V. 10.— By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. By the which will...— The Apostle had quoted from the 40th Psalm the words of Messiah, that He came to do the will of God, and here he describes the effect of His obedience. “Sanctified” does not here signify internal purity or holiness, although the sanctification spoken of is the foundation of all fallen man’ s conformity to God. The first-born in Israel were to be sanctified or set apart for God, and, in their stead, the Levites were taken, who alone were permitted to do the service of the tabernacle. The nation of Israel were sanctified by the blood of the covenant, whereby God engaged to be their God, and to take them for His peculiar people. This, however, did not prevent their wickedness being greater than that of Sodom. Ezekiel 16:48. All their privileges flowed from their relation to Christ, and this was a carnal relation. “ Of whom,” says the Apostle, "according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” Romans 9:5. Hence the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, was the blood of bulls and of goats, which could never take away sin; it merely sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, Hebrews 9:13, removing whatever ceremonial uncleanness had been contracted. On the other hand, the relation of believers, the true Israel, with Christ, is a spiritual relation, 1 Corinthians 6:17; and the covenant through which they enter into this relation is ratified with the blood of Christ. Hence it is written, “Wherefore Jesus, also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” Hebrews 13:12-13. His blood cleanseth believers from all their sin, cancels all their guilt. It purges their conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 9:14. It reconciles them to God; and, as the necessary consequence, they are saved through His life. Romans 5:10. He is both their atoning sacrifice and high priest. He appears in the midst of the throne as a lamb that had been slain. As their great High Priest, He offers their prayers, perfumed with much incense. He bears their names on His breast, and the voice of His intercession has reached our ears, “ Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am.” To Him the Spirit was given without measure, and by this one Spirit, communicated through Him, are they all baptized into one body; and although their conformity to their glorious head is very imperfect, while both Adam, the source of corruption, and Christ, the source of purity, dwell in them, their path is like the shining light, which shineth more and more to the perfect day. Christ has given us repentance by manifesting Himself to us as He does not to the world; and although we now see but in part, and there is a law in our members warring against the law of our mind, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin in our members, we are gradually advancing nearer to Christ, shall shortly see Him as He is, and then the transformation begun in the day of our new creation, when the Spirit first took of the things of Christ and showed them to us, shall be consummated; we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Thus, then, are believers sanctified through the one offering of Christ. They are holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ, once for all. This is the foundation of their conformity to God; and the more they are under the teaching of the Spirit the more they know of the things that are freely given to them of God; the more are they renewed in the spirit of their mind, and the better they understand that they are complete in Christ, and that He is made of God unto them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.