Romans 3:24
The
single sacrifice of Christ on man’s behalf on the cross brought about
unimaginable benefits to the sinner; no wonder it is to some, too good
to be true. So they seek ways to minimize the inestimable riches of the
wondrous glory of His grace towards a fallen man. One of such
inestimable and unprecedented consequences of Christ’s atoning sacrifice
for us is that we have been made right with God, without any merit of
ours whatsoever, except the grace of God.
In
the Old Testament, the High Priest came into the Holy of Holies once in
a year to present sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel and
because he had to do it yearly, it meant that there remained a
remembrance of sin. But when Christ offered His own blood on our behalf,
as our High Priest, it was a once and for all sacrifice. If the
sacrifice that was repeated yearly meant the remembrance of sin, then
that which Christ offered once and for all times, would mean that there
ceased to be a remembrance of sin. Because of His one sacrifice, we can
eternally come into the presence of God boldly by the blood which He
shed for us.
Because
of what Christ did on the cross for us, God has declared us to be in
right standing with Himself. Our position in Christ is like those who
have never sinned because in Christ there is no remembrance of sin. Some
people have somehow mistaken this truth of remembrance of sin in Christ
to mean that God is careless about the conduct of those who come to Him
through Christ. This cannot be true, because the same people are told
in 1 Peter 1:16, to be holy even as God is holy. The true position is
that in Christ, we have been made holy, positionally, but called to be
holy (practical outworking of our faith on a daily basis). One does not
cancel out the other.
Toni
