How incredible that an entire doctrine may rest on the tense of a particular verb, and how we translate it. Take Hebrews 10:14.
“By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those being made holy.”
From this we could presume that we are not yet holy, as we are still ‘being made’ holy. Our holiness is not perfected yet. Slightly contradicting the middle of the verse which says we have been made perfect forever.
A quick study of the Greek gives us this translation:
“By one sacrifice he has perfected forever those sanctified.”
Holy already. No process. No continuous verb. Perfected forever. Sanctified.
The bible gateway gives a selection of different translations, some with the continuous verb, implying our holiness is an ongoing process, and some with a verb which suggests the action of our being made holy is complete.
Just as Jesus cried from the cross – ‘It is finished.’
I’m inclined to go with the complete verb. We are holy already, imputed with His righteousness, sanctified, and as the writer to the Hebrews states, ‘perfect forever.’
The bible as it stands is simply a window – to get to the truth within it’s dusty covers God sometimes requires us to dig a little deeper, into the original language of the texts, and sometimes the truth of the Word takes illuminating by the Holy Spirit.
Let’s pray and ask God to open up the scriptures. Let’s take the road to Emmaus.
Amazed by Grace 
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