¹⁰ By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Will of God—this has invoked much study, discussion, yes, even heated debate among Christians. How can you know God’s will for your life? How do you distinguish between His decretive will, permissive will, sovereign will, etc.? Does He want something to happen, allow something to happen, or make something happen? Volumes have been written attempting to sort these things out. Systems of theology have formed, with names like Calvinism and Arminianism, and a continuum of views in between.

What we do know for sure is that it is God’s will that “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” What does this mean? First of all the “we” clearly refers to the writer and his readers. Secondly, he assumes his readers are sanctified, that is, are holy in God’s eyes, set apart as special to Him. Third, the grammatical tense of this implies two things: it is a done deal and it is complete. While other passages of Scripture tells us that sanctification has a progressive aspect to it, in this passage we have what is called positional sanctification as well. That is why Paul could refer to the Corinthian believers as, “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1 Cor 1:2, see also Rom 6:11), and also write to the Thessalonians, “Now may the God of peace sanctify you entirely…” (1 Thess 5:23).

The word “sanctify” in the original Greek is the verb form of the word “holy.” This relates back to the concept of holy or clean in the Levitical worship system. Things that have been cleansed were considered holy to God, set apart and ready for His special use. The priests would have to repeatedly make themselves clean through various rituals in order to prepare to bring sacrifices to God. Especially the high priest would need to be clean before making the annual atonement for the sins of the people. A big part of that was first offering sacrifice for his own sin (Lev 9:7), before doing so for the people. However, now in Christ, we have already been made clean permanently, once for all!

Fourth, this sanctification came not through the offering of animal sacrifices, but the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ—He is vastly superior to anything the Jewish priests could offer. Fifth, the sacrifice of Christ was a physical sacrifice. It has been said that Christianity is an “earthly” religion, in contrast to eastern religions that focus on the mystical, non-physical. God created the physical world, put us here in physical bodies, and it was His desired, permissive and sovereign will that Christ died physically for us.

Lord, Your will is perfect in giving us the once for all sacrifice of Jesus. Thanks.