The Significance of Subtlety
Intro:
Three Film Clips Subtly foreshadowing:
Psycho
Shawshank
Jurassic Park
When He had made purification of sins,
He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…
- Notice the verb tense change
“When He had made purification of sins…” (NASB20)
“When He had by Himself purged our sins…” (NKJV)
“After He had provided purification from our sins…” (NIV)
Others?
Packer: “A change of verb tense focuses attention to the Son’s atoning death in history, the priestly act that cleanses us to worship in God’s presence.”
The Author of Hebrews will return to this idea in great detail in chapter 9.
(I’ll give you a sneak peek at that passage now, because half of us will be most likely be dead and with Jesus when we finally get to that passage…including me.)
12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all time, having obtained eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
But I digress…back to the verb tense change.
So far in Hebrews the author has pointed out things that Christ CURRENTLY is, which is what we studied last time in Hebrews:
Christ Currently: (V3a)
- Christ is the brightness of God’s glory
- Christ is the express image of the person of God
- Christ is upholding all things the power of His word.
But
He has ALREADY made purification for our sins.
He has ALREADY sat down at the right hand of the Father.
Why the verb change? Why?
Because the redemptive work of Christ is done.
It is finished.
(Mark, THIS is Paul’s definition of Sanctification!)
1 Cor. 6:11
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Another way to think of it:
What would cause God to sit?
(What would cause God to rest?)
When the work was complete.
Matthew Henry:
When by himself he had purged away our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, at his Father’s right hand.
As Mediator and Redeemer, he is invested with the highest honour, authority, and activity, for the good of his people; the Father now does all things by him, and receives all the services of his people from him.
Having assumed our nature, and suffered in it on earth, he has taken it up with him to heaven, and there it has the high honour to be next to God, and this was the reward of his humiliation.
What Does This Mean for Us? (Application)
- You ARE a new creation (Washed/Sanctified/Justified). STOP BELIEVING THE ENEMY’S LIES!
- Who can undo what God has done? Live with joyful confidence!
- Does God make mistakes? Accept and rise to your chosen purpose!