You are perfect because of ONE offering

Hebrews 10:14 - "For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified."

Wow. If you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior does God view you as perfect? Yes. And for how long? Forever.

Re-read that and let it sink in.

Now the Bible says you are sanctified (past tense). I used to preach that "Yes, you've been justified, but now you have to be sanctified." In other words, you were saved by grace; now you have to do things to maintain your salvation, or at least keep your holiness. This usually meant spending a certain amount of time per day with God or not watching bad movies.

"Well Aaron, doesn't the Bible say without holiness no one can see the Lord?" Yes, so praise God that Jesus made me holy, and I am staying holy because Jesus is seated at the Father's right hand.

So am I sanctified right now? Or is it a process? Again, I used to think it was a process.

But let's look at 2 Corinthians 6:9:

"Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but you ARE washed, but you ARE sanctified, but you ARE justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

Because of one offering, one sacrifice, we have been made perfect forever. Don't ever let the devil lie to you!

Do you have to confess your sins IN ORDER to be forgiven?

Do you believe this?

Confess each sin in order to be forgiven. Confess each sin in order to be forgiven. Notice the words in order to be.

If you truly believe this, then what you are saying is your forgiveness of sins is based on your confession of sins.

But what does the Bible say forgiveness of sins is based on?

Ephesians 1:7: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace"

So not according to the confession of our sins, but according to the riches of His grace. The day you can measure the riches of His grace is the day you'll realize how much you've been forgiven.

Also notice how forgiveness of sins is something we already have, not something we are trying to get.

What is the fruit of knowing you are forgiven much? Jesus says in Luke 7 that the woman who poured oil on his feet knows she was forgiven much, so she will love much. The reason why we love little is because we think we are only forgiven little, only up until the very next sin we commit (like the Pharisee in the above story).

It is no longer like the Old Covenant, where we went from clean (righteous), dirty (unrighteous), clean, dirty, clean, dirty. No, today in the New Covenant we are always clean. The blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing you from any and every sin 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's nearly-too-good-to-be-true!

If you want to confess your sins to God, you are free to. I just want to ask if there is a better way of relating to God, or is that way an Old Covenant approach to God and is the New Covenant a lot better than that? If it makes you feel better to confess your sins to God, if it reminds you that you're forgiven and how good He is, then you're free to do it. But don't do it out of a begging, pleading mode for Him to forgive you and make you clean again. I believe that is an insult to Jesus' sacrifice, because it's saying that the shedding of His blood alone was not enough for the forgiveness of sins.

Does sin break fellowship with God?

When Jesus died on the cross, did he pay for the consequences of sin?

Was it paid in full? Did He pay it all?

If he did, does all include broken fellowship with the Father?

Yes, of course it does. Jesus paid for broken fellowship.

If you still think it does, ask yourself:

What is it that breaks your fellowship with God? Is it sin?

If your sins caused you to be out of fellowship with God, what then keeps you in fellowship with God?

Not sinning?

How much of your life can you live not sinning?

Two hours?

So, how much of your life would you be in fellowship with God?

Not very long, huh? This is not good news. Sin does not break fellowship with God. Because the wages of sin is not broken fellowship. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So if God were to deal with you according to your sin, what would He have to do to when you sinned?

"Aaaah that's even worst news!"

But here's the good news. At the cross, Christ paid for our sins "once for all." (1 Peter 3:18). The Law demanded sin to be punished by death. So Christ came and being our representative - paid the penalty of sin, which is death; so that we could have His life in us.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. You have that life in you right now. Eat on that truth and enjoy the fruit it bears in your life.

According to Him!

I heard a song on the radio that really spoke to me. Click here (ctrl+click to open in new window) and let it play it while reading the note.

According to you
I'm stupid,
I'm useless,
I can't do anything right.
According to you
I'm difficult,
hard to please,
forever changing my mind.
I'm a mess in a dress,
can't show up on time,
even if it would save my life.
According to you. According to you.

But according to him
I'm beautiful,
incredible,
he can't get me out of his head.
According to him
I'm funny,
irresistible,
everything he ever wanted.
Everything is opposite,
I don't feel like stopping it,
so baby tell me what I got to lose.
He's into me for everything I'm not,
according to you.

-Lyrics to “According to You” by Orianthi

I don't think Orianthi intended this, but she sets up a perfect analogy of Law and Grace. In Romans 7:1-4, Apostle Paul talks about being married to Mr. Law and Mr. Grace.

When we were born into this world, we were born married to Mr. Law. Mr. Law is mean. He will point out your faults, condemn you, tell you you have to be a better Christian. He'll tell you
you’re stupid,
useless,
and can’t do anything right. That you’re difficult, hard to please, a mess in a dress and can’t show up on time! And no matter how much you clean the house, it's never clean enough!

Today, we are no longer married to Mr. Law. Jesus has come to fulfill the Law on our behalf, and once it is fulfilled – it is obsolete. When I fulfill my contractual obligations to the bank, I am no longer making payments. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it – and because He fulfilled it, it’s gone! Done! The Law has no place in the life of a believer. Romans 10:3 says when you come to Christ, you come to the end of the Law. Romans 7:6 says “we have been delivered from the Law.”

Now as believers, we are married to Mr. Grace. His name is Jesus. And Jesus will never point out your faults. He will never condemn you. He is always gracious, always a gentleman, totally into you, helpful, always there for you, doesn’t hold your sin against you and always believes the best of you.

And according to Him,

you’re beautiful,
incredible,
He can’t get you out of His head.
You’re funny,
irresistible, and
everything He ever wanted.

Who would've thought that a bitter breakup song could be such an encouragement to me? :)

What does it mean to be a "slave of righteousness"? (Romans 6)

Someone wanted to know on Facebook, I thought I'd copy and paste what I wrote here:

To be a "slave of righteousness" means that even when you sin you're a slave man, you're still righteous, no matter what bad things you do! I know that scares people, but don't worry about the effect it'll have on people if they believe this, because right believing will always lead to right living.

When you were a sinner did you do righteous acts? Yes, but it didn't change your standing with God. You were still a sinner! You were still in the prison of sin even though you did good things. No matter what righteous things you did, you were a "slave of sin."

Now look at the flip side. As a righteous person, you are now a "slave of righteousness." A prisoner of righteousness! Even when you sin, you are still RIGHTEOUS! You're a SLAVE of righteousness now! Sorry slave! hehehe.

When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, its nature changes. Even if the butterfly falls into the dirt like a worm, it doesn't "un-butterfly" and become a worm again. Eventually, the butterfly will want to fly out of the dirt anyway because it's not his nature to be in the dirt. I think you see where I'm going with that analogy. "

Adam put us in the prison of sin. The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, put us in the prison of righteousness! Too good news!