Hebrews 10

How wonderful is the grace which we are now considering!
There are two things that present themselves to us in Christ. The attractions to our heart of His grace and goodness, and His work which brings our souls into the presence of God. It is with the latter • that the Holy Ghost here occupies us. There is not only the piety which grace produces: there is the efficacy of the work itself. What is this efficacy? What is the result, for us, of His work? Our presentation to God; in the light, without a veil, sin being entirely put away. Marvelous position for us! We have not to wait for a day of judgment (assuredly coming as it is), nor to seek for means of approach to God. We are in His presence. Christ appears in the presence of God for us. And not only this: He remains there ever; our position, therefore, never changes. It is true that we are called to walk according to that position; but this does not touch the fact that such is the position. And how came we into it; and in what condition? Sin entirely put away, perfectly put away; and once for all; the whole question settled forever before God, we are there because Christ has abolished it. So that there are the two things-this work accomplished, and this position taken in the presence of God.
We see the force of the contrast between this and Judaism. According to the latter, divine service, as we have seen, was performed outside the veil. The worshippers did not reach the presence of God. Thus they had always to begin again. The propitiatory sacrifice was renewed from year to year -a continually repeated testimony that sin was still there. Individually they obtained a temporary pardon for particular acts. It had constantly to be renewed. The conscience was never made perfect, the soul was not in the presence of God; this great question was never settled. (How many souls are even now in this condition!) The entrance of the high priest once a year, did but furnish a proof that the way was still barred, that God could not be approached, but that sin was still remembered.
But now, for believers, sin is put ‘away by a work done once for all; the conscience is made perfect; and, in. Christ, we are ever before God, in His presence. The high priest remains there. Thus, instead of having a memorial of sin re-iterated from year to year, perfect righteousness subsists ever for us in the presence of God. The position is entirely changed.
The lot of men (for this perfect work takes us out of Judaism) is death and judgment. But now our lot depends on Christ, not on Adam. Christ was offered to bear the sins of many -the work is complete, the sins blotted out, and to those who look for Him He will appear without having anything to do with sin, that question having been entirely settled at His first coming. In the death of Jesus, God dealt with the sins of those who look for Him; and He will appear, not to judge, but unto salvation; to deliver them finally from the position into which sin had brought them. This has its application to the Jewish remnant, according to the circumstances of their position; but in an absolute way it applies to the Christian who has Heaven for his portion.
The essential point established in the doctrine of the death of Christ is, that He offered Himself once for all. We must bear this in mind, in order to understand the full import of all that is here said. The tenth chapter is the development of this. In it the author recapitulates his doctrine on this point, and applies it to souls, confirming it by Scripture, and by considerations which are evident to every enlightened conscience.
1.-The law, with its sacrifices, did not make the worshippers perfect; for if they had been brought to perfection, the sacrifices would not have been offered afresh.
If they were offered again, it was because the worshippers were not perfect. On the contrary, the repetition of the sacrifice was a memorial of sin; it reminded the people that sin was still there, and that it was still before God. In effect, the law, although it was the shadow of things to come, was not their true image. There were sacrifices; but they were repeated, instead of there being one only sacrifice of eternal efficacy. There was a high priest, but he was mortal, and the priesthood transferable. He went into a "holiest of all," but only once a-year, the veil which concealed God being still there, and the high priest unable to remain in His presence, the work being not perfect. Thus, -there were, indeed, elements which plainly indicated the constituent parts, so to speak, of the priesthood of the good things to come; but the state of the worshippers was, in the one case, quite the opposite of that which it was in the other. In the first, every act showed that the work of reconciliation was not done; in the second, the position. of the high priest and of the worshippers is a testimony that this work was accomplished, and that the latter are perfected forever in the presence of God.
In chapter 10 this principle is applied to the sacrifice. Its repetition proved that sin was there. That the sacrifice of Christ was only offered once, was the demonstration of its eternal efficacy. Had the Jewish sacrifices rendered the worshippers permanently perfect, they would have ceased to be offered. The apostle is speaking (although the principle is general) of the yearly sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. For if, through the efficacy of the sacrifice, they had been permanently made perfect, they would have had no more conscience of sin, and could not have had the thought of renewing the sacrifice.
