyone perfect. They never actually cleansed or completed anyone. There are many today who think that after coming to Christ, we then must “move on” to the Law, and become more “spiritually mature” or that we must keep the Law to show gratitude to God – or whatever the latest way to try and back-door the works of the Law into the New Covenant is – but just as Galatians 3:3 says, we do not begin in the Spirit and then become perfect by the flesh. That’s like starting at the finish line and then trying to win by running backwards – it just doesn’t work and it is exceedingly foolish. Verse 1 plainly says that those sacrifices can never, can never make those who come perfect.
Verse 2 says that if those sacrifices could have made people perfect, they would have stopped being offered! Because they would have purged the people of sin, and they would have no more conscience of it! Now that is huge! The commonly held belief today is that people go to church, hear a hard message that convicts them of sin, and their behaviors and they consider that to be “good preaching” because they are so works-focused and performance driven that they can’t see the forest from the trees. They think that they go to church to learn how to behave better, and to heighten their conscience of sin.
However look at verse 2 again: If those sacrifices had worked, the people should be purged and would’ve had no more conscience of sin! So the definitive test of whether a sacrifice worked, was that the conscience of the people would not be on sins any longer! Why? Because they would’ve been completely clean! However in regards to those sacrifices, verse 3 goes on to say that in those sacrifices, there was a remembrance of sins every year. The people were constantly brought back to the remembering of sin every year, they couldn’t never be clean with those sacrifices – those sacrifices were not able to truly take away sins (as verse 4 says), so the conscience of the people could never be clean.
Now look at verses 8, 9 and 10, of the same chapter:
“Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you would not, neither had pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Then said he, See, I come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second.
By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Notices verse 8, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin you would not, well that covers everything then doesn’t it? It doesn’t just include one type of offering, or one specific type of sacrifice, but all of them. And guess what? It also includes anything new that we might come up with today. It also includes all of the sacrifices and offerings and little rituals that we try to perform to appease God today as well. It includes when you lay awake at night still feeling the guilt and shame of something that you did earlier. That would be considered a sacrifice – you’re punishing yourself for something that you did. But God doesn’t really want that, just as God didn’t really want them, nor did He take pleasure in them which are offered by the Law. Those never really did please Him. Why did He allow them then? Because remember verse 1: they were a shadow of the good things to come… Namely Christ Jesus and His covenant. The old sacrifices were like a photograph of Jesus, but now that Jesus Has come and finished the work, we can rightly put the photograph away and enjoy the real Person.
Is that what God wants? Does God really want us to put the Law away and focus entirely on what Christ has done? Some people would consider that to be blasphemy today, and that’s why verse 9 exists in your Bible: Then said He [that’s Jesus] I come to do your will O God, Whose will did He come to do? Man’s will? No… God’s will!
Well now, what was God’s will? Look at the rest of the verse: He takes away the first [The Old Covenant of the Law] to establish the second [The New Covenant of Grace].
And look at the result in verse 10: By the which will, we are sanctified through the offering [definite article] of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.
This is a one time offering, once for all. And it is complete. Done. You are not trying to become sanctified – No – you have been sanctified already.
So what about completeness then? We know that the Old Law and sacrifices never made anyone perfect. Did Jesus do that too? Take a look at verse 14:
“For by one offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified”
My friend, you have already been sanctified and perfected, by the one offering of Jesus Christ. These are not goals that you are striving for, these are facts that you can thrive in, right now. God wants you to start living in this identity today. Start recognizing who you truly are in Him.
Today in Christ Jesus, you are not just a sinner with a cloak of righteousness over top. You are a completely new creation in Him. You have been reborn. Who you were is not who you are today in Christ. You are not a dirty, rotten, sinner with a disguise of righteousness on. You are a new creation, a righteous creation sanctified and reborn through the sacrifice of Jesus and His finished work for you.
When Jesus died on the cross, your old self died with Him (Galatians 2:20). The person that you were is dead. The Life that you live now, you live with His life. That is righteous. That is holy. That is completely sanctified and accepted. Never needing to be ashamed.
This is why your righteousness is not just an illusion, it is your true identity in Christ. Who you were is dead and gone. (Colossians 2:20, Romans 6:8, 2nd Corinthians 5:14), and who you are today is of God, with all of the righteousness, sanctification and acceptance of Christ Himself. That is not blasphemy, that is Biblical reality! The Spirit inside of you is the very same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11), and that same Spirit also testifies that you are a child of God (Romans 8:16), and causes you call God your Father, your Abba, your Daddy (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).
Now come on, if God is your daddy, that means your His child. Your His son. You are of God (1st John 4:4), and being of God means that all of your created value from God has been restored by Jesus Christ! That means today, you don’t wake-up and strive to change who you are and try to become something of worth or value, and then get disappointed when you fail and fall backwards into the pit of works-based lies. No, instead you wake-up today already inside the idenity of who Jesus has made you to be, recognizing the very worth and value of Jesus is who you are and you can approach God your Father with boldness and confidence. You can smile at Him and embrace Him because you know He is smiling at you and embracing you. And you can live in the place of total divine love and freedom knowing that the bondage of sin hasn’t just been hidden from God’s view… but totally removed. You have been purged, through death. The wages of sin is death, and your old person died with Christ on the cross, and the life that you now live, is His. That is your identity.
Your righteousness is not an illusion. God sees the righteousness of Jesus on you, because through Him, that’s exactly who you are. That is not a hoax, it’s not a fraud it’s not a trick. It’s your true identity. Now receive that, and live in that place.
Be blessed.