i am an offering

Scripture will never cease to amaze me.  It truly is “living and active” as the book of Hebrews says.  So often I will come across a verse that I’m sure I’ve read before but all of a sudden it will become alive and breathe amazing new life into me.  It is also amazing that God chose to use Greek as the primary language of the New Testament.  More on that in a minute.

Hebrews 10:14

One of the verse that has jumped out at me lately and spoken to me over and over again is Hebrews 10:14.  Let’s take a look:

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

At first glance this might not look like a particularly amazing verse of Scripture - but it is so packed full of truth that it is mind-blowing.  The part I want to take a quick look at now is the phrase “perfected for all time.”

Greek’s Perfect Tense

Unlike the English language, Greek has a lot more ways of saying things just by switching to a different tense.  We English-speaking folks think of past tense, present tense, and future tense.  In Greek there is the perfect tense, combining all three tenses into one, signifying that:

1. Something happened in the past.
2. Even though it already happened, the results of what happened are continually happening in the present.
3. The results of what happened will continue to happen forever in the future.

The phrase “perfected for all time” is in the perfect tense in Greek.  So what’s amazing is, Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross not only happened - it happened with lasting results. And these lasting results won’t fade.  In fact, they’re eternal.  Do you realize what that means for us?  We change daily.  We can’t rely on ourselves.  We will not go a day in our lives without sinning.  But if we trust in the Cross and what Jesus did there, the power of what happened didn’t stop! It is continually applied to us if we are trusting in the blood of Christ!  Even though we waver and fall, our status in Christ doesn’t! Even though we offer imperfect offerings because of our sin - Jesus has made them perfect forever through His blood!

What an amazing promise!

The more I study the subject of worship within the Bible and how God made things right through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross the more I am completely blown away at how it all works. I am blown away at the privilege we get now to actually be the sacrifices that God now desires; living sacrfices. (Romans 12:1)

But what happens when we fail? And fail we do. Over and over and over. We are called to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15) to present our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) and to “offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5) But how do we succeed in the task of doing these things we have been called to?

The simple answer is this: we can’t succeed. It is hopless for us. No matter how hard we try, we won’t make it. The longer answer and the one that gives us victory is found in that small phrase in 1 Peter 2:5 that we might skip over sometimes: “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

If you are feeling like your offering isn’t good enough, you’re right! But the comfort comes in this. Because of the Blood of Jesus Christ, our sinful offering becomes not only acceptable but perfected before God! Perfected! Hebrews 10:14 says,

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

Yes, our lives are sinful and will never measure up to God’s standard, but because of Jesus’ perfect blood becoming the perfect sacrifice for us, He now perfects all of our sacrifices that we are called to make to God! What victory that brings us! Does this give us license to sin and just take for granted that perfect sacrifice? Absolutely not. The rest of Hebrews 10 gives some strong warnings against this. But we have the confidence and ability to know that when we do fail in the midst of pursuing holy lives, Jesus is always there for us before the Father, pleading for us to the Father that His blood makes us completely and absolutely clean.