Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus - Pt. 3

 

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 ewe have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:8-14 ESV).

 

Today let’s look more specifically at what it means to us when the writer says: "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (v. 14). Notice that Christ has perfected his people, and it is already complete. "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." He "has" done it. And he has done it "for all time." The perfecting of his people is complete and it is complete forever. Does this mean that Christians don't sin? Of course not.

 

There is one clear reason in this very verse for knowing that is not the case. It's the last phrase. The people that have been perfected for all time, those being sanctified are in the process of that result. This is why the tense is so important. Now "those who are being sanctified" are not yet fully sanctified in the sense of committing no more sin. Otherwise, they would not need to go on being sanctified. So here we have the shocking combination: the very people who "have been perfected" are the ones who "are being sanctified." We may also remember from chapters 5 and 6, that these Christians he is writing to are anything but perfect. For example, in 5:11 he says, "You have become dull of hearing." So, we may safely say that "perfected" does not mean that we are sinlessly perfect in this life.

 

Well, what does it mean? The answer is given in the next verses (15-18). The writer explains what he means by quoting Jeremiah again on the new covenant, namely, that in the new covenant which Christ has sealed now by his blood, there is total forgiveness for all our sins. Verses 17-18 "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin." So, he explains the present perfection in terms of forgiveness. Christ's people are perfected now in the sense that God puts away all our sin (9:26), forgives them, and never brings them to mind again as a ground of condemnation. In this sense we stand before him perfect. When he looks on us he does not impute any of our sins against us, past, present or future. He does not count our sins against us.

 

That is the heart of the Gospel. This is the great good news of the accomplished work of Jesus on our behalf!