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"By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
(Hebrews 10:10)
I was asked last week by one of our members at Great Hills Baptist Church what my thoughts were about our scripture passage for today from Hebrews. A friend of his was asking him his thoughts regarding the doctrine of entire sanctification and whether that was possible for Christians today.
This is a great question, and one's conclusions are determined based on how one interprets Hebrews 10:10. Does the phrase "once for all" refer to a person being sanctified completely while on this earth, or does the phrase point to the finality of Jesus' sacrifice for sins? I shared with my friend that the phrase "once for all" refers to Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross for our sins. No more sacrifice for sins needs to be made because the perfect sacrifice has been offered by Jesus and His blood on the cross for the sins of the world.
Two other times in the book of Hebrews the phrase is mentioned. First, there is Hebrews 7:27, "Who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself." Second, notice the following text in Hebrews 9:12, "Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."
The verb "we have been sanctified" is in the perfect tense in the Greek language, and this is very significant. The perfect tense points to an event that happened, is happening, and will continue to happen. Our sanctification or being set apart by Christ for holiness and righteous living continues to happen in this life. Positionally, yes, we are sanctified; we are set apart. We are Christ's, but progressively we are continuing to be set apart and grow in grace because we are imperfect.
A couple of hermeneutical principles that help greatly when answering a question about a particular scriptural passage are, first, read the text within its immediate and overall context. For example, read through Hebrews to get the basic thrust of the message the author is writing, and then read specifically Hebrews 10. Second, and this one has helped me greatly, interpret difficult or hard to understand texts with more clear biblical texts that address the same subject.
I wrote my PhD dissertation on Charles Grandison Finney who believed that one could be completely or entirely sanctified here on earth and could reach a state of sinless perfection. I disagree with him. I admired Finney's love for Christ and willingness to walk closely with the Lord, but only Jesus was completely without sin. Finney believed this doctrine so deeply (also called Oberlin Perfectionism) that he criticized the Apostle Paul for having sin in his life when he prayed for the thorn in the flesh to be removed and it was not. Herein lies a danger of embracing such a teaching: the problem of pride.
May we all continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior and live lives that glorify Him and point others to His saving grace.
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