From the very beginning, God’s will was not that you would climb a ladder of rules to reach Him. His will was that He would come to you. Before the foundation of the world, the Father, Son, and Spirit delighted in a plan: that the Son would take on flesh, stand in our place, and bring us home.

When we read Hebrews 10:10, it is easy to miss the weight of it.

Which will? Not ours. Not our desperate promises, our New Year’s resolutions, or our cycles of trying and failing. It is His will, His eternal purpose carried out in Christ.

Performance-based religion always tries to make us the initiators. If only you prayed more. If only you resisted more. If only you climbed higher. But the gospel declares that long before you were even born, God’s will was fixed: you would be made holy through His Son’s offering, once for all.

Picture the temple in Jerusalem. Priests hustling about, their hands stained with blood. Sacrifice after sacrifice, year after year, and yet never enough. They never sat down, because their work was never finished.

Now picture Jesus on the cross. One sacrifice, one cry: “It is finished.” And then, after His resurrection, He ascended and sat down on the right hand of God. That one act declared louder than centuries of sacrifices: the work is done.

Think of a father who spends days building a treehouse for his little boy. When it is finished, the boy runs over with a hammer, eager to help. He starts pounding on the boards, but the father gently takes the hammer away. “Son, if you keep hammering, you will ruin what is already complete.”

That is us when we try to add to Christ’s finished work. Sanctification is not about you keeping the hammer moving. It is about trusting the One who already completed the job.

The verse does not say we will be sanctified someday, after a lifetime of effort. It says we are sanctified once for all.

It is like a legal declaration written in permanent ink: holy, set apart, belonging to God, not because of your performance, but because of Christ’s obedience.

When you stumble, the enemy whispers, “See, you are not holy.” But God says, “You are sanctified once for all.” Holiness is not a reward you work toward; it is an identity you already have in Christ.

This truth always sounds scandalous. If we are already sanctified, will people not just live however they want? That is the fear of religion. But the heart that has tasted grace does not crave more sin. It craves more of Christ. Gratitude, not guilt, becomes the engine of holiness.

Holiness, then, is not you sweating to reach God, but you living from the God who has already embraced you. It is not climbing higher. It is resting deeper.

Do I live as if holiness depends on me, my willpower, my effort, my climbing? Or do I live as if it is already mine in Christ? What would it look like today to lay down my hammer, stop striving, and rest in His finished will?

Remember, it was never God’s will for you to climb your way to Him. He came to you. He offered Himself once and for all, and by His will you are sanctified. Rest in what He has already done, and live today as one who is already holy in His sight.