“For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever all those who are being made holy.” – Hebrews 10:14 (NIV)
Who knew Habbakuk could be so interesting? This three-chapter Old Testament book of prophecy throbs with the tension between how humans perceive things and how things actually are. The passage of time, for instance. Habbakuk is structured as a series of prayers offered by the prophet, followed by a waiting period, and then God’s response concerning events to come.
Chapter two is notable in that Habakkuk begins by affirming that, like a lookout in a watchtower, “I will watch to see what He will say to me (v. 1). When the Lord does answer, it is to tell Habakkuk what is written down will not happen right away — so not only is the delivery of the prophecy a waiting game, but also the prophecy’s fulfillment.
God prefaces the oracle regarding the Babylonian invasion of Judah by telling Habakkuk, “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late” (v.3). How can a thing both “delay” and also “not be late”? By recognizing that our ways of thinking are not God’s. He knows we’ll assume the thing foreseen is going to take awhile, yet objectively – that is, if we could see things from a divine perspective – it will occur at just the right time. We think in terms of “should be,” as in “That letter should have arrived by now; I mailed it last week!” Yet only God ultimately knows the right time for anything because He is the first cause of everything that transpires.
Sometimes within a single verse of Scripture, truth is crystallized through grammatical form – in the case of Hebrews 10:14, through verb tense. Or perhaps verb tension. Look at the verse above (you expected I’d get around to it eventually, right? Even if I have to ride Habakkuk to reach Hebrews!). The verb phrases are “has made” and “are being made.” The first is a completed action at a specific time, the Greek aorist tense. Christ died on a particular day at a particular time, and through the sacrifice that is the book of Hebrews’ theme, he “has made” perfect His elect, those who are objectively His and have always been. But then the writer uses a different verb tense to describe “those who are being made holy.” Wait a minute! This sounds like it hasn’t happened yet, or at least isn’t finished yet – and yes, paradoxically, this is also true. The present tense verb in this phrase means “now,” yet results from an action in the past that is already over.
Our painful process of becoming saints — becoming holy — was guaranteed in time because the shepherd offered Himself sacrificially at a distant point in human history, but He also knew who He was dying for. The sheep past, present, & future perceive progress toward holiness as occurring over days, weeks, years (and never quickly enough), yet in God’s exalted and objective reality it is as good as done. It’s guaranteed, just like Habakkuk’s oracle. We move by predestined days, weeks, and years toward what was decreed before worlds began. This is why the aorist and present tenses can reside together in the same statement – not comfortably, but in tension.
What a merciful thing it is, though, to know the end of everything is determined by His sovereign and perfect design, and that nothing ultimately comes “early” or “late” except through our flawed perception.
What promises are you holding onto, even when your timeline says it’s late? Leave a comment below. 👇
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