Believers Altogether Accepted in Christ

Sherry Christian Life, salvation, Character of Jesus, Attributes of God, promises, The Holy Spirit, The Father, Sovereignty of God

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. – Hebrews 10:14

Our posture is that of those who are perfected in Christ Jesus. How I wish that we could all realize this and live in the power of it. If I am, indeed, a believer, I have nothing whatever to do in order to put away the guilt of my sins. I have much to do by faith to overcome the power of sin in me, and to seek after holiness; but so far as the guilt of transgression is concerned, Jesus Christ’s one offering hath perfected all His people, there is not a sin remaining upon them, nor a trace of sin; they are “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;” before God’s sight they are perfectly lovely; they are not somewhat beautiful, but they are altogether lovely in Christ; they are accepted not in part but altogether, “accepted in the Beloved.” When I get upon this strain, words are quite inadequate to express the emotions of my soul. This truth might well make David dance before the ark of the Lord—to think that though black in ourselves, we are comely in Christ; though like the smoke-dried tents of Kedar we are foul yet clothed in our Savior’s beauties we are like the curtains of Solomon for glory. The glory of the text is that we are perfected for ever; not for tomorrow and then suffered to fall from grace; not for the next twenty years, and then turned out of the covenant; but He hath perfected “for ever” those that are set apart.

The text says, “Hath perfected them that are sanctified,” or set apart as holy unto God. We must be more and more set apart every day, we must labor after holiness; this must be our object, not in order that we may be saved, for we are saved already, but in order that by others it may be clearly seen that we are saved, and they seeing our good works may glorify our Father which is in heaven. If I have in myself no measure of holiness, how shall I be recognized as belonging to Christ? Is it not foolish presumption to say “I am perfect in Christ,” if still my soul lives in sin, and loves it? May the Lord, by His Spirit, lead us in the ways of holiness, and then, walking in the light as He is in the light, we shall have fellowship one with another; and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son shall cleanse us from all sin.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

Our Posture in Christ

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. – Hebrews 10:12,13

I want you, dearly beloved brethren, to gather from the text before us the true posture of every believer in Christ. “This man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down.” If I am a believer that is my posture, if you are a believer that is yours—you are to sit down. Under the law there was no sitting down. Even at the Passover the Israelites stood with their loins girt and their staves in their hands. There was no sitting down. It is only at the gospel supper that our proper posture is that of recumbency, reclining, or sitting down, because our warfare is accomplished. They that have believed have entered into rest. Jesus hath given us rest, we are not traversing the wilderness, we are come unto mount Zion, unto the glorious assembly of the Church of the first born whose names are written in heaven. Our justifying work is finished, finished by Christ. Sit down Christian, sit down and rest in thy Lord. There is much to be done as to fighting your sins, much to be done for Christ in the world, but so far as justification and forgiveness are concerned, rest is your proper place, peace in Christ Jesus your lawful portion.

Your position is also to be one of expectancy. Christ, when He sits down, expects His enemies to be made His footstool. Expect, O believer, the time when you shall be rid of all sin. Fight manfully against your inbred corruptions, struggle against sin as you see it in the outside world and expect every day with holy faith that you shall get the victory. As Christ sits there expecting, He hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Himself; and we will sit there and look down upon this erring world and expect the time when all evil shall be beneath our feet as it is beneath His.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

Jesus is Able and Willing to Save You

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God, The Holy Spirit

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

The text leads me to say to you that it is utterly hopeless, if you desire salvation, for you to expect Jesus Christ to do anything more than He has already done. Many are waiting for a something, and they scarce know what. Now Jesus, when He died and went to heaven, perfected for ever all His work; and if you do not believe today in what He has done, there will be no surer grounds for belief tomorrow. If faith be difficult to me today, I must not expect that I shall have any more evidence, or that there will be any more truth for me to rely upon, if I live another twenty years. God has set forth Christ for you as guilty sinners to rest on; and if that is not enough for you, what more would you have? Christ has offered Himself, and died and suffered in our stead, and gone into His glory; and, if you cannot depend upon Him, what more would you have Him do? Shall He come and die again? You have rejected Him once; you would reject Him though He died twice. But that cannot be done; there is enough in His sacrifice to answer all the purposes of mercy, and if you sin wilfully by rejecting Him, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation.”

Oh, poor troubled soul, rest thou on Him now. While I put these words, as it were, into your mouths, how I wish I could put them into your hearts! How foolish you are who are looking for signs and wonders or else you will not believe. May the Spirit of God show you that Jesus is now able and willing to save you, and that all you have to do is to take what He has done, and simply trust Him, and you shall be saved, completely saved, perfected through His one sacrifice. There remaineth no more to be done by the Redeemer. He sits down, and He will not rise for any further sacrifice. He has finished His atonement and perfected those He means to save; and if you believe not in Him, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

One Sacrifice for Sins Forever

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… – Hebrews 10:12

The efficacy of the atonement of Christ for sin is as great today as ever it was. He “offered one sacrifice for sins,” for what? for a thousand years? No! But the text says “forever!”—FOREVER!

