For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 ESV
The more I read the scriptures, the more I am amazed at its depth. Growing in maturity causes us to learn to let God be God and let His word speak for itself, even when it proposes two seeming contradictions in passages such as Hebrews 10:14. Think about it. God has already perfected us because of Christ, yet God is also perfecting us who are perfected because of Christ. This is not easy to understand, much less savor and glory in at first glance. It might be easier for some of us to quickly pass over a passage such as this because of its seeming difficulty.
But oh, the loss of great blessings and encouragement! The apostle Paul gives us a great exhortation in 2 Timothy 2:7. "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." He says think, reflect, muse, ponder, meditate and the Lord by His Spirit will enable us to understand. In short, we are to think and God will help us through the means of thought to apprehend spiritual truths.
With this in mind, Hebrews 10:14 is well worth pondering. The first blessing here is that Christ has already perfected His people.
"For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Now consider this wonderful truth. This is in the perfect tense, meaning Jesus Christ has perfected His people. It is complete and finished forever.
What is hard to grasp here is that if this is true, then why am I so imperfect? How can He say I am perfected when I have sinned already several times this morning? Because of what He says in the next clause
"For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Who has been perfected? Those who are being sanctified or those who are being perfected! This is in the indicative tense meaning continuous action. So those who are "being sanctified" are not yet fully sanctified in the sense of perfection in this life and ceasing from committing sin. Otherwise they would not need to be ongoing sanctified.
So here we have the both shocking and awesome combination. The very people who are perfect are the very ones who are being perfected! By the work of the cross "for by a single offering"there is total, complete forgiveness (read Hebrews 10:15-18). When He looks at us, He does not impute any of our sins to us-past, present, or future. He does not count our sins against us. In eternity Christ sees you as already perfect, and thus we stand before Him perfected. We can stand before Him with the assurance that you are perfected and complete in the eyes of God.
But in this present time those who are perfect are being perfected. The very reality of our imperfection gives us assurance that we are in this life time are progressing towards our perfection purchased and guaranteed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
God is making us into what He already sees us as being and our experience testifies to it as we trust in this reality by faith and move away from our imperfections and move closer and closer in this lifetime to perfection. Oh what encouragement in our imperfection and what motivation for holiness. Hebrews 10:14 says that you can be assured that you stand perfect in the eyes of God not because you are perfect now, but because in your present imperfection you are being perfected.
Oh reader, consider these promises and let them encourage you today and reinforces Hebrews 10:14 to you. Take heart and fix your eyes on the one who perfected you once for all time and is perfecting you day by day.
Philippians 1:6, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 2:12-13, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."
Amazed and full of joy,
Pastor Bill
3 comments:
I would like you to start a new post, "Is Christian hedonism Biblical?" are you up for the challenge?
Rather than a post , I would rather respond to your challenge by giving you the man, John Piper's response to "Is Christian Hedonism Biblical".
What Is Christian Hedonism?
My shortest summary of Christian Hedonism is: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in. Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure—pleasure in him.
By Christian Hedonism, we do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. We mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. We should pursue this happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God.
The Difference Between Worldly and Christian Hedonism
Some people are inclined to believe that Christians are supposed to seek God’s will as opposed to pursuing their own pleasure. But what makes Biblical morality different than worldly hedonism is not that Biblical morality is disinterested and duty-driven, but that it is interested in vastly greater and purer things. Christian Hedonism is Biblical morality because it recognizes that obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness. Here are some examples of this from the Bible:
Luke 6:35 says, "Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great." It is clear when Jesus says “expect nothing in return” that we should not be motivated by worldly aggrandizement, but we are given strength to suffer loss by the promise of a future reward.
Again, in Luke 14:12-14: "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor . . . and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." That is, don't do good deeds for worldly advantage; rather, do them for spiritual, heavenly benefits.
Should Duty Be Our Main Motivation?
But some will say, "No, no. These texts only describe what reward will result if you act disinterestedly. They do not teach us to actually seek the reward."
Two answers to this objection:
1) It would be foolish to say, "If you take this pill, I’ll give you a nickel," if you expect the desire for the nickel to ruin the pill. But Jesus was not foolish. He would not offer blessing to those who obey him and then hold it against us if these blessings motivated our obedience.
2) Even more importantly, there are texts that not only commend that we do good in the hope of future blessing, but command it.
Luke 12:33 says, "Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail." The connection here between alms and having eternal treasure in heaven is not a chance result—it is the explicit purpose: "Make it your aim to have treasure in heaven, and the way to do this is to sell your possessions and give alms."
And again, Luke 16:9 says, "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal habitations." Luke does not say that the result of using possessions properly is to receive eternal habitations. He says, "Make it your aim to secure an eternal habitation by the way you use your possessions."
Therefore, a resounding NO to the belief that morality should be inspired more by duty than delight.
Don’t Be Too Easily Satisfied
Hebrews 11:6 teaches, "Without faith it is impossible to please [God]. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” You cannot please God if you do not come to him looking for reward. Therefore, faith that pleases God is the hedonistic pursuit of God.
As Christian Hedonists we know that everyone longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. It is never a problem to want to be satisfied. The problem is being satisfied too easily. We believe that everyone who longs for satisfaction should no longer seek it from money or power or lust, but should come glut their soul-hunger on the grace of God. We will bend all our effort, by the Holy Spirit, to persuade people
that they can be happier in giving than receiving (Acts 20:35);
that they should count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus their Lord (Philippians 3:8);
that the aim of all of Jesus' commandments is that their joy be full (John 15:11);
that if they delight themselves in the Lord he will give them the desire of their heart (Psalm 37:4);
that there is great gain in godliness with contentment (1 Timothy 6:6);
and that the joy of the Lord is their strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
We will not try to motivate anyone with appeals to mere duty. We will tell them that in God’s presence is full and lasting joy (Psalm 16:11).and our only duty is to come to him, seeking this pleasure
Are these comments your own or did you copy it from someone else? I would like to take each section one-by-one. more to follow, here's the first one.
"We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in." Answer - This seems to be a foundational point in the Hedonists belief, can you provide a scripture reference for this?
"Christian Hedonists want to make God their God by seeking after the greatest pleasure—pleasure in him." Answer - The only way you can make God your God and please him in any way is through faith in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God" the fact that you take pleasure in God does not earn you any favor with with God.
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