What Was Jesus Doing On the Cross?

 # 16 (He was) making us holy 

Hebrews 10: 10b ‘we are made holy through the sacrifice of Christ’s body’ 

The obvious question that comes from the text is this: What does it mean that ‘we are made holy’? 

To answer that we need to ask another question:  

What is God like – what is His divine nature – what are His invisible qualities? 

Let’s try and answer that by saying... 

God is utterly unique, separate from and above all creation 

God is perfectly pure and righteous  

God is unrivalled in majesty and glory 

God is ageless, tireless, blameless, faultless, and unblemished in moral purity 

God is eternal, preeminent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent 

All of these qualities combined together describe the holiness of God, Isaiah 6: 3b ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! EASY 

Exodus 15: 11; Leviticus 11: 44; 19: 2; 20: 26; 22: 32; Joshua 24: 19; 1 Samuel 2: 2; 2 Chronicles 30: 27; Job 34: 10; Psalms 5: 5, 7; 11; 22: 3; 48: 1; 71: 22; 89: 18; 97: 12; 98: 1; 99: 3, 5, 9; 103: 1; 105: 3; 145: 21; Proverbs 30: 3; Isaiah 1: 12-17; 5: 16; 6: 3; 10: 20; 29: 23; 43: 14-15; 49: 7; 54: 5; 57: 15; Ezekiel 39: 7; Jeremiah 51: 5; Hosea 11: 9; Amos 2: 7; 5: 21-23; Habakkuk 1: 12-13; Zechariah 8: 17; Mark 1: 24; Luke 1: 49; 4: 34; John 17: 11; 1 Peter 1: 15-16; Revelation 4: 8; 6: 10; 15: 4 

God’s holiness is revealed to us in 3 different ways for 3 different purposes 

Firstly, for the purpose of making Himself known to us God has revealed His holiness in all creation 

Romans 1: 20b ‘Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.’ 

Secondly, for the purpose of making known our sin to us God has revealed His holiness to us in His Word 

Here’s the problem, God is holy and in our ‘fallen’ sinful condition we are NOT holy, as the Word of God says, Hebrews 12: 14b ‘those who are NOT holy will not see the Lord.’ 

Luke 5: 8; Hebrews 12: 10b; 1 Peter 1: 16 

When God gave Isaiah the revelation of His holiness, Isaiah immediately confessed his sinfulness, Isaiah 6: 1-3, 5a ‘It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Attending Him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.’ NLT, EASY  

Thirdly, for the purpose of saving us God has revealed His holiness to us through Christ 

The angel announced to Mary, Luke 1: 35 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the baby to be born will be holy, and He will be called the Son of God.’ 

Acts 3: 14; Acts 4: 27, 30; 1 John 2: 20 

Considering God’s revelation of His holiness to us, from the beginning of God’s creation (Genesis 1-2) to the entrance of sin into the human race (Genesis 3), to the emergence of the nations (Genesis 11), to the time of Israel’s great patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 12-50), through Moses, the Law and the Prophets (Exodus-Malachi), to the suffering and death of Jesus Christ (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), through the Church Age and the End Times (Acts), into the future to Armageddon and the final judgement, through to the destruction of the heavens and the earth by fire and God’s creation of the new heavens, the new earth and the new Jerusalem (Revelation)...  

What do you suppose is God’s final word to us is in regard to salvation!? 

Let me give you a clue – the answer is given to us in the final verse of the Bible 

Revelation 22: 21 ‘May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.’ 

So, how do we become ‘God’s holy people’; how can we be saved? 

There is only one way - through ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus’! 

God in His great grace did not condemn us in our sinfulness but instead sent Jesus Christ to save us through His suffering and death on the cross

So then, to answer the question at the start of this Message, what does it mean that ‘we are made holy’; it means that through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross by faith we become the recipients of God’s, 2 Peter 1: 4b ‘precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature’ 

The term ‘made holy’ has 2 applications: 

Firstly, as I have said already, 'made holy’ means to be saved by the suffering and death of Christ on the cross, 1 Corinthians 1: 2b ‘He made you holy by means of Jesus Christ, just as He did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.’ 

Romans 1: 7; Hebrews 2: 11 

And how do we ‘call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’, Romans 10: 9 ‘if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.’ 

At this point, it is vitally important for us to understand that our salvation through Christ’s suffering and death on the cross is a finished work, it is perfect and complete and cannot be improved upon 

Our salvation is through Jesus Christ + NOTHING! Hebrews 9: 12 ‘With His own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.’  

This means that at the moment of our salvation we were made ‘positionally’ holy, IN Christ, Romans 6: 11b ‘alive to God IN Jesus Christ our Lord.’ 

Romans 8: 1a; 2 Corinthians 5: 21; Ephesians 2: 8-9 

As we are made holy, our ‘fallen’ sinful nature is transformed, and we are welcomed as His beloved children into the tender affections of God, 1 John 1: 7 ‘But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.’ 

Isaiah 53: 6; John 1: 12-13, John 3: 3, 5-6, 16-17, 1 John 1: 8 

Secondly, though we are ‘positionally’ holy IN Christ, we are also made holy as we serve the will of God - holy living makes our holiness complete, 2 Corinthians 7: 1b ‘let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.’ 

Romans 6: 19, 22; 2 Corinthians 1: 12; Ephesians 4: 24; Colossians 3: 12; 1 

Thessalonians 2: 10, 3: 13; 1 Timothy 2: 15; Titus 1: 8; Peter 3: 11 

Illustrate:

The Old Testament records how the High Priest was set apart to serve the will of God and as a sign of being set apart to serve the will of God he had to wear special clothing - Part of that clothing was a headpiece made of gold that had the words ‘Holy to the Lord’ engraved in it, Exodus 39: 30 ‘Finally, they made the sacred medallion—the badge of holiness—of pure gold. They engraved it like a seal with these words: Holy to the lord.’ 

Now this doesn’t mean that we need to go around dressed up in special clothing with a headpiece made of gold and engraved with the words ‘Holy to the Lord’ - that would be really weird – right!? 

What this Old Testament illustration does do is it reminds us that we too are set apart for the service of God, 1 Peter 1: 14-15 ‘you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.’   

And as our holiness is being made complete it will be to, 1 Peter 2: 9b 'the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light’ NKJV