The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Perfected for All Time
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! This is what God says about our dear Lord Jesus—and also about you—in
today’s Epistle: “By a single offering He [Jesus] has perfected for all time
those [that is, all of you] who are being sanctified.”
Dear Christian friends,
I am going to read a short list of words and phrases to you. As I read you this
list, think of all the people—as many people as possible—whom these words and
phrases describe well. Who comes to mind for you when you hear these words?
Perfect. Flawless. Faultless. Complete in every way. Whole and unbroken.
Finished. Immaculate. Unblemished. Pure and unpolluted. Spotless.
Who comes to mind when you hear these words? Your first and quickest answer was
probably our Lord Jesus Christ. Some people might even say that Jesus is the
only person in all of human history who is perfect, flawless, faultless,
complete in every way, and so on. In His Scriptures, God calls Jesus
• “Him… who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• “a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19).
• “the Word” (John 1:1), and God also declares that “The Word of the Lord
is flawless” (Psalm 18:30, NIV).
So these words and phrases I read to you earlier—perfect, flawless, faultless,
and so on—these words and phrases describe well our Lord Jesus Christ.
God wants you to know in today’s Epistle that these very same words and phrases
that describe Jesus so well ALSO do an equally good job of describing YOU!
What has God said? “By a single offering He [Jesus] has perfected for all time
those [that is, all of you] who are being sanctified.” Stated in a few other
ways,
• By a single offering, Jesus made YOU perfect and complete, now and
forever.
• By a single offering, Jesus permanently removed from you every blemish,
every flaw, every imperfection that bubbles up from the inborn disease of your
sin.
• By a single offering, Jesus has made you perfect, flawless, faultless,
complete in every way, whole and unbroken, a finished work of art, immaculate,
unblemished, pure and unpolluted, spotless.
A. When God says here, “by a single offering,” He is speaking about your
Lord’s bloody death on the cross. Jesus is not merely the sacrificial lamb, but
Jesus is also the high priest who offered up the sacrifice for you and for me
and for all people. This is why God said to you earlier in today’s Epistle,
“Christ… offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.” This is why God
also says in another place that “Christ appeared as a high priest… by means of
His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11, 12).
B. What did your Lord Jesus do for you with this “single offering” of
Himself for your sins? “By a single offering He [Jesus] has perfected [YOU].”
C. Is there any expiration date on this perfection Jesus has given to you?
NO! “By a single offering He has perfected FOR ALL TIME those who are being
sanctified.” When God says the words “for all time” to you, He means
• every moment of every day. There is never even a nanosecond in your
life in which you are anything less than perfect, flawless, faultless, and
complete in every way.
• from moment of Jesus’ death on the cross. God’s gift of perfection for
you is so amazing, so miraculous, that God speaks as if Christ’s perfection
were given to you 2,000 years before you were born!
• now and forever. With the Words “for all time” God is promising you
and assuring you that He will never take Christ’s perfection away from you. The
gift God gives, He takes not away. The perfection you have is yours to stay.
I am going to read a short list of words and phrases to you. As I read you this
list, think of yourself—think of all your dear fellow Christians gathered. God
wants you to know that these words and phrases describe YOU well:
Perfect. Flawless. Faultless. Complete in every way. Whole and unbroken.
Finished. Immaculate. Unblemished. Pure and unpolluted. Spotless.
God your heavenly Father is not under any illusions. God knows how hard it is
for you to believe Him when He says that you have been “perfected for all
time.” God knows what you see in the mirror; He knows what you hear echoing in
your mind; He knows what you feel in your heart. God knows your arrogance as
well as He knows your repentance. He knows how quickly you would protest what
He has said to you, if you dared! You know how it goes:
God points to Jesus and says to you, You respond,
“You are perfect.” “Nobody’s perfect”
“You are flawless” “Have you seen my report card?”
“You are faultless and unblemished, pure and unpolluted.” “Tell that to
my wife and children.”
“Whole and unbroken” “Maybe at one time, but that was before my wife or
husband died.”
Because He knows you so well, God has given you an additional blessing and
promise in today’s Epistle. The additional blessing and promise from God is in
these Words: “those who are being sanctified.” The first blessing was full and
complete perfection on account of your Lord’s “single offering on the cross.”
But now in this second blessing, God gives you a way to cope with what you see
in your life and feel in your heart. God calls you “those who are being
sanctified.”
• The Word “those” refers to all the baptized of Christ. Because you
yourself have been baptized, you can know and never doubt that these Words
therefore speak about you.
• The Word “being” does NOT speak about something you do. The Word
“being” speaks about something God does for you! “Being” indicates passiveness.
“Being” means God giving and you receiving.
• The Word “sanctified” means “holy” or “set apart.”
God calls you—God calls the people who are sitting alongside you—“those who are
being sanctified.” God calls you “those who are being sanctified” because
• He knows how hard it is for you to believe that you are now perfect and
complete on account of your Lord’s “single offering on the cross.”
• He knows you see too much in your life that looks corrupt and broken
and incomplete in every way.
• He wants you to think of yourself as continually being cleansed and
renewed and made holy by the blood of Jesus. Both
o Perfect right now and continually being perfected by the Word of God
that is at work in you;
o Holy right now and continually being made holy by the cleansing blood
of Jesus, the lamb without blemish or defect;
o Sanctified right now and continually being sanctified by the Holy
Communion that you eat and drink;
o Complete right now and continually being made complete by the forgiving
Word of absolution;
o Whole right now and continually being put back together again by the
ever-flowing water of your Baptism.
Perfect. Flawless. Faultless. Complete in every way. Whole and unbroken.
Finished. Immaculate. Unblemished. Pure and unpolluted. Spotless.
These words do not describe our Christ alone. These words describe you. These
words will describe you “for all time.” These words became your words when
Christ the high priest offered “a single sacrifice for sins.”
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