13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
10:13
from that time [Christ’s session] waiting
After Christ returns, He will destroy His enemies (1 Co 15:22f). That event now awaits His Second Coming. He anticipates the day when He will defeat His enemies. Christ will not begin His rule as King Jesus until His millennial reign (Ps 2:6-9). This will be a kingdom on earth whereby He will fulfill the Davidic Covenant (2 Sa 7:16). He now awaits the time for that kingdom to begin.
till His enemies are made His footstool.
Christ’s enemies will be subjected to Him completely at a future date (He 2:14–15). The concept of enemies as a “footstool” means that they are totally subjugated to Christ’s reign (Ps 110:1). Christ sits with royal dignity, waiting to establish His kingdom. He will assume His reign as King at the end of the Tribulation. All enemies will submit to His rule at that time. Until that happens, His enemies will wreak mayhem on this planet.
10:14
For by one [emphatic] offering
This verse gives the grounds for verses 12–13; that is, sacrifice for sin was completely finished at the cross (He 9:12, 28; 10:10).
He has perfected [completed] forever
Christ forever paid the debt for our sin. The tense of “perfected” means that what He did, He did decisively at one point in the past with the result ongoing into the future (perfect tense). From God’s viewpoint our salvation is complete; nothing more needs to be done. We can approach God with His full acceptance because of the death of Christ on our behalf. We can do this because our Lord provided judicial standing before God forever. This was the opposite of what happened with Levitical sacrifices.
The word “sanctified” has an absolute sense because:
—the word means completed, for sanctification was brought to an end,
—the Greek perfect tense carries the idea that the action was completed in the past with the results continuing to the present, and
—the modifier “forever” indicates eternal perfection.
those who are being sanctified.
Verse 10 indicated that the believer was sanctified once for all or justified. The finished work of Christ has a sanctifying effect on believers in continuing and progressive sanctification.
Here the “sanctified” have an ongoing need to walk with God (He 12:23). The grammar here indicates progression (present, passive, participle); this indicates the need for continued sanctification. The believer has a new heart and mind to do this. This word “sanctified” implies the need for progressive sanctification.
PRINCIPLE:
The believer is eternally set apart as God’s own.
APPLICATION:
By a single sacrifice (in contrast to many sacrifices) Christ brought our salvation to completion. No more sacrifice for sin needs to be made. Our Lord intercedes on our behalf as the High Priest. He is our personal Advocate (He 7:25; 1 Jn 2:1). Sin has been completely dealt with by our Lord. Nothing more needs to be done about it. Our Lord has gone to heaven as our Representative (He 9:24).
Although the believer stands eternally secure with his or her salvation, there is a need to progress in a holy walk with God day by day.
There are three kinds of sanctification in the Bible:
—positional or past sanctification, whereby the believer is set apart unto God as perfect forever; the believer stands perfectly sanctified,
—progressive, whereby the believer becomes gradually more and more like the Lord Jesus, and
—ultimate; in the eternal state we will be set apart unto God—body, soul, and spirit.
The present work of Christ on behalf of the believer is progressive sanctification. Positionally, Christ paid for all sins of the believer (He 10:14). However, experientially the believer must maintain fellowship by accepting his positional forgiveness by acknowledging that Christ paid for those sins (1 Jn 1:9). We cannot maintain daily fellowship with the Lord by living in darkness.
