The Will of God, the Work of His Son, the Testimony
of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 10:1-251For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant 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; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:1‑25)
Hebrews 10:1-251For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant 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; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 24And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:1‑25): This is a rich portion from the Word of God. What was God doing there in the days of old with that people of His, before His Son came? What did that tabernacle mean? What did that redemption from Egypt mean? What did God mean in bringing them through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, through the land, giving them the tabernacle for its sacrifices, and continuing with them after they had gotten into the land? What was God doing there? He was shadowing forth. And there is very little perhaps one might say, almost nothing, in all that economy that has not a typical bearing—God foreshadowing His Son. Ever and anon, it is Christ and His work.
Christ is the key to the Old Testament as well as the New. As a passage in 2 Corinthians says, "Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The Spirit of the Old Testament is the shadowing forth of Christ. It is only when the Christian gets to see those things' symbolizing and typifying by it, that the Old Testament becomes interesting to him.
The Old Testament, in a measure, is otherwise a dry book, but when one gets the Spirit of Christ in it, it becomes just the opposite. From that wonderful tabernacle and those various sacrifices the Christian gathers rich fruit in what God was typifying. What is God typifying now? What is God shadowing forth now, since redemption is accomplished and the Redeemer has gone to heaven? Nothing. The days of types and shadows are gone; He had fulfilled its mission, and now it is not type and shadow, but eternal realities. In Hebrews we find again and again that word, "eternal." And that is in contrast in this book with what is temporal. So God is dealing in eternal realities now. God is speaking of eternal realities. What is before you as a sinner, and what is before another as a saint, before you both, saint and sinner, is eternal.
He says here, "The law having a shadow of good things to come,"—and they have come. It was a shadow; it was not an image. Some of them were very sweet in types, but still they were not an image; they were not perfect. There is another thing found in this Epistle, and that is "perfected."
Just by way of introducing to us our chapter, there are three things especially in this chapter to which one would call attention: the will of God, the work of His Son, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. It is very important to remember those three things when reading the book of Hebrews.
This scripture has a precious place in our hearts; it is a solemn thing. Are not those three things blessed and solemn? It is a great thing, and the Christian loves to dwell on it, that the source of all his blessing as a Christian, now and to come, is the will of God. The source is the will of God.
Let us refer to the 2nd chapter of this Epistle: that by the grace of God He should taste death for everyone. The grace of God and the death of Christ are two wonderful things. There is food for meditation in those two things. The grace of God is the source of all blessing. What is the channel through which the blessing reaches us? Of course, it is the death of His Son. Before the death of His Son, the blessing was all there treasured in the heart of God, but it could not flow forth. There was something in the way of His blessing in the fulness of His nature. It is God's nature to bless; He delights to bless, but all that, as it were, was barred. There was a barrier that kept it from flowing forth, and that barrier was S-I-N. The thing to bring about was first of all to take away sin.
The Israelites had all these sacrifices; all had divine origin. All those sacrifices which Israel had, had their origin in God Himself, and they offered them in obedience to His Word. It was impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin. Sin stood in the way. It does not stand in the way now; the barrier has been removed. We ask when, and by what? It was when the Saviour died. The Saviour's death, as brought before us in Matthew 27 signifies: "Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom . . . ."It tells that sin had been atoned for. In the gospel of Matthew, God is making heaven, earth, and death respond to the power of the death of Christ. Above, the whole veil of the temple was rent, and below, the earth did quake, the rocks rent. That was the most solid part of the earth, but it was overwhelmed by His death. The graves were opened, and many of the saints came out of their graves after His resurrection. The death of Christ did that.
In the thoughts of God, and in the thoughts of His people there is nothing like that death and never can be. All God's rich blessing had been treasured up, but sin stood there in spite of those sacrifices for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin.
Sometimes the will of God is spoken of in its absolute character, sometimes, in the desire. "God who will have all men to be saved"—that is not its absolute character, but that is the desire of God, to get all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:44Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)).
