279.]. The discovery broke him and he died. The intention here was not to dwell either on the scene in which their waiting was put to the test, the wilderness, or on anything that could insinuate the settled position of Israel in the land. "The juxtaposition of Hebrews 10:26-35 suggests that it may have been the experience of suffering, abuse, and loss in the world that motivated the desertion of the community acknowledged in Hebrews 10:25 and a general tendency to avoid contact with outsiders observed elsewhere in Hebrews (see . The second was the trespass offering where I had deliberately trespassed against the law of God. By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." Endurance is essential, since there must always be some waiting time before a promise can be fulfilled. The Consecrated Way; Cautions against Apostasy; Perseverance Inculcated. All through this, one thing comes out. The letter of Hebrews was written to answer just that question. It is perfectly true that, if we think of Christ, He was here below absolutely without sin; but He who was without sin in His person, and all His life, had everything to do with sin on the cross, when God made Him to be sin for us. That is often true of Christian life. The first way to the tree of life is, and has been, long shut up. If they reject him, they can expect only judgment (26-27). III. You have sown a lot of happiness that way." On the other hand, if the medicine is ineffective, every time he looks at the bottle he will be reminded that he is ill and that the recommended cure was useless. That is to say, God is owned in His glory, as Creator of all by His word. He presses them to persevere, from that recompense of reward that waited for all faithful Christians (Hebrews 10:35; Hebrews 10:35): Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. "Your identification with Christianity really cost you a lot," and it did. (4.) They were the only ones that used the Hebrew language. Therefore it is well to stand clear of all men's schemes and thoughts, ever rising up more and more presumptuously, because they mainly consist of some slight in one way or another on the word of God. [Note: Morris, pp. A simple word of scripture settles a thousand questions. This leads to another point; for the change of the priesthood imports a change of the law. As, 1. For the law maketh men priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath which was since the law, a Son perfected (or consecrated) for ever." At the end of the day it is not all one for the good and the bad man alike. Of how much worse punishment, do you think, that man will be deemed worthy who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, who has failed to regard the blood of the new covenant, with which he was made fit for God's presence, as a sacred thing, and who has insulted the Spirit through whom God's grace comes to us? This new covenant is predicated upon the promises of God, and God is faithful who has made these promises to you. Christians are one body, are animated by one spirit, have embarked in one common cause and interest, and are the children of that God who is afflicted in all the afflictions of his people. There remains no more sacrifice for such sins, no other Christ to come to save such sinners; they sin against the last resort and remedy. There is nothing more simple; at the same time it is just one of those questions that God has answered, and this so as to settle the mind perfectly, and fill the heart with praise. [3.] 1. He could know nothing of the mystery of the church, Christ's body, nor of her bridal hopes; but he did look for what is called here the "heavenly Jerusalem," that city "whose maker and builder is God." For you gave your sympathy to those in prison; you accepted the pillaging of your goods with joy; for you knew that you yourselves hold a possession which is better and which lasts. Hence in Hebrews we never find the body of Christ as such referred to. 8) but the promise of a land; but when in the land he received the promise of a better country, that is, a heavenly, which raised his eyes to the city on high, in express contrast with the earthly land. He is everything. Totally forgiven through Him, accepting this new covenant that God has established, your sins are completely put away. By their own confession the application of that Psalm was to the Messiah, and the very point that Jesus urged upon the Jews of His day was this how, if He were David's Son, as they agreed, could He be his Lord, as the Psalmist David confesses? - Let us hold fast the confession (, see Hebrews 3:1, and ref. NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hebrews 10:1-10 1For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Here the words "for us" had better be left out. He describes Him thus in His judicial character. He would not accept anymore of these sacrifices. The burnt offerings were offerings of consecration where I would consecrate my life to God. it has been said that a saint is someone in whom Christ stands revealed; we can seek ever to incite others to goodness by showing them Christ. To have enduring faith in trials, remember how God worked in the past (10:32-34). Because the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins ( Hebrews 10:2 ). It is no definition of what it is to believe, but a description of the qualities