We have been looking over the past many sessions now, many messages, we have been studying the scriptural teaching of regeneration, renewal and perfection. And the purpose of this series of messages has been to look from the Word of God at the whole range, the whole scope of Christian life, from the beginning to the end. To see what is the scriptural teaching concerning the Christian life, all the way from regeneration to perfection. And we have been for some time now studying the scriptural teaching on perfection. Today the Church is too easily content with regeneration. And sometimes when you listen to regeneration, you wonder whether that has covered everything the Church has to say on the subject of the Christian life. That once you are born again, then what happens after that? And we often get the impression that nothing much more happens after regeneration. And that is more or less the end of the matter. But in our studying the Word of God, we have seen that regeneration is merely the beginning of a long road of renewal, leading up to perfection. And we have been studying the meaning, the scriptural teaching of perfection. And we will continue today to study perfection in the light of the Word of God, with special attention to the letter to the Hebrews, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament.
Now let me begin, because this morning as I was pondering the subject that I was going to speak upon, as the Lord has laid it upon my heart — but this morning as I was pondering the subject, I was wondering whether it is rather too difficult, too deep, as it said, for the Church today. The churches today are used to very elementary things, very superficial things. And anything beyond the elementary seems much too difficult for Christians to handle. And since I am going to be touching upon the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament leading into the New Testament, I was pondering this morning, "Lord, is this too difficult for them? Maybe I should reserve this for the full-time training, rather than for the Church as a whole." But then I was wondering how you can understand your Bible at all if you don't understand what the sacrificial system was all about. Because you can hardly open the Old Testament without running into the whole teaching of the sacrificial system. And in fact, as I just mentioned, the book of Hebrews in the New Testament is all about the sacrificial system. And unless you never bother to read Hebrews, then of course you needn't worry about understanding the sacrificial system.
Now, as I was pondering this question, I saw before the Lord that we will attempt to continue to look into this matter of perfection, to see what the Scripture has to say to us from the whole sacrificial system, which is the core of the Old Testament, and very central to the New Testament. Many times somebody asked me, "Why does Jesus have to die at all? Why didn't God just save us? Just forgive us our sins, and just say — the Lord will just say to us, 'I forgive you your sins,' and that's it. Why did Jesus have to die at all?" Now, if you don't understand the sacrificial system, and why the sacrificial system was necessary, obviously, you wouldn't really know how to answer the question as to why Jesus had to die. Why didn't God just forgive us, just like that, without Jesus dying at all? Now, that shows you that we are not, in a way, dealing with matters that are highly technical. We are dealing with the fundamental matters of salvation. Fundamental matters of the faith. So, let me try to put this matter as simply as possible, without technicality, if at all possible, so that you are not going to be confused. I hope to make this very complex and difficult subject as simple as the Lord will enable me to do it.
Now, the first point that you must clearly grasp in your mind, to understand the scriptures, and the sacrificial system in particular, is this. The important thing in scripture is not whether you accept God or not. The question is whether God accepts you or not. Now, today, many of our evangelists, with all the best intention in the world, have turned the matter upside down for us. They are constantly speaking about accepting Christ. Accepting salvation. Accepting this and that. As though everything depended on me, or on you, whether we accept Jesus or not. And Jesus is often portrayed as a rather pitiful character, standing at the door of your heart, and knocking, apparently with some degree of futility, upon a heart with a door upon it, which is said to be without a handle, so that he can't open it from outside.
Now, exegetically, such a presentation is in violation of scripture, for this reason. That text comes from Revelation chapter 3, verse 20, and is, as you all ought to know, and as every evangelist ought to know, addressed not to unbelievers, but to Christians. The picture presented in Revelation 3:20 is the picture of the Lord Jesus, standing outside the heart of the Christian. Now, this is quite a different matter altogether. And He is being rejected by the very people who were supposed to have accepted Him in the first place, if we can use this acceptance language here. It is simply the picture form of saying, "You who claim to be my people, who declare yourselves to be my people, are in reality living without me in your lives. You claim to be my people, but you have excluded me from your lives." This language is very familiar to all of us who are at all familiar with the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Because that was the charge that the prophets brought against Israel, again and again, through Jeremiah, through Isaiah, through Ezekiel, and so it goes on. "You claim to be my people, and indeed I have called you to be my people. You are the people of my covenant, but you have excluded me. In reality, not in name, but in reality, you have excluded me from your lives."
