I Am Holy
I’ve always heard about how painful kidney stones can be, but I’d never experienced them until moving to our new home. I can confirm—kidney stones are not pleasant!
Thankfully, modern medicine helps relieve the pain and discomfort of kidney stones. But I wanted to take care of the problem at the source. We had a feeling it had to do with our water, so we had someone come test our water. When the results came back, we couldn’t believe how many minerals were in our water. It was amazing to see what had been previously invisible. No wonder I developed kidney stones!
We immediately installed a water filter. Now that the water is softer and has fewer impurities, it tastes and feels different. And I’m sure it won’t have that same negative impact on my system.
In the same way, sin, even if unseen, creates damage.
This is why God’s law was put in place—to make visible what was invisible. It shows us that we are utterly incapable of living up to the perfect standard of God’s righteousness on our own (see Romans 3:20).
In Hebrews 10, Scripture tells us that, “the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship” (verse 1).
It goes on to state how when Jesus came into the world, there was no longer a need to sacrifice bulls and goats, even though this was in accordance with the law. Instead, Jesus’ death and resurrection established a new and better way. “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10 NIV).
James tells us that the law is like a mirror that shows what is inside (our sin) that is causing problems and what needs to be corrected. “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing”(James 1:23).
And in Galatians 3:24, Paul makes the point that the law (Old Covenant) was meant to lead us to Christ, the One who fulfilled the law and instituted the perfect law of liberty.
Think of the law and the sacrificial system mentioned in Hebrews 10 like the medicine designed to take away the symptoms of my kidney stones. Both were temporary fixes. As a temporary fix, the law revealed that the problem lay deep within the human heart and needed a solution at the source.
Dear Saints, in Christ we have a solution that covers the problem. But it extends much further than that. We have been made holy! Our loving and gracious God chose to sacrifice Himself so that we could receive a fix that addressed the root of the issue.
In the words of Hebrews 10:10, this is “once for all.” For every person who confess their sins and turns to Jesus as Lord, it’s a done deal.
We are no longer sinners by nature; we are now holy in Christ.