of faith. And there is no further sacrifice that can be offered, of a goat or a lamb or a calf or anything else. Then comes a second exhortation as to their guides, or leading men among the brethren. When the apostle Paul, speaks of "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," he means the scene of future heavenly blessedness; whereas when John speaks of the new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, he means, not where but what we are to be. Of this destruction God gives some notorious sinners, while on earth, a fearful foreboding in their own consciences, a dreadful looking for it, with a despair of ever being able either to endure or escape it. To make his point and to explain what is in his mind, Hebrews takes a quotation from Psalms 40:6-9. The rest of the chapter brings in, accordingly, the closing scene, when the Lord comes to shake everything, and establish that blessed day. They were to leave the dead to bury their dead; and they did so. Hebrews 4:12-16; Hebrews 6:9-20). If life is the road to Christ none can afford to miss it or to stop half-way. It is not implied that they may not sin, or that they have no consciousness of their failure, either past or present. The point there is personal glory. In the time we have it is our duty to do all the good we can to all the people we can in all the ways we can. But He that shall come will come and will not tarry. There were some sins under the law for which no sacrifices were provided; but yet if those who committed them did truly repent, though they might not escape temporal death, they might escape eternal destruction; for Christ would come, and make atonement. The Old Testament is all about Jesus Christ. They have access to God, light to direct them, liberty of spirit and of speech to conform to the direction; they have a right to the privilege and a readiness for it, assistance to use and improve it and assurance of acceptance and advantage. There is nothing capricious about the usage. But why should it be "testament" in these two verses alone, and "covenant" in all other places? I am not going to enter into any statement of facts as to this now, but there is no truth in its own place more important than that with which the apostle commences in this chapter, namely, that "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." the sense of the word which had been used before), what would be the aim of the "also?" And yet, their rabbis have determined that to be a Jew and a Christian are mutually exclusive; you cannot be both. 28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? There is no despair in "hope." The end of the chapter reminds us that faith is and it is for we who follow in the footsteps of the faithful men and women of previous ages. that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise: The doing and the receiving Paul speaks of here are in the future, and both require the Christians patience and steadfastness in obedience to the will of God. But whether we look at the heavenly supremacy of Christ over the universe, which is the highest part of the mystery, or at the church associated with Him as His body, composed of both Jew and Gentile, where all distinction is gone, no wit of man ever did or could possibly draw this beforehand from the Old Testament. ", This naturally leads the apostle to bring before them One that never ends "Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." 129.] It is not only that we believe it, but we understand it thereby. But God took care to summon His children outside to abandon the whole system before it was destroyed. Over a month, we're looking at verses 19 to 25. We are brought, then, washed from our sins, to God, and, according to this epistle, into the holiest of all, where He displays Himself. The truth on the contrary is, that there was but one offering and but one suffering of Christ, once for all; in witness of the perfection of which He is gone into the presence of God, there to appear for us. They do not believe that God called all things into being. Perfection cannot be improved upon. 2. Verses 23-25. The sacrifice acceptable to, God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge. It is the purpose of God that man should fellowship with Him. To the writer to the Hebrews the whole business of sacrifice was only a pale copy of what real worship ought to be. But let not the Gentile boast, no less unbelieving no less arrogant, against true Christianity. I mean his sins now; not sin as a principle, but in fact, though it be only for faith. Hebrews 10:23 2 nd "Let Us" [Heb 10:23 KJV] 23 Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith (hope) without wavering; (for he [is] faithful that promised;) Hope is important in the new and better covenant. It would be well if we remembered that, apart from anything else, to go to church is to demonstrate where our loyalty lies. [ k] It endures for ever, because it has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. These characteristics he proves to be really found in Christ Himself. The two extremes, offensive to every lover of the vi media of religious rationalism, must be combined in Christianity and the Christian man, if he is to maintain it unimpaired and pure. He is "minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not of man." They had been mightily supported under their former sufferings; they took their sufferings patiently, and not only so, but joyfully received it from God as a favour and honour conferred upon them that they should be thought worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God." 3. In burnt offerings [the Lord said in Psalms] and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. He goes out, deliberately and knowingly, just at the time of life when a man is most sensitive to the value of a grand sphere of influence, as well as exercise of his powers, wherein, too, he could have ordinarily exerted all in favour of his people. The greater part of the affections of the Christian are drawn out toward our Saviour by all this scene of sin and sorrow through which we are passing on to heaven. I will put my laws upon their hearts; and I will write them upon their minds," he goes on to say: "And I will not remember any more their sins and their breaches of the law." We should lay aside all sinful distrust. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in virtue of the blood of the everlasting covenant, perfect you in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight "through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for the ages of the ages. And so Paul warned the Corinthian believers concerning having a relations with a harlot. (ii) Sin is the failure to see the sacredness of sacred things. He is my sin offerer. The Lord forbid that anything should enfeeble our sense of the value and necessity of such daily grace, There may be that which calls for confusion of face in us, but there is unceasing ground also for thanksgiving and praise, however much we have to humble ourselves in the sight of God. He draws attention to the well-known rites of the atonement day; at any rate, if not of that day exclusively, wherever there was a beast the body of which was burnt without the camp, and the blood carried within the veil. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is witness to us: for after he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their hearts, and their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more ( Hebrews 10:15-17 ). Further, that this Priest was to be a living one, in some most singular manner to be an undying Priest, was made evident beyond question, because in that Psalm it is said, "He testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." "As it is appointed unto men once to die," wages of sin, though not all, "but after this the judgment," or the full wages of sin, "so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;" this He has finished; "and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." You're in no position to call the shots. But the bodies of those beasts were burnt without the camp: my place, so far as I in the body am concerned, is one of shame and suffering in this world. God was going openly to set aside the Jewish system, as it had already been judged morally in the cross of Christ. It is no longer effective. He is faithful to us-ward, he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" ( 2 Peter 3:9 ). But even the apostle felt his own need of the prayers of the faithful, not because he had gone wrong, but because he was conscious of no hindrance to his work from a had conscience. The sin here mentioned is a total and final apostasy, when men with a full and fixed will and resolution despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour,--despise and resist the Spirit, the only sanctifier,--and despise and renounce the gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life; and all this after they have known, owned, and professed, the Christian religion, and continue to do so obstinately and maliciously. For why should there be a new covenant, unless because the first was faulty or ineffectual! If you have and prize one alone, you have only got the half of Christianity yea, of its foundations. Jesus said, "In your patience, ye shall possess your souls" (Luke 21:19). Click to Sign Up Now! In essence the meaning is the same. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God ( Hebrews 10:30-31 ). But now those under the gospel who will not accept of Christ, that they may be saved by him, have no other refuge left them. He followed his exposition of Jesus Christs superior high priestly ministry (Hebrews 6:13 to Hebrews 10:18) with exhortation, another stern warning against apostatizing, and an encouragement to remain faithful to the Lord (Hebrews 10:19-39). Every one can understand, when once we find that the word means almost always covenant," how great the temptation is to translate it so in but two other occurrences, especially as before and after it means "covenant" in the same passage. 2. This, however, only by the way. It is Jesus Christ and him crucified for the forgiveness of sins who will save those who believe and repent, and who will return again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Let us then seek to combine these two things perfect nearness to God, and the place of utter scorn in the presence of man. as He will appear to the salvation of His own people. Our bodies washed with pure water, that is, with the water of baptism (by which we are recorded among the disciples of Christ, members of his mystical body), or with the sanctifying virtue of the Holy Spirit, reforming and regulating our outward conversation as well as our inward frame, cleansing from the filthiness of the flesh as well as of the spirit. Then he shows us others higher than these, by a divine call "and to the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven." He abolishes the kind of offerings referred to in the first quotation in order to establish the kind of offering referred to in the second. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. The word he uses is skia ( G4639) , the Greek for a shadow, and it means a nebulous reflection, a mere silhouette, a form without reality. Had they been taunted with having no altar, possessing nothing so holy and so glorious in its associations? She recognized him to be the prince, her husband that she had betrayed. We hold this in the face of difficulties, doubts, and discouragements. Christianity turns everything to account. "Let us go forth therefore unto him without the. Nothing can be more admirable than this reserve of God. He is suddenly ushered upon the scene. They may enter into the gracious presence of God in his holy oracles, ordinances, providences, and covenant, and so into communion with God, where they receive communications from him, till they are prepared to enter into his glorious presence in heaven. For ye have need of patience - They were then suffering, and in all trials we have need of patience. 39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Jesus' flesh is what veiled his godhead. "Remember the things that you endured because of your faith in Jesus Christ.". He alludes to several facts, but leaves them. He will submit to the discipline of training because of the end in view. (3.) "God, I'll do this for You if You'll do this, this and this." If you say," For where a covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of the covenanter" the person. Perseverance is one of the great unromantic virtues. Impossible to rise higher than the Highest, whence therefore the apostle descends, to consequences. From henceforth [or from now on] just waiting until his enemies be made his footstool. He says that these things are a pale shadow. Satan craftily suggests every kind of trouble in order to discourage us. If one lives by faith during times of duress, then he will receive reward from God. If we know His perfect love and the wisdom of it, we have the best answer to silence every murmuring thought or wish of the heart. Hannibal of Carthage was the one general who had routed the Roman legions. He presses the fact of a new principle, as well as an institution established on better promises, upon the Jews. Christ with Belial and all." None but the Old Testament saints, as a class, can all be in the separate state: not the church, or New Testament saints, for we shall not all sleep; nor the millennial saints, for none of them will die. The veil is rent: the believer can draw near, as is shown in the next chapter; but meanwhile it is merely pointed out that there is no veil now, eternal redemption being obtained. It ( ) means "testament" as well as "covenant." Here, it is plain, we have the chief lineaments of revealed truth. Here's a letter to help them keep going. Accordingly we have the third use of the seat Christ has taken. But this time is not yet come. Thus another and a higher priesthood was incontestably acknowledged by the father of the faithful. To those who believe this he will be precious. Not Yet a Member? What had immediately preceded this, The cross. . He may have friends who have no use for that kind of thing and may fear their criticism and contempt. He took himself and said to God: "Do with me as you will." There is an appointed time for both, and beyond that time he will not tarry, Habakkuk 2:3. None but a heavenly Priest would suffice for the counsels He has in hand. "Ye are come unto mount Zion," which was the highest Old Testament point of grace on earth. We have just the fact of their passing through the Red sea, and no more; as we have the fall of Jericho, and no more. There are types that suit the mystery when it is revealed, but of themselves they never could make it known, though illustrating particular parts when it is. He will soon come to them at death, and put an end to all their sufferings, and give them a crown of life. Let them not throw it away. Finally, on the third day the news went out that the prince has passed the crisis and would live. Many are the troubles of the righteous. The apostle is dealing with the saints as to their walk; and as he had shown how Christ alone had purged the sins of the believer, and how He is on high, as the Priest in the presence of God, to intercede for them in their weakness and dangers; so now, when he is come to the question of the walk of faith, Christ is the leader of that, walk. For we know who it was who said: "Vengeance belongs to me; it is I who will repay," and again: "The Lord will judge his people." By that hope, then, "we draw nigh unto God. The term "patience" (hupomone) means "steadfastness, constancy, endurance" (Thayer 644). Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Then we hear of "Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant" the pledge of Israel's full and changeless blessing. ], "What they had endured for Christs sake entitled them to a reward. From this practical lessons of great value are drawn. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 10:26-31 For, if we deliberately sin after we have received full knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sin is left. The foundation is sacrifice; the Power is of the Holy Ghost. (a) It could not be repeated. So little was it a question, that our Lord could appeal to its acknowledged meaning, and press the difficulty His person created for unbelief. With the attribute of true patience, not only can one overcome spiritual afflictions but he can also experience these troubled times with joy. For three days he hovered between life and death. of God, rather than burnt offerings." It is an enduring substance, it will out-live time and run parallel with eternity; they can never spend it; their enemies can never take it from them, as they did their earthly goods. It would be death to attempt to come to God in the way of the covenant of works; but this way we may come to God, and live. Whether or not we still do, we must realize that no man knows when the summons to rise and go will come to him also. God can strengthen his suffering people with all might in the inner man, to all patience and long-suffering, and that with joyfulness, Colossians 1:11. They must draw near in conformity to God, and communion with him, living under his blessed influence, still endeavouring to get nearer and nearer, till they come to dwell in his presence but they must see to it that they make their approach to God after a right manner. Verse 39. He that possesses the one must not eschew the other. "Promise" (epaggelia) refers to "the blessing promised by my Father" (Thayer 227), that is, eternal life in heaven with all the blessings associated with it. It is not mere rebelliousness against law; it is the wounding of love. In truth, the substratum was the same, and therefore it was not only quite lawful so to call it, but if he had not, the design would have been marred. Boldness to enter into the holiest. So far from purifying a man, they remind him that he is not purified and that his sins still stand between him and God. He has set His mind upon making us, patterns of His holiness. By His one offering we have been perfected forever. The death of Christ is sufficient once and for all. This supposes the people of God not actually settled in the land, but still pilgrims and strangers on the earth; and the epistle to the Hebrews, we have already seen, looks emphatically and exclusively at the people of God as not yet passed out of the wilderness; never as brought into the land, though it might be on the verge; just entering, but not actually entered. In that day it will be the joy of Him who is the true Melchisedec, to bring out not the mere signs, but the reality of all that can be the stay and comfort of man, and all that sustains and cheers, the patent proof of the beneficent might of God, when "no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.". There were some amongst those to whom the writer of the Hebrews was writing who had abandoned the habit of meeting together. After the people had been tried and found wanting; after the priests had wrought, if possible, greater corruption; after the king of Israel's choice had reduced them to the lowest degradation. In other cases the epistle to the Hebrews speaks of sanctification by God's call, and Christ's blood. It became us to have a Priest, "holy, harmless, undefiled, made higher than the heavens.". From the methods of divine justice with those who despised Moses's law, that is, sinned presumptuously, despising his authority, his threatenings and his power. As the result of enduring the cross, having despised the shame, the word for sitting down here has a remarkably beautiful shade of meaning different from what is given in all the other occurrences. Such has been the usual form in all countries not savage, and in all ages. The Full Assurance of Faith. "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Sinful man cannot be one with a holy God.Paul, writing to the Corinthians, who lived in that city that was so debauched, that the word Corinthian became a synonym for a totally debauched person. He encourages them to this by assuring them that the reward of their holy confidence would be very great. He may be ashamed to be seen going to church. All within the kingdom rejoiced.In the meantime, the princess had again been incarcerated because the court's judgment had not been executed. On these things I need not now dwell farther than to characterize all, from Abraham inclusively, as the patience of faith. I hope that you and I, who have met with great trials already, and have been supported under them by the grace of God strengthening our faith, shall not be at any time left to ourselves to draw back to perdition; but that God will still keep us by his mighty power through faith unto salvation." He has been proved to be a divine person, and the true royal priest of whom not Aaron only but Melchisedec was the type. He uses in the most skilful manner the change of the priest, in order to bring along with it a change of the law, the whole Levitical system passing away "but [there is] the bringing in of a better hope." There were five offerings that were made in the Old Testament. (196) Or, patient waiting, as rendered by Erasmus and Stuart, and not perseverance, as rendered by Macknight.
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