THE BOOK OF HEBREWS CHAPTER 10:1-13

HEBREWS CHAPTER 10:1-13 THE RESULTS OF HIS SACRIFICE  

VERSE 1 “FOR…” ties this verse back to the last verse of  Hebrews Chapter 9… “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; (as the Sacrifice and High Priest) and unto them that look for him (not now as Redeemer, but as King of kings) shall he appear second time without sin (apart from sin, that is He will not be taking up that aspect again but will take up the aspect of perfect attainment and Judgment) unto salvation (in the Greek, the word salvation has three aspects; past, present, and future). Continuing in Hebrews 10:1, “For the law (Torah) having (but) a shadow (being unable to present the realities) of good things to come….good things to come is a reference back to that coming Salvation (future fullness of salvation). That is the fulfilling of the Gospel promises in the abilities of the King of kings unto those who are looking for His Return. That is to say, those faithfully doing His will (Luke 12:42–43) and answers to the fullness of having been previously redeemed. It is the being caught up to Him in the Clouds and the first resurrection experience, that … can never with those (inferior) sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” (that is worthy of this heavenly calling, and the fullness of  “unto salvation” expression) 

It is a grave mistake for a Christian to believe that the “good things to come” point to the Gospel that answer to present spiritual blessings here enjoyed and this World’s good things, as this greatly detracts from the Gospel New Testament truths. For we, as the Israelites before, are redeemed out of the kingdom of satan and are but yet in the wilderness. And the good things we receive after redemption here in the wilderness are but the essentials; such as bland manna and water from the rock, but these are not the “good things to come” when Christ Returns with salvation inheritance. For those things ceased when they came into possession of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 6:10-11). We, like the Israelites, are now sojourners in the land of the enemy. (See Hebrews 11:13-15) And that until Christ the King and Warrior comes back and casts satan down and out of the heavens in power, (Revelation 12:9) where war accompanies our salvation (our future fullness of salvation). We are not yet entered into that, our promised land, we are but sojourners, we are not yet to rule and reign. (1st Corinthians 4:8) On the contrary, our lives as Christians should be about service, suffering, and laying down our lives. It is to these Hebrews Paul exhorts to turn loose their tight grip on the things of this World (Hebrews 10:34-35), those earthly things even legitimately secured in the realities of the earthly Mosaic Covenant, and grasp the eternal realities, that it can only present in shadows, but seen clearly in the Gospel of “good things to come”. Many a Christian sadly has taken mistakenly the Old Testament that had undoubtedly promise and grant of earthly blessing, as now rightly theirs as Gospel participants in Christ. They argue that Christians, being the “Seed” of Abraham, are entitled to earthly and worldly things, mistakenly confusing themselves in the shadows with being inheritors of the earthly blessings, not realizing that the promises of the Law was limited to merely earthly blessing and possessions. Whereas it was and only can be a shadow of the Gospel good things to come, the future realities of an eternal inheritance for those faithfully in self-sacrificial service looking for fulfillment in Christ at His Return; that of ultimately attaining a place in holy Jerusalem descending into the new heavens and earth. (Revelation 21)  

The many SHADOWS in the Torah of the GOOD THINGS TO COME, such as  

our expectation of good things coming, is shadowed in Israel waiting for Moses to return from his ascending up the Mount. And in the additional shadowing from the return of the High Priest from coming out again from behind the veil that covered the Holiest Place. Christ the Sacrifice came to take away the “veil” of the shadow’s obscurity, by the means of His Body being rent. These are the realities of good things to come for those who have the veil removed from their eyes. Christ currently is High Priest and our Mediator within the Holiest Place, Who shall in the reality appear again in the fullness of His salvation Atonement to recompense and reward His followers. Let us not make the mistake to think that while the Law gave the shadow of the good things to come, that the Gospel has manifest unto us experientially the reality. The Law gave the shadow of that which it would never be able to materialize, the Gospel can and will bring the reality of the good things to come, but until Christ comes, they are not yet manifest.   

The “good things to come” could never be realized by the “comers” in the keeping of the Law of Moses, due to their insufficiency to fully propitiate for their sins and meet God’s Holiness requirements, which is seen in their being offered over and over again, year by year, the offerings were always the same, and they were instructed to be perpetual. 

VERSE 2 ‘“For then would they not have ceased to be offered?”  

The offerers were obliged to perpetual blood offerings as they never knew forgiveness of sin (only the bearing of their sin by God). For Adam’s condemning sin (Romans 5:12) was still in play under the Mosaic Covenant, as the blood of animals could but atone unto the bearing with iniquity. (In Exodus 34:7, ‘forgiving’ is rightly interpreted as bearing sin) Adam’s sin condemnation was ever just beneath the covered surface; just as the animal skins God later provided for them intimates the need to atone for the external flesh. (Genesis 3:21) The necessity of blood offerings is required of the Mosaic Law for the drawing nearer unto God in the body. The necessity of atoning blood passes with the death of the body, as its corruption has given way to the Curse of God upon it. But the death of the body does not afford the soul any further reconciliation unto the lost intimacy of the Garden of Eden in experience, that is to say back into the very manifest Presence of God.  

