Anyone who wants forgiveness of sin can find access by placing a repentant faith in the completed work of Christ. Christ’s sacrifice was God’s final answer to the universal problem of human sin. Those who have trusted Him need not fear, for they have been “perfected forever” (Heb. 10:14). Believers are “complete in Him” (Col. 2:10). We have a perfect standing before God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.
11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant which I will make with them After those days, declares the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their hearts, And write them on their mind,” He then says, 17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember.” 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required. (NASB)
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Hebrews is simply about Jesus and exalting Him
- Jesus is the final, ultimate, and only solution to the sin problem. Jesus paid it all.
- The Holy Spirit is the ultimate witness and inspired God’s Word.
- The New Covenant with its forgiveness of sins does away with the need for the old covenant. The new has supplanted the old.
CLOSER LOOK:
Verses 11–14: Christ’s sacrifice lasted because it offered permanent pardon to those who had offended God. Priests presided over an endless round of ineffective sacrifices. Some sacrifices were offered annually at the Day of Atonement. Priests also officiated at the daily sacrifices. The sheer futility of the whole process is evident in verse 11. The truth just stated in verses 1-10 is reinforced by a contrast with the Levitical priesthood. Two contrasts are drawn in verses 11-12. (1) The O.T. priest stood daily and Christ sat down. Notice the word “every” is used and implies more than one and contrasts to the one ultimate High Priest. No chairs are found in the Tabernacle furniture. Standing was a position of continuous work. Sitting was a position of accomplishment. The priests continued to stand because their work was never done, meaning there is always sins to be addressed and dealt with. Because Christ is seated His work is looked upon as finished and accepted. Christ sat (v. 12) because He had made payment for the price of sin. Levite priests could never sit down on the job since their sacrificial services were never completed. But Christ’s sitting “at the right hand of God” (cf. 1:3; 8:1; 12:2) is both a signal that His sacrifice was offered “for all time” and also that He can now confidently await final victory over “His enemies.” The words “for all time” (eis to diēnekes) are translated “forever” in verse 14. His enthronement at the right hand of God showed the completion of the task. His seat at God’s right hand showed that God had exalted Him to the position of highest glory. In Jesus, believers have access to unlimited grace and power.
(2) The second contrast is between the repeated sacrifices of the Aaronic priest and the Lord Christ’s one sacrifice. Look how once again we have this reiteration of daily or “again and again” or “time after time” sacrifices. These same sacrifices are made repeatedly, yet they can never take away sins. They do not provide the ultimate solution. The word “one” (mian) in verse twelve is in an emphatic position. Thus by a single sacrifice (“one sacrifice,” 10:12, 14)—in contrast with the many sacrifices offered by the priests “time after time” and again and again, “He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Some translation replace “sanctified” with “are being made holy” sounds like a continuing process. But this ignores the force of the expression “made holy” in verse 10. A better rendering is, “those who are sanctified” (tous hagiazomenous; cf. v. 29; as shown in the NASB). “The sanctified” have a status in God’s presence that is “perfect” (cf. 11:40; 12:23) in the sense that they approach Him with the full acceptance gained through the death of Christ (cf. 10:19–22).
Verse 13 essentially goes back to Psalm 110 and what we are waiting for. The sin issue has been dealt with, but not all enemies have been brought into submission to Christ at this point. That is awaiting and in the future. Remember Philippians tells us every knee will bow and tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11). That is taken to mean everybody. Some will do it willingly and lovingly, and some will be forced to do it, but everyone will bow.
Verse 14 is the conclusion to verses 1-13. Once again we have this comparison of the one offering that it perfected or completed for all time. God does not have a plan B. There is one way to address the sin problem and that is Jesus Christ. So this has to transform your world view and how you understand world religions. Christianity does not offer an option, and this group offers an option, and another religion offers another option. Christianity offers the one option, that is the only solution.
As some Jewish believers were thinking of going back to Judaism to avoid persecution, the author argues in two ways against that. First, the author tells them that they should not go back because what they have in Christ is superior to what they left. This is the positive element. Why would they want to go back to the old and inferior when they have this new and improved system. It does not make any sense. The second thing is that if even if they wanted to go back to the old system, they cannot. God has moved on. He is not working there anymore. So if they want to be where God is working, He is working here in this Christian system. The author seems to making this comparison clearer here.
How do we know we have this perfect standing? Because the ultimate witness is that of the Holy Spirit provided by God’s Word. The Holy Spirit was the author of this practical and relevant application. This is the point of verses 15-18.
Verses 15–18: Reverting to their basic text on the benefits of the New Covenant (cf. 8:8–12), the author requoted a portion of it (in 10:16 the author quoted Jer. 31:33; and in Heb. 10:17, Jer. 31:34) to drive home their point. The text is a testimony given by God’s Holy Spirit, and shows that final forgiveness, such as the New Covenant promised, meant that there was no further need for any offering or sacrifice for sin. As the writer will shortly show, a person who turns from the one sufficient sacrifice of Christ has no real sacrifice to which they can turn (cf. Heb. 10:26).
It is clear a sort of climatic arrangement is made in verses 16-17. After the promise of the engrafted will of God, the new covenant promises there will be no further remembrance of sin. It would seem the climax here is inverted, but to the writer of this homily the forgiveness of sin to such an extent God did not even remember, was climactic. The final conclusion is found in verse 18. The argument is the same type as is found in Hebrews 7:11 and 8:7. The New Covenant with its forgiveness of sins does away with the need for the old covenant. The new has supplanted the old.
The author does not deal with everything related to the New Covenant, just certain aspects of it. One of those aspects is to emphasize the idea of forgiveness (the author also emphasizes the idea of covenant as the two main things they want to point out to the audience). When we put together verses 17 and 18, we see the author’s thinking is something like, “If you have forgiveness, then you don’t need an offering anymore. And if you don’t need an offering anymore that means it’s been done.”
The easiest and most complete way of saying this is that Jesus paid it all. This incorporates a number of different verses. We have sin which requires remission, and this incorporates Acts 10:43 where it talks about remission through the death of Christ. We have slavery to sin which requires redemption. We have redemption through the death of Christ (1 Pet 1:18-19). Also, there is separation, which requires reconciliation. We have reconciliation through the death of Christ (2 Cor 5:18-19). Once again, we can say and believe that Jesus is the final, ultimate, and only solution to the sin problem. Comprehensively and completely He has dealt with all of these things.
We see how the author continues to hammer home this idea of the superiority of Christ. Time and again we see these things and ideas come up where there is really no doubt what they are arguing for. Simply, Jesus is final, ultimate, and complete solution.
The author’s point is that it is all about Jesus. One of the wonderful things about the Book of Hebrews is that it provides one of the most exalted pictures of Jesus Christ in the entire Bible. We can get caught up in warning passages, textual issues, platonic philosophy, the tabernacle and the furniture, and other things. While those are important and relevant, we cannot forget to see Jesus in all of it. The book is simply about Jesus. Hebrews is extremely challenging as we are finding out, but at the heart, it teaches us about Jesus and it exalts Him.