The one Two Punch

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

THE ONE TWO PUNCH

Heb 10:5-10

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, 'Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll I have come to do your will, O God.'" 8 First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). 9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

NIV

We can actually see that although God declared the law to his people He was not pleased by their attempts to comply with the law, because the law was not every able to make them holy and acceptable to Him. Of course we know that was for the purpose to show them their need for a perfect sacrifice, as well as show us. We simply cannot ever be good enough. We cannot do anything as far as in our human effort to be worthy to stand in His presence. God does not desire for us to try to offer any sacrifice, any human effort to satisfy His justice. So why do we try to offer our good deeds as evidence of being a good Christian? It is strictly by the will of God that we have been made holy. That is an awesome thought! We are not made holy by our good deeds, or by our trying to live by the law, or by our feeble attempts to abide by some set of rules or regulations, nor is not by our ascribing to some denominational doctrines, or church dogmas, but solely by the will of God. The whole system of man doing anything in order to attain a right standing with God has been set aside. They is no need for anything other than Jesus. We have been cleansed, we have been forgiven of all sin, and we have been made holy, because of Jesus. If people ask, “what is the will of God”, they simply have to look what Jesus said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He set aside the first, puts it away, it no longer governs, it no longer has any worth, and he sets it aside in order to establish the second. That is the will of God for us today. It is His will that we are made holy through the blood of Jesus. What the law was not able to do, God did himself. Of course we try to live in a manner pleasing to Him, but in all reality, what pleases Him is us being made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He knows that within our own being, our own strength, our own deeds, however good they might be, are worthless and can never make us holy. All we can actually do is have faith in Jesus Christ. We can believe he has made us holy. We can accept His sacrifice for us. That is it. That is all we can do, nothing else matters in regards to making us holy. The first is gone, the second is here. It is the ultimate one two punch.