elected4ever
New member
Originally Posted by Daniel50
Define 'the finished work of Christ'?
SOZO'S RESPONSE:
Finished: To bring to an end;
"For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives."
Hebrews 9:16-17
"Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you." And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
Hebrews 9:18-22
The first covenant required a sacrifice in order for it to go into effect. Moses took the blood of bulls and goats to cleanse the people from their sins, because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace"
Ephesians 1:7
"But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord."
Hebrews 8:6-9
Through the sacrifice of Jesus, He has become the mediator of a better covenant. The first covenant had failed, because Israel could not keep it.
"…you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it."
Acts 7:53
"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
Romans 8:3
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' For all shall know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more." When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."
Hebrews 8:10-13
"For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God."
Hebrews 7:18-19
Hebrews 10
1
"For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near."
The Law is only a shadow of the reality (which is Christ), and the sacrifices that the Law demanded, could never perfect those who would come to God, and therefore they had to be made year after year.
2
"Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?"
Those who come to God in spirit and in truth (the worshipers) will no longer have any consciousness of their sins, because they have been cleansed from them once and for all! To be sin conscious is to claim that the sacrifice of Jesus is insufficient to have cleansed you from all unrighteousness and to make you perfect!
3
"But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year."
"Those" sacrifices (the ones made under the Law) are insufficient, and therefore you would have a reminder of your sins. You would have consciousness of your sin. Why?
4
"For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."
The blood of the bulls and goats is inferior to the blood of Jesus. Jesus "takes away" your sins, never to be seen again.
5
"Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;"
God is not propitiated (satisfied) by the sacrifices of bulls and goats. They are not sufficient to take away your sin once and for all. So God sent His Son in a body of flesh to "take away" our sins, once and for all.
6
"In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure."
God takes no pleasure in any other sacrifice for your sins.
7
"Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.'"
The scriptures revealed that God is going to send the Messiah to carry out His will to be the Savior of the world.
8
"After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),"
This verse wants to make certain that it is solidified in your mind that God takes no pleasure in any other sacrifice than that of His Son.
9
"...then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second."
The sacrifice of Jesus is wholly sufficient, and it completely replaces those sacrifices that the Law required. He takes away the demand of the Law in yearly sacrifices, and establishes the fact that His sacrifice is the ONLY sacrifice that satisfies God in taking away your sin. It is in this will of God's that we are cleansed from all our sins.
10
"By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
It cannot be more clear! The sacrifice of Jesus has set us apart (sanctified us) unto God. He did this once (there are no more sacrifices), and He did it for all! Jesus died for the sins of the entire world and He is not going to die again. (This does not mean that the entire world is saved, because salvation is in Him, in His life. "In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins".)
11
"And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;"
Again, any other sacrifice can never take away your sins. When you trust in any other sacrifice to take away your sins, you are denying the one sacrifice that does.
12
"..but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,"
The sacrifice of Jesus will be offered only once, for all sins for all time. There is NO MORE sacrifice for sin! Jesus finished what He set out to do, and that is why He has "sat down" at the right hand of God... "It is finished!"
13
"...waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet."
Jesus completed God's will in regard to sin. He is now awaiting the judgment of His enemies, which includes those who reject His sacrifice as sufficient.
14
"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."
This one sacrifice that Jesus has made has perfected perpetually those who are sanctified. The other sacrifices could not make perfect those who draw near, but the sacrifice of Jesus does indeed make those who come to Him by faith perfect forever. They no longer have sin. As Paul states... those who have died with Christ are free from sin.
15 -17
"And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them," He then says, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
God has written His laws upon our hearts and minds, not so that we can keep them to be acceptable to God, but because we have fulfilled them in Christ. The Law has been satisfied through the one sacrifice according to the will of God. Therefore, God no longer remembers our sins and lawless deeds.
18
"Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin."
