Derek Prince - No Other Book Except The Bible Diagnoses Our True Problem
This is an excerpt from: Complete Salvation And How To Receive It - Part 1
Turning on to the New Testament, to the New Covenant, in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 10 and verse 14, we have a statement of what was accomplished by the death of Jesus on the cross. And we must remember that Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice. His death was a sacrifice foreordained by God, a sacrifice on behalf of the whole Adamic race. And it says here, Hebrews 10:14: For by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Now, at one time I was a teacher of English as a second language to African students. One of the things that I discovered was you have to teach people the significance of the English tenses. Maybe some of you are not even quite clear what a tense is. But a tense is the form of the verb that shows the time of the action, you see. And in this we have two tenses and they're very significant. The first one is called the perfect tense and it says 'for by one sacrifice He has perfected forever.' You can say it's perfectly perfect. It's completely complete. By one sacrifice. Just before this, as a matter of fact, the writer of Hebrews says 'the Old Testament priests always stood offering again and again the same sacrifices which could never take away sin.'
Then, speaking about Jesus, he says but this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God. You see, the contrast is between the Old Testament priests who stood and Jesus who offered His sacrifice and sat down. Why did He sit down? Because He was never going to have to do any more, He had done it all. Whereas the Old Testament priests, their job was never finished because their sacrifices were not adequate to deal with the real problem. And so, going back to verse 14: By one sacrifice, Jesus has perfected forever As far as what Jesus has done, it's complete, it's perfect, it never has to be added to, nothing can ever be taken away from it it's forever.
That's the perfect tense. But then, speaking about those of us who are appropriating it, it says 'he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.' That's what we call a continuing present tense. What Jesus has done is perfect, our appropriation of it is continuing, it's ongoing. As we are sanctified, as we are more and more set apart to God, as we draw closer to God and appropriate more of God's provision and promises we are entering more and more into the provision of the sacrifice. This is a Scripture which Ruth and I... I think never a week passes without our quoting this.
In fact, why should we keep the blessing. Come on, sweetheart, just a moment. We want to show you how it's done and then we'll invite you to join it with us. For by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Would you like to say that? Do you think you can say it with us? For by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. And then you include yourself in that. Thank you so much. So there's one all inclusive sacrifice which is the basis of our whole salvation.
You see, this interests me because I was a philosopher before I was a preacher. And I observe that the Bible is the only book that accurately diagnoses the cause of human problems or any other book based on the Bible. And the cause of human problems is stated in one very short word: sin. But no other book except the Bible diagnoses the nature and the effects of sin. No other book tells us the remedy except the Bible. So if we had to deal with the problem in our own wisdom or strength it would defeat us. And the remedy for sin is a sacrifice.
This is the message of the whole Bible from the beginning to end. Wherever there has been sin there has to be a sacrifice. But all the previous sacrifices were just prefigurings, they were shadows and types of this one glorious, final, all sufficient sacrifice which Jesus made on our behalf on the cross. And you remember that before He died His last triumphant cry was, 'It is finished.' In the Greek of the New Testament that's one word, tetelestai. And it's the perfect tense of a verb that means to do something perfectly. So my interpretation is it is perfectly perfect, it is completely complete. That's the sacrifice.