Therefore, to take a passage like this and apply it to non-Christians is a piece of exegesis not really acceptable. But, in any case, today, as I have said, the evangelists have turned the matter around. God is made to look rather pitiful, pleading at the door of our hearts for our acceptance. But let me tell you that that is not the picture of scripture. The picture in scripture is: God is the great King. He reigns. He is the King. And the question is not whether He is pitiful; the question is whether you and I are pitiful, pleading for His mercy and His kindness. Pleading to be accepted by Him. Because to be accepted by Him is life. To be rejected by Him is death. God is the God of justice, of holiness, and also of love. He is indeed willing to accept us. He is willing to accept us, provided that we come to Him on His conditions.
The preaching of the apostles did not preach in this pitiful way in which Jesus is pleading at the door of our hearts. The apostle Paul, and the other apostles, when they preach, says, "God commands all men everywhere to repent." He commands repentance. It sounds rather different from the way evangelists are presenting the story to us. In the Old Testament, the concept of God as King is everywhere to be found. He is the King. He is the Lord. He pleads at no man's heart. It is for us to plead at His heart. Now you see, when we don't understand the sacrificial system, we've got the whole thing the wrong way around. And it's time that we get this picture straight. You see, so the first point then, as I've emphasized some weeks ago to the full-time teams as well — the whole point is not a question of whether we accept Him or not. The fundamental question is whether He accepts us or not. And until we understand this, we don't understand the sacrificial system at all.
The whole purpose of the sacrificial system was to provide for us a way whereby you and I, sinners that we are, can become acceptable to God. That is, through the sacrifice, the sacrifices of the sacrificial system, through the priesthood, through the entire system, that we may become acceptable. That is, that there might be a way of forgiveness for our sins that God provides for us. Now obviously, when we have turned it the other way around, when it depends on whether I accept God or not, then "why did Jesus have to die" becomes a mystery to me, since He is pleading to accept me the whole time. And what is the meaning of the death of Christ supposed to be about?
Now, let us get this point very clear. I beg of you to understand. Because this extends not only to the matter of salvation, it extends also to the matter of service, of full-time service. Sometimes, we get the astonishing notion that it is up to us whether we are going to serve the Lord full time or not. And I hardly ever hear it anywhere said that it is a question of whether God accepts me or not. You may want to serve God. You may think you are so good that you can serve God full time, that you are really something, and that God is really privileged to have the likes of you to be serving Him. But that I don't see in the Old Testament anywhere. What I do see is men of outstanding quality who hoped that God might consider them worthy of His service. And He will look them over very carefully to see whether they indeed are or not.
And when a person of the stature of Isaiah, that great prophet of God, came to serve God, he immediately became deeply conscious of his unworthiness. Not, "How good! Here I am, Lord, I am going to serve you." Oh no, no. When he came face to face with God, he said, "Woe is me, I am undone. Now I realize, for the first time, I have never seen it so clearly before, that I am a man of unclean lips, and therefore not acceptable to God." And God had first to cleanse him before the — what is often reckoned as the greatest of the prophets, Isaiah himself — could be accepted for his service, for God's service.
Let's get this thing straight. We are not calling the shots in the spiritual life. We are falling into the Greek idea that man is the measure of all things. In scripture, man is not the measure of all things. God is the measure of all things. He is the one who determines all matters. "With thee are the issues of life," the psalmist rightly saw. He is the one who decides whether you may be accepted into His kingdom or not. He decides also whether you may be accepted into His service or not. You don't call the shots. And much less is there the picture of some pitiful God pleading at the door of your heart. What have we done? Even in our preaching, and in the good intentions, we have got this whole thing upside down. He is King of kings, as we see in scripture, Lord of lords. With Him are all the decisions, both of the past, of the present, and of the future.
So let's get this thing clear. The whole sacrificial system was in order that Israel might be able to approach God. That they may be able, even at some distance, to approach God. And with the entire sacrificial system, only one person was admitted into the presence of God, only once a year — the high priest himself. And even that person could not come into God's presence. He would not be accepted into God's presence without the shedding of blood, to atone for sin. He could not; he would not dare to step behind the veil, into the holy of holies, without the shedding of blood. God — the rest of Israel would stay discreetly at a distance. Even after the atonement, even the Day of Atonement, and all the sacrifices had been offered, none dare to approach the presence of God except the high priest himself. And even he, not without the shedding of blood.
Now, by this time I hope we begin to understand this first principle that I have delineated for you. Please, get this thing straight. That it is not whether you accept Him or not. The fundamental question in scripture is whether He accepts you. And whether, even when He calls you, you are able to approach Him. And understand this: that without the blood of the sacrifice, you cannot draw near to Him at all. Neither now, nor in the future, nor ever. Jesus had to die to make us acceptable to God. Because with our sins, we could never be acceptable to Him.
Now, in the scriptures, time and again, we see this matter. But let me move quickly to the second principle. What kind of person is acceptable to God? First of all, it is up to God to accept us. So, He decides what kind of person, or persons, He will accept. And this is where the point of our message in this series comes. There is only one kind of person that God will accept. The perfect man. Did you hear what I said correctly? He accepts nothing less than perfection. So, this is an astonishing, astonishing statement, which I shall now proceed to elaborate to you from the Word of God.
You see, perfection is not the highest ideal, as we might imagine it to be. Perfection is the basic requirement. "Be perfect, as I am perfect." We were studying Matthew chapter 5, verse 48, quite a few times. "Be holy, as I am holy. Be perfect, as I am perfect." He required of Israel to be perfect. Because unless they were perfect, they could not be accepted.
Now, this is not a Bible study, so I will not give you lists and lists of verses. But I shall try to condense the essence of this message into a number of points. In a sacrificial system, there are three main points. First of all, there is the sacrifice. Secondly, there is the priest, who offers the sacrifice. And thirdly, there is the sinner, on behalf of whom the sacrifice is being offered, by the priest. And of course, needless to say, there is a fourth party, which we have already assumed, that it is the God who accepts the sacrifices. But we are concerned on the human side of the matter, the three points. That there is a sacrifice, that there is the one who offers the sacrifice, and there is the one for whom the sacrifice is being offered.
Now, if you at all read the scripture with any care, you will have noticed a very important point. That no sacrifice in the Old Testament can be accepted unless that sacrifice is perfect — with no blemish, no spot, no fault. Every sacrifice offered to God had to be perfect in order to be accepted. That is a basic principle. Let me turn you to one verse, just to summarize this point. There are many verses on this. Leviticus chapter 22, and verse 21. Leviticus chapter 22, verse 21. We will read from verse 20, 20 and 21. "You shall not offer anything that has a blemish," that is, that is imperfect, "for it will not" — notice the word — "be acceptable for you." If you offer any sacrifice that has a blemish, that is imperfect, it will not be accepted by God. Verse 21. "And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, to fulfill a vow or free will offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted, it must be perfect. There shall be no blemish in it." You see how clearly He stated: to be accepted, it must be perfect. And if you didn't get what perfect means, He goes on to explain: "There must be no blemish in it." Not one flaw, not one fault. When you accept a sacrifice, and when you offer a sacrifice to God, that sacrifice cannot be accepted if there is any imperfection in the sacrifice. It must be perfect.
Now how plainly do you need to have it stated there? That's the first point you must grasp. Now you see, therefore I said, first point was that it is not whether we accept God or not. It is whether God accepts us. But in order for that sacrifice to be accepted, the sacrifice has to be perfect. Any sacrificial animal brought to God that had the slightest imperfection in it — you might as well not bother to offer it. Because if you offer that sacrifice that is imperfect, it will not be accepted. So you might as well not have bothered to offer it. Because, even an animal that is imperfect does have a cost to it. No animal is free. So that meant that when a sacrifice was brought into the temple to be offered to God, the priest would carefully inspect the sacrifice, to see if there was any flaw in the sacrificial animal. If there was any imperfection in it, the priest will say, "Take it away, it's not acceptable."