If you are continually claiming that you have sin, then there is going to have to be an offer for that sin, and it is an insult to the sacrifice of Jesus as being sufficient to take away your sins. There is no other offer for sin! Not guilt, not indulgences, and not confession! We confess (agree with God) our need of a Savior for our sins once, but then when we are in Him, we no longer can make any offering for sin, because we accept His offer alone.
19 - 22
"Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
We are now looking at a summary of the last several chapters. Jesus, alone, is the sacrifice for our sins, which He accomplished in the flesh, and He alone has cleansed our evil consciences of sin, if indeed we accept His sacrifice and are not trusting in our own sacrifices. We can now go boldly before God, because we no longer have sin.
"Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."
Hebrews 9:23-28
At the cross, Jesus was crucified for the sins of the whole world.
"… and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
God was satisfied with His provision, which brings justification of life to all men.
"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit"
1 Peter 3:18
" And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions"
Colossians 2:13
Those who are in Christ have been crucified with Him, and therefore have died with Him! However, we have also been raised to new life, the life of God, and we are no longer who we once were.
"For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
Colossians 3:3
"It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him"
2 Timothy 2:11
"For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Romans 6:5-11
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20
"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
2 Corinthians 5:17
"But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation."
Galatians 6:14-15
When we come to Jesus, by grace, through faith, we are baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and He is in us, and we are in Him. We have therefore been crucified with Him, and died with Him, and we are no longer who we once were. Where we were once in the flesh separated from the life of God, we are now in the Spirit and are circumcised from the flesh. In Him we have been made complete, perfected, and holy. Not because of anything we have done, but because of who He is, and because we are in Him.
"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
Colossians 2:9-14
- - - - - - - - - -
Amazingly, Christians think that they have the ability to compare themselves to God's standard of perfection, and then to make judgments as to whether or not they are falling short! In doing so, they not only abolish the purpose of the Law, but they completely destroy the intent of God's grace!
Sozo
Beautifully put SOZO.
Your Brother in Christ:
:e4e:
Define 'the finished work of Christ'?
SOZO'S RESPONSE:
Finished: To bring to an end;
"For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives."
Hebrews 9:16-17
"Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you." And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
Hebrews 9:18-22
The first covenant required a sacrifice in order for it to go into effect. Moses took the blood of bulls and goats to cleanse the people from their sins, because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace"
Ephesians 1:7
"But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord."
Hebrews 8:6-9
Through the sacrifice of Jesus, He has become the mediator of a better covenant. The first covenant had failed, because Israel could not keep it.
"…you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it."
Acts 7:53
"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
Romans 8:3
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' For all shall know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more." When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."
Hebrews 8:10-13
"For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God."
Hebrews 7:18-19
Hebrews 10
1
"For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near."
The Law is only a shadow of the reality (which is Christ), and the sacrifices that the Law demanded, could never perfect those who would come to God, and therefore they had to be made year after year.
2
"Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?"
Those who come to God in spirit and in truth (the worshipers) will no longer have any consciousness of their sins, because they have been cleansed from them once and for all! To be sin conscious is to claim that the sacrifice of Jesus is insufficient to have cleansed you from all unrighteousness and to make you perfect!
3
"But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year."
"Those" sacrifices (the ones made under the Law) are insufficient, and therefore you would have a reminder of your sins. You would have consciousness of your sin. Why?
4
"For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."
The blood of the bulls and goats is inferior to the blood of Jesus. Jesus "takes away" your sins, never to be seen again.
5
"Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a body Thou hast prepared for Me;"
God is not propitiated (satisfied) by the sacrifices of bulls and goats. They are not sufficient to take away your sin once and for all. So God sent His Son in a body of flesh to "take away" our sins, once and for all.
6
"In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure."
God takes no pleasure in any other sacrifice for your sins.
7
"Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.'"
The scriptures revealed that God is going to send the Messiah to carry out His will to be the Savior of the world.
