One Sacrifice

Hello and good day to anyone and everyone who may stumble across this blog. Today, I am going to be talking about a neat topic, and it's a thinker, so just warning you ahead of time. Before I begin, I would like to give a quick shout out to my friend Blair Wong who is now blogging again! She writes some really good stuff, so if you want to check that out just go to blairrhymeswithflair.blogspot.com. You won't regret it!

Initiation sequence in 5...4...3...2...1...

How is everyone doing? Enjoying summer break? I hope so and I am excited to hear the stories from everyone when we see each other next. This summer I have been experiencing a pretty strange feeling, and I am not sure what to make of it. Part of me actually wants school to start back up again. Not the classes and everything, but just being on campus and being with the friends and family that all of us college students have made. I mean summer break is awesome and I am totally not wishing that it would end; however, I do have that desire to go back up to school. It's strange.

With introductionary (I made up this word) things aside, I want to get into the real core of this blog which is outlined by the title "One Sacrifice." Today, I am going to write some of the things that God has put on my heart about the verse Hebrews 10:14, and for those of you who aren't familiar with this verse (don't worry I had to look it up too), here it is, NIV 1984 version:

"For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."

Hebrews 10:14

I don't know about you but this verse gives me goosebumps. It is such a powerful message crammed into this tiny sentence of just fifteen words. I am going to go through and break down some of the things that stand out to me in this verse, and then because I can't leave you without trying to make you really think, I am going to write about how this verse challenged me and how I think it should challenge you. Alrighty, call in the wrecking ball, it's time for a breakdown.

The first thing that instantly jumps out at me is the third word and that is "one." This word kind of has a double meaning in this context, and what I mean by that is the fact that it is seemingly so simple, but at the same time it is monumental. If you were to read only the first four words, "For by one sacrifice," you may think why is there only one sacrifice? That seems a bit lackluster. The bible calls us to be cheerful givers, but here Christ is only giving one sacrifice. But as you and I continue to read, we realize the importance and incredible weight of this one sacrifice. For it was by this one sacrifice that Christ made us perfect FOREVER. This verse is not something that is claiming that Christ only had to make one sacrifice throughout his life; but on the contrary, Christ's entire life was his sacrifice. I believe that too many people think that the only sacrifice Christ made was on the cross at Golgotha. This is the most prominent image of Christ's sacrifice, but when we think about it, Christ laid down his Glory, laid down his power, and laid down His seat at the right hand of God the very moment that He was formed in Mary's womb. When Christ became like man, He began the process of the ultimate sacrifice, which was completed as He hung on the cross and yelled, "It is finished." What a powerful image that is. That's the first thing that I wanted to bring up.

Coming around the turn in second place are the words, "he has made perfect forever." We have such a misconception of time, that it is scary. Our world functions on efficiency, rapidity, and speed. Have we ever even attempted to stop and think about what forever is. Through our everyday language and vernacular, we have desensitized specific words, and one of those words is forever. We so commonly throw around the phrase, "I'll love you forever," but in reality, the only person that we can truly love forever is Jesus Christ, because He is the only one who can sustain a relationship that lasts forever. One of the coolest things about this verse is that it defines the condition of how that forever relationship will be. In our lives, we all have our good times and our bad times. We know how awesome we feel in those good times, and we also know how miserable we feel in the bad times. But can you even begin to imagine what it will be like when there are no bad times. When by Christ's sacrifice, He has made us perfect. And He hasn't made us perfect for a day or a week, but forever. Because God loves us so much, He provides us a way to overcome our sin and share in a perfect relationship with Him for the rest of time. How amazing is that? I mean that gets me fired up.

The third and final thing that I want to pull out of this verse is the phrase, "those who are being made holy." So here we are and we are feeling pretty good because we just found out that through Christ's sacrifice we are going to be perfect forever. Forever. And then these words close off the verse, and it is almost like a reality check. We still have all the right in the world to be as excited about the fact that we get to be apart of perfection for eternity; however, as these last words mention, we also need to realize that we are still "being made holy." Not one of us is Holy enough to be able to stand before God by ourselves. We are constantly undergoing this process of sanctification, and we are constantly being made more and more holy through God's grace. Yes we have that perfect forever, but not now. We are all still mired in sin, mired in temptation. But what we do have right now is hope and knowledge. We are daily encouraged by the fact that when we stand before God, we will not need a list of our deeds, because when we as believers of Christ, stand before the Father, we get a perfect list, paid in full by the blood of His son. We witnessed perfection two thousand and some odd years ago, and we will witness it again on that Judgement day.

Now I want to touch really quickly on the challenging part (not to say that any of the above wasn't informational or challenging, but this is the direct challenge!) After reading and re-reading this verse, a question continued to form in my mind, and that was : "what is my one sacrifice?" Obviously, our sacrifices are not the same as Jesus, and they are not even necessarily the same as the people around us. However, we the ability to make a sacrifice for God. The only question is what is that going to be? For some of, we need to focus on strengthening our relationships with our enemies, which is a sacrifice. Some of us need to know the feeling of sacrificing personal finance on a paycheck to paycheck basis. Others may need to know or learn what it means to sacrifice for a friend. Whatever your sacrifice is, I encourage you to seek it out and pursue it. Romans 12:1 says: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." Offering up our "one sacrifice" to God is our true and proper worship. So my challenge is that you would pray about what your "one sacrifice" would be, and then ask God how He wants you to better His kingdom through your sacrifice.

What a powerful verse. Thanks for tuning in to my thoughts this week. Remember to pray continuously and without stopping. If you knock, the door will be opened. Have a great rest of your week!

Signing off,

JD