This was to teach Israel, to teach the nation of Israel, right from the beginning, that only the best, only the perfect, could be acceptable to God. And so, this matter of sacrifice, as you know, was being performed in the temple in Israel every day. It's not an occasional thing. Every single day the sacrifices were being offered to God. And every day, this lesson was being taught, drilled into the mind of the Israelites. The lesson was being drilled into his mind, that you can offer nothing to God but what is perfect. And nothing less than perfect would be acceptable to Him.
You see, the Israelites were well taught, day after day after day. They knew this lesson. But it seems that Christians don't know this lesson. They don't seem to understand this. They think they can offer any kind of junk to the Lord. They can offer their spare time to God. They can offer the cheapest, and all this rubbish. And if they offer anything good to God, they think they have done God a wonderful favor. Because after all, God is like some beggar, begging at the door of their heart. And you don't think of giving the best to any beggar, do you? I mean, if you give anything to the beggar, you are doing him a favor. You would hardly see, when you see a beggar by the roadside, you will think of the finest and most perfect thing to give him. I mean, if you dig out of your pocket a wad of notes, you will see the dirtiest dollar bills. I mean, for him, what does it matter? I mean, you don't see, "Is this dollar bill good or not?" I mean, you just drop it in there for him. And if God is a beggar, then who needs to worry?
Oh, no, no, no. Brothers and sisters, let's get this message clearly into our minds: that if you offer God anything less than the perfect, you might as well not have bothered to give it to Him, because it's not acceptable. The Israelites understood that. In all their daily sacrifices, they understood that.
Now, the lesson of being acceptable to God or not was one taught very early, long before the sacrificial system. We can go right back to Genesis chapter 4. Right there. You remember, when Cain and Abel offered up the sacrifices? There you have the term, in Genesis chapter 4, where God said to Cain, who was not accepted, "If you do well, would you not be accepted?" God said to Cain, "You didn't do well. It's not good enough." And therefore, it's not accepted. What Abel offered up, he did well. He gave of his best. It's accepted. So you see, the question of acceptance by God goes all the way back to the beginning. But the Israelites now were being taught this every single day in the daily sacrifices.
Now, let's move on to the second thing. The second point is this. Not only the sacrifices had to be perfect. But the priests had to be perfect. No priest could be accepted by God who was less than perfect. Every priest could only be accepted by God if, in his service, he had been — if he were perfect. You see this in Leviticus chapter 21, very clearly stated for us, repeatedly. Let us just look at the previous chapter to see this point. And the Israelites were taught that again, very clearly. Leviticus chapter 21, verse 16 onwards. "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron'" — Aaron was the chief priest, as you know, the high priest — "'None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish, any imperfection, may approach to offer the bread of his God.'" Verse 18: "For no one who has a blemish shall draw near: a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face, or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight, or an itching disease, or scabs, or crushed testicles. No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord's offerings by fire. Since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.'"
Well, can you be more clear and more specific than that? Anyone with the slightest blemish may not offer sacrifices to God. The sacrifice had to be perfect; the priest offering the sacrifice had to be perfect. Now, obviously, we are not so dull as to think that God is concerned basically with physical perfections. All of this, of course, was to teach the spiritual lesson, that nothing less than spiritual excellence, and spiritual perfection, is acceptable to God. That is the lesson that He was drumming into the minds of the Israelites.
