By the which will we are sanctified. — Better, In which will we have been sanctified. In the last verse we read of that which Jesus established — the doing of the will of God. He did that will when He offered the sacrifice of His perfect obedience — “obedience as far as death” (Philippians 2:8). In this will of God which He accomplished lies our sanctification, effected “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” In Hebrews 9:14 the efficacy of the blood of Christ to cleanse the conscience is contrasted with the power of the offerings of the law to “sanctify in regard to cleanness of the flesh:” here the real sanctification is joined with “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.” In the word “body” lies a reference to Hebrews 10:8, where the body is looked on as the instrument of obedient service (comp. Romans 12:1); but the word “offering” still preserves its sacrificial character, and contains an allusion to the presentation of the body of the slain victim. (Comp. Hebrews 13:11). As this offering has been presented “once for all” (Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:12), so “once for all” has the work of sanctification been achieved.

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