Observe here, that which is very important, that the conscience is cleansed, sin being expiated, the worshipper drawing nigh by virtue of the sacrifice. The meaning of the Jewish service was, that sin was not put away; that of the Christian, that it is. As to the former-precious as the type is-the reason is evident: the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sin. Therefore, those sacrifices have been abolished, and a work of another character (although still a sacrifice), has been accomplished. A work which excludes all other, and all repetition of the same, because it consists of nothing less than the self-devotedness of the Son of God to accomplish all the will of God the Father: an act impossible to be repeated-for all His will cannot be accomplished twice.
This is what the Son of God says in this most solemn passage (5-9), in which we are admitted to know, according to the grace of God, that which passed between God the Father and Himself, when He undertook the fulfillment of the will of God, that which He said, and the eternal counsels of God which He carried into execution. He takes the place of submission and of obedience, of performing the will of another. God would no longer accept the sacrifices that were offered under the law (the four classes of which are here pointed out), He had no pleasure in them. In their stead, He had prepared a body for His son-vast and important truth-for the place of man is obedience. Thus in taking this place, the Son of God put Himself into the position to obey perfectly. In fact, He undertakes the duty of fulfilling all the will of God, be it what it may; a will which is ever "good, acceptable and perfect." The Psalm says in the Hebrew: “Thou hast digged my ears," translated by the Septuagint, "Thou hast prepared me a body;" words which, as they give the true meaning, are used by the Holy Ghost. For “the ear “is always employed as a sign of the reception of commandments, and the principle of obligation to obey, or the disposition to do so. He hath opened my ear morning by morning, (Is. e. has made me obedient to His will. The ear was bored or fastened with an awl to the door, in order to express that the Israelite was attached to the house, as a slave, to obey, forever. Now, in taking a body, the Lord took the form of a servant. Ears were digged for Him. That is to say, He placed Himself in a position in which He had to obey all His master’s will, whatever it might be. But it is the Lord Himself who speaks, in the passage before us; “Thou," He says, "hast prepared me a body."
Entering more into detail, He specifies burnt offerings and offerings for sin, sacrifices which had less of the character of communion, and had thus a deeper meaning; but God had no pleasure in them. In a word, the Jewish service was already declared by the Spirit to be unacceptable to God. It was all to cease, it was fruitless; no offering that formed part of it was acceptable. No, the counsels of God unfold themselves-but first of all, in the heart of the Word, the Son of God, who offers Himself to accomplish the will of God. "Then, said He, Lo I come-in the volume of the book it is written of me-to do Thy will O God." Nothing can be more solemn than thus to lift the veil from that which takes place in heaven between God and the Word who undertook to do His will. Observe, that before He was in the position of obedience, He offers Himself in order to accomplish the will of God; that is to say, of free love for the glory of God, of free will, as One who had the power, He offers Himself. He undertakes obedience, He undertakes to do whatsoever God wills. This is, indeed, to sacrifice all His own will, but freely and as the effect of His own purpose, although on the occasion of the will of His Father. He must needs be God, in order to do this, and to undertake the fulfillment of all that God could will.
We have here the great mystery of this divine intercourse, which remains ever surrounded with its solemn majesty, although it is communicated to us that we may know it. And we ought to know it; for it is thus that we understand the infinite grace and the glory of this work. Before He became man, in the place where only divinity is known, and its eternal counsels and thoughts are communicated between the Divine Persons, the Word -as He has declared it to us, in time, by the prophetic Spirit,-such being the will of God contained in the book of the eternal counsels, He who, was able to do it, offered Himself freely to accomplish that will. Submissive to this counsel, already arranged for Him, He yet offers Himself in perfect freedom to fulfill it. But in offering, He submits, yet at the same time undertakes to do all that God, as God, willed. But also in undertaking to do the will of God, it was by the way of obedience, of submission, and of devotedness. For I might undertake to do the will of another, as free and competent, because I willed the thing; but if I say "to do Thy will," this in itself is absolute and complete submission. And this it is which the Lord, the Word, did. He did it also, declaring that He came in order to do it. He took a position of obedience by accepting the body prepared for Him. He came to do the will of God.
