Chapter 10
The earthly sacrifices would not be repeated if they were effectual. Only in heaven can an effectual sacrifice take place. Only with God, face to face.
2022 - A great verse:
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. [Heb 10:4 ESV]. These sacrifices served as a reminder that they could never accomplish the purpose. Over and over, because they were so ineffective. Anything that continually needs doing - house cleaning, mowing, etc - means that what you are doing is not a permanent solution to the problem. So plain. So easy to understand. But look at this:
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; [Heb 10:5 ESV]
Animal sacrifices, animal blood, just won't do, but God prepared a special body for Christ, a human living body of flesh, the same as the bodies of those condemned by their sin. Only a sacrifice of like for like can atone for sin. Oh my...this is where pagan sacrifices of humans, of children, came from! An incredible perversion of one of God's fundamental truths! It does take a human sacrifice to atone for human sin. But look what Satan made people do by twisting our "general revelatory" gut-level comprehension of what is right and wrong! This is the kind of liar and this is the level of hatred that Satan harbors for mankind. He despises us, he wants to cause us unending pain. Why? Because WE can be forgiven and HE cannot!
Here is a possible FB verse...
2023 - Vss 5-7:
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'" [Heb 10:5-7 ESV]. I don't think I have ever seen these verses as plainly as I see them now. These are quoted from Psa 40:6,7. And it shows that there will be another plan. It shows that the prepared body WILL be desired where the sacrifices and offerings were not. But one is coming who will obey perfectly and this one will delight, satisfy, appease - whatever verb you like. It is clear as day in these verses from Psalms that Jesus was coming to REPLACE the burnt offerings and sacrifices. Equally clear that he is instead of rather than in addition to the Law!
2022 - This one too:
9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. [Heb 10:9 ESV]
He is saying that way back in Psalms, this was the future plan that even the construction and furnishings of the Tent of Meeting pointed to. Christ's purpose, in great measure, was to set aside the inferior Law and substitute his own body for all those ineffectual sacrifices. Leads right into vs 14 below.
This verse:
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. [Heb 10:14 ESV]
2023 - Vss 12-14 are establishing, linking if you will, the crucifixion of Jesus with the Temple sacrifices, and showing that since Jesus' sacrifice was perfect, it need not be repeated. Further, since the animal sacrifices WERE repeated, that proves they were in fact insufficient for the purpose. But Jesus will only die once on the cross, and then he sat down, with his work of redemption complete, and he waits there until his enemies are his footstool.
And this one:
17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. [Heb 10:17-18 ESV]
The sin offering is done. Does this make the sin offering and atonement the same? Since there will still be offerings in the Millennial, which ones are they? Thank offerings, wave offerings? What? Surely a literal reading says no more sin offering.
2022 - Vs 16, 17. I had always believed these verses were about the Millennial, and NOT about those in Christ. But this seems to apply it to the church age generally, rather than the Millennial exclusively. Here are those verses:
16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." [Heb 10:16-17 ESV]
Hard to be sure. MSB says the writer is confirming what he's quoted from Psalms by re-quoting the Jeremiah vss he gave us in Chapter 8. BUT, it says this in 8:
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [Heb 8:10 ESV]
Israel! It definitely specifically says Israel. To whom is Hebrews written? To Hebrews! To Israel! If I persist in saying this is a Millennial promise, does it refute what Hebrews says? No, in no way. Christ's shed blood is sufficient to bring all Israel back to God. But because they rejected him at the time, they were blinded and remain so until the end of the church age. AT WHICH TIME, this prophecy will come true for a great many of them. Yes. I'm sticking with this as a Millennial only, Israel only promise.
2023 - No...the sacrifice was once for ALL, not just for Israel. Perhaps the way to understand it is to keep it in context. This is written to Hebrews, so it is appropriate that Heb 8:10 name them as recipients of this message. But that does not make the effect of Jesus' sacrifice exclusive to the Jews. Our conscience is also cleared when we come to Christ, our sins forgiven, his word put into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and we can all read and understand those things he wants us to understand. He "brings us along", just like what this writer is doing for the Hebrews. The Hebrews can understand, but that doesn't mean they have no need of teaching. This is finally the way to see this. Not exclusive in application, but exclusive in audience.
