CHAPTER 10

Heb 10:1–39. Conclusion of the Foregoing Argument. The Yearly Recurring Law Sacrifices Cannot Perfect the Worshipper, but Christ’s Once-for-all Offering Can.

Instead of the daily ministry of the Levitical priests, Christ’s service is perfected by the one sacrifice, whence He now sits on the right hand of God as a Priest-King, until all His foes shall be subdued unto Him. Thus the new covenant (Heb 8:8–12) is inaugurated, whereby the law is written on the heart, so that an offering for sin is needed no more. Wherefore we ought to draw near the Holiest in firm faith and love; fearful of the awful results of apostasy; looking for the recompense to be given at Christ’s coming.

1. Previously the oneness of Christ’s offering was shown; now is shown its perfection as contrasted with the law sacrifices.

having—inasmuch as it has but “the shadow, not the very image,” that is, not the exact likeness, reality, and full revelation, such as the Gospel has. The “image” here means the archetype (compare Heb 9:24), the original, solid image [Bengel] realizing to us those heavenly verities, of which the law furnished but a shadowy outline before. Compare 2 Co 3:13, 14, 18; the Gospel is the very setting forth by the Word and Spirit of the heavenly realities themselves, out of which it (the Gospel) is constructed. So Alford. As Christ is “the express image (Greek, ‘impress’) of the Father’s person” (Heb 1:3), so the Gospel is the heavenly verities themselves manifested by revelation—the heavenly very archetype, of which the law was drawn as a sketch, or outline copy (Heb 8:5). The law was a continual process of acted prophecy, proving the divine design that its counterparts should come; and proving the truth of those counterparts when they came. Thus the imperfect and continued expiatory sacrifices before Christ foretend, and now prove, the reality of, Christ’s one perfect antitypical expiation.

good things to come—(Heb 9:11); belonging to “the world (age) to come.” Good things in part made present by faith to the believer, and to be fully realized hereafter in actual and perfect enjoyment. Lessing says, “As Christ’s Church on earth is a prediction of the economy of the future life, so the Old Testament economy is a prediction of the Christian Church.” In relation to the temporal good things of the law, the spiritual and eternal good things of the Gospel are “good things to come.” Col 2:17 calls legal ordinances “the shadow,” and Christ “the body.”

never—at any time (Heb 10:11).

with those sacrifices—rather, “with the same sacrifices.

year by year—This clause in the Greek refers to the whole sentence, not merely to the words “which they the priests offered” (Greek, “offer”). Thus the sense is, not as English Version, but, the law year by year, by the repetition of the same sacrifices, testifies its inability to perfect the worshippers; namely, on the yearly day of atonement. The “daily” sacrifices are referred to, Heb 10:11.

continually—Greek, “continuously,” implying that they offer a toilsome and ineffectual “continuous” round of the “same” atonement-sacrifices recurring “year by year.”

comers thereunto—those so coming unto God, namely, the worshippers (the whole people) coming to God in the person of their representative, the high priest.

perfect—fully meet man’s needs as to justification and sanctification (see on Heb 9:9).

2. For—if the law could, by its sacrifices, have perfected the worshippers.

they—the sacrifices.

once purged—if they were once for all cleansed (Heb 7:27).

conscience—“consciousness of sin” (Heb 9:9).

3. But—so far from those sacrifices ceasing to be offered (Heb 10:2).

in, &c.—in the fact of their being offered, and in the course of their being offered on the day of atonement. Contrast Heb 10:17.

a remembrance—a recalling to mind by the high priest’s confession, on the day of atonement, of the sins both of each past year and of all former years, proving that the expiatory sacrifices of former years were not felt by men’s consciences to have fully atoned for former sins; in fact, the expiation and remission were only legal and typical (Heb 10:4, 11). The Gospel remission, on the contrary, is so complete, that sins are “remembered no more” (Heb 10:17) by God. It is unbelief to “forget” this once-for-all purgation, and to fear on account of “former sins” (2 Pe 1:9). The believer, once for all bathed, needs only to “wash” his hands and “feet” of soils, according as he daily contracts them, in Christ’s blood (Jn 13:10).

4. For, &c.—reason why, necessarily, there is a continually recurring “remembrance of sins” in the legal sacrifices (Heb 10:3). Typically, “the blood of bulls,” &c., sacrificed, had power; but it was only in virtue of the power of the one real antitypical sacrifice of Christ; they had no power in themselves; they were not the instrument of perfect vicarious atonement, but an exhibition of the need of it, suggesting to the faithful Israelite the sure hope of coming redemption, according to God’s promise.

take away—“take off.” The Greek, Heb 10:11, is stronger, explaining the weaker word here, “take away utterly.” The blood of beasts could not take away the sin of man. A man must do that (see on Heb 9:12–14).

5. Christ’s voluntary self offering, in contrast to those inefficient sacrifices, is shown to fulfill perfectly “the will of God” as to our redemption, by completely atoning “for (our) sins.”

Wherefore—seeing that a nobler than animal sacrifices was needed to “take away sins.”

when he cometh—Greek, “coming.” The time referred to is the period before His entrance into the world, when the inefficiency of animal sacrifices for expiation had been proved [Tholuck]. Or, the time is that between Jesus’ first dawning of reason as a child, and the beginning of His public ministry, during which, being ripened in human resolution, He was intently devoting Himself to the doing of His Father’s will [Alford]. But the time of “coming” is present; not “when He had come,” but “when coming into the world”; so, in order to accord with Alford’s view, “the world” must mean His public ministry: when coming, or about to come, into public. The Greek verbs are in the past: “sacrifice … Thou didst not wish, but a body Thou didst prepare for Me”; and, “Lo, I am come.” Therefore, in order to harmonize these times, the present coming, or about to come, with the past, “A body Thou didst prepare for Me,” we must either explain as Alford, or else, if we take the period to be before His actual arrival in the world (the earth) or incarnation, we must explain the past tenses to refer to God’s purpose, which speaks of what He designed from eternity as though it were already fulfilled. “A body Thou didst prepare in Thy eternal counsel.” This seems to me more likely than explaining “coming into the world,” “coming into public,” or entering on His public ministry. David, in the fortieth Psalm (here quoted), reviews his past troubles and God’s having delivered him from them, and his consequent desire to render willing obedience to God as more acceptable than sacrifices; but the Spirit puts into his mouth language finding its partial application to David, and its full realization only in the divine Son of David. “The more any son of man approaches the incarnate Son of God in position, or office, or individual spiritual experience, the more directly may his holy breathings in the power of Christ’s Spirit be taken as utterances of Christ Himself. Of all men, the prophet-king of Israel resembled and foreshadowed Him the most” [Alford].

a body hast thou prepared me—Greek, “Thou didst fit for Me a body.” “In Thy counsels Thou didst determine to make for Me a body, to be given up to death as a sacrificial victim” [Wahl]. In the Hebrew, Ps 40:6, it is “mine ears hast thou opened,” or “dug.” Perhaps this alludes to the custom of boring the ear of a slave who volunteers to remain under his master when he might be free. Christ’s assuming a human body, in obedience to the Father’s will, in order to die the death of a slave (Heb 2:14), was virtually the same act of voluntary submission to service as that of a slave suffering his ear to be bored by his master. His willing obedience to the Father’s will is what is dwelt on as giving especial virtue to His sacrifice (Heb 10:7, 9, 10). The preparing, or fitting of a body for Him, is not with a view to His mere incarnation, but to His expiatory sacrifice (Heb 10:10), as the contrast to “sacrifice and offering” requires; compare also Ro 7:4; Eph 2:16; Col 1:22. More probably “opened mine ears” means opened mine inward ear, so as to be attentively obedient to what God wills me to do, namely, to assume the body He has prepared for me for my sacrifice, so Job 33:16, Margin; Job 36:10 (doubtless the boring of a slave’s “ear” was the symbol of such willing obedience); Is 50:5, The Lord God hath opened mine ear,” that is, made me obediently attentive as a slave to his master. Others somewhat similarly explain, “Mine ears hast thou digged,” or “fashioned,” not with allusion to Ex 21:6, but to the true office of the ear—a willing, submissive attention to the voice of God (Is 50:4, 5). The forming of the ear implies the preparation of the body, that is, the incarnation; this secondary idea, really in the Hebrew, though less prominent, is the one which Paul uses for his argument. In either explanation the idea of Christ taking on Him the form, and becoming obedient as a servant, is implied. As He assumed a body in which to make His self-sacrifice, so ought we present our bodies a living sacrifice (Ro 12:1).

6. burnt offerings—Greek, “whole burnt offerings.”

thou hast had no pleasure—as if these could in themselves atone for sin: God had pleasure in (Greek, “approved,” or “was well pleased with”) them, in so far as they were an act of obedience to His positive command under the Old Testament, but not as having an intrinsic efficacy such as Christ’s sacrifice had. Contrast Mt 3:17.

7. I come—rather, “I am come” (see on Heb 10:5). “Here we have the creed, as it were, of Jesus: ‘I am come to fulfil the law,’ Mt 5:17; to preach, Mk 1:38; to call sinners to repentance, Lu 5:32; to send a sword and to set men at variance, Mt 10:34, 35; I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me, Jn 6:38, 39 (so here, Ps 40:7, 8); I am sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Mt 15:24; I am come into this world for judgment, Jn 9:39; I am come that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly, Jn 10:10; to save what had been lost, Mt 18:11; to seek and to save that which was lost, Lu 19:10; compare 1 Ti 1:15; to save men’s lives, Lu 9:56; to send fire on the earth, Lu 12:49; to minister, Mt 20:28; as “the Light,” Jn 12:46; to bear witness unto the truth, Jn 18:37. See, reader, that thy Saviour obtain what He aimed at in thy case. Moreover, do thou for thy part say, why thou art come here? Dost thou, then, also, do the will of God? From what time? and in what way?” [Bengel]. When the two goats on the day of atonement were presented before the Lord, that goat on which the lot of the Lord should fall was to be offered as a sin offering; and that lot was lifted up on high in the hand of the high priest, and then laid upon the head of the goat which was to die; so the hand of God determined all that was done to Christ. Besides the covenant of God with man through Christ’s blood, there was another covenant made by the Father with the Son from eternity. The condition was, “If He shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed,” &c. (Is 53:10). The Son accepted the condition, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” [Bishop Pearson]. Oblation, intercession, and benediction, are His three priestly offices.

in the volume, &c.—literally, “the roll”: the parchment manuscript being wrapped around a cylinder headed with knobs. Here, the Scripture “volume” meant is the fortieth Psalm. “By this very passage ‘written of Me,’ I undertake to do Thy will [namely, that I should die for the sins of the world, in order that all who believe may be saved, not by animal sacrifices, Heb 10:6, but by My death].” This is the written contract of Messiah (compare Ne 9:38), whereby He engaged to be our surety. So complete is the inspiration of all that is written, so great the authority of the Psalms, that what David says is really what Christ then and there said.

8. he—Christ.

Sacrifice, &c.—The oldest manuscripts read, “Sacrifices and offerings” (plural). This verse combines the two clauses previously quoted distinctly, Heb 10:5, 6, in contrast to the sacrifice of Christ with which God was well pleased.

9. Then said he—“At that time (namely, when speaking by David’s mouth in the fortieth Psalm) He hath said.” The rejection of the legal sacrifices involves, as its concomitant, the voluntary offer of Jesus to make the self-sacrifice with which God is well pleased (for, indeed, it was God’s own “will” that He came to do in offering it: so that this sacrifice could not but be well pleasing to God).

I come—“I am come.”

taketh away—“sets aside the first,” namely, “the legal system of sacrifices” which God wills not.

the second—“the will of God” (Heb 10:7, 9) that Christ should redeem us by His self-sacrifice.

10. By—Greek, “In.” So “in,” and “through,” occur in the same sentence, 1 Pe 1:22, “Ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.” Also, 1 Pe 1:5, in the Greek. The “in (fulfilment of) which will” (compare the use of in, Eph 1:6, “wherein [in which grace] He hath made us accepted, in the Beloved”), expresses the originating cause; “through the offering … of Christ,” the instrumental or mediatory cause. The whole work of redemption flows from “the will” of God the Father, as the First Cause, who decreed redemption from before the foundation of the world. The “will” here (boulema) is His absolute sovereign will. His “good will” (eudokia) is a particular aspect of it.

are sanctified—once for all, and as our permanent state (so the Greek). It is the finished work of Christ in having sanctified us (that is, having translated us from a state of unholy alienation into a state of consecration to God, having “no more conscience of sin,” Heb 10:2) once for all and permanently, not the process of gradual sanctification, which is here referred to.

the body—“prepared” for Him by the Father (Heb 10:5). As the atonement, or reconciliation, is by the blood of Christ (Le 17:11), so our sanctification (consecration to God, holiness and eternal bliss) is by the body of Christ (Col 1:22). Alford quotes the Book of Common Prayer Communion Service, “that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls washed through His most precious blood.”

once for all—(Heb 7:27).

11. And—a new point of contrast; the frequent repetition of the sacrifices.

priest—The oldest manuscripts read, “high priest.” Though he did not in person stand “daily” offering sacrifices, he did so by the subordinate priests of whom, as well as of all Israel, he was the representative head. So “daily” is applied to the high priests (Heb 7:27).

standeth—the attitude of one ministering; in contrast to “sat down on the right hand of God,” Heb 10:12, said of Christ; the posture of one being ministered to as a king.

which—Greek, “the which,” that is, of such a kind as.

take away—utterly; literally, “strip off all round.” Legal sacrifices might, in part, produce the sense of forgiveness, yet scarcely even that (see on Heb 10:4); but entirely to strip off one’s guilt they never could.

12. this man—emphatic (Heb 3:3).

for ever—joined in English Version with “offered one sacrifice”; offered one sacrifice, the efficacy of which endures for ever; literally. “continuously,” (compare Heb 10:14). “The offering of Christ, once for all made, will continue the one and only oblation for ever; no other will supersede it” [Bengel]. The mass, which professes to be the frequent repetition of one and the same sacrifice of Christ’s body, is hence disproved. For not only is Christ’s body one, but also His offering is one, and that inseparable from His suffering (Heb 9:26). The mass would be much the same as the Jewish sacrifices which Paul sets aside as abrogated, for they were anticipations of the one sacrifice, just as Rome makes masses continuations of it, in opposition to Paul’s argument. A repetition would imply that the former once-for-all offering of the one sacrifice was imperfect, and so would be dishonoring to it (Heb 10:2, 18). Heb 10:14, on the contrary, says, “He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” If Christ offered Himself at the last supper, then He offered Himself again on the cross, and there would be two offerings; but Paul says there was only one, once for all. Compare Note, see on Heb 9:26. English Version is favored by the usage in this Epistle, of putting the Greek “for ever” after that which it qualifies. Also, “one sacrifice for ever,” stands in contrast to “the same sacrifices oftentimes” (Heb 10:11). Also, 1 Co 15:25, 28, agrees with Heb 10:12, 13, taken as English Version, not joining, as Alford does, “for ever” with “sat down,” for Jesus is to give up the mediatorial throne “when all things shall be subdued unto Him,” and not to sit on it for ever.

13. expecting—“waiting.” Awaiting the execution of His Father’s will, that all His foes should be subjected to Him. The Son waits till the Father shall “send Him forth to triumph over all His foes.” He is now sitting at rest (Heb 10:12), invisibly reigning, and having His foes virtually, by right of His death, subject to Him. His present sitting on the unseen throne is a necessary preliminary to His coming forth to subject His foes openly. He shall then come forth to a visibly manifested kingdom and conquest over His foes. Thus He fulfils Ps 110:1. This agrees with 1 Co 15:23–28. He is, by His Spirit and His providence, now subjecting His foes to Him in part (Ps 110:1–7). The subjection of His foes fully shall be at His second advent, and from that time to the general judgment (Rev 19:1–20:15); then comes the subjection of Himself as Head of the Church to the Father (the mediatorial economy ceasing when its end shall have been accomplished), that God may be all in all. Eastern conquerors used to tread on the necks of the vanquished, as Joshua did to the five kings. So Christ’s total and absolute conquest at His coming is symbolized.

be made his footstool—literally, “be placed (rendered) footstool of His feet.”

his enemies—Satan and Death, whose strength consists in “sin”; this being taken away (Heb 10:12), the power of the foes is taken away, and their destruction necessarily follows.

14. For—The sacrifice being “for ever” in its efficacy (Heb 10:12) needs no renewal.

them that are sanctified—rather as Greek, “them that are being sanctified.” The sanctification (consecration to God) of the elect (1 Pe 1:2) believers is perfect in Christ once for all (see on Heb 10:10). (Contrast the law, Heb 7:19; 9:9; 10:1). The development of that sanctification is progressive.

15. The Greek, has “moreover,” or “now.”

is a witness—of the truth which I am setting forth. The Father’s witness is given Heb 5:10. The Son’s, Heb 10:5. Now is added that of the Holy Spirit, called accordingly “the Spirit of grace,” Heb 10:29. The testimony of all Three leads to the same conclusion (Heb 10:18).

for after that he had said before—The conclusion to the sentence is in Heb 10:17, “After He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them (with the house of Israel, Heb 8:10; here extended to the spiritual Israel) … saith the Lord; I will put (literally, ‘giving,’ referring to the giving of the law; not now as then, giving into the hands, but giving) My laws into their hearts (‘mind,’ Heb 8:10) and in their minds (‘hearts,’ Heb 8:10); I will inscribe (so the Greek) them (here He omits the addition quoted in Heb 8:10, 11, I will be to them a God … and they shall not teach every man his neighbor …), and (that is, after He had said the foregoing, He then adds) their sins … will I remember no more.” The great object of the quotation here is to prove that, there being in the Gospel covenant, “remission of sins” (Heb 10:17), there is no more need of a sacrifice for sins. The object of the same quotation in Heb 8:8–13 is to show that, there being a “new covenant,” the old is antiquated.

18. where remission of these is—as there is under the Gospel covenant (Heb 10:17). “Here ends the finale (Heb 10:1–18) of the great tripartite arrangement (Heb 7:1–25; 7:26–9:12; 9:13–10:18) of the middle portion of the Epistle. Its great theme was Christ a High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. What it is to be a high priest after the order of Melchisedec is set forth, Heb 7:1–25, as contrasted with the Aaronic order. That Christ, however, as High Priest, is Aaron’s antitype in the true holy place, by virtue of His self-sacrifice here on earth, and Mediator of a better covenant, whose essential character the old only typified, we learn, Heb 7:26–9:12. And that Christ’s self-sacrifice, offered through the Eternal Spirit, is of everlasting power, as contrasted with the unavailing cycle of legal offerings, is established in the third part, Heb 9:13–10:18; the first half of this last portion [Heb 9:13–28], showing that both our present possession of salvation, and our future completion of it, are as certain to us as that He is with God, ruling as a Priest and reigning as a King, once more to appear, no more as a bearer of our sins, but in glory as a Judge. The second half, Heb 10:1–18, reiterating the main position of the whole, the High Priesthood of Christ, grounded on His offering of Himself—its kingly character its eternal accomplishment of its end, confirmed by Psalms 40 and 110 and Jeremiah 31” [Delitzsch in Alford].

19. Here begins the third and last division of the Epistle; our duty now while waiting for the Lord’s second advent. Resumption and expansion of the exhortation (Heb 4:14–16; compare Heb 10:22, 23 here) wherewith he closed the first part of the Epistle, preparatory to his great doctrinal argument, beginning at Heb 7:1.

boldness—“free confidence,” grounded on the consciousness that our sins have been forgiven.

to enter—literally, “as regards the entering.”

by—Greek, “in”; it is in the blood of Jesus that our boldness to enter is grounded. Compare Eph 3:12, “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence.” It is His having once for all entered as our Forerunner (Heb 6:20) and High Priest (Heb 10:21), making atonement for us with His blood, which is continually there (Heb 12:24) before God, that gives us confident access. No priestly caste now mediates between the sinner and his Judge. We may come boldly with loving confidence, not with slavish fear, directly through Christ, the only mediating Priest. The minister is not officially nearer God than the layman; nor can the latter serve God at a distance or by deputy, as the natural man would like. Each must come for himself, and all are accepted when they come by the new and living way opened by Christ. Thus all Christians are, in respect to access directly to God, virtually high priests (Rev 1:6). They draw nigh in and through Christ, the only proper High Priest (Heb 7:25).

20. which, &c.—The antecedent in the Greek is “the entering”; not as English Version, “way.” Translate, “which (entering) He has consecrated (not as though it were already existing, but has been the first to open, inaugurated as a new thing; see on Heb 9:18, where the Greek is the same) for us (as) a new (Greek, ‘recent’; recently opened, Ro 16:25, 26) and living way” (not like the lifeless way through the law offering of the blood of dead victims, but real, vital, and of perpetual efficacy, because the living and life-giving Saviour is that way. It is a living hope that we have, producing not dead, but living, works). Christ, the first-fruits of our nature, has ascended, and the rest is sanctified thereby. “Christ’s ascension is our promotion; and whither the glory of the Head hath preceded, thither the hope of the body, too, is called” [Leo].

the veil—As the veil had to be passed through in order to enter the holiest place, so the weak, human suffering flesh (Heb 5:7) of Christ’s humanity (which veiled His God head) had to be passed through by Him in entering the heavenly holiest place for us; in putting off His rent flesh, the temple veil, its type, was simultaneously rent from top to bottom (Mt 27:51). Not His body, but His weak suffering flesh, was the veil; His body was the temple (Jn 2:19).

21. high priest—As a different Greek term (archiereus) is used always elsewhere in this Epistle for “high priest,” translate as Greek here, “A Great Priest”; one who is at once King and “Priest on His throne” (Zec 6:13); a royal Priest, and a priestly King.

house of God—the spiritual house, the Church, made up of believers, whose home is heaven, where Jesus now is (Heb 12:22, 23). Thus, by “the house of God,” over which Jesus is, heaven is included in meaning, as well as the Church, whose home it is.

22. (Heb 4:16; 7:19.)

with a true heart—without hypocrisy; “in truth, and with a perfect heart”; a heart thoroughly imbued with “the truth” (Heb 10:26).

full assurance—(Heb 6:11); with no doubt as to our acceptance when coming to God by the blood of Christ. As “faith” occurs here, so “hope,” and “love,” Heb 10:23, 24.

sprinkled from—that is, sprinkled so as to be cleansed from.

evil conscience—a consciousness of guilt unatoned for, and uncleansed away (Heb 10:2; Heb 9:9). Both the hearts and the bodies are cleansed. The legal purifications were with blood of animal victims and with water, and could only cleanse the flesh (Heb 9:13, 21). Christ’s blood purifies the heart and conscience. The Aaronic priest, in entering the holy place, washed with water (Heb 9:19) in the brazen laver. Believers, as priests to God, are once for all washed in BODY (as distinguished from “hearts”) at baptism. As we have an immaterial, and a material nature, the cleansing of both is expressed by “hearts” and “body,” the inner and the outer man; so the whole man, material and immaterial. The baptism of the body, however, is not the mere putting away of material filth, nor an act operating by intrinsic efficacy, but the sacramental seal, applied to the outer man, of a spiritual washing (1 Pe 3:21). “Body” (not merely “flesh,” the carnal part, as 2 Co 7:1) includes the whole material man, which needs cleansing, as being redeemed, as well as the soul. The body, once polluted with sin, is washed, so as to be fitted like Christ’s holy body, and by His body, to be spiritually a pure and living offering. On the “pure water,” the symbol of consecration and sanctification, compare Jn 19:34; 1 Co 6:11; 1 Jn 5:6; Ez 36:25. The perfects “having … hearts sprinkled … body (the Greek is singular) washed,” imply a continuing state produced by a once-for-all accomplished act, namely, our justification by faith through Christ’s blood, and consecration to God, sealed sacramentally by the baptism of our body.

23. (Heb 3:6, 14; 4:14.)

profession—Greek, “confession.”

our faith—rather as Greek, “our hope”; which is indeed faith exercised as to the future inheritance. Hope rests on faith, and at the same time quickens faith, and is the ground of our bold confession (1 Pe 3:15). Hope is similarly (Heb 10:22) connected with purification (1 Jn 3:3).

without wavering—without declension (Heb 3:14), “steadfast unto the end.”

he—God is faithful to His promises (Heb 6:17, 18; 11:11; 1 Co 1:9; 10:13; 1 Th 5:24; 2 Th 3:3; see also Christ’s promise, Jn 12:26); but man is too often unfaithful to his duties.