This, of which we have been speaking, is continually manifested in the life of Jesus on earth. God shines through His position in the human body; for He was necessarily God in the act itself of His humiliation; and none but God could have undertaken and been found in it; yet He was always and entirely and perfectly obedient and dependent on God. That which revealed itself n His existence on earth, was the expression of that which was accomplished in the eternal abode, in His own nature. That is to say (and of which Psa. 40 speaks), hat which He declares, and that which He was here below, are the same thing; the one in reality in heaven, the other bodily on earth. That which He was here below, was but the expression, the living, real, bodily manifestation of those divine communications which have been revealed to us, and which were the reality of the position that He assumed.
And it is very important to see these things in the free offer made by divine competency, and that not only in their fulfillment in death. It gives quite a different character to the bodily work here below.
In reality, from chapter 1 of this epistle, the Holy Ghost always presents Christ in this way. But this revelation in the Psalm was requisite to explain how He became a servant, what the Messiah really was; and to us it opens an immense view of the ways of God; a view, the depths of which-clearly as it is revealed, and through the very clearness of the revelation-display to us things so divine and glorious, that we bow- the head and veil our faces, at having had part, as it were, in such communications, on account of the majesty of the persons whose acts and whose intimate relationships are revealed, It is not here the glory that dazzles us. But in this poor world there is nothing to which we are greater strangers than the intimacy of those who are, in their modes of life, much above ourselves. What then, when it is that of God! Blessed be His name! there is grace that brings us into it-and that has drawn nigh to us in our weakness. We are then admitted to know this precious truth, that the Lord Jesus undertook, of His own free will, the accomplishment of all the will of God, and that He was pleased to take the body prepared for Him, in order to accomplish it. The love, the devotedness to the glory of God, and the way in which He undertook to obey, are fully set forth. And this-the fruit of God’s eternal counsels-displaces (by its very nature) every provisional sign; and contains, in itself alone, the condition of all relationship with God, and the means by which He glorifies Himself.
The Word then assumes a body, in order to offer Himself as a sacrifice. Besides the revelation of this devotedness of the Word to accomplish the will of God, the effect of His sacrifice, according to the will of God, is also set before us.
He came to do the will of Jehovah. Now, it is by this will of God, (i.e. by His will who, according to His eternal wisdom prepared a body for His Son), that faith understands that those whom He has called unto Himself are saved, are set apart to God; in other words, are sanctified. It is by the will of God that we are set apart for Him (not by our own will), and that, by means of the sacrifice offered to God.
We shall observe, that the epistle does not here speak of the communication of life, nor of a practical sanctification wrought by the Holy Ghost: the subject is the person of Christ ascended on high, and the efficacy of his work. And this is important with regard to sanctification, because it shows that sanctification is a complete setting apart to God, as belonging to Him at the price of the offering of Jesus: a consecration to Him by means of that offering. God took the unclean Jews from among men and set them apart, consecrated them to Himself, by means of the offering of Jesus.
But there is another element, already pointed out, in this offering, the force of which the epistle here applies to believers, namely, that the offering is "once for all." It admits of no repetition. If we enjoy the effect of this offering, our sanctification is eternal in its nature. It does not fail. It is never repeated. We belong to God forever, according to the efficacy of this offering. Thus our sanctification, our being set apart to God, has-with regard to the work that accomplished it-all the stability of the will of God, and all the grace from which it sprang; it has, in its nature, the perfection of the work itself, by which it was accomplished, and the duration and the constant force of the efficacy of that work. But the effect of this offering is not limited to this setting apart for God. The point already treated contains our consecration by God Himself, through the perfectly efficacious offering of Christ, fulfilling His will. And now the position which Christ has taken, in consequence of His offering up of Himself, is employed, in order clearly to demonstrate the state it has brought us into before God.