Here we find that that Will had a desire to have a sanctified people, which means a people set apart to Himself, a people that He can connect His Name with, and not only connect His Name with, but find His joy in—a people that He can love, not as He loves the poor sinner, with pity and compassion, but that He can delight in, having set them apart. And how does He accomplish that? All are sinners. How is He going to separate people unto Himself? God's people are always a separated people, according to their calling, both Israel and the church. Take, for example, the first command to Israel: "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Num. 23:99For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. (Numbers 23:9)). They are a separated and sanctified people. How is He going to come to a world full of sinners and set apart a people for Himself—for that is what He wants to do, and that is what He has done. "By the which will (that is the source here of the believer's sanctification) we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once ...." God has a sanctified, a separated people, that are set apart to Himself on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ.
Sanctification is spoken of in different ways in Scripture, but it always means separation. Sometimes it is spoken of, as in our chapter, as an accomplished thing, and that accomplished thing is a perfect sanctification. When it says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification . . ." that is what we call progressive, growing sanctification. In the former it is classified as meaning absolute sanctification, having its source in the will of God, and it is myself, the work of Christ. It is positional sanctification. Progressive sanctification is growing more and more in the knowledge of God and like Christ.
The sanctification spoken of here is absolute, perfected forever, and there the believer stands answering to the will of God in His eyes sanctified and brought into the place in all the infinite merits and worth of the work of Christ. "By the which will we are sanctified . .."—perfected forever—that is, accomplished, and in the perfection of it, the sanctified one stands. In it he rejoices. He thinks with an adoring heart, of the source of that sanctification—the will of God and the sacrifice of Christ.
If those sacrifices originated with the heart of God, why not offer for sin? That is the argument in this chapter: ". . . There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." Our sins have been atoned for, met their desert. If they had not been atoned for, God would tell you to offer sacrifices for sin. Will the Saviour ever be on the cross again? Suppose that such a thing were possible, it would tell that that one offering was not sufficient. What a glorious truth it is that our blessed Saviour will never have to die for us again. All our sins are atoned for. There is no more sacrifice for sins. Because the Lord made that one sacrifice, there is no more sacrifice for sins for the Christian, but there is happy, holy remembrance of that one sacrifice, and there is now nothing as a veil before God.
There are two ordinances for Christians: baptism and the remembrance of the Lord's supper. There is no value in either to atone for sin, but they tell that sin has been atoned for. Both of those ordinances speak of death, the death of Christ. Thus we can see why God is not now sacrificing for sin. God is bringing in now a rich, eternal blessing. Type and shadow are gone. As it says in another epistle, we have not the type nor the shadow, but the substance (Col. 2:1717Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Colossians 2:17)).
Why is it that the one offering of Christ could do what all those many many offerings of the Jews could never do? By "that one offering," of course, we mean the atoning work of the cross. Why is it? Think who it was who died a sacrifice for sins. It is that which gives value to what He did, then of the sacrifice when He said, "Lo, I come ..." Who could that be, volunteering Himself to do that which all those sacrifices had failed to do? Who was that? Whose voice can we hear saying, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God"? Think for a moment. Who was it? Ah, that was the Son of God, One at liberty and competent to do what He volunteered to do, One who fully knew what it would be to undertake to put away sin. His estimating what that would be, estimating so justly what it would be, was an evidence of His fitness to atone for it.
What was the Lord Jesus doing in the Garden of Gethsemane when He agonized in prayer, sweating as it were, great drops of blood? Atoning for sin? No, what then? He was realizing what it would mean to drink the cup of death from the hand of God; and all that agony, those tears, as we read in Hebrews, came from the depths of His soul. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." That tells very blessedly that God could look upon that One, and did look down upon Him, and realize: "Ah, there is One who estimates sin according to its true nature in My sight." Some do not understand Gethsemane in that way at all. There He weighs and anticipates going through all in communion with God. There is another party there, that is Satan, who was pressing upon the blessed Lord what it would mean to drink the cup of death from God's hand. Why did Satan do that? Just for this: Satan knew that if he could get the blessed Saviour to refuse that cup, sin was unatoned for. Atonement for sin was made on Calvary's cross, in the last three hours of Calvary's cross. So that is what the blessed Lord was doing there in Gethsemane. He was just anticipating. When a sinner is brought to repentance under the grace of God, he tastes just a little of what the Lord felt in Gethsemane perfectly. When a pious sinner is brought to realize himself in the presence of God, the terror in his soul is, in a small measure, the kind of terror that the Lord experienced in Gethsemane. But the Lord went on and bore the judgment. So when a poor sinner has learned rightly what sin is, it gives him a little taste. But there is One who bore all of what sin is.