The Old Testament and the New Testament followers now exist in the typed state of Adam’s and Eve’s blood-atoned and covered nakedness, but yet remaining outside the Garden of Eden/the Garden of God (Heaven)…in God’s intermediate place of the dead; Sheol (a subject to be taken up in greater detail later in the Book of Hebrews). Their corrupt flesh being removed in the body’s death, the soul is considered naked and thereby yet tainted by the Curse, and in need of outer covering until they are clothed in immortality (2nd Corinthians 5:1-4 with 1st Corinthians 15:51-53); there within the underworld provided. (1st Samuel 28:14) VERSE 3 The Blood of Christ answers to the many blood offerings of animals in their limited propitiation seen “in the yearly remembrance of Israel’s sins” and veiled approach unto God. (Leviticus 16:34)   

VERSE 4 “For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats would take away sin.” (for animals answer not to morals, neither do they sin or repent, nor by their will do they yield themselves) But Christ’s Blood and one-time application, in its far greater efficacy (being moral, with right of free will, and wholly yielded) goes beyond the continued mercy reflected in bearing with the iniquity of Adam’s sin upon the soul and body… in that it extends grace in forgiveness. “Their sins will I remember no more”  is the statement wherein is found the eternal release from the condemnation and consequences of that eternal Curse from the Garden and perfected or fully defined in Moses’ Law, (Galatians 3:19, Romans 7:22-8:1) with the gracious gift of eternal life to be manifest in a future resurrected body to be realized in His Power to resurrect, in the appropriate 1 of  2 appointed days. (The first appointed day being at the 1st Resurrection from among the dead and the second being at the Great White Throne Judgement.) It is from this relief of eternal condemnation inherent in Adam’s Curse, that we as recipients of the perfect Victim, Who grants us imputed righteousness, and cleansed the conscience from guilt, and as Perfect Priest presented us pardoned before the Father. This, in correct perspective, we are to be ever conscious of. (Romans 6:11) 

With Adam’s sin with eternal death being removed, there is no more need for further offerings of Blood for sin. The one-time sprinkling of Christ’s Blood and the one-time submersion and immersion cleansing from water baptism, (one answers to the internal work and one answers to the external work) both answer to Adam’s sin, through whom “…death passed upon all men…(Romans 5:12) and thereby our eternal redemption in life is forever satisfied in the one appropriation (Our being sprinkled with the Blood of Christ and being baptized is shadowed in Exodus 24:8 where Moses sprinkled the blood on the people and in & Leviticus 8:6 where Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water.) 

That one-time sprinkling of Blood is also the basis that naturally remains for forgiveness of sin anew (sins we commit after redemption). (1st John 1:9 says,“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” When we sin anew, it is a result of the sin nature remaining within and forever at enmity with the spirit/Spirit Romans 8:7. There is a duality of striving natures within that remains as long as one is on the earth) A Christian, Blood-bought, is always welcome into the heavenly throne room, and there he might, in order to maintain unbroken and continued communion, and the power of grace afforded, seek ongoing forgiveness for sins committed after Redemption. And that through the new and greater provision, that is to say greater than the continual blood and water washings of the priesthood of the Law in the attempt of maintaining Israel’s communion and flow of mercy.  

This New Testament ongoing need with provision is what the Law shadowed and what Christ typed in the washing with water of our feet only, (See John 13:10 where Christ says that those who have had a bath {been baptized} only have need of having their feet washed due to the dirtying of their feet as they walk in the World.) That is to say, our cleansing of spirit’s burden through our enlightened conscience and confession of sins anew, that we may maintain communion with God and with the power of the Holy Spirit brought upon our carnal nature of sin, in order that we may pass through this wilderness of the enemy victoriously. (Revelation 12:11) “…forgetting those things which are behind…” To repeat; this reckoning and washing is on the basis of the one-time Blood sprinkling. Yet in all this provision, not thinking I have apprehended / obtained that for which was apprehended / obtained for me, (the fullness of Salvation eternal inheritance as opposed to mere eternal redemption) I press on in pursuit of our promised inheritance of the high calling… so says Paul…“the good things to come”. That is chiefly to be realized in the obtaining unto worthiness of the first resurrection and in our heavenly garment of glory, (Philippians 3:1-15, Luke 21:36, with Revelation 19:7–8) and beyond. (Revelation 21) A Christian, albeit having often been told the contrary, should see these good things to come are not at all extended in merely Redemption’s Blood. But it is extended unto those whose lives are commensurate with “looking for Him to appear”. That is, to those who are looking for Him to “save” them, will the fullness of salvation be extended. (Fullness of salvation meaning not just having eternal life, but gaining eternal inheritance by their fruitfulness.)  Most Christians would argue they are already “saved”.  They are like those shadowed 70 who waited for Moses to descend, who reasoned as to why he hadn’t come down, and ran out of patience, and joined themselves again with the worldly crowd. Likewise, Christians have grown lukewarm, unwatchful, and unready. We get talked down the Mountain and go back into the World when we hear enticing words such as, ‘You’re ok, God loves you no matter what, you don’t need to be holy, you’ve already attained, etc. (Matthew 25:30) 

Now the Words of HEBREWS VERSES 5 -7 are applied from Psalms 40:6–8, which are more clearly seen from the Septuagint than from the King James Version. 