The high-priest among the Jews-for this contrast is still carried on-stood before the altar continually, to repeat the same sacrifices which could never take away sins. But this man, when He had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down forever at the right hand of God. There,-having finished for His own all that regards their presentation without spot to God,-He awaits the moment when His enemies shall be made His footstool, according to Psa. 110 “Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." And the Spirit gives us the important reason so infinitely precious to us: "For He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."
Here (ver. 14) as in ver. 12, on which the latter depends, the word "forever" has the force of permanence, uninterrupted continuity. He is ever seated, we are ever perfected, by virtue of His work and according to the perfect righteousness in which, and conformably to which, He sits at the right hand of God upon His throne, according to that which He is personally there; His, acceptance on God’s part being proved by His session at His right hand. And He is there for us.
It is a righteousness suited to the throne of God, yea, the righteousness of the throne. It neither varies nor fails. He is seated there forever. If then we are sanctified, set apart to God, by this offering according to the will of God Himself, we are also made perfect for God by the same offering, as presented to Him in the person of Jesus.
We have seen that this position has its origin in the will, the good will of God (a will which combines the grace and the purpose of God), and that it has its foundation and present certainty in the accomplishment of the work of Christ, the perfection of which is demonstrated by the session at the right hand of God of Him who accomplished it. But the testimony,-for to enjoy this grace, we must know it with divine certainty; and the greater it is, the more would our hearts be led to doubt it,-the testimony upon which we believe it must be divine. And this it is. The Holy Ghost bears witness to us of it. The will of God is the source of the work; Christ, the Son of God, accomplished it; the Holy Ghost bears witness of it. And here the application to the people, called by grace and spared, is, in consequence, fully set forth; not merely the fulfillment of the work. The Holy Ghost bears us witness, “I will remember no more their sins and iniquities."
Blessed position! The certainty that God will never remember our sins and iniquities, is founded on the steadfast will of God, on the perfect offering of Christ, now, consequently, seated at the right hand of God, and on the sure testimony of the Holy Ghost. It is a matter of faith that God will never remember our sins.
We may remark here, the way in which the covenant is introduced; for although, as writing to “the holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," he says "a witness to us," the form of his address is always that of an epistle to the Hebrews, (believers, of course, but Hebrews, still bearing the character of God’s people). He does not speak of the Covenant in a direct way, as a privilege in which Christians had a direct part. The Holy Ghost, he says, declares, “I will remember no more," &c. It is this which he quotes. He only alludes to the New Covenant; leaving it aside, consequently, as to all present application. For after having said, “This is the covenant," etc., the testimony is cited, as that of the Holy Ghost, to prove the capital point which he was treating, i.e., that God remembers our sins no more. But he alludes to the Covenant (already known to the Jews as declared before of God) which gave the authority of the Scriptures to this testimony that God remembered no more the sins of His people who are ‘sanctified and admitted into His favor, and which, at the same time, presented these two thoughts:-1st, that this complete pardon did not exist under the first covenant; and 2nd, that the door is left open for the blessing of the nation when the New Covenant shall be formally established.
Another practical consequence is drawn: sins being remitted, there is no more oblation for sin. The one sacrifice having obtained remission, no others can be offered in order to obtain it. Remembrance of this one sacrifice there may indeed be, whatever its character; but a sacrifice to take away the sin which is already taken away, there cannot be. We are, therefore, in reality on entirely new ground-on that of the fact, that by the sacrifice of Christ sin is altogether put away, and that for us who are sanctified and partakers of the heavenly calling, a perfect and everlastingly permanent cleansing has been made, remission granted, eternal redemption obtained. So that we are, in the eyes of God, without sin, on the ground of the perfection of the work of Christ who is seated at His right hand, who has entered into the true Holiest, into heaven itself, to sit there, because his work is accomplished.
Thus, all liberty is ours to enter into the Holy Place (all boldness) by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, i.e., His flesh, that veil rent for us, to admit us without spot into the presence of God Himself, who is there revealed. For that which rent the veil in order to admit us, has likewise put away the sin which shut us out.
