Hebrews 10:11-18: No More Offering for Sin
2023-04-22
Hebrews 10:11-12
Again, we see the comparison between the Law and Christ. The priests had daily duties that never ceased. There were morning and evening sacrifices. There were rituals and feasts. The candlestick had to be lit. The shewbread needed to be replaced. People came with sin, burnt, and peace offerings. Sin sacrifices were brought, and the sinner stilled sinned and needed more sacrifices. The busyness never stopped for the office of the priest.
But Jesus Christ offered Himself once, and then He sat down at the right hand of God. Note the contrast between the unending busyness of the sons of Aaron and the one-and-done sacrifice and the ensuing rest, namely, the sitting at the right hand.
We never tried to offer an animal sacrifice in our lives. The temple was destroyed long before we were born. But perhaps we have also tried to keep busy in good works to try to earn the favor of God. Perhaps we were even involved in Christian service to redeem ourselves. However, this busyness is unwarranted, as Jesus offered Himself once and settled the matter. To continue in such appeasing service is needless and blasphemous. It is needless because Jesus’s sacrifice was sufficient to cover our sins. It is blasphemous because we say the Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient.
The Lord tells us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are not saved from our own resources, but rather as by God’s gracious gift. Any works we do are from His grace working in us, resulting from Him.
Again, He says, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5). Working to obtain God’s favor and justification is actually debt, not our benefit. It is our loss, not our gain. The one who believes in Christ and rests in His completed work are justified.
We spoke at length about entering into His rest. Why do we enter His rest? Because Jesus has rested. He redeemed us once for all, and then He sat down at the right hand of His Father.
Hebrews 10:13
The Lord Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father, but He is waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. This had not happened at the time of this writing; it is yet future. We spoke previously about what it means to be at God’s right hand; it meant that Jesus was at a place of power and prominence. What does it mean to be at His footstool? Consider the discussion here.
Here in Hebrews 10:13, this is a reference to Psalm 110:1. We spoke about this verse previously. There we suggested the people who would gather together and fight the Lord on His return, namely, the Antichrist’s armies.
I think there is also another aspect of this that we did not discuss then. Consider Revelation 12:1-13. This is the beginning of the second part of Revelation, where the series of events that was discussed in the former chapters are going to be reiterated in these latter chapters. We see the birth of Jesus from the lineage of Israel, using imagery from Joseph’s dream (Genesis 37:9-10). Satan is waiting for the moment when the Lord will be born so that He can destroy Him. This destruction is not final, however. Christ is exalted to heaven.
After a period, Satan will lose his place in heaven. He was thrown out of the highest heaven when He rebelled at the dawn of time. “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). However, the devil still had some access to heaven after that. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them” (Job 1:6). Here in Revelation 12:8-9, we see he loses a major battle against the heavenly host and is confined to that footstool known as earth (Isaiah 66:1). From there, Satan will put his false christ on a throne and build an army for the battle at Armageddon. All this is part of preparing to make Jesus’ enemies His footstool.
Hebrews 10:14
Here we have an explicit statement of the unconditional eternal security for those who are truly sanctified. We previously spoke how to be sanctified is to be set apart for the Lord. Sanctification is both the positional reality for every believer and the process of becoming holy in experience. Those who were sanctified (this is passive, for it was accomplished by the Lord), they are “perfected for ever.” It is not a question of whether we will come to a point where we are no longer perfected. It is a question of whether we were ever sanctified in the first place.
This was secured by Jesus’ single offering. If we had to rely on sacrifices that we continuously brought, of course our confidence would be nought. Because Jesus offered Himself once, we look to someone outside ourselves for our confidence. Any sacrifice they had brought in the Old Testament they would have to offer again. Jesus’ one offering was accepted; therefore, He did not have to do it a second time.
Hebrews 10:15-17
The Holy Spirit is a witness to us of the fact of our sanctification, our perfection, and our new birth. He quotes again Hebrews 8:10, 12 and Jeremiah 31:33, 34. The Law, the desire of God, is written into the hearts and minds of men. This is the new nature and the rebirth. Our desires have changed. We desire to do God’s will and our sin makes us miserable. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22).
According to this new covenant, this new forever-perfecting sanctification from the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice gives us a new heart together with a forgetting of our previous sins. Jesus accomplished all these things for us.
For whatever it is worth, the words “heart” and “mind” are reversed:
I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them (Hebrews 10:16)
I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts (Hebrews 8:10).
I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
It is most important to understand that our most inward being has been changed to desire God and to do His will.
In addition, it is the Spirit that says these things according to Hebrews 8:15, but we know from Jeremiah 31:33 that it is the LORD Jehovah speaking. “After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts...” We again verify the Deity of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s authorship of the Words found in the Bible. The promise of the new covenant is His promise and His witness.
Hebrews 10:18
Because the Lord no longer “remembers” our sins, or puts them to our account, sacrifices have ended. No more going to the temple every so often. No action needed on our part. Jesus accomplished it all.
“Remission” means our sin is forgiven and gone. We use the word “remission” today to mean receding and retreating. This is not what the case is here. It has been removed from our record forever.
The Lord said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). Both deliverance and liberty are this same word for “remission.”
Again, we read, “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). The word for “forgiveness” is the same word. It is used this same way in Acts 13:38; 26:18; Ephesians 1:7; and Colossians 1:14.
We have deliverance, liberty, and forgiveness of sins, and these things all came from Jesus Christ.