The quoting of the Holy Spirit’s prophetic Words in their fullest context, here in the Book of Hebrews, reveals the added revelation, wisdom, and understanding in the knowledge of God given to Paul on how to specifically apply those verses to Jesus Christ. True intimacy. Truth. Highly instructive. Full of purpose. Ample. 

These Words spoken through David the prophet 1000 years earlier, and now 1400 years since the Mosaic Covenant was given, spoke to its inadequacy, God’s long fore-bearing and yet the inevitability of their permanent continuation, that now finally being manifested through Christ.  

 “Wherefore when He cometh into the world He saith… (Here we are invited to enter into the counsels of the Father and the Son)… “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body thou hast prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will O God.”  

The Author (the Holy Spirit) changes and expounds His Words for the purposes now intended: 1) to show that God took no pleasure in the sacrifices, nor the sacerdotal, liturgical and ritualistic services. 2) in that they left the worshiper without sufficient inward strength to do the Will of God. 3) It was both because and for God’s Will that Christ was sent and came.  

So it is that we who are sanctified/set apart in Christ, are so sanctified for the express purpose of doing the Will of God perfectly, that is with a pure conscience always. For in that, all things will find their greatest expression and greatest joy and satisfaction. Those recorded Words of Psalms are applied in the Book of Hebrews in such a manner that they are taken as Christ’s Words in prayer and directed action of His life in the doing the Will of Father while He was upon the Earth. VERSE 7… “lo I come to Thy will, O God.”  That having been the mind of God, is first hinted in Scripture in Genesis 3:15 as the body of blood and bone to be borne from the womb of a woman. (From the womb of a woman, will come One who crushes the authority of the serpent.) 

VERSE 8 alludes to all the 5 main offerings that are offered in the Law, all in practice falling short of the perfect Will of God, yet all shadow the various aspects of Jesus Christ’s Sacrificial offering of Himself in the fulfilling of the perfect Will of God. That first is to do the Will of the Father in living a sinless life, but that not being enough to atone unto His perfect Will, in willing obedience the offering of that body you prepared for me must be put unto death. (Exodus 12:5–6) 

VERSE 9 That I might once and forever set apart/sanctify those who through Me might have the mind and heart also to do Your Will. This, the offerings of the Mosaic Covenant could never accomplish. “He taketh away the first, (Testament, that had no answer, but was the best possible antidote to prolong life in the incurable diseased person) that he may establish the Second.” (Testament, the advancement of the prescribed cure unto eternal inheritance, in the fulfillment of doing God’s Will for those willing to partake/drink of the Blood and eat of the Body of Sacrifice that He prepared, and its sanctifying effects)   

VERSE 10-13  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This meaning His offering is but once and it is for all, that is both groups or parties expressed in the will of His New Testament; expressly Jews and the New Man. Jesus Christ’s sanctifying offering effect, that is on our behalf He presented His perfect life and body unto God as a sacrifice unto death; this being shadowed in the Mosaic Law as the “whole burnt offering”. In that those who turn to God through His perfect propitiation, are regarded as set apart/sanctified in the merit of His offering unto God, for the purpose of learning and doing the Will of God in practical daily living, each for himself; presenting his life and body unto God a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1–2) To be set apart is to be set aside or withdrawn from common use and dedicated exclusively to God’s use, this applies to their sanctifying in the future (restored Israel at His Return in New Covenant then to be established) and ours (Messianic and Gentile believers / the new man in the Gospel) presently, that which the Mosaic Law’s priesthood and offerings could not accomplish. This then is the understanding; in that we receive Christ’s offering in sanctification to be extended to both groups… in its past, present and future  applications “once and for all.”  

“And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God…” Christ sitting is in contrast to the priests of the Mosaic Covenant where there was no provision to be seated in the Tabernacle, typical in that their work was insufficient  and therefore never completed, in the sense of attaining unto the fullness of sanctifying power, that is unto doing the perfect Will of God. Whereas Christ’s offering having completely and eternally fulfilled the demands of sacrificial offering in Himself; the requirements for man to be sanctified in the surety of His Person and Personal Offering. Abundantly it met the Father’s Holy Will to such satisfaction that the Father requested the Son to sit at His right hand. And there He remains, within the Holy Place the position of Great Priest and Mediator, until such time the Father, as in the shadow with Moses said: “Arise and get thee down quickly from hence…” (Deuteronomy 9:12) and then His Son’s investiture as King of kings Who gathers His forces in the heavens to initiate His war against His enemies. (Revelation 4:2 with 12:7-9)