For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. – Hebrews 10:14
(Notice) the effect of Christ’s death upon His own people: we are informed that He hath “perfected” them. What a glorious word! Those for whom Christ has died were perfected by His death. It does not mean that He made them perfect in characters so that they are no longer sinners, but that He made those for whom He died perfectly free from the guilt of sin. When Christ took their sins upon Himself, sin remained no longer upon them, for it could not be in two places at one and the same time; if it was on Christ, it was not upon them; they were acquitted at the bar of God when Christ was, on their behalf, “numbered with the transgressors.” When Jesus suffered the penalty due to His people’s sins to the last jot and tittle, then their sins ceased to be, and the covenant was fulfilled: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more for ever.” There was a clean sweep made of sin: “He hath finished transgression and made an end of sin;” and that for all His people. They want no other washing, no further purging, as far as pardon of sin and acceptance with God in the matter of justification are concerned, for they are all perfected by His sacrifice.
His people are described in the text as “them that are sanctified.”…When effectual grace separates men from the world by conversion and regeneration, then they become the sanctified; they are set apart even as Christ set apart Himself, dedicated to God’s service, and separated from sinners. As the work which began at regeneration is continued and carried on in them, they are in another aspect sanctified; they are realising in themselves that sanctification, or dedication to God, was theirs from before the foundation of the world. The text relates not only to those in heaven who are perfectly sanctified, but it relates to all who were set apart in the purposes of grace, that as far as their pardon and justification are concerned, Christ perfected them for ever when He offered up Himself without spot unto God.
