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PICTURE THE SCENE . AN ISRAELITE CAMP IN THE DESERT, SEVERAL thousand years ago. The tabernacle, pitched on top of a hill in the center of the camp. The high priest, running down the hillside shouting that he has found the perfect spotless lamb, which will be sacrificed on behalf of all the people, taking care of their sins for the rest of their lives.

Imagine the excitement! After that one final sacrifice, all the men of Israel gather to begin tearing down the tabernacle. Then they move on with a whole new way of life. No longer do they have to worry about sacrifices to clean up their track record. Instead, they can live guilt free, knowing that a perfect lamb has done away with their sins once and for all.

Of course, this never happened. Instead, what we see is the Israelites having to offer animal sacrifices over and over throughout their history, because no single sacrifice was sufficient to perfectly cleanse them. Hebrews explains clearly:

[The law] can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

HEBREWS 10:1-2, italics adde d

Although we never read of an Old Testament priest finding the perfect lamb, this announcement was, in fact, made. When? Not long before the sacrifice that would initiate the New. Upon seeing Jesus, John the Baptist declared, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Today, we have a perfect Lamb in the person of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice rendered the temple ceremonies null and void. There’s no longer any purpose for the tabernacle, the temple, or the daily sacrifices.

There’s no method
or procedure
required for us
to remain forgiven.

Because Jesus Christ’s sacrifice cleansed us once for all, not repeatedly over time, there’s no method or procedure required for us to remain forgiven. We’re invited to depend on the onetime sacrifice as the means to lifelong forgiveness, without any strings attached: “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18 NIV, italics added).

INTERVIEW WITH A JEW

The issue concerning forgiveness becomes crystal clear if we understand God’s economy, which hasn’t changed since the beginning of time. To illustrate, let’s travel back in time as an investigative reporter to interview a Jew as he exits the tabernacle.

“Excuse me, Mr. Jew, you seem very relieved compared with the way you looked when you entered the tabernacle just a short time ago. What’s your secret? What makes you feel so much better about the past year of sinning? Did you promise Yahweh that you’d do better this coming year—that you would turn over a new leaf?”

The Jewish man responds, “No, nothing like that took place.”

Slightly confused, you press on to discover the truth. “Well, did you carefully name off each sin and ask Yahweh to cover your sins?”

“Certainly not!” the Jewish man exclaims.

“Well, then, what exactly made you feel relief from guilt for all the sins you’ve committed over the past twelve months?”

At this point, any well-educated Jew would give the same response: “What made me feel better? The blood of bulls and goats that covered my past sins, of course! Yahweh has always demanded a blood sacrifice for sins, and now—because of the animal I bought to offer as a sacrifice—my sins are covered!”

This is God’s economy. It has always been the case that one thing brings forgiveness of sins, namely, blood—nothing else: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD

No amount
of dialoguing with
God about our sins
will bring us more
forgiveness.

If we accept God’s blood-only economy, it revolutionizes our perspective on how we stand before him. The bottom line is that no amount of dialoguing with God about our sins will bring us more forgiveness. No amount of asking God to forgive us will initiate his cleansing in our lives. Instead, blood sacrifice is the only action that results in forgiveness and cleansing. This was true in the Old Testament, and there’s no exception today.

Because there are no more blood sacrifices being made for sins, we must conclude something about the onetime sacrifice of Jesus Christ: either it was or was not sufficient to bring a lifetime of forgiveness and cleansing. If so, then God is satisfied regarding our sins, both now and in eternity. If not, then we are stuck with no biblical way of dealing with God’s wrath toward us.

Unfortunately, right here is where I see many of us getting creative, as we use terms such as positional truth and heavenly bookkeeping. We say we’re forgiven and cleansed “in God’s eyes.” But then we claim that Christ’s death does not translate into “once for all” forgiveness in the here and now. Perhaps it just feels too easy: “You mean I don’t have to do anything? That doesn’t sound right.” Our human pride won’t allow us to enjoy that kind of grace.

Some exhort believers to do something, such as asking for forgiveness, to impel God so that he will actually forgive and cleanse them. This certainly satisfies us; there’s nothing like a daily list of sins to pore over to relieve us from guilt.

Some claim a procedure is necessary to “appropriate” or “activate” forgiveness. They say we must “keep short accounts” of our sins and ask God to forgive and cleanse us in order to “make it real in our own experience.” But didn’t God announce that only one thing—blood—brings forgiveness and cleansing?

Without realizing it, we end up believing that Christ’s blood has real effects only for heaven. If we want to maintain a cleansed state before God here on earth, we begin to think it comes through a work that we initiate through remembering, confessing, asking, and claiming. Ultimately, it becomes our responsibility to make the cross carry real benefits in the present.

In adopting this fine-sounding belief system, we fail to recognize that the cross is a historical event. Its effects are already accomplished, no matter what we believe or claim.

We don’t initiate forgiveness, because we cannot. Only blood brings forgiveness. Our acts of remembrance, confession, asking forgiveness, and claiming—whether done with good intentions or not—don’t cause more blood to be shed.

I’ll discuss the scriptural idea of “confession” in a moment, but realistically, we only have two choices: (1) accept as fact the complete, unconditional forgiveness that God purchased through the crushing of his Son, or (2) create some system of our own to feel better about our sins.

Only blood brings
forgiveness .

Jews actually felt better (yes, in the real world!) because of the blood of bulls and goats that was shed on their behalf. There was no further “activation” needed to appropriate that forgiveness. The act of the high priest’s slaughtering the animal was sufficient to cause the entire nation of Israel to shout from the rooftops with real-world relief from guilt. The only difference between then and now was that sacrifices of Old were continuous, whereas Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all.

What then are we saying about the sacrifice of Jesus when we insist that something further be done to “activate” it? In essence, we’re insulting the work of Calvary. We’re valuing the Son’s sacrifice even less than the people of the Old valued their animal sacrifices.