Hebrews 10:18

Now where remission of these is,.... That is, of these sins; and that there is remission of them, is evident from this promise of the covenant, just now produced; from God's gracious proclamation of

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Where remission of these is - as there is under the Gospel covenant (Hebrews 10:17).

The Spirit having cleared his assumption before, now concludes; Whereas perfect forgiveness of sins is from God’ s grace, by the one sacrifice of his Son once offered, acquired and effected for penitent believers for ever, as the promise voucheth, : For he will in no wise remember their sins, but will forgive them for ever; therefore there needs no repetition of that sacrifice again, or of any other for sin. But the Hebrews had the highest reason now to desert the legal sacrifices, and to rest upon and to cleave to his alone, any being, use, or consistency of such, after the effect of Christ’ s one sacrifice, being vain; for all being completed in his, it is but just theirs should cease from them.

18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Ver. 18. Where remission of sin is] viz. An impletory remission, as now in the New Testament, not a promissory, as under the Old.

(18) Now where.—Bather, But where remission (or forgiveness, see Hebrews 9:22) of these is, there is no longer offering for sin. Here the argument reaches its triumphant close. At this point we enter on the last great division of the Epistle (Hebrews 10:19 to Hebrews 13:25), which is occupied with earnest exhortation, encouragement to perseverance alternating with solemn warning against apostasy. The first section of this main division extends to the end of this chapter.

Verse 18. Now where remission of these is] In any case, where sin is once pardoned, there is no farther need of a sin-offering; but every believer on Christ has his sin blotted out, and therefore needs no other offering for that sin. "If," says Dr. Macknight, "after remission is granted to the sinner, there is no need of any more sacrifice for sin; and if Christ, by offering himself once, has perfected for ever the sanctified, Hebrews 10:14, the sacrifice of the mass, as it is called, about which the Romish clergy employ themselves so incessantly, and to which the papists trust for the pardon of their sins, has no foundation in Scripture. Nay, it is an evident impiety, as it proceeds upon the supposition that the offering of the body of Christ once is not sufficient to procure the pardon of sin, but must be frequently repeated. If they reply that their mass is only the representation and commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ, they give up the cause, and renounce an article of their faith, established by the council of Trent, which, in session xxii. can. 1, 3, declared the sacrifice of the mass to be a true and propitiatory sacrifice for sin. I say, give up the cause; for the representation and commemoration of a sacrifice is not a sacrifice. Farther, it cannot be affirmed that the body of Christ is offered in the mass, unless it can be said that, as often as it is offered, Christ has suffered death; for the apostle says expressly, Hebrews 9:25; Hebrews 9:26, that if Christ offered himself often, he must often have suffered since the foundation of the world." Let him disprove this who can.

18. there is no more offering for sin] Since the object of all sacrifices is the purging of the soul from guilt, sacrifices are no longer needed when sins have been annulled (Hebrews 9:26). Those words form the triumphant close of the argument. To revert to Judaism, to offer sacrifices, meant henceforth faithlessness as regards Christ’s finished work. And if sacrifices were henceforth abolished there was obviously an end of the Aaronic Priesthood, and therewith of the whole Old Covenant. The shadow had now been superseded by the substance, the sketch by the reality. And thus the writer has at last made good his opening words, that “at this end of the days God had revealed Himself to us by His Son,” and that the New Covenant thus revealed was superior to the First, alike in its Agent (Hebrews 7:1-25), its Priesthood (Hebrews 7:25 to Hebrews 9:12), its Tabernacle, and its sacrificial ordinances (Hebrews 9:13 to Hebrews 10:18).

Now where remission of these is - Remission or forgiveness of sins; that is, of the sins mentioned in the previous verse.