salvation

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

He Sat Down

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

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

The typical priests stood because there was work to do; still must they present their sacrifices; but our Lord sits down because there is no more sacrificial work to do; atonement is complete, He has finished His task. There were no seats in the tabernacle. Observe the Levitical descriptions and you will see that there were no resting-places for the priests in the holy place. Not only were none allowed to sit, but there was nothing whatever to sit upon. According to the rabbis, the king might sit in the holy places, and, perhaps, David did sit there; if so, he was a striking type of Christ sitting as king. A priest never sat in the tabernacle, he was under a dispensation which did not afford rest, and was not intended to give it, a covenant of works which gives the soul no repose. Jesus sits in the holy of holies, and herein we see that His work is finished.

He “sat down;” this shows that He took possession of the holy place. Under the law, when the priest had done his work, what did he do? He went home. Neither the temple nor the tabernacle was his home. If you had asked a priest, “Where dwellest thou?” he would have said, “amongst the tribe of Levi yonder I have my abode.” But this Man, when He had finished His work, sat down in the holy place, because He was at home, not a servant only but a son, yea, and Lord of the whole house; and, therefore, He took His own seat therein by right. It is a joyful truth that He did this representatively, to show us that while the law gave no permanent possession and could not establish the seed of Israel in possession of sacred privileges, the gospel gives us an abiding place amongst the children of God, who dwell in His house for ever. The apostle tells us where this seat of Christ was. He says, He “sat down at the right hand of God.” This indicates the highest glory possible; our poet calls it, “The highest place that heaven affords.”

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

Once for All Forever

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

…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… – Hebrews 10:10,12

We are told by the apostle, that as there was but one priest, so there was only one sacrifice. He “offered one sacrifice for sins.” He Himself was the sacrifice; His body the altar, Himself the priest, Himself also the victim. On Calvary’s tree He presented Himself a substitute for human guilt, and there He bore the crushing weight of Jehovah’s wrath in His own body, on the behalf of all His people. On Him their sins were laid, and He was numbered with the transgressors; and there He, in their stead, suffered what was due to the righteousness of God, and made atonement to divine justice for the sins of His people. This was done, not by many offerings, but by one sacrifice, and that one alone. Jesus offered no other sacrifice: He had never made one before, nor since, nor will He present another sacrifice in the future. His sin offering is one.

The text adds further that, as there was but one sacrifice, so it was but once offered forever, or, as the apostle puts it, “Once for all.” “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” There is in the Scriptures no such idea as that of Christ perpetually offering Himself; (transubstantiation) is a childish invention of superstition. We are expressly told that He offered Himself “once.” Under the law the lamb was offered many times, the same sacrifices were repeated; but our Lord exclaimed, “It is finished,” and concluded all His sacrificing works. He “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever.”

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

He is All Sufficient

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

The twelfth verse says, “this Man.” The word “man” is not in the original; it is “this,” “this Priest,” if you will; “this Man,” if you please; but its vagueness may make us think that the apostle scarcely knew what to say. You see the stars and the moon in their brightness, but suddenly they are all eclipsed and lost in a superior light. What can this glory be which has paled their fires? It is the sun rising in his strength. So, while we are beholding the priesthood of Aaron with all its excellence, it suddenly ceases to shine, because of the glory which excelleth, the radiant presence of One, for whom, like heaven’s manna, it is not easy to find one fully descriptive name. Shall we call Him “man?” Blessed be His name; He is so, our near kinsman, the “Son of Man.” Shall we call him “priest?” He is so. Blessed be His name; He is the true Melchisedec. Shall we call him “God?” Well may we do so, for He counts it not robbery to be equal with God. But this one divinely mysterious person—this unique and solitary High-priest, accomplishes what the many priests of Aaron’s race could not compass. They were weak, but He is all sufficient. He has wrought out eternal redemption and made an end of sin.

Note well, that none stand with Him at the altar; none is appointed to aid Him, neither before Him nor after Him is there one to share His office. He is without father, without mother, without predecessor, and without successor. He stands alone and by Himself, this glorious One who looked and there was no man, and therefore His own arm brought salvation; He trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with Him. Jesus, the sole sacrificing priest of our profession, has completed what the long line of the Levitical priesthood must have left for ever incomplete.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon

Rest Alone in Jesus

Sherry 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. – Hebrews 10:11

You will observe, dear brethren, that the words used in the text are these, “Can never take away sin.” The word is, “Can never strip off sin.” As if our sins were like filthy garments—the vestures of our disgrace—these could not be taken from us by the daily ministering of priests. There was no power in their sacrifices to remove the polluted coverings. Yet the priests were very diligent, for “every priest standeth” in the posture of activity, and they were persevering too, for “every priest standeth daily.” They were obedient too, for they did not offer sacrifices according to their own devices, but, as the text saith, “the same sacrifices”—that is to say, such as were ordained of God. The priests were both diligent, constant, and obedient, and the principle of the truth was in their offerings—viz., the doctrine of substitution; yet sin still remained upon the consciences of the offerers, and none of them were made perfect.

If the sacrifices which were presented reverently and perpetually, according to God’s own command, and were presented by men about whose priesthood there could be no manner of question—for they had received it indisputably of the Lord—if these offerings were of no service to the taking away of sin, it is clear enough that the offerings of so-called priests in these modern times cannot have any efficacy. Here is a priesthood, certainly appointed of God, offering victims ordained by divine order, and yet their service does not put away sin. How much less, then, can it be wise to trust in doubtful priests, who present sacrifices unwarranted by the word of God. Their descent cannot be proved, their title their pretensions of one sect are ridiculed by another, they are all alike deceivers; have done with them (If Jerusalem has no sacrifice in all her flocks, what use can it be to look to Rome? If Aaron’s seed cannot put away sin, to what end shall we look to the shavelings of Antichrist?) and rest alone in Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.

The Only Atoning Priest by C. H. Spurgeon