Advent

December 17, 2021

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
   but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings
   you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God”
   (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).’
When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), then he added, ‘See, I have come to do your will.’ He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The definition of the word sanctify has two meanings* that I believe are inseparable.

a: made holy: made free of sin or free from the bondage of sin

b: set apart to sacred duty or use

Hebrews tells us that we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

I grew up when the phrase, once saved always saved, was in vogue. I had never heard that phrase before I went to church camp with my best friend one summer. My family attended a different denomination church than hers did, although I did not know what a denomination was at the time. I, never having enough sense to keep my mouth shut, disagreed with the teacher when she expressed that tenet of faith in class. I said something to the effect that we also had to follow Jesus once we were saved. If we did not, we had to ask for forgiveness. I do not think a student had ever disagreed with her before.  She called my mother and recommended that she chat with me not only about my misled beliefs but also about my disrespect for authority. My mother did ask me if I had been polite and stressed that I always should be. She suggested that the next time something like that happened; I might not want to make a big deal because people did have different ways of expressing themselves.  Mom did not think the teacher meant we no longer had to ask for forgiveness.

I do not consider myself an expert on the absolutes of salvation, but I still understand Jesus’s teachings as saying if you do not live it, you do not believe it.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we stray from the path you have set before us, and for folks like me, put a guard over our mouths** as we try to live our faith. Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you***. Amen.

*https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/sanctified

**Psalm 141:3

***Psalm 19:14

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.