Hebrews 10:10

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) 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.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-10 The apostle having shown that the tabernacle, and ordinances of the covenant of Sinai, were only emblems and types of the gospel, concludes that the sacrifices the high priests offered continually, could not make the worshippers perfect, with respect to pardon, and the purifying of their consciences. But when God manifested in the flesh, became the sacrifice, and his death upon the accursed tree the ransom, then the Sufferer being of infinite worth, his free-will sufferings were of infinite value. The atoning sacrifice must be one capable of consenting, and must of his own will place himself in the sinner's stead: Christ did so. The fountain of all that Christ has done for his people, is the sovereign will and grace of God. The righteousness brought in, and the sacrifice once offered by Christ, are of eternal power, and his salvation shall never be done away. They are of power to make all the comers thereunto perfect; they derive from the atoning blood, strength and motives for obedience, and inward comfort.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By the which will - That is, by his obeying God in the manner specified. It is in virtue of his obedience that we are sanctified. The apostle immediately specifies what he means, and furnishes the key to his whole argument, when he says that it was "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ." It was not merely his doing the will of God in general, but it was the specific thing of offering his body in the place of the Jewish sacrifices; compare Philippians 2:8. Whatever part his personal obedience had in our salvation, yet the particular thing here specified is, that it was his doing the will of God by offering himself as a sacrifice for sin that was the means of our sanctification.

We are sanctified - We are made holy. The word here is not confined to the specific work which is commonly called sanctification - or the process of making the soul holy after it is renewed, but it includes everything by which we are made holy in the sight of God. It embraces, therefore, justification and regeneration as well as what is commonly known as sanctification. The idea is, that whatever there is in our hearts which is holy, or whatever influences are brought to bear upon us to make us holy, is all to be traced to the fact that the Redeemer became obedient unto death, and was willing to offer his body as a sacrifice for sin.

Through the offering of the body - As a sacrifice. A body just adapted to such a purpose had been prepared for him; Hebrews 10:5. It was perfectly holy; it was so organized as to be keenly sensitive to suffering; it was the dwelling-place of the incarnate Deity.

Once for all - In the sense that it is not to be offered again; see the notes on Hebrews 9:28. This ideals repeated here because it was very important to be clearly understood in order to show the contrast between the offering made by Christ, and those made under the Law. The object of the apostle is to exalt the sacrifice made by him above those made by the Jewish high priests. This he does by showing that such was the efficacy of the atonement made by him that it did not need to be repeated; the sacrifices made by them, however, were to be renewed every year.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. By—Greek, "In." So "in," and "through," occur in the same sentence, 1Pe 1:22, "Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." Also, 1Pe 1:5, in the Greek. The "in (fulfilment of) which will" (compare the use of in, Eph 1:6, "wherein [in which grace] He hath made us accepted, in the Beloved"), expresses the originating cause; "THROUGH the offering … of Christ," the instrumental or mediatory cause. The whole work of redemption flows from "the will" of God the Father, as the First Cause, who decreed redemption from before the foundation of the world. The "will" here (boulema) is His absolute sovereign will. His "good will" (eudokia) is a particular aspect of it.

are sanctified—once for all, and as our permanent state (so the Greek). It is the finished work of Christ in having sanctified us (that is, having translated us from a state of unholy alienation into a state of consecration to God, having "no more conscience of sin," Heb 10:2) once for all and permanently, not the process of gradual sanctification, which is here referred to.

the body—"prepared" for Him by the Father (Heb 10:5). As the atonement, or reconciliation, is by the blood of Christ (Le 17:11), so our sanctification (consecration to God, holiness and eternal bliss) is by the body of Christ (Col 1:22). Alford quotes the Book of Common Prayer Communion Service, "that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood."

once for all—(Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26, 28; 10:12, 14).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By the which will; that spoken of Psalm 40:8, that will and command of God given to Christ, God-man, that he should once offer up his body a sacrifice for sin, which he willingly and heartily obeyed, Philippians 2:8.

We are sanctified: sanctified is to be taken largely, for a communication to us of all the benefits of redemption, as pardon, reconciliation, absolution from punishment, renovation of God’s image, and such a discharge of sin at last, as never to be guilty of it more, perfection of grace in glory.

Through the offering; the volutarily and heartily yielding it up, and presenting the blood of it to the Father within the veil in heaven to atone him, according to his own command and will, without which it would not have been accepted by him, Luke 23:46; compare John 20:15,17,18 19:28,30.