2025 - The sacrifice was once for all, but the Hebrews are blinded - not forever but for a time. But IN THAT DAY the blindness will go, and like we of the church, he will put a new heart in them. They too will receive the Holy Spirit and they will understand the OT prophecies and the NT fulfillments. This indwelling applies to the saved today - and that means to the church, because all who are saved today are the church - and will apply to Israel when their sight is restored and they return to their God.
2022 - Vs 20 - His body is the curtain. I knew the curtain tore, but had never seen that curtain as symbolic of his body, his death. When the curtain tore - ripped, violently - the Holiest place was no longer insulated. Through the body of Christ, we have direct access to God.
Again. No way man has "fabricated" such an intricately connected plan for mankind. What is wrong with Peterson??? He should be able to see this!
2022 - 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. [Heb 10:22 ESV]. These are the rituals the priests had to go through before entering the Holy place and/or the Holy of Holies. The verse means that we are now priests also, and we can approach the Ark, as they did in those former times. We no longer need those priests, because Christ is our door to the inner sanctuary. Wow. This book just doesn't stop revealing the intricacy of it all.
2022 - This one too:
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, [Heb 10:26 ESV]
If one chooses to remain a Jew under the Law, and necessarily breaks that Law, and commits intentional sin, realize that the Law that used to annually request and receive a stay of execution is no longer available to you. Even if they do the sacrifice, that covenant is no more, and a better - and still exclusive as that one was - is available. This is in no way about saved people continuing to sin after they have been saved. This is not saying that if you are saved, and do enough evil after salvation to "lose" that salvation, that you cannot be saved again. In the context of the book and chapter, that is not the situation being addressed. This is about the New Covenant being the only covenant now. You don't get to choose the covenant that gets you to heaven. There is only one.
2025 - If one hears the gospel, the truth of the New Covenant, and rejects it, there is no longer any reprieve, any delay, and "please wait for another year while I continue willingly and purposely to reject the Son". To die without Christ is to have chosen, deliberately, for one's entire life, the rejection of God's offer of salvation. If one does this, there is nothing left to do. No postmortem sacrifice will save, no baptism for the dead will save, no payment to the church will restore. To die without Christ is to open ones eyes to eternal judgment in hell. This is STILL not about how saved people behave but about those who are given opportunity for repentance and choose instead to continue in sin.
2022 - I don't understand how my previous notes were so brief. Every verse is like a hammer, nailing home irrefutable truth:
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? [Heb 10:29 ESV]
If you, as a Law-abiding Jew, break the Law, then you are condemned by two or three witnesses. And that wasn't a very good covenant because it could accomplish nothing permanent. Breaking a bad covenant would condemn you. But what if you break this New Covenant, which is able to perfect you, which is permanent, and which required the blood of God's own Son? Breaking a bad covenant would condemn you, surely you can expect no mercy at all if you break this one.
2023 - We could use this verse to say that hell is richly deserved by all those who reject Christ, and I believe it does indicate that...but that isn't who the verse is speaking about. It is speaking about those Jews who "hang on" to the Mosaic Law, and continue to follow that covenant, rejecting the grace offered them and the completed once for all sacrifice made for them. It is about the Jews addressed by this letter, but it surely applies - perhaps to a lesser extent - to all who reject Christ. I say lesser because the oracles of God came to the Jews, and their special standing makes them more responsible for understanding what is going on here.
2022 - From 32 on is a sort of pep talk, and seems aimed more now at those who have completely accepted Christ and his completed work. These have already known hardship, have had their goods plundered - likely by unconverted Jews or the Romans. They had already suffered great loss, and it isn't over. This writer is saying that they have come this far with aplomb, and that they must needs continue in faith, to receive what is promised.
2023 - Vss 34-38 may tie into the sheep and goat judgment. It mentions, in vs 34, having compassion on those in prison. These were those being persecuted who had compassion. Hmm...this is stated as if it was in progress at that time...but the sheep and goat is only those still living... At any rate, "those in prison", and then in vss 37, 38 it seems clear that at the time of Jesus' return, there will be reward for the faithful, and "no pleasure" for those who shrink back. It does not imply hell for them, but clearly does imply a lesser reward.....until you read vs 39...
I got it read...but am a long way from understanding it. I need to be very careful what I say about verses in Hebrews, and careful about quoting them to support a position. Fact is, I don't understand most of this book, and would be in great danger of misrepresenting what it really says - real danger of "false teaching".