Sanctification through the Cross

The Easter season usually starts for me when I start teaching the 3 & 4 year-olds at my church the verse Mark 11:14: "...Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!"  That verse is the start of a 3 week study that will culminate the week before Easter with a resurrection message.  Teaching that lesson this past Sunday started me thinking of the cross and what it, and it's benefits, means to me.

Here are a few I have come up with:

• Heaven  There is no possible way we would enter into the gates of Heaven without Christ's sacrifice.  Romans 10:8-10.

• Holy Spirit  Without Christ's death, the Holy Spirit wouldn't have been poured out on us.  Acts 2.

• No More Sacrifices Let's look at this one a little more closely.

 
Prior to Christ's death, any time you sinned you had to go before the priest and offer a sin offering.  Not only that, but any time you had your monthly cycle or even had relations with your husband, you were now considered unclean and had to go before the priest and give an offering to become clean. (Leviticus 15)  I don't know about you, but I would have been horrified to have to admit to those things to a priest! 

Christ did what no one else could possibly ever do.  He used His blood to pay for our sins.  Never again do we need to take an animal to a priest and offer up to God an offering for our sins.  Hebrews 10:14 says, "For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."  Christ's one single offering of HIS blood perfected me for all time.  Not just me, but all who are being sanctified.

Does that mean we are off the hook from our sins?  Absolutely not!  1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  We still are accountable for our sins and we still need to ask forgiveness, even though we have been sanctified.  1 John 3:9-10 says, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother." 

Thankfully, being born of God we are able to offer a simple prayer asking for forgiveness rather than taking a few animals to the priest to atone for our sins. 

In this Easter season, what does the cross mean to you? 

Elizabeth is a military wife and mom of 3.  You can find her blogging over at Elizabeth's Treasure Chest. 

Photo can be found here.

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