We have also a great High Priest over the house of God, as we have seen, who represents us in the Holy Place.
On these truths are founded the exhortations • that follow. One word before we enter on them, as to the relation that exists between perfect righteousness and the priesthood. There are many souls who use the priesthood as the means of obtaining pardon when they have failed. They go to Christ as a Priest, that He may intercede for them and obtain the pardon which they desire, but for which they dare not ask God in a direct way. These souls-sincere as they are-have not liberty to enter into the Holy Place. They take refuge with Christ that they may afresh be brought into the presence of God. Their condition, practically, is that in which a pious Jew stood. They have lost, or rather they have never had by faith, the real consciousness of their position before God, in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ. I do not speak here of all the privileges of the Church: we have seen that the epistle does not speak of them. The position it makes for believers is this. They whom it addresses are not viewed as placed in heaven, although partakers of the heavenly calling; but a perfect redemption is accomplished, sin entirely put away, for the people of God, who remembers their sins no more. The conscience is made perfect: they have no more conscience of sin, by virtue of the work accomplished once for all. There is no more question of sin, i.e., of its imputation, of its being upon them before God, between them and God. It has been put away upon the Cross. Therefore the conscience is perfect; their Representative and High Priest is in heaven, a witness there to the work already accomplished for them.
Thus, although the epistle does not present them as in the Holiest, as sitting there,--like the epistle to the Ephesians-they have full liberty, entire boldness, to enter into it. The question of imputation no longer exists. Their sins have been imputed to Christ. But He is now in heaven-a proof that the sins are blotted out forever. Believers, therefore, ‘enter with entire liberty into the presence of God Himself, and that, always; having no more forever any conscience of sin.
For what purpose, then, is priesthood? What is to be done with respect to the sins we commit? They interrupt our communion; but they make no change in our position before God, nor in the testimony rendered by the presence of Christ at the right hand of God. Sin is measured by the conscience, according to our position. The priesthood of Christ, united to His perpetual presence at God’s right hand, has this two-fold effect for us. 1st. Righteousness always subsists. 2nd. We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We draw nigh to God in the Holiest, according to that righteousness. But, by sin, communion is interrupted; our righteousness is not altered-for that is Christ Himself at God’s right hand, in virtue of His work-nor is grace changed; but the heart has got away from God, communion is interrupted. Under these circumstances grace acts, in virtue of perfect righteousness, and by the intercession of Christ, on behalf of him who has failed; and his soul is restored to communion. Not that we go to Jesus for this; He goes, even if we sin, to God for us. His presence there is the witness of an unchangeable righteousness which is ours; His intercession maintains or restores the communion which is founded on that righteousness. Our access to God is always open. Sin interrupts our enjoyment of it, the heart is not in communion; the intercession of Jesus is the means of rousing the conscience by the action of the Spirit and the Word, and we return (first humbling ourselves) into the presence of God Himself.
Exhortations follow. Having the right thus to approach God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. This is the only thing that honors the efficacy of Christ’s work, and the love which has thus brought us to enjoy God. In the words that follow, allusion is made to the consecration of the priests - natural allusion, as drawing near to God in the Holiest is the subject. They were sprinkled with blood and washed with water, and then they drew nigh to serve God. Still, although I doubt not of the allusion to the priests, it is quite natural that baptism should have given rise to it. The anointing is not spoken of here-it is the power or privilege of the moral right to draw nigh.
Again, we may notice that as to the foundation of the truth, this is the ground on which Israel will stand in the last days. In Christ, in heaven, will not be their place, nor the possession of the Holy Ghost as uniting the believer to Christ in heaven; but the blessing will be founded on water and on blood. God will remember their sins no more; and they will be washed in the clean water of the Word.
The second exhortation is to persevere in the profession of faith; without wavering. He who made the promises is faithful.
Not only should we have this confidence in God for ourselves, but we -are also to consider one another for mutual encouragement; and, at the same time, not to fail in the public and common profession of faith, pretending to maintain it while avoiding the open identification of oneself with the Lord’s people in the difficulties connected with the profession of this faith before the world. Besides, this public confession had a fresh motive in that the day drew nigh. We see that it is the judgment which is here presented as the thing looked for,-in order that it may act on the conscience, and guard Christians from turning back to the world, and from the influence of the fear of man,-rather than the Lord’s coming to take up His own people. Ver. 26 is connected with the preceding paragraph (23-25), the last words of which suggest the warning of ver. 26; which is founded, moreover, on the doctrine of these two chapters (9 and 10), with regard to the sacrifice. He insists on perseverance in a full confession of Christ, for His one Sacrifice once offered was the only one. If any one who had professed to know its value abandoned it, there was no other sacrifice to which he could have recourse; neither could it be ever repeated. There remained no more sacrifice for sin. All sin was pardoned by the efficacy of this sacrifice: but if, after having known the truth, they were to choose sin instead, there was no other sacrifice, by virtue even of the perfection of that of Christ. Nothing but judgment remained. Such a. professor, having had the knowledge of the truth and having abandoned it, would assume the character of an adversary.
The case, then, here supposed is the renunciation of the confession of Christ; deliberately preferring - after having known the truth - to walk according to one’s own will in sin. This is evident, both from that which precedes and from ver. 29.
Thus we have the two great privileges of Christianity, that which distinguishes it from Judaism, presented in order to warn those who made profession of the former, that the renunciation of the truth, after having enjoyed these advantages, was fatal; for if this means of salvation were renounced, there was no other. These privileges were the manifested presence and power of the Holy Ghost, and the Offering which, by its intrinsic and absolute value, left no place for any other. Both of these possessed a mighty efficacy which, while it gave divine spring and force, the manifestation of the presence of God on the one hand; made known on the other hand the eternal redemption and the perfection of the worshipper; leaving no means for repentance if any one abandoned the manifested and known power of that presence, no place for another sacrifice (which, moreover, would have denied the efficacy of the first), after the perfect work of God in salvation, perfect whether with regard to redemption or to the presence of God by the Spirit in the midst of His own. Nothing remained but judgment.
They who despised the law of Moses, died without mercy. What then would not those deserve at the hand of God, who trod under foot the Son of God, counted the blood of the Covenant by which they had been sanctified, as a common thing, and done despite to the Spirit of Grace. It was not disobedience; it was contempt of the grace of God, and of that which He had done, in the person of Jesus, in order to deliver us from the consequences of disobedience. On the one hand, what was there left, if-with the knowledge of what it was-they renounced this? On the other hand, how could they escape judgment; for they knew a God who had said that vengeance belonged unto Him, and that He would recompense? And again, the Lord would judge His people.
Observe here the way in which sanctification is attributed to the blood: and also, that professors are treated as belonging to the people. The Blood, received by faith, consecrates the soul to God; but it is here viewed also as an outward means for setting apart the people, as a people. Every individual who had owned Jesus to be the Messiah, and the blood to be the seal and foundation of an everlasting Covenant, available for eternal cleansing and redemption on the part of God, acknowledging himself to be set apart for God, by this means, as one of the people-every such individual would, if he renounced it, renounce it as snail; and there was no other way of sanctifying him. The former system had evidently lost its power for him, and the true one he had abandoned. This is the reason why it is said, "having received the knowledge of the truth."
Nevertheless, he hopes better things, reminding them how much they had really suffered for the truth, and that they had even received joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had a better and an abiding portion in heaven. Therefore they were not to cast away. their confidence, the reward of which would be great. For, in truth, they needed patience, in order that after having done the will of God they might receive the effect of the promise. And He who is to come, will come soon.
It is to this life of patience and perseverance that the chapter applies. But there is a principle which is the strength of this life, and which characterizes it. In the midst of the difficulties of the Christian walk, the just shall live by faith; and if any one draws back, God will have no pleasure in him. But, says the author, placing himself, as ever, in the midst of the believers, “We are not of them who draw back, but of them that believe unto the saving of the soul." Thereupon he describes the action of this faith, encouraging believers by the example of the elders who had acquired their renown by walking according to the same principle as that by which the faithful were now called to walk.