Scripture: Hebrews 10:5-10 (ESV)
“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
I am about to spoil the recent Barbie movie for you. At the time of writing, it has been out for over a year so don’t get upset at me for spoiling it for you. So with the spoiler warning out of the way, let’s dig in.
In the movie Ken is obsessed with getting Barbie to like him. He is in love with Barbie and wants her to return his affection for her but she doesn’t. Without going into too much detail, in the end Ken tries to force Barbie to notice him, although Barbie stops him. Through this process Ken realises that everything he is doing to get Barbie to like is is rooted in the fact that he feels inadequate. He wasn’t good enough for Barbie. Toward the end of the movie we see him wearing a hoodie saying “I am Kenough”. This is meant to show us that he has accepted himself for who he is. He no longer needs the approval of others.
This all sounds good and right and empowering. Ken is right to realise he doesn’t need Barbie’s approval to exist. But he is wrong to think he is enough in and of himself. He actually isn’t Kenough. You see the movie is disconnected from how we humans are designed.
We are designed to crave the approval of God. Except because we are broken by sin, we shift that need for approval onto other people. In our society the enlightened ones realise that other people’s approval will never be enough and so we jettison the idea like Ken. But that doesn’t actually deal with the deeper desire we have to feel the approval of God.
And so we go through life trying to do things that we think will give us that sense of approval. Maybe it is by being the best in our career. Maybe it is finding the approval of a spouse. Maybe we get a hit of that approval in our children. The author of Hebrews here shows us that that pursuit is really the hunt to be sanctified. The pursuit of approval is really the pursuit of trying to make ourselves holy and acceptable to God. But we are not enough, in and of ourselves. We need to be sanctified not by our own works, but by Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross.
He is the one who makes you enough. In him.
And that is incredibly freeing.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for sanctifying me through the sacrifice of Jesus. Help me to live out this holiness every day. Remind me of this truth every time I try to find God’s approval in other people or other things.
Amen.
Spiritual Challenge: Reflect on the areas of your life where you still try to earn sanctification through your actions. Ask Jesus to help you put these areas in their rightful place.