8
"After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),"
This verse wants to make certain that it is solidified in your mind that God takes no pleasure in any other sacrifice than that of His Son.
9
"...then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second."
The sacrifice of Jesus is wholly sufficient, and it completely replaces those sacrifices that the Law required. He takes away the demand of the Law in yearly sacrifices, and establishes the fact that His sacrifice is the ONLY sacrifice that satisfies God in taking away your sin. It is in this will of God's that we are cleansed from all our sins.
10
"By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
It cannot be more clear! The sacrifice of Jesus has set us apart (sanctified us) unto God. He did this once (there are no more sacrifices), and He did it for all! Jesus died for the sins of the entire world and He is not going to die again. (This does not mean that the entire world is saved, because salvation is in Him, in His life. "In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins".)
11
"And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;"
Again, any other sacrifice can never take away your sins. When you trust in any other sacrifice to take away your sins, you are denying the one sacrifice that does.
12
"..but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,"
The sacrifice of Jesus will be offered only once, for all sins for all time. There is NO MORE sacrifice for sin! Jesus finished what He set out to do, and that is why He has "sat down" at the right hand of God... "It is finished!"
13
"...waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet."
Jesus completed God's will in regard to sin. He is now awaiting the judgment of His enemies, which includes those who reject His sacrifice as sufficient.
14
"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified."
This one sacrifice that Jesus has made has perfected perpetually those who are sanctified. The other sacrifices could not make perfect those who draw near, but the sacrifice of Jesus does indeed make those who come to Him by faith perfect forever. They no longer have sin. As Paul states... those who have died with Christ are free from sin.
15 -17
"And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them," He then says, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
God has written His laws upon our hearts and minds, not so that we can keep them to be acceptable to God, but because we have fulfilled them in Christ. The Law has been satisfied through the one sacrifice according to the will of God. Therefore, God no longer remembers our sins and lawless deeds.
18
"Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin."
If you are continually claiming that you have sin, then there is going to have to be an offer for that sin, and it is an insult to the sacrifice of Jesus as being sufficient to take away your sins. There is no other offer for sin! Not guilt, not indulgences, and not confession! We confess (agree with God) our need of a Savior for our sins once, but then when we are in Him, we no longer can make any offering for sin, because we accept His offer alone.
19 - 22
"Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
We are now looking at a summary of the last several chapters. Jesus, alone, is the sacrifice for our sins, which He accomplished in the flesh, and He alone has cleansed our evil consciences of sin, if indeed we accept His sacrifice and are not trusting in our own sacrifices. We can now go boldly before God, because we no longer have sin.
"Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."
Hebrews 9:23-28
At the cross, Jesus was crucified for the sins of the whole world.
"… and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
God was satisfied with His provision, which brings justification of life to all men.
"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit"
1 Peter 3:18
" And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions"
Colossians 2:13
Those who are in Christ have been crucified with Him, and therefore have died with Him! However, we have also been raised to new life, the life of God, and we are no longer who we once were.
"For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
Colossians 3:3
"It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him"
2 Timothy 2:11
"For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Romans 6:5-11
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20
"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
2 Corinthians 5:17
"But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation."
Galatians 6:14-15
When we come to Jesus, by grace, through faith, we are baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and He is in us, and we are in Him. We have therefore been crucified with Him, and died with Him, and we are no longer who we once were. Where we were once in the flesh separated from the life of God, we are now in the Spirit and are circumcised from the flesh. In Him we have been made complete, perfected, and holy. Not because of anything we have done, but because of who He is, and because we are in Him.
"For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
Colossians 2:9-14
- - - - - - - - - -
Amazingly, Christians think that they have the ability to compare themselves to God's standard of perfection, and then to make judgments as to whether or not they are falling short! In doing so, they not only abolish the purpose of the Law, but they completely destroy the intent of God's grace!
Sozo
Beautifully put SOZO.
Your Brother in Christ:
:e4e:
