Crisis and Process

Daily Reading: Hebrews 10

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10.10, 14)

Devotional Thought: Next month, Lana and I will observe our anniversary.  Our forty-two years of wedded bliss have both a "crisis" aspect and a "process" aspect.  The crisis occurred on June 2, 1979, the day of our wedding.  In an instant, we were proclaimed man and wife.  We were married.  But that wasn't the end of the story.  There is a process of being married that's still going on today.

In Hebrews 10, we discover that the blood of Jesus provides for our sanctification in both crisis and process as well:

·       Crisis: "We have been sanctified."  We can look at this from both the divine side and the human side.  First on the divine side, Jesus Christ made a perfect sacrifice once for all.  In order to affect our sanctification, he does not need to repeat his sacrifice year after year.  Then, on the human side, we see the crisis aspect of our sanctification in the way we experience God in the new birth (initial sanctification) and the baptism with the Holy Spirit (entire sanctification).  Both of these human experiences take place in a moment of time.

·       Process: We "are being sanctified."  Again, we can look at this from the divine and human sides.  On the divine side: "The sprinkled blood ... speaks a better word..." (Hebrews 12.24[JW1] ).  Notice the present tense, indicating continuous action.  From the human side, we are called upon to: "cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion" (2 Corinthians 7.1).  This indicates a human process.  We have a role to play in the process of sanctification.

Two questions beg for an answer: Have I been sanctified?  Am I being sanctified?

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your sanctifying grace.  I have been sanctified and I am being sanctified by the offering of Jesus Christ.  I consecrate my life to you.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 55.9-15

9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city.

10 Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;

11 ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.

12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—then I could hide from him.

13 But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.

14 We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.

15 Let death steal over them; let them go down to Sheol alive; for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.