“The dying thief rejoiced to see,
That fountain in his day,
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood,
Shall never loose its power;
Till all the ransomed church of God,
Be saved to sin no more.”

“One sacrifice for sins for ever.” The devil tells you it is of no use for you to believe in Christ, there is not efficacy for you, you have sinned away your day of grace; tell him he is a liar, Christ has offered one sacrifice for sins for ever; and while a man lives beneath the covenant of mercy, where the gospel is sounded in his ears, there is efficacy in the atonement for ever. The atoning sacrifice has no limit in its merit, the salvation of some has not drained it of even the smallest degree of its power. As the sunlight, though it be seen by millions of eyes, is as bright as ever it was, so is it with Jesus. Perhaps the Sun’s fires may grow dull, and become dimmed in the course of ages, but it is certain that the eternal fount of mercy, the Sun of Righteousness, will never fail. He will continue to flood His people with the golden sunlight of His forgiving grace. He has made one sacrifice for sins for ever. I will come to Him then. He is able to save me—He is able to save me even though I were a sinner of seventy years of age. I will come to Him, I will rest in Him—in Him alone. Oh, believe me, if you do this you have eternal life abiding in you.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

O ye guilty, the gospel is meant for you!

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, promises, salvation, Sovereignty of God

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… – Hebrews 10:11,12

“This man,” says the Apostle, “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever.” If thou wouldst have peace of heart, thou must get it only from this one glorious person, the Christ of God…There must be no looking anywhere but to Jesus, not in any measure or degree. He who looks partly to Jesus, and partly to himself, looks not to Christ at all. If a man shall put one foot upon the land and the other on the sea—the foot that is on the land will not avail him, he must certainly fall, because his other standing place is weak. If a chain be made strong enough to bear huge weights in every portion except one link, yet as we all know its strength is not to be measured by the stronger portions, but by the weak link; and if you have one weak link in your hope, if you are resting in anything you are or hope to be, or can do or feel, that one weak link will snap and ruin you for ever.

“None but Jesus, none but Jesus,
Can do helpless sinners good.”

From top to bottom, from foundation to pinnacle, our hopes must be in the work of Jesus, and we must trust in Him alone, or else we shall build in vain. “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid.” Other hope beneath the skies there is none. O soul, learn the uselessness of looking to anything but Christ; but be thou assured of this, if thou wilt look to Him, and to Him alone, He will put away thy sin, nay, He has done it by the sacrifice of Himself. O ye guilty, the gospel is meant for you. If there be any of you who are innocent and pure, and without spot, for you I have no words of consolation; but oh, ye sinners, the gospel is for you, for you the priesthood and the substitution of Jesus, for you His death on earth, for you His reign and power in heaven. This fact ought to encourage every trembling conscience…The gospel has for its special aim and intent the putting away of sin, and therefore it is suitable to your case.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

The Inner Side of Conversion

Sherry sermon

You who are King of kings and Lord of lords, we worship You. Before Jehovah’s awful throne we bow with sacred joy.

Sermon Text

Perfected and Sanctified by Christ’s Sacrifice

Sherry Christian Life

For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. – Hebrews 10:14

(Notice) the effect of Christ’s death upon His own people: we are informed that He hath “perfected” them. What a glorious word! Those for whom Christ has died were perfected by His death. It does not mean that He made them perfect in characters so that they are no longer sinners, but that He made those for whom He died perfectly free from the guilt of sin. When Christ took their sins upon Himself, sin remained no longer upon them, for it could not be in two places at one and the same time; if it was on Christ, it was not upon them; they were acquitted at the bar of God when Christ was, on their behalf, “numbered with the transgressors.” When Jesus suffered the penalty due to His people’s sins to the last jot and tittle, then their sins ceased to be, and the covenant was fulfilled: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more for ever.” There was a clean sweep made of sin: “He hath finished transgression and made an end of sin;” and that for all His people. They want no other washing, no further purging, as far as pardon of sin and acceptance with God in the matter of justification are concerned, for they are all perfected by His sacrifice.

His people are described in the text as “them that are sanctified.”…When effectual grace separates men from the world by conversion and regeneration, then they become the sanctified; they are set apart even as Christ set apart Himself, dedicated to God’s service, and separated from sinners. As the work which began at regeneration is continued and carried on in them, they are in another aspect sanctified; they are realising in themselves that sanctification, or dedication to God, was theirs from before the foundation of the world. The text relates not only to those in heaven who are perfectly sanctified, but it relates to all who were set apart in the purposes of grace, that as far as their pardon and justification are concerned, Christ perfected them for ever when He offered up Himself without spot unto God.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon