First of all, it is love that calls us to the path that Christ trod; next, it is love that chastens us. The real presumption, therefore, is to pretend to be a Christian, and yet to doubt the primary fundamental truth of Christianity as to this. You are to be one with God and if you then go out and sin you are making God a partner in your sin. And to this the Holy Spirit is our witness, for after he has said: "This is the covenant I will make with them after these days, says the Lord. 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." THE ONLY TRUE SACRIFICE ( Hebrews 10:1-10 ). Thus the Pentateuch and the Psalms bore their double testimony to a Priest superior to the Aaronic. In their own persons; they were made gazing-stocks, spectacles to the world, angels, and men, 1 Corinthians 4:9. It seemed as if everything went against them. It is told that in the days of the Hitler terror there was a man in Germany who was arrested, tried, tortured and put into a concentration camp. Christianity does not demand the impossible; but if we were always as honest, as kind, as courageous, as courteous as we can be, life would be transformed. 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. He is my peace. The context of the New Testament, and the book of Hebrews, indicates that salvation cannot be lost (John 10:28-29). For although outwardly, no doubt, the prosperity lasted in the time of Solomon, it was mainly the fruit of David's suffering, and power, and glory. If life is only a day to day doing of the routine things, we may well sink into a policy of drift; but if we are on the way to heaven's crown, effort must always be at full pitch. 65:17, Isaiah 66:22, -2 Peter 3:1024 -Revelation 21:13, 1-7) to live with them (Hebrews 4:1-9, Hebrews 12:2 -24), in all eternity in peace, love, and joy. Hence, therefore, he now introduces us "to the spirits of just men made perfect." Hebrews 10:3,4,11-18 Choose a verse from 'Hebrews 10' to begin your 'Verse-by-Verse' study of God's Word using the more than 100 commentaries available on StudyLight.org. The first way to the tree of life is, and has been, long shut up. You're trying to bargain with God or come to God on your terms, and it can't be done. There are certain surroundings which indicate to the competent eye when the word "covenant" is right and when the word "testament" is better. So hold fast this profession of faith. If, therefore, when you find the word "testament" anywhere else in the authorized version, you turn it into "covenant" in my opinion you will not do amiss. It is not implied that they may not sin, or that they have no consciousness of their failure, either past or present. The millennial day will see this. (2.) There are congregations which are as much clubs as they are churches. 3. And there is no further sacrifice that can be offered, of a goat or a lamb or a calf or anything else. A man might be able to direct an enquirer to Buckingham Palace and yet be very far from having the right to take him into the presence of the Queen; but Jesus can take us the whole way. It was, parabolically, like that of Christ himself. Instead he exhorted his readers to endure rather than apostatize. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses he that is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. It is quite evident, on the contrary, that this is not only not the truth which all recognize when stated, but altogether inconsistent with the Bible, with all books, and with all experience. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.". Although the blood on which that covenant was founded may be now long shed, when the covenant comes into force for them will it not be as fresh as the day the precious Victim died and shed His blood? Showing that it did not bring that to them under the old covenant, however, the glorious thing is that in this new covenant through Jesus Christ, once being purged, we really should not have any more consciousness of sins. (iii) Sin is the insult to the Holy Spirit. And during the night the tigers, drawn by the scent of human flesh, would come and devour the victims. The writer to the Hebrews now comes to the practical implication of all that he has been saying. How is it that anybody ordinarily gets an inheritance? They would not even recognize them on the street as existing. 38 And my righteous ones will live by faith. Now notice the law was only a shadow of the good things to come. He honours the work of Christ, according to His estimate of its efficacy, as it is only according to His counsels about us for Christ's glory. Thus you see, either corrupt passion on the one hand or profanity on the other, are unsparingly condemned by the grace of God. And what is its distinctive character as here introduced? For you have need of patience, and after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. Christianity is stamped by this, that, in virtue of the blood of Christ, once for all for every believer the way is made manifest into the holiest of all. "It's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God.". V. Having mentioned these means of establishment, the apostle proceeds, in the close of the chapter, to enforce his exhortations to perseverance, and against apostasy, by many very weighty considerations, Hebrews 10:26; Hebrews 10:27, c. 1. Now is it an axiom, that a covenant-maker must die to give it force? such power and prosperity as, was never reached again. These things were only foreshadowing His coming. He says that patience is necessary, not only because we have to endure to the end, but as Satan has innumerable arts by which he harasses us; and hence except we possess extraordinary patience, we shall a thousand times be broken down before we come to the half of our course. Thus the only time when he comes into notice he is acting in the double capacity here spoken of: King of righteousness as to his name, King of Salem as to his place, blessing Abraham on his return from the victory over the kings of the Gentiles in the name of the Most High God, and blessing the Most High God the possessor of heaven earth in the name of Abraham. The motive or reason enforcing this duty: He is faithful that hath promised. with Him in this place of nearness. David cried out, "Oh how happy is the man whose transgressions are forgiven. This We Know to Be the Carnal Israel: Circumcision and the Erotic Life of God and Israel (Critical Inquiry 18). as well as done by him, extraordinary. (1.) But having looked up to Him who is above all, he speaks of the highest group next to God in His judicial character, namely, the Old Testament saints. 10:1-10 Because the law is only a pale shadow of the blessings which are to come and not a real image of these things, it can never really fit for the fellowship of God those who seek to draw near to his presence with the sacrifices which have to be brought year by year and which go on for ever. God furnishes the grace; you must exercise it. "And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better." He took himself and said to God: "Do with me as you will." In establishing of the new covenant, He has put away the first. At the end of the day it is not all one for the good and the bad man alike. Because Christians are a heavenly people, and none but a heavenly Priest would suit them. Attention is drawn to the permanence of His position at the right hand of God. The writer to the Hebrews has this horror of sin for two reasons. Partly, while you were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, while you became companions of them that were so used ( Hebrews 10:33 ). As in chapter 6 he declares that he is persuaded better things of them, than that they would abandon the Holy Ghost; so here he expected better things than that they would thus dishonour the sacrifice of Christ In that case, he says, God was not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love; in this case, he lets them know that he had not forgotten the way in which they had suffered for Christ. This new covenant is predicated upon the promises of God, and God is faithful who has made these promises to you. Let men who can see only look there, and what will be found? He has shown its the symbolic mount Of grace in Zion, contrasted with Sinai the mountain of law. Now the just shall live by faith: and if any man draw back, [God said] my soul shall have no pleasure in them. But the apostle lets them know that if they understood their true blessing, this was the very part of it that was inseparably bound up with their present nearness to God, as set forth typically by the central and most important rite of the Jewish system. Accordingly it is shown that such an one becomes an adversary of the Lord, and God will deal with him as such. THE THREAT AT THE HEART OF THINGS ( Hebrews 10:26-31 ). In the priestly ritual, the holy things were cleansed by being sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifices. Our writer goes further--he says that all they are is a reminder of sin. Which door? He presses them to perseverance by putting them in mind of their former sufferings for Christ: But call to mind the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions,Hebrews 10:32; Hebrews 10:32. 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 ). ( Hebrews 10:1) The law as boldly used here indicates that it is not merely certain types of offering and sacrifices, or selected regulations concerning priests, nor some limited portion of the old covenant that was abrogated by Christ, but the entire system. Then we have the other patriarchs introduced, yet chiefly as regards earthly hopes, but not apart from resurrection, and its connection with the people of God here below. ], "The safeguard against degeneration, isolation, and consequent failure is to make progress in the Christian life, and to proceed from point to point from an elementary to the richest, fullest, deepest experience." He is showing us the efficacy of Christ's death. And here we are favoured with a magnificent picture of Christianity in contrast with Judaism. Now the apostle, having given this general account of the way by which we have access to God, enters further into the particulars of it, Hebrews 10:20; Hebrews 10:20. Again, she was brought to trial and now the verdict was to be given. Reason is ever drawing conclusions; God is, and reveals what is. God then has provided some better thing for us. 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." Peter said, "God is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. It is evident that in these we have the two main parts of Christianity. 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. The Hebrews were Jews in Palestine who had got converted upon the preaching of the apostles. "This is the covenant," says he, "that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. There is no man who can live the Christian life and neglect the fellowship of the Church. If they were Abraham's children, and not his seed only, surely they would honour Him. For ye have need of patience - They were then suffering, and in all trials we have need of patience. Thus distinctly have we set before us the general doctrine of the chapter, that Christ has suffered but once, and has been offered but once; that the offering cannot be severed from the suffering. This was the very thing that these Jewish Christians were shrinking, from, if not rebelling against. In the Hebrew, kophar, which is translated atonement. But if so, He was the Priest after the order of Melchisedec, as well as seated at Jehovah's right hand a cardinal truth of Christianity, the import of which the Jews did not receive in their conception of the Messiah. To help their patience, he assures them of the near approach of Christ's coming to deliver and to reward them (Hebrews 10:37; Hebrews 10:37): For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Hey, you're not calling the shots! (1.) God brings forward His choice, David, when the miserable end of Saul and Jonathan saw the Philistines triumphant, and Israel disheartened as they had scarce been beyond that moment. The apostle now resumes his great theme, Christ called a Priest of God for ever after the order of Melchisedec. His answer is that condemnation must necessarily follow, "and so much the more because thou hast read this book." 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