from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Hebrews 9:6-14; 10:10, 14

Because Jesus is both human and holy, by His Spirit we His people can be both human and holy as well.

Under the Old Testament law, God was holy, and His people were holy because God had called them and separated them to Himself. That is, their holiness was more positional than personal. They were not necessarily holy in a moral sense.

They were called and commanded to be holy, but they lacked the ability. The law taught them what God was like and what He wanted of them. It said that God was holy, and that they should be holy as well. It taught them right and wrong, but it provided no strength to live right over wrong. It gave them rules and rituals, but it couldn’t give them the inner ability to be holy.

Romans 7:15-23 describes their predicament. They knew what was right but had no strength to do it. They knew what was wrong but had no strength to avoid it. They were trapped in their own weakness and sin, with no way out.

Animal sacrifices – the blood of bulls and goats – could not truly, permanently cleanse them of sin.

All this changes for us in Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit within us frees us from the guilt and power of sin:

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4, NASB)

Jesus Himself is the once-for-all, perfect sacrifice that cleanses us from our sin, completely and forever:

…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14, NASB)

As we trust in Jesus Christ, we are both human and holy.