#DailyDevotion You Can’t Add To Jesus’ One Perfect Sacrifice
Heb. 10 11Every other priest stands and serves day after day, and over and over again brings the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But He made one sacrifice for sins, good forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13and since then is waiting for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet. 14By one sacrifice He forever made perfect those who are made holy. 15The Holy Spirit assures us of this. First He says: 16“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put My laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.” 17Then He adds: “I will not remember their sins and their wrongs anymore.” 18Now, where sins are forgiven, there is no more sacrificing for sin.
The priests of the earthly Temple brought the same sacrifices over and over again, daily, monthly and yearly according to the Law. But those sacrifices could not take away sins. It was only the promise attached and the faith that believed the promises that could do that. These sacrifices were a shadow which pointed to the one perfect sacrifice that was to be offered. Jesus is that one perfect sacrifice. He made one sacrifice for sins. This sacrifice was good forever. There can be and will not be any further sacrifice that can merit or earn, can atone for or propitiate, for the forgiveness of sins. Since Jesus’ perfect sacrifice there is nothing you can add to it. It is complete.
Having made this sacrifice for sin, Jesus sat down on the right hand of majesty on high. There He is waiting for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet. Since His perfect and holy sacrifice, He sits as our High Priest interceding for us with the blood He shed for us once and for all.
Now this perfect sacrifice has forever made us perfect who are made holy through holy baptism. The baptism into which He has put His name. The baptism in which He has connect His Word and blood to the water, which cleanses our consciences and makes them clean. There is nothing we can add to what Jesus has done to make us perfect and holy. It is His actions, His sacrifice which has done it. So St. Paul says in Eph. 5, “25You husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it 26to make it holy by washing it clean with water by the Word, 27to have the church stand before Him as something wonderful, without a spot or a wrinkle or anything like that; yes, it should be holy and without a fault.” In Col. 1 he writes, ” 22but now by dying in His human body He has made you friends in order to have you stand before Him without sin or fault or blame…” Jude writes, “24To Him who is able to keep you from falling and have you stand without a fault and with great joy before His glory…”
This is so because Jesus has instituted the New Testament with His blood as Jeremiah quotes above in his prophecy from ch. 31 of his book. He has put His Torah in our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit in baptism. We are reminded of this in Absolution and the LORD’s Supper. These three deliver to us, give to us the forgiveness of sins earned by Jesus’ one time sacrifice. We can be certain as we participate in these means of grace and believe what Jesus says about them, God forgives us our sins and remembers them no more. Since our sins are forgiven by His one perfect sacrifice and we are made complete and perfect by it, there is no more sacrifice for sin. There is nothing you can add to it. You can only receive it through His given means, believe and trust in it.
Merciful God and Father, You have provided the one perfect sacrifice for our sins by sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to be our sacrificial Lamb. Grant us faith in His sacrifice for our sins so we don’t blaspheme it by adding our own sacrifices. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.