Good Friday Forgiveness
Good Friday is the day we recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. While many believers understand this basic truth, there's still a disconnect in how many of us live out this reality. Too many Christians continue to live as if they don't have actual forgiveness and instead try to make sacrifices for their sins in everyday life.
The Cycle of Self-Atonement
Does this sound familiar? After making bad choices, we start looking for ways to make up for them:
"I'll attend that Good Friday service to compensate"
"I'll go to church this Sunday to make up for my mistakes"
"I'll donate money I was going to spend on myself"
"If I just do enough good things, maybe God won't be so upset with me"
And the cycle continues. While we acknowledge that Good Friday involves Jesus dying for sins, many still feel responsible to make up for their sins too. But is this how forgiveness actually works?
Does making personal sacrifices after sinning make God more likely to forgive us?
What Hebrews Teaches About Sacrifice
The author of Hebrews addresses this question directly in chapter 10:
"The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship." (Hebrews 10:1)
The Old Testament law preserved awareness of divine holiness and revealed the need for atonement, but it never brought worshipers into a permanent relationship with God. Those sacrifices were merely reminders of sin—they didn't remove it.
The Limitations of the Old Covenant
Hebrews 10 continues:
2 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. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Heb. 10:2-4)
If the Law made the worshipers perfect, then wouldn't offerings cease because the worshipers would no longer have felt guilty for their sins?"
Animal sacrifices could never remove sin because they were never intended to. They were designed to cover sin and foreshadow Jesus, who would later come to take away the sins of believers.
Christ's Perfect Sacrifice
When Christ came into the world, he established a new approach:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.'" (Hebrews 10:5-7)
Christ's sacrifice was effective because it demonstrated a complete commitment to fulfilling God's will. He came to fulfill the Law for us!
The Finished Work: "Once for All"
The contrast between Old Testament priests and Jesus is striking:
"Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." (Hebrews 10:11-12)
Standing was a position of continuous work—priests performed endless sacrifices because sins just kept coming. But sitting? That was a position of accomplishment, and that is what the author of Hebrews said Jesus did after His once for all sacrifice. There were no more sacrifices to be made.
When Jesus exclaimed, "It is finished," He truly meant it.
Stop Trying to Make Up for Your Sin
If Jesus is sitting down because His sacrifice for your sin was accomplished, why are you still trying to make sacrifices for your sin? Why run around trying to do good things to feel better about where you stand with God?
What you're doing is similar to what the Old Testament priests were doing—something the author of Hebrews explicitly states could never take away sins.
Freedom in Christ
If you have trusted Christ, your sin is done away with. If you make a mistake and sin, turn your face back to Jesus. You'll see Him still sitting down, whispering, "It is finished." You are forgiven and set free, so don't try to make up for something He's already taken care of.
"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:14)
The New Covenant Promise
To emphasize this point further, the author quotes Jeremiah 31, which prophesied about the new covenant:
"This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds... Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (Hebrews 10:16-17)
Can you believe that? While we're trying to make sacrifices for our sin, God doesn't even remember it—it's not even in His memory!
The Practical Conclusion
The author sums it up perfectly:
"And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary." (Hebrews 10:18)
Stop trying to make up for your sin—it's no longer necessary! Instead, live in the freedom of knowing you are forgiven and set free.
The next time you sin, you don't have to try to make sacrifices to earn back your standing before God. Just acknowledge your sin before Him and then thank Him for the forgiveness you already have and that nothing in your relationship has changed with Him.
Good Friday Forgiveness
Good Friday changed everything. If you have put your faith in Jesus for salvation and are under the New Covenant, stop living like you're still under the Old Covenant and trying to make sacrifices to make up for your sin.
You have complete forgiveness in Christ for all your past, present, and future sins. He died for all of them as a once for all sacrifice. There are no more sacrifices necessary to earn forgiveness from God. Live in the freedom and truth that there is no condemnation for those in Christ!