Every priest had to be thoroughly inspected before he could be accepted for the service of God. Even though he is of priestly descent. Notice this: "Your descendants, Aaron, you are the chief priest, you are the high priest, but not even your descendants who are by birth of the tribe of the priests could be accepted." No. Because they were of the priestly tribe, of the priestly family, did not mean they could serve in the temple. Even though he was by birth of the tribe that was appointed by God for priestly service, the fact that he was born a priest did not mean he could serve in the temple. Even the priestly birth required to be submitted to a careful inspection, to see whether he was perfect, without any blemish, so that he could serve before his God. Otherwise, he himself will not be accepted by God, and the sacrifices offered by him — even though the sacrifice was perfect — would not be accepted by God. "You may not offer a sacrifice in my presence."
Do we understand this method? Now you can see what I'm getting at, and what the scripture is teaching. Nothing less than perfection is acceptable to the King of kings, the Lord of lords. What is all this story about Jesus, like some beggar at the door of our hearts, pleading for some pitiful glance that we might offer to Him from time to time, and throw out some scraps to Him, or open the door out of our compassion for this poor man, this poor God, if we may dare to say so, that might be admitted into the palace of my life. You are the palace and He is the beggar? I think we've got everything upside down somewhere.
Nothing less than the perfect servant of God — even though he was born a priest — could be accepted into the presence of the King. Oh, brothers and sisters, let's get this picture straight. When we speak about perfection in the scriptures, we are not talking about some high and lofty ideal which will never be achieved in this life. We are talking about a quality that God expects from each one of us, without which there is no way we are going to be accepted. I'm going to elaborate on this more fully in a moment. But let us move on to the third point. And I shall then show you how this applies to Christ, the sacrifice of Christ, and to ourselves.
# Being Perfected Through Christ's Sacrifice (Part 2) — Freedom From the Guilt and Power of Sin
And thirdly, the one for whom the sacrifice is being offered, namely the sinner. Now if we ask the question as to why any sacrifice was offered at all, we come to realize that the purpose of the sacrifices was to make the one who offers the sacrifice for sin acceptable before God. Namely, to make the sinner perfect. Now, when we say perfect, what are we talking about? By now, of course, we must look for the definition of perfection. In the book of Hebrews, the definition of perfection is quite simple, because it is the definition for all the sacrificial system. Perfection means freedom from the guilt and the power of sin.
Obviously, anyone who is free from the guilt of sin and from its power is perfect in this sacrificial or priestly sense. If you are free from the power of sin, and if the past sins that you committed have been forgiven, cleansed away by the sacrifice for sin, and the grip and power of sin upon your life has been broken, so that you are free from the bondage to sin, then is that not a definition of perfection? For if now sin cannot keep you as its slave and compel you to sin, then clearly you are free from its power, and therefore you are free in the sense that you can live a life that is righteous, that is holy, that is pleasing and acceptable to God.
Now here we can see what the purpose of the sacrifices were. The sacrifices were offered in the temple with this very aim in view: to cleanse away the guilt of sin. What else was it for? To cleanse away the guilt that is gripping your conscience. "I have sinned, I have sinned, what can I do?" Well, sacrifices were to release your conscience from the guilt of sin. People who live under the bondage of sin are crippled by it. They are forever crippled by this guilty conscience. They cannot aspire to a life that is rich and meaningful in the service of God. They cannot live the Christian life at all, until their consciences are freed from the guilt of sin.
But as we have also earlier in this series mentioned, that to be freed from the guilt of sin alone is not enough. If you say to a drug addict who has been involved in drugs for a long time, and who has been purveying and involving other people in drugs, "Okay, I forgive you your sins," that doesn't stop his problem, because he still has the problem of addiction. To forgive him his sins without freeing him from the power of sin is no mercy to him at all, because it will mean that he will simply keep on going into drugs and heaping up more guilt and more sins, which will constantly need to be cleansed away, and yet he cannot be freed from the power of it, because he will still continue to be involved in that sin.
Therefore, in order for sacrifice to be at all meaningful, it is not enough to cleanse away the guilt. It is essential to free the man from the power of the sin. Now clearly, you cannot be perfect in this biblical and sacrificial sense spoken of in the book of Hebrews, unless you are freed from both the guilt and the power of sin. To preach a salvation that merely has to do with forgiveness, without freedom — freedom from sin — is not good news at all. Is it good news to the drug addict to say, "Okay, your sins are forgiven," when he is still under bondage to sin? What's the good news? There's no good news, because he will continue to be sticking the needle into his arm, or smoking the pot, or whatever it is he's doing. What's the good news? He is still a slave to sin. There is no gospel, no good news to preach, until we stress both the freedom from the guilt and the power of sin.
