Hebrews 10

Hebrews 10:1

10:1 The law was only a shadow of the good things that were to come. It pointed forward to the Person and work of Christ but it was a poor substitute for reality. To prefer the law to Christ is like preferring a picture to the person represented. It is an insult to His majesty! The weakness of the legal system is seen in the fact that its sacrifices had to be constantly repeated. This repetition proved their total inability to meet the claims of a holy God. Notice the expressions used to capture this idea of repetitiveness: the same sacrifices; offer continually; year by year. The sacrifices were utterly unable to perfect the worshipers, that is, they never gave the people a perfect conscience as far as sin was concerned. The Israelites never enjoyed the consciousness of being cleared forever from the guilt of sin. They never had complete rest of conscience. 10:2 If the offerings had completely and finally absolved them from sin, then would they not have ceased making the annual trek to the tabernacle or temple? The regular recurrence of the sacrifices branded them as ineffectual. Whoever has to take medicine every hour to stay alive can hardly be said to be cured. 10:3 Instead of pacifying the conscience, the Levitical system stabbed it awake each year. Behind the beautiful ritual of the Day of Atonement lurked the annual reminder that sins were only being covered, not removed. 10:4 The blood of bulls and goats simply did not have the power to take away sins. As mentioned previously, these sacrifices dealt with ritual errors. They gave a certain ceremonial cleansing but they were utter failures as far as providing satisfaction for man’s corrupt nature or for his evil deeds. 10:5 In contrast to the weakness of the Levitical offerings, we come now to the strength of the superlative sacrifice of Christ. By way of introduction, we are permitted to hear the Savior’s soliloquy at the time of His incarnation. Quoting from Psalms 40, He noted God’s dissatisfaction with the sacrifices and offerings of the Old Covenant. God had instituted these sacrifices, yet they were never His ultimate intention. They were never designed to put away sins but rather to point forward to the Lamb of God who would bear away the sin of the world. Could God be pleased with rivers of animal blood or with heaps of animal carcasses? Another reason for God’s dissatisfaction is that the people thought they were pleasing Him by going through ceremonies while their inward lives were sinful and corrupt. Many of them went through the dreary round of sacrifices with no repentance or contrition. They thought that God could be appeased with their animal sacrifices whereas He was looking for the sacrifice of a broken heart. They did not realize that God is not a ritualist! Dissatisfied with the former sacrifices, God prepared a human body for His Son which was an integral part of His human life and nature. This, of course, refers to the unfathomable wonder of the Incarnation when the eternal Word became flesh so that, as Man, He might die for men. It is interesting that the clause a body You have prepared for Me, adapted from Psa_40:6, is capable of two other meanings. In that Psalm it reads, My ears You have opened, and in the margin it says, ears You have dug for Me. The open ear, of course, signifies that the Messiah was always ready to receive His instructions from God and to obey them instantly. The dug ear may be an allusion to the Hebrew slave (Exo_21:1-6), whose ear was bored with an awl to the door as a sign that he willingly indentured himself to his master forever. In His Incarnation, the Savior said, in effect, I love My Master … I will not go out free.10:6 Continuing the quotation from Psalms 40, the Messiah repeated that God took no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.

The animals were unwilling victims whose blood was powerless to cleanse. Also they never represented God’s ultimate desire. They were types and shadows looking forward to the sacrifice of Christ. As an end in themselves, they were valueless. 10:7 What did bring pleasure to God was the Messiah’s willingness to do the will of God, no matter what the cost might be. He proved His willing obedience by offering Himself on the altar of sacrifice. As our Lord uttered those words, He was reminded that from the beginning to the end of the OT, it is witnessed of Him that He took wholehearted delight in accomplishing God’s will. 10:8 In verses 8-10 the writer gives the spiritual significance of the soliloquy. He sees it as signaling the demise of the old sacrificial system and the inauguration of the one perfect, complete, and final offering of Jesus Christ. He repeats the quotation from Psalms 40 in condensed form to emphasize God’s lack of pleasure in the sacrifices that were offered according to the law. 10:9 Then the writer sees significance in the fact that immediately after declaring God’s displeasure with the old, the Messiah stepped forward, as it were, to do the thing that would please the heart of His Father. The conclusion: He takes away the first that He may establish the second, that is, He abolishes the old system of offerings that were required by law, and introduces His own great sacrifice for sin. The legal covenant retires to the wings of the stage as the New Covenant moves to the center. 10:10 By that will of God, to which Jesus was utterly obedient, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. George Landis comments: This is a positional sanctification, as is the case all through Hebrews with the exception of Heb_12:14, and is true of all believers (1Co_6:11) and not merely of a few advanced Christians. It is accomplished by the will of God and the sacrifice of Christ. We are set apart by God, to God, and for God. It is not to be confused with the progressive work of God’s Spirit in the believer through the Word (Joh_17:17-19; 1Th_5:23). 10:11 The ministry of every Aaronic priest is now contrasted sharply with that of Christ. The former stood daily in the performance of their duties. There was no chair in the tabernacle or temple. There could be no rest because their work was never completed. They repeatedly offered the same sacrifices. It was an unending routine which left sins untouched and the conscience unrelieved. These sacrifices could never take away sins. Aaron, writes A. B. Bruce, though an important personage within the Levitical system, was after all but a sacerdotal drudge, ever performing ceremonies which had no real value.10:12 Our blessed Lord offered a single sacrifice for sins. None other would ever be needed! No blood, no altar now, The sacrifice is o’er! No flame, no smoke ascends on high, The lamb is slain no more. But richer blood has flowed From nobler veins To purge the soul from guilt And cleanse the reddest stains. Horatius Bonar Having finished the work of redemption, He sat down in perpetuity at [the] right hand of God (JND). This verse may correctly be punctuated to read either He offered one sacrifice for sins forever, or that He forever sat down. Both are true, but we tend to believe that the latter is the correct interpretation. He is seated uninterruptedly because sin’s tremendous claim has been settled forever. He is seated at the right hand of God, the place of honor, power, and affection. Someone may object that He cannot be seated forever since He will one day rise in judgment. There is no contradiction here, however. As far as making an offering for sin is concerned, He has sat down in perpetuity. As far as judgment is concerned, He is not seated forever. 10:13 He waits till His enemies are made His footstool, till the day when every knee will bow to Him, and every tongue acknowledge Him as Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phi_2:10-11). This will be the day of His public vindication on earth. 10:14 The surpassing value of His offering is seen in that by it He has perfected forever (or in perpetuity) those who are being sanctified. Those who are being sanctified here means all who have been set apart to God from the world, that is, all true believers. They have been perfected in a twofold sense. First, they have a perfect standing before God; they stand before the Father in all the acceptability of His beloved Son. Second, they have a perfect conscience as far as the guilt and penalty of sin are concerned; they know that the price has been paid in full and that God will not demand payment a second time. 10:15 The Holy Spirit also witnesses to the fact that under the New Covenant, sins would be effectively dealt with once and for all. He witnesses to it through the OT Scriptures. 10:16 In Jer_31:31, the Lord promised to make a New covenant with His chosen earthly people. 10:17 Then in the very same passage, He adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. It is arresting that Jer_31:34 contained this promise of full and final forgiveness of sins; yet some of those who lived in the day when the promise began to be fulfilled were disposed to return to the never-ending sacrifices of Judaism! 10:18 The promise of forgiveness under the New Covenant means that there is no longer an offering for sin. With these words, no longer an offering for sin, the author closes what we might call the doctrinal portion of the Epistle. He wants to have these words ringing in our hearts and minds as he now presses upon us our practical obligations.

Hebrews 10:19

III. WARNING AND EXHORTATIONS (10:19-13:17) A. Warning Not to Despise Christ (10:19-39) 10:19 In OT times the people were kept at a distance; now in Christ we are brought near through the blood of His cross. Therefore we are encouraged to draw near. This exhortation assumes that all believers are now priests because we are told to have boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. The common people during the Jewish economy were barred from the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place; only the priests could enter the first room, and only the high priest could enter the second. Now that is all changed. God has no special place where only a special caste of men may approach Him. Instead, all believers may come into His presence by faith at any time and from any place on earth. Through the veil God bids me enter By the new and living way; Not in trembling hope I ventureBoldly I His call obey; There, with Christ my God, I meet God upon the mercy-seat! All the worth I have before Him Is the value of the blood: I present, when I adore Him Christ, the First-fruits, unto God. Him with joy doth God behold; Thus is my acceptance told! Author unknown 10:20 Our approach is by a new and living way. New here may have the meaning of newly slain or newly made. Living seems to be a reference to Jesus in resurrection, therefore, to a living Savior. This way was opened through the veil, that is, His flesh. This clearly teaches that the veil between the two compartments of the tabernacle was a type of the body of our Lord. In order for us to have access into God’s presence, the veil had to be rent, that is, His body had to be broken in death. This reminds us that we cannot draw near by Christ’s sinless life, but only by His vicarious death. Only through the mortal wounds of the Lamb can we go in. Every time we enter God’s presence in prayer or worship, let us remember that the privilege was bought for us at tremendous cost. 10:21 We not only have great confidence when we enter the presence of God; we also have a great High Priest over the house of God. Even though we are priests (1Pe_2:9; Rev_1:6), yet we still need a Priest ourselves. Christ is our great High Priest, and His present ministry for us assures our continued welcome before God. 10:22 Let us draw near. This is the believer’s blood-bought privilege. How wonderful beyond all words that we are invited to have audience, not with this world’s celebrities, but with the Sovereign of the universe! The extent to which we value the invitation is shown by the manner in which we respond to it. There is a fourfold description of how we should be spiritually groomed in entering the throne room.

1. With a true heart. The people of Israel drew near to God with their mouth, and honored Him with their lips, but their heart was often far from Him (Mat_15:8). Our approach should be with utter sincerity.
2. In full assurance of faith. We draw near with utter confidence in the promises of God and with the firm conviction that we shall have a gracious reception into His presence.
3. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. This can be brought about only by the new birth. When we trust Christ, we appropriate the value of His blood. Figuratively speaking, we sprinkle our hearts with it, just as the Israelites sprinkled their doors with the blood of the Passover lamb. This delivers us from an evil conscience. Our testimony is: Conscience now no more condemns us, For His own most precious blood Once for all has washed and cleansed us, Cleansed us in the eyes of God. Frances Bevan
4. And our bodies washed with pure water. Again this is symbolic language. Our bodies represent our lives. The pure water might refer either to the word (Eph_5:25-26), to the Holy Spirit (Joh_7:37-39), or to the Holy Spirit using the word in cleansing our lives from daily defilement. We are cleansed once for all from the guilt of sin by the death of Christ, but cleansed repeatedly from the defilement of sin by the Spirit through the word (see Joh_13:10). Thus we might summarize the four requisites for entering God’s presence as sincerity, assurance, salvation, and sanctification. 10:23 The second exhortation is to hold fast the confession of our hope. Nothing must be allowed to turn us from the staunch confession that our only hope is in Christ. For those who were tempted to give up the future, unseen blessings of Christianity for the present, visible things of Judaism, there is the reminder that He who promised is faithful. His promises can never fail; no one who trusts in Him will ever be disappointed. The Savior will come, as He has promised, and His people will be with Him and like Him forever. 10:24 We should also be discovering ways of encouraging fellow believers to manifest love and to engage in good works. In the NT sense, love is not an emotion but an act of the will. We are commanded to love, therefore it is something we can and must do. Love is the root; good works are the fruit. By our example and by our teaching, we should stir up other believers to this kind of life. Loving hearts are gardens, Loving thoughts are roots, Loving words are flowers, And good works their fruits. Adapted 10:25 Then we should continue to meet together and not desert the local fellowship, as some do. This may be considered as a general exhortation for all believers to be faithful in their church attendance. Without question we find strength, comfort, nourishment, and joy in collective worship and service. It may also be looked on as a special encouragement for Christians going through times of persecution. There is always the temptation to isolate oneself in order to avoid arrest, reproach, and suffering, and thus to be a secret disciple. But basically the verse is a warning against apostasy. To forsake the local assembly here means to turn one’s back on Christianity and revert to Judaism. Some were doing this when this Letter was written. There was need to exhort one another, especially in view of the nearness of Christ’s Return. When He comes, the persecuted, ostracized, despised believers will be seen to be on the winning side. Until then, there is need for steadfastness. 10:26 Now the writer introduces his fourth grim warning. As in the previous cases, it is a warning against apostasy, here described as a deliberate sin. As has been indicated, there is considerable disagreement among Christians as to the real nature of this sin. The problem, in brief, is whether it refers to:
5. True Christians who subsequently turn away from Christ and are lost.
6. True Christians who backslide but who are still saved.
7. Those who profess to be Christians for a while, identify themselves with a local church, but then deliberately turn away from Christ. They were never truly born again, and now they never can be. No matter which view we hold, there are admitted difficulties. We believe that the third view is the correct one because it is most consistent with the over-all teaching of Hebrews and of the entire NT. Here in verse 26 apostasy is defined as sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth. Like Judas, the person has heard the gospel. He knows the way of salvation; he has even pretended to receive it; but then he deliberately repudiates it. For such a person, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. He has decisively and conclusively rejected the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ. Therefore God has no other way of salvation to offer to him. There is a sense in which all sin is willful, but the author here speaks of apostasy as a willful sin of extraordinary seriousness. The fact that the author uses we in this passage does not necessarily mean that he includes himself. In verse 39 he definitely excludes himself and his fellow believers from those who draw back into perdition. 10:27 Nothing remains but a certain fearful expectation of judgment; there is no hope of escape. It is impossible to renew the apostate to repentance (Heb_6:4). He has knowingly and willfully cut himself off from God’s grace in Christ. His fate is a fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. It is pointless to haggle over whether this means literal fire. The language is obviously designed to denote punishment that is dreadfully severe. Note that God classes apostates as adversaries. This indicates positive opposition to Christ, not a mild neutrality. 10:28 The doom of the lawbreaker in the OT is now introduced to form a backdrop against which to contrast the greater doom of the apostate. A man who broke Moses’ law by becoming an idolater died without mercy when his guilt was proven by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deu_17:2-6). 10:29 The apostate will be counted worthy of much worse punishment because his privilege has been much greater. The enormity of his sin is seen in the three charges that are leveled against him:
8. He has trampled the Son of God underfoot. After professing to be a follower of Jesus, he now brazenly asserts that he wants nothing more to do with Him. He denies any need for Christ as Savior and positively rejects Him as Lord. In Japan there is a crucifix which was used by the government in days of persecution. It was placed on the ground, and everybody had to tread on the face of the Crucified. The non-Christians did not hesitate to tread on His face; the real Christians refused and were killed. The story goes that the face of Jesus was worn down and marred by people trampling on it.
9. He has counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing. He counts as useless and unholy the blood of Christ which ratified the New Covenant. He had been set apart by this blood in a place of external privilege. Through his association with Christian people, he had been sanctified, just as an unbelieving husband is sanctified by his believing wife (1Co_7:14). But that does not mean that he was saved.
10. He has insulted the Spirit of grace. The Spirit of God had illuminated him concerning the good news, convicted him of sin, and pointed him to Christ as the only Refuge of the soul. But he had insulted the gracious Spirit by utterly despising Him and the salvation He offered. 10:30 Willful repudiation of God’s beloved Son is a sin of immense magnitude. God will sit in judgment on all who are guilty of it. He has said, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (see Deu_32:35). Vengeance in this sense means full justice. When used of God it has no thought of vindictiveness or of getting even. It is simply the meting out of what a person actually deserves. Knowing the character of God, we can be sure that He will do as He has said by repaying the apostate in just measure. And again, The Lord will judge His people. God will avenge and vindicate those who truly belong to Him, but here in verse 30, the obvious reference is to judgment of evil people. If it causes difficulty to think of apostates being spoken of as His people, we should remember that they are His by creation and also for a while by profession. He is their Creator though not their Redeemer, and they once professed to be His people, even though they never knew Him personally. 10:31 The abiding lesson for all is this: do not be among those who fall into God’s hands for judgment because it is a fearful thing. Nothing in this passage of Scripture was ever intended to disturb and unsettle the minds of those who truly belong to Christ. The passage was purposely written in its sharp, searching, challenging style so that all who profess the name of Christ might be warned about the terrible consequences of turning away from Him. 10:32 In the remaining verses of chapter 10, the writer gives three strong reasons why the early Jewish Christians should continue steadfastly in their allegiance to Christ.
11. Their former experiences should stimulate them.
12. The nearness of the reward should strengthen them.
13. The fear of God’s displeasure should deter them from going back. First of all, then, their past experiences should stimulate them. After they professed faith in Christ, they became the targets of bitter persecution: their families disowned them, their friends forsook them, and their foes hounded them. But instead of producing cowardice and fear, these sufferings strengthened them in their faith. Doubtless they felt something of the exhilaration of being counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name (Act_5:41). 10:33 Sometimes their suffering was individual; they were taken out alone and publicly exposed to abuse and affliction. At other times, they suffered with other Christians. 10:34 They were not afraid to visit those who were prisoners for Christ, even though there was always the danger of guilt by association. When their goods were confiscated by the authorities, they accepted it joyfully. They chose to be true to Jesus rather than to keep their material possessions. They knew that they had an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away (1Pe_1:4). It was truly a miracle of divine grace that enabled them to value earthly wealth so lightly. 10:35 The second great consideration is this: the nearness of the reward should strengthen them. Having endured so much in the past, they should not capitulate now. The author says in effect, Don’t miss the harvest of your tears (F. B. Meyer). They were now nearer to the fulfillment of God’s promise than ever before. This was no time to turn back. Don’t throw away your trust nowit carries with it a rich reward in the world to come (JBP). 10:36 What they needed was endurance, the determination to remain under the persecutions rather than escape them by denying Christ. Then after having done the will of God, they would receive the promised reward. 10:37 The coming reward synchronizes with the Return of the Lord Jesus; hence the quotation from Hab_2:3, For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. In Habakkuk the verse reads, For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.Concerning this change Vincent says: In the Hebrew, the subject of the sentence is the vision of the extermination of the Chaldees. … As rendered in the Septuagint either Jehovah or Messiah must be the subject. The passage was referred to Messiah by the later Jewish theologians and is so taken by our writer. A. J. Pollock comments: The Old Testament passage and the altered quotation in the New Testament are alike verbally inspired and equally Scripture. The IT in Habakkuk refers to the visionand deals with the coming of Christ to reign. IT becomes HE in Hebrews and refers to the Rapture. Then he continues in a more general vein: When an inspired writer quotes from the Old Testament he uses just as much of the passage quoted as suits the purpose of the Divine Mind, though never contradicting it; altering it often in order to convey, not the exact meaning of the Old Testament passage, but the fuller meaning intended to be conveyed by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. … Now no one but God could so treat Scripture. The fact that it is done, and done largely, is another claim to inspiration. God is the Author of the Bible, and He can quote His OWN words, altering and adding to them to suit His purpose. But if any of us quote Scripture, we must do it with careful exactitude. We have no right to alter a jot or tittle.

But the Author of the Book can do this. It matters little what pen He uses, whether it be Moses or Isaiah, Peter or Paul, or Matthew or John, it is all His writing. 10:38 A final incentive to steadfast endurance is the fear of God’s displeasure. Continuing the quotation from Habakkuk, the author shows that the life that pleases God is the life of faith: Now the just shall live by faith. This is the life that values God’s promises, that sees the unseen, and that perseveres to the end. On the other hand the life that displeases God is that of the man who renounces the Messiah and returns to the obsolete sacrifices of the temple: But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him. 10:39 The writer quickly dissociates himself and his fellow believers from those who draw back to perdition. This separates apostates from genuine Christians. Apostates draw back and are lost. True believers believe and thus preserve their souls from the doom of the renegade. With this mention of faith (believe and faith are the same root word in Greek), the groundwork is laid for a fuller discussion of the life that pleases God. The illustrious eleventh chapter follows quite naturally at this point.