From the gospel of John we learn that from the cross, just before Jesus would finally die, He said “It is finished”. What was finished? The righteous demands of a Holy God had been fully met and the wrath of a Holy God against sin had been exhausted. The sin problem common to every human was eternally solved. “It is finished.”

“When He (Jesus) had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high..” (Hebrews 1:3) Having referenced several versions of the Bible, each of them agree on what this awesome verse says. First Jesus “purged” our sins. Some versions use the word “cleansed”, some ‘purified”, but each offers the same meaning. HE fixed our sin problem. And each of the versions I referred to correctly translated the tense of the verb to be the “past tense”. There is no process involved, it is a finished work. “Purged”, “cleansed”, or “purified” all happened in the past and are done.

The writer to the Hebrews again and again affirms this glorious truth.

• “Once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:26,27)
• “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12)
• “Once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26)
• “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28 )
• ” We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”  (Hebrews 10:10)
• “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12)

And if that were not enough to convince anyone who reads the text, the final, convincing truth is found in Hebrews 10:14. ” For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Jesus Himself by living a perfect life and presenting a perfect sacrifice to God on behalf of estranged sinners has “once for all” fixed the sin problem for everyone who puts their trust in Him. There is no righteous act, no penance, no sacrifice, no reform, no personal proof, no suffering, that can add to what Jesus has already accomplished on your behalf.

When God looks at one of those dear ones, who are together the bride of Christ, He sees that one perfect. Perfect until you mess up? No way! In simple terms your perfection is “eternal”. Thus Paul could say with confidence in Ephesians 1:4 “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

Take a deep breath and relax child of God, you have a lot of living to do! What you don’t have to sweat is your sins. They are gone! It is finished! Yes, of course we still sin, but our sins are not counted against us any longer. (Romans 4:7,8 ) It is because of this grace knowledge, this abundance of mercy, that we learn to say no to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin, we have been set free.

The penalty of sin is death. Jesus died in your place. God is satisfied.
The power of sin is the law. It was nailed to the cross.
The presence of sin will one day be only history not to be remembered again when Jesus comes for us.

This is the good news about Jesus. “It is finished!” Amen, and amen.

His peace,
Royce Ogle