Now, that brings us precisely to the point as to why the Old Testament sacrifices had to be superseded by the sacrifice of Christ. That brings us exactly to what the book of Hebrews is explaining to us. The book of Hebrews is explaining to us that the Old Testament sacrificial system could appear to release a person from the guilt of sin that he has committed, but could not set him free from the power of sin. That is why Paul says in Romans, if the law could give life, if the law could set a man free from sin, then all we would need is the law. Christ wouldn't have had to die for us. But because the law could not set us free from the power of sin, and as a result, it could not set us free from the guilt of sin either. Because if you are not free from the power of sin, you will continue to commit more sin, and therefore the guilt of sin would be forever coming back to you. That is why all the sacrifices of bulls and goats could not free us from sin.
Now Hebrews calls this — that the sacrifices could make no man perfect. Notice the word perfect. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 19. Hebrews 7, verse 19. And this is what we read in Hebrews 7:19. Let us maybe read from verse 18 to get the whole sentence. Hebrews 7:18. "On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside," namely the commandment of the law, "is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness." What does he mean, weakness and uselessness? It means that all these sacrifices in the temple, as I've said, could not set a person free from the power of sin. So verse 19: "For the law made" — notice this word — "the law made nothing perfect." The law made nothing perfect. The sacrifices could not make perfect because they could not free anyone from the power of sin. "On the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we can draw near to God." You see? Draw near means that we can become acceptable to God. We remember that the priest could not draw near to God. He was not acceptable to God. Even the priest could not draw near. Not even the high priest could draw near, until there was the sacrifice for sin.
Now, let us look also at chapter 9, verse 9 of Hebrews, to see this word perfect, this explanation of perfect again. And this is what we read. Perhaps we'll read again from verse 8 to get the whole sentence. Hebrews 9:8. "By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices," that is, in the temple, "are offered, which cannot perfect the conscience" — notice the word perfect — "perfect the conscience of the worshipper, but deal only with food and drink and so forth." The whole legal system could not perfect, could not free us from the guilt, free our conscience from the guilt, because it could not free our lives from the power of sin. So long as you live under the power of sin, you will keep on sinning, which means that you will keep on accumulating guilt. Your conscience will be always burdened by guilt, because the sacrifices of the Old Testament could not set us free from these.
So by now I hope that you begin to see the picture. Let me try to summarize again as we go along. The question is not — let me emphasize again, in the light of God's word — the question is fundamentally not whether you accept God or not, or whether I accept Him or not. The question is whether He accepts you, and whether He accepts me or not. But in order to be accepted by Him, He accepts nothing less than perfection. That means you and I are finished. That is, except for sacrifice.
Now let us try to get this picture again. Let us go back, and now see how all this applies to the Lord Jesus and to us. The Lord Jesus — that is why, you note, it is not only a question of understanding the Old Testament, it is understanding the New as well. Now we understand why the Lord Jesus Himself had to be perfect. Because unless He was perfect, He could not be offered up as a sacrifice for you and for me. Do you see that? Let us look at 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 19, to get this picture. Peter, in the book after James, after Hebrews and James — 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 19. And this is what we read. Exactly in line with the Old Testament. Again reading from verse 18 and 19. "You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." See? Now you understand why Peter is saying this. You will only understand what Peter is saying when you understand that the sacrifice to be accepted by God had to be perfect, without blemish and without spot whatsoever. Nothing less than perfection was acceptable. Therefore, Jesus, to be accepted by God on your behalf and on my behalf, had to be perfect.