Of the body of Jesus once for all: it was that part of Christ’s person that was to die a sacrifice, and the blood of it that was to be shed for purchasing the remission of sins, as appears in the memorial of it, Luke 22:19,20; the very body of God-man, Acts 20:28. The once offering of which was eternally available to take away sin from sinners, and perfect them to glory. So that God’s end being once reached in it, it is of perpetual virtue to apply its fruits to believing penitents, and needs not any repetition.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

By the which will we are sanctified,.... That is, by the sacrifice of Christ, which was willingly offered up by himself, and was according to the will of God; it was his will of purpose that Christ should be crucified and slain; and it was his will of command, that he should lay down his life for his people; and it was grateful and well pleasing to him, that his soul should be made an offering for sin; and that for this reason, because hereby the people of God are sanctified, their sins are perfectly expiated, the full pardon of them is procured, their persons are completely justified from sin, and their consciences purged from it: even

through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all; this is said, not to the exclusion of his soul; it designs his whole human nature, and that as in union with his divine person; and is particularly mentioned, in allusion to the legal sacrifices, the bodies of slain beasts, which were types of him, and with a reference to his Father's preparation of a body for him, for this purpose, Hebrews 10:5. Moreover, his obedience to his Father's will was chiefly seen in his body; this was offered upon the cross; and his blood, which atones for sin, and cleanses from it, was shed out of it: and this oblation was "once for all"; which gives it the preference to Levitical sacrifices; destroys the Socinian notion of Christ's continual offering himself in heaven; and confutes the error of the Popish mass, or of the offering of Christ's body in it.

Geneva Study Bible

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Hebrews 10:10. Ἐν ᾧ θελήματι] upon the ground of which will (more exactly: of which fulfilment of His will), and in conditioning connection with that will. What is meant is the will of God, of which the author has before spoken.

ἡγιασμένοι ἐσμέν] we (Christians) have been sanctified (delivered from sins). ἁγιάζεσθαι correlative to the notions τελειοῦσθαι, Hebrews 10:1, and καθαρίζεσθαι, Hebrews 10:2.

By the προσφορὰ τοῦ σώματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ cannot be meant “the self-presentation of Christ in the heavenly Holy of Holies” (Kurtz), but only (comp. Hebrews 9:28) Christ’s death upon the cross on earth. For the indication of the former idea the expression τοῦ σώματος would be altogether unsuitable. Comp. also Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 475 f.

ἐφάπαξ] belongs to ἡγιασμένοι ἐσμέν, not, as Oecumenius, Theophylact, Schlichting, Jac. Cappellus, Limborch, Stein, Bloomfield, Alford, and others conjoin, to διὰ τῆς προσφορᾶς τοῦ σώματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, because otherwise the article τῆς must have been repeated.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Hebrews 10:10. ἐν ᾧ θελήματι … “in which will,” that is, in the will which Christ came to do (Hebrews 10:9), “we have been made fit for God’s presence and fellowship by means of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. The will of God which the O.T. sacrifices could not accomplish was the “sanctification” of men, that is, the bringing of men into true fellowship with God. This will has been accomplished, we have been cleansed and introduced into God’s fellowship through the offering of the body of Christ. By the use of the word προσφορᾶς the writer shows that it was not a mere general obedience to the will of God he had in view, but the fulfilment of God’s will in the particular form of yielding Himself to a sacrificial death. His obedience in order to become an atoning sacrifice took a particular form, the form of “tasting death for every man”. [For a different view see Bruce in loc. and Gould’s N.T. Theol., p. 169. On the other hand see Riehm and Macdonell’s Donellan Lectures, p. 49–59.] τοῦ σώματος Ἰ. Χριστοῦ ἐφάπαξ, the offering of the body must of course be taken in connection with Hebrews 9:14, διὰ πνεύματος αἰωνίου and also with the defining words Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. ἐφάπαξ is added in contrast to the note of inferiority attaching to the O.T. sacrifices, as given in Hebrews 10:1, their need of continual renewal.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. By the which will we are sanctified] Rather, “we have been sanctified “because, as we have already seen, the word hagiasmos is not used of progressive sanctification, but of consecration in a pure state to God’s service (Hebrews 2:11, Hebrews 13:12, &c., and comp. John 17:19; 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “This is the will of God, even your sanctification”).

the offering of the body of Jesus Christ] The “body” is a reference to Hebrews 10:5. And because Christ thus offered His body we are bidden to offer our bodies as “a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).

Bengel's Gnomen

Hebrews 10:10. Ἐν ᾧ θελήματι) in or by which will of GOD, which has been accomplished and fully satisfied by Christ and His sacrifice. Does not this well deserve to be called a satisfaction or atonement?—ἡγιασμένοι, sanctified) The same word occurs, Hebrews 10:14; Hebrews 10:29, ch. Hebrews 13:12, Hebrews 2:11.—σώματος, of the body) Hebrews 10:5.

Hebrews 10:10

Vincent's Word Studies

By the which will (ἐν ᾧ θελήματι)

The will of God as fulfilled in Christ.

We are sanctified (ἡγιασμένοι)

Lit. we are having been sanctified; that is, in a sanctified state, as having become partakers of the spirit of Christ. This is the work of the eternal spirit, whose will is the very will of God. It draws men into its own sphere, and makes them partakers of its holiness (Hebrews 12:10).

Once for all (ἐφάπαξ)

Const. with are sanctified. The sanctification of the Levitical offerings was only temporary, and had to be repeated. Christ's one offering "perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). This thought is elaborated in Hebrews 10:11-14.