The Proof of Salvation

Hebrews 10:11-18

Did you ever heat a house with a wood stove? That radiant heat is so pleasant early in the morning or when you come in from the cold. However, you are forced to constantly replenish the wood. No matter how much wood you stuff into the stove, in just a few hours at the most, the fire will start to dwindle and the room will begin to cool off. To warm the room back up, you will have to carry more wood and place it on the fire.

Modern automatic heaters are so nice by comparison. You turn it on and it regulates itself. Once the unit is hooked up and fired, your work is done. The furnace will turn on when the temperature drops and off when it gets warm. You don’t have to worry about things freezing up while you are gone, or about getting out of bed in the middle of the night to build up the fire.

The Old Testament priest was much like the person putting wood on the fire. It was a way of temporarily relieving the guilt of sin, but even as it was being done, the need for another sacrifice was building. Since the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, any more than the wood stove could take away cold, just driving it back for awhile, The sacrifice would have to be repeated again and again. It was an exercise in futility, but it was essential just as maintaining the fire was..

“And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:” (Hebrews 10:11)

Christ, on the other hand took away the sin. Using the same analogy, it is like a late spring day, when the sun has warmed the ground and the air. The fire is no longer needed to keep from freezing because the sun has taken away the cold. Now you can be gone for many hours with no concern about the fire going out. Before you were a slave to the fire, to keep it going. Now you are free to do other things. The cold is gone. Christ has taken away our sin. There is no longer a need for continual sacrifices.

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12-14)

What a blessing! By one offering he has perfected us forever. There will never be a time when we don‘t measure up. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Perfected forever means I measure up now. I was just as sinful and away from God as anyone but as I Corinthians 6:11 says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” It is him that made the change, and he did it completely, and forever, I can never go back.

The proof of this is the Holy Spirit. God promised that he would put his laws in our hearts and minds, and that he would never remember our sins any more. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and be in us in John 14:16-17. “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” He went on to tell us that the Holy Spirit would teach us and remind us what God said in John 14:26. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Notice how the author puts it.

“Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.“ (Hebrews 10:15-17”

Paul says that we are in Christ, and that “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,” in Colossians 3:3. In Ephesians 1:13-14, he tells us that we are sealed there with the Holy Spirit. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” To escape a sealed container, it it is essential to break the container or the seal. To get out of Christ, or lose our salvation would require breaking God’s power or the Holy Spirit’s seal.

He finishes by saying that he is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Te earnest is the same as the earnest money offered when a person makes an offer on a piece of land. They give the money as proof of their intention to complete the transaction. Should they change their minds before the transaction is complete the money is forfeited. That is the concept here. The Holy Spirit is the proof of God’s plan until we actually receive that home in heaven. The earnest of the Spirit is referred to in II Corinthians 1:21-22 and 5:5 as well.

Romans 8:16-17 makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is to give assurance of our salvation. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” If the Holy Spirit isn’t present, a person cannot please God, and is not one of God’s children, according to Romans 8:8-9. “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

Once Christ takes away sin, there is no more offering for sin. The sin is already gone. There is no point in buying another ticket on the same trip for a person who already has one. He can’t use another. As Hebrews 10:18 says, “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”