By now, of course, we also understand that all this talk about perfection of the sacrificial animal in the Old Testament was designed to teach us about spiritual perfection. When it says that the Lord Jesus was a lamb without blemish and without spot, He's not talking about physical blemish or spot; He's talking about His spiritual perfection. Jesus was without sin in any way. And because He was without sin — spot and blemish represents sin — therefore He could be accepted on our behalf. Again, that's why we read in Hebrews, going back to Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10, that in order for Jesus to be this lamb without blemish and without spot, He was perfected. He had to be made perfect. "For it was fitting," we read in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 10, "it was fitting, it was necessary, that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer" — that is, God would make the pioneer of our salvation — "perfect through suffering." Jesus had to be perfect. This is repeated again in chapter 5, verse 9, that we don't need to read now.
But this takes us to the second point, because this means Jesus is not only perfect as sacrifice — He had to be perfect, as we saw in line with the Old Testament, perfect as a priest. The priest also had to be perfect. And that is why the Lord Jesus Himself, who was both priest and sacrifice, as we see from Hebrews, had to be perfect for both reasons. Because as the priest, Jesus also had to be perfect. Now, this is truly remarkable, isn't it? And we begin to understand why, unless Jesus was perfect, His sacrifice could not avail for you and for me, because God does not accept anything less than perfection.
But let's go on to the third point. The third point, as we have seen, was that the sacrifice was designed to make that person perfect on whose behalf it was offered. That is, we were the ones for whom Christ died. Right? He was the sacrifice, He was the priest. Why did He die for Himself? No, for you and for me. But why did He die? Let's get this picture perfectly clear in our minds. He died in order to make you and me perfect. That is, free not only from the guilt of sin, which is often emphasized today, but also from the power of sin. He died to free us utterly from both the guilt and the power of sin.
Let's look at this in Hebrews again, as we have been concentrating in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10, and verse 14. Hebrews 10:14. So that we establish all this in the word of God. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14: "For by a single offering, Christ has perfected for all time" — notice, "He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified," who are made holy through His sacrifice. Now this is the point that I really want to dwell on, because we have a very cheapened form of Christianity today, that emphasizes what Christ did simply to die for us so that we can get to heaven. It was not quite as simple as that, brothers and sisters. You and I will never get to heaven until His sacrifice has perfected us.
Read this verse again: "For by a single offering, Christ has perfected for all time" — perfected. By now we know what this means: He has set us free from the guilt and the power of sin. And unless you are indeed free from the guilt and power of sin — this is not talking theory, this is talking practical daily Christian living — because freedom from the guilt and power of sin is not some hypothetical situation; it is something that you can test in your daily life. Are you free from the guilt of sin? If so, we can thank God and worship Him from our hearts. But you will never be free from the guilt of sin unless you are free from the power of sin. Otherwise you are simply going to keep piling up the guilt of sin again, like our drug addict who, even if he were pardoned from his guilt, will simply be continuing in drug addiction, and so continuing to pile up his guilt again. No, no, no. If that's the case, then the death of Christ is really no different from the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were replaced precisely because they could not free the offerer from the power of sin. Otherwise, why shouldn't we just stick with the Old Testament sacrifices? They should be good enough. The whole reason why Hebrews tells us these had to be put away, as you remember we read in that verse, was they are weak and useless. Why? Because they couldn't free us, as Paul, as I mentioned again, said. It couldn't give us the power of a new life.
Do you experience — let me ask you very honestly, lest you live in some sort of self-deception and think yourself to be a Christian when you are nothing of the kind, as far as the biblical teaching is concerned — you may be a Christian by legal definition in Canada or anywhere else. You might have it written on your certificate: "I'm not a Buddhist, I'm not a Hindu, I'm a Christian." But that means nothing as far as God is concerned. You will be accepted by God only if you have accepted His sacrifice on your behalf in such a way that that sacrifice was efficacious, effective in your life. That that sacrifice has truly freed you from the guilt of sin and the power of sin.
