… ²¹ equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Equipping the readers, in one sense, is the purpose of this book; equipping them to live life well in the knowledge of the superiority of Christ over the religious, legal system of Moses. Yes, the Law was good–to be sure it revealed God’s will. But the Law had no power to enable people to keep the Law, because the sin problem was just too great to overcome. The animal sacrifices could not solve the problem because they had to keep being repeated. But, what the Law and sacrifices could not do, Christ did by becoming the one-for-all-time sacrifice for sins. And now, through faith, we are freed from the condemnation of the Law and are now free to rest in His finished sacrifice and to walk in righteousness—not ours, but His. So we now live “in Him.”

This truth and its application is sufficient. We are in a position to be equipped “in every good thing to do His will.” It is now possible, where it wasn’t before! It is God at work in us, who are enabled to live life pleasing to Him! This is almost too fantastic to be true, and would be considered ridiculous, except that the Word of God asserts this. Our sanctification is a matter of God’s doing, not our own. God desires to bless us by “equipping” us. And if God had the power to raise Jesus from the dead, He certainly has the power to enable us to live in a way the pleases Him.

We must not brush over this too quickly, as there is an eternity packed into this truth. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, who lives in eternal glory, the One who said in His “high priestly” prayer, “Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5)—that One is at work in us bringing glory to the Father, so that we too share in the dynamic process of bringing glory to God. As Christ works in us, we reflect back the glory of Christ to the Father, for “He is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb 1:3). The knowledge of Christ, as depicted in the book of Hebrews, magnifies the glory of Christ. And we are consummately blessed as we live our lives in doing “every good thing to do His will.” It simply does not get any better than this, for us image-bearers to live pleasing to God, which shows Him to be a great and magnificent God. God has come full circle from the garden of Eden to the glory of God—He is now glorified in us.

Lord, I am humbled that You would bless me in using my life to bring glory to the Father. Thank You, for You are an amazing God.