Monday, May 9: Hebrews 10- A beautiful mystery.

 

 “Christians are becoming what by God’s grace they already are.” This is one of my favorite quotes from a favorite seminary professor. Those words have stuck with me thirty-some years. Ponder that thought.   It is rich and meant to be savored rather than devoured. “Christians are becoming what by God’s grace they already are.”

This is one of the truths expressed by the author of Hebrews in verse 14: because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Jesus’ perfect once-forever sacrifice on the cross has made perfect (a completed action) those who are in the process of being made holy. This is an incredibly rich thought that needs to be savored and pondered.

I hope you will join me in pondering and savoring this beautiful mystery of the Christian faith…

Lord God, so deep, so wonderful is this Word from You. We have been made perfect by Jesus’ perfect saving sacrifice and yet at the same time, we are growing into that holiness.

Thank You, Lord God, for such a plan… one that can perfect one as imperfect as I am. Thank You, Jesus, for doing for me what I could never have done for myself. Amen and Amen.

 

A Comment on Verse 14

[Jesus’] sacrifice was so efficacious that it guaranteed the final perfection of all those who were being made holy. This involved not only the regeneration of the spirit and the salvation of the soul, but also, the resurrection of the body of each true believer. The little-understood term sanctified of the KJV has been properly replaced in the NIV by the words being made holy. It is both an accomplished fact (Hebrews 10:10) and a continuing process (Hebrews 10:14), a phenomenon found frequently in Scripture. We may not understand such a mystery, but we can revel in its reality, as the writer intends us to do. All progress in the spiritual life comes from personally apprehending a fact that is already true. To put it simply, we must see what we already are by God's grace, in order to manifest that fact by godly behavior.   (The IVP New Testament Commentary Series – Hebrews)