One loves to put together, "cried with a loud voice" and "the veil of the temple was rent." Why was the veil of the temple rent? Was it rent for God in mercy to come out to poor sinners? No, God has done that in Christ. Well then, why was the veil rent? This very chapter tells us that the way into the holiest was made manifest by the blood of Jesus; that is, as it were, God is throwing open heaven for poor sinners. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . ." What do you think this means? A true heart fully assured by faith comes boldly, but with reverent boldness, and that is to give credit to the value of the blood of Christ. When God opened those heavens, the door of His house, in that way, that we might go into it according to all that He is in His nature, the way there is like this: God sits upon His throne, and He says, "Come near"—that is the Majesty of God. And so he who enters that Presence by the blood of Jesus, enters boldly. And the blessed God rejoices in the work that set Him at liberty to throw the heavens open in that way. When you and I get into heaven, we will go on the ground that Christ died and opened the way into the presence of God.
Where is Christ now? He is on the throne. There He is sitting in the presence of God. Why does it say, "From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool"? Why does He talk about His enemies, as making them His footstool? He means bringing them into subjection. He has nothing more to do for His friends. He is waiting and expecting to bring judgment upon His enemies, those who do not receive Him. (Dear unsaved one, not having received Christ as your Saviour, you, in your various characteristics as a sinner, take warning that you are an enemy of God and of Christ, and that Christ is going to execute judgment upon His enemies—all those are His enemies who have not received Him as their Saviour.)
Referring back to "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God," it does not say, "Father" there, but it says, "God." There are other scriptures that tell us of the Father's will, but when Christ went to meet God on the cross about our sins, He did not go to meet Him as His Father. When He atoned for our sins before God, He atoned before God as such; for it is against God as such that we have sinned, and it is with God a sinner has to do. If you receive His Son as Saviour, you become His child; but if ever you have to meet Him about your sins, you will have to meet Him as God. "Every knee shall bow ... and every tongue shall confess to God." He found Himself having to do with God about sin. I think it is important to remember that. It was from the hand of God as God, the Saviour suffered for my sins upon the cross.
We think of the majesty and the glory—the personal majesty and glory—of the One who would volunteer Himself, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He came and made atonement for sin. Now God has a sanctified people. If you are a believer on the Lord Jesus and the competency of His offering for sin, in short, if you are a child of God, you are numbered among His sanctified people; and God says that sanctification, that separation to Myself, is not according to your conduct, but according to the value of the work of My Son. I have something else to say to you about your ways, but that has to do with your conduct, but not here. Here all is judicial, that is, having to do with God as a Judge. We all have to do with God as a Judge the first time that we have to do with Him.
Preachers do not insist upon that enough. We may have to be a little critical sometimes, but we do see the necessity of making men see God as God. Increasingly, man is exalted in his own eyes, to his lasting and eternal ruin, and to the dishonor of God's Son and Himself and of the work of Christ. If the Lord delays the subduing of His enemies another two decades, the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin will well-nigh have gone from the earth as a doctrine, as a truth of God. People talk about "signs of the times," and they talk about Matthew 24 and part of 25, Matthew 13, Luke 21, and such scriptures, but they do not know about 2 Timothy 3. All those signs there have to do with an earthly people and in their primary aspect; the Christian has nothing to do with them. The signs that we have are the signs given in 2 Timothy 3. At the end of our portion here, we read, "So much the more as ye see the day approaching." Heb. 10:2525Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25). It is the day of apostasy. Apostasy is the sin in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and there is no remedy for sin for one who takes the place of being a Christian. If he falls into sin, there is no remedy for him. There is no provision in Hebrews for a believer sinning, and the only Epistle that does make provision for a believer sinning is the 1st Epistle of John. It shows how differently God looks at things.
One's heart sinks within him; we would not desire to occupy you with evil, but we grieve upon seeing that the sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is rapidly dropping from people's minds. In how many of these large churches here in the city of St. Louis, if we would attend tonight, would we hear someone say, "The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin"? We fear but few. We might get into some little outside meeting and hear some "nobody," as the people think, telling gladly that "The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin," and proclaiming loudly the need of atonement by death.
Then there is another sad condition. In several instances, that is, where the sacrifice of Christ is not denied, it is ignored. You can talk with people who take the ground of being Christians—one hopes they are—and they will talk and talk. Presently you will say, "What about the death of Christ? You never mentioned that until your attention was called to it; and the Word of God tells me you were telling out what was in your heart. 'For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Matthew 12:3434O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (Matthew 12:34). Now if you had been full of the sacrifice of Christ, you would have been talking about it, and you never mentioned it." That is very sad. Do not forget that this little index tells what is in the heart, and that it is the index of the heart, according to the Scriptures. Often we talk too much to people in place of letting them talk, and so we do not get a good diagnosis. Just let them talk some, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Then we can get a real diagnosis of their state of soul and know how to minister to it.
Perhaps this tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews has not its equal in all the Word of God as to the value of Christ. It goes on "by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"—perfected forever by one offering. Think of that mighty offering—perfected forever. What gave it value? It was Christ making the sacrifice. It was the Son of God making the sacrifice.
"Well might the sun in darkness hide:
And shut its glory in,
When the Incarnate Maker died."
O, the work that was in the sight of God—darkness over all the land, and alone—absolutely alone—in the darkness. No place in heaven or on earth but in a place between the two hung the Saviour. He hung there between heaven and earth—heaven over His head and earth beneath Him—alone, forsaken of God and of man. The only One who has ever known, or will know, so far as we get it from Scripture, what absolute abandonment is! He was alone between heaven and earth. The Son of God it was who was there. He who knew no sin was being made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. There is a verse in a hymn,
"I stand upon His merit,
I know no safer stand!"
We sang that one sixty-five years ago, and when it comes to standing before God, the ground is the same:
"I stand upon His merit,
I know no safer stand;
Not e'en where glory dwelleth,
In Immanuel's land."
Oh, the precious sacrifice of Christ! Thank God, there is One who can rightly estimate it, and that was the One to whom the sacrifice was made.
In the preceding chapter there are a few verses in contrast, not in comparison. He said, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer . . ." Those three offerings spoke in a special way of the one sacrifice. Here he quotes those verses:
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" It was "dead works" for the Jew, and wicked ones for the Gentile, but the conscience has been purged for both, and the believer is one who has a purged conscience. All sins have been atoned for from the judicial standpoint.
As we said just now, there was Christ on the cross between heaven and earth; now He is in heaven, in the value of what He did, not simply on account of His own Person, but in the value of what He did for God's glory here on earth. Before He came here, He was there as God's coequal. But He was not there as a representative in behalf of others. He was there in the glory and riches of His own Person; now He is there as the One who made atonement for sins, for the sinner's sins. He came to do the will of God. He did it, and God is glorified.
Now, what about the Holy Spirit? In verses 14 and 15 it says, "For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a Witness . . . ." There is One who came down, and came down to bear witness, and to tell of the value of His work, "Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a Witness to us: for after that He had said before, This is the covenant 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. "
Perhaps we had better say a word here about "the new covenant." Of course, the believer is not under the new, nor under any covenant, but he gets one of the blessings of the new covenant. One of the blessings which he gets is the forgiveness of sins; that is a part of the new covenant. When the Jew gets the blessing of the new covenant and the forgiveness of sins, God will do something with his heart; He will put His laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and then what a happy work it will be. Their sins and iniquities will He remember no more. God's laws will be put into their minds and written in their hearts—happy people!
Your sins and mine, dear Christian, are remembered no more. But is He looking to you to keep His law? No, He is looking to see Christ in you. As we learn from another scripture, all our sins are gone; now He looks to see the life of the One who did this for us.
The Holy Spirit is bearing witness to the value of the work of Christ. Here He says, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." They are all gone, forgiven in the value of the work of Christ.
Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.
But Christ the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away,
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear,
When hanging on th'accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there.
Believing we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
And bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing redeeming love."