Why do you think the apostle Paul wrote Romans 8 at all, if it was not to explain to us this very same principle, put in different words: the freedom from the power of sin? The whole of Romans 8 is about the freedom from the power of sin, which is the birthright and the heritage of every true Christian. As I never cease to emphasize to those on the training team, that in Romans 8, this is what Paul is saying: that the Spirit of the life of Christ, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has set us free from the law of sin and death. See, there is a law operating in your life, Paul says, of sin and of death. But the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free. Now, if you have not experienced this freedom, then where has Christ's sacrifice perfected you, and how are you going to be accepted by God? You may accept Him — that's not the question. The question is whether He accepts you.
In Matthew chapter 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord was driving this home, this very point: that on the day of judgment, there will be some people standing there before the Lord and saying, "Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not preach in your name? We exercised miracles in your name, we did this and that." And the Lord said, "Depart from me. I don't know who you are. I have no personal recognition of you." They accepted Him as Lord. He didn't accept them as His. Let us get this message. You may be accepting Him today, and I assume that you accept Him, otherwise you wouldn't be in this service, I suppose. The question is not whether you accept Him. The question is: has He accepted you? And you will know the answer to that if you have experienced the perfecting power of the sacrifice of Christ, the freedom from the guilty conscience, because His blood has cleansed away your sin, and He has set you free from the power of sin.
Do you continue to lose your temper because you can't help it? If so, clearly you don't know what it is to be freed from the law of sin and death. Are you still in pursuit of the love of money, so that you are prepared to deceive in income tax, in other ways you are prepared to cheat? You are still living under the power of sin and of death. How do you look at your brothers and sisters, as your roommates? Do you still see them in a critical attitude, with yourself as the center, and other people are always not good enough for you, because you always regard them as this fault and that fault, without seeing the log in your own eye? You always see the splinter in somebody else's eye. Are you free from the law of sin and of death? Do you know what it is to live in the power of the life that has been raised with Christ, buried with Christ in baptism, raised with Christ to the newness of life in Him?
Christian life is not a question of a piece of paper that you sign, some decision form, brothers and sisters. It is the question of life and death. You know what it is to be physically alive. Do you know what it is to be spiritually alive? And how can you claim to be spiritually alive when you don't even know what it is? If I said to somebody, "Are you physically alive?" I would be asking a ridiculous question. I mean, if he were dead, why would I be asking him the question? Because he knows he is alive. You know you are alive. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself, but at least you say, "I am still alive." Pinch yourself spiritually to see whether you are spiritually alive or not. Or else on that day when you stand there before Him, you say, "Lord, I accepted you. Remember, I signed the decision form." Oh yes, it is all written there in the church register. Oh, brothers and sisters, let none of you ever lay at my door on that day that I didn't tell you this truth.
Now our time is gone, and I pray that this word of God will truly speak to your hearts, that you will clearly grasp why Jesus died. He died for you and for me, so that you and I may be accepted in His presence. That God may accept us because He has perfected us. This doesn't mean that we are sinless or spotless in the sense that there is no more sin in us. But it does — and I have expounded earlier on — that the perfection in scriptural teaching is not the eradication of sin from our lives, but it is the victory over sin in our lives. That's a very important distinction. It doesn't mean that we are free from sin in the sense that there is no sinful inclination within us from our flesh. But it does mean that we triumph over sin through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. That's a very different kind of teaching. We are not talking about sinless perfection. We are talking about victory over sin.
And so let me read one more verse and we must close. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 27. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 27. Again we will go back to verse 26 or 25 in order to get the whole sentence. Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives." Why? Because you are merely following Christ's example. And this is what we read: "As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." What for? Why did He give Himself up for her? "That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the washing of water with the word," baptism, "that he might present the church to himself." Now notice carefully. Why did He die? "That he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." Be holy as I am holy. What does holiness mean? Without blemish. Perfection. Perfection means — let me emphasize once more — freedom from the guilt and the power of sin. Why did Christ die? That He might present you and me holy, because only so can we be acceptable in His presence, without blemish. Now you understand this point as I explained it to you from the Old Testament. Why were the sacrifices offered? So that the person who has sinned may be perfected, that is, freed from the guilt and power of sin. That's exactly why Christ died: that we might be holy and without blemish.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer.