The New Testament with Commentary Hebrews 10

Animal blood is insufficient

1 You see, the Law is but a shadow of the good things to come, not their actual matter, so it can never perfect those who approach with the same sacrifices that they offer endlessly, year after year. 2 Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have had no more consciousness of sins, having been cleansed once for all? 3 However, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.*

“I have come to do Your will, O God”

5 Therefore, upon coming into the world He[S] says:

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,

but You prepared a body for me;†

6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings You were not pleased.

7 Then I said, ‘Yes indeed, I have come to do Your will, O God

—thus it is written about me in the scroll of the book.’ ”‡

8 First He says, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them” (which are offered according to the Law), 9 then He says, “Yes indeed, I have come to do Your will, O God.”§ He removes the first in order to establish the second. 10 By that will* we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.†

Christ perfects forever

11 Now every priest has stood ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices that can never take away sins; 12 but He Himself, having offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, sat down at God's right. 13 Since that time He is waiting until His enemies are placed as a footstool for His feet, 14 because by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.‡

15 Now the Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this, after having foreseen it:

16 “ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days,’ says the Lord,

‘I will put my laws on their hearts

and I will write them on their minds,

17 and I will not at all remember

their sins and lawless deeds.’ ”§

18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.*

Hold fast the confession of the Hope

19 Therefore, brothers, having courage to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way that He inaugurated for us, through the curtain, that is to say, His flesh, 21 and having a Great Priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts having been sprinkled† from an evil conscience and our body having been washed with clean water.‡ 23 Let us hold fast the confession of the Hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us contemplate one another, for the stirring up of love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves (like some are doing), but exhorting one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

A severe warning

26 Because, if we deliberately keep on sinning after having received the real knowledge of the Truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 just a certain fearful anticipation of judgment and fierce fire that is ready to consume the hostiles. 28 Anyone who rejected Moses' law died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be deemed worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has regarded as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified,§ and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “ ‘Vengeance is up to me,’ says the Lord,* ‘I will repay.’ ” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”† 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God!

A word of encouragement

32 However, remember those earlier days in which, having been enlightened, you endured a great struggle of sufferings: 33 partly being publicly exposed to both insults and oppression, and partly siding with those who were so treated. 34 Indeed, you also shared in the suffering of my chains;‡ you even accepted the plundering of your possessions with joy, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and enduring possession in the heavens.

35 So do not throw away your confidence, which has a great recompense. 36 You need perseverance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37 For in a very little while:

“He who is coming will come and will not delay.

38 Now the righteous one will live by faith,

yet if he backs away, my soul has no pleasure in him.”§

39 But we are not of those who back away into ruin,* but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

*10:4 The author's reasoning here is both interesting and important; they could never stop, because they never felt clean.

†10:5 When Jehovah the Son accepted the ‘prepared body’ He accepted the whole Plan—the humiliation of being limited to a human body, being born as a helpless baby, living on this sin-cursed planet for 33 years, being rejected, the death on the cross—the works. Would not the humiliation of being confined to a human body be worse than the humiliation on the cross? When I participate in the ‘Lord's Supper’, since the bread represents His body, I thank Him for accepting that body. As a personal application, I am challenged to accept the ‘body’ prepared for me—God's plan for my life in its daily outworking, complete with the unpleasant circumstances. Every day I renew my own commitment: “I am here to do Your will, O God”.

‡10:7 See Psalm 40:6-8. Instead of “body”, the Hebrew Text has ‘ears’. You cannot have ears without a body, and the purpose of the body was to work out the commands heard by the ears. The Holy Spirit was at perfect liberty to make the point clearer in this quote.

§10:9 Some 15% of the Greek manuscripts omit “O God” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, etc.).

*10:10 God's sovereignty, again.

†10:10 You cannot have blood without a body.

‡10:14 Our sanctification is a process, but it is based on, and made possible by, Christ's ‘once for all’ sacrifice.

§10:17 See Jeremiah 31:33-34.

*10:18 Once all sins have been paid for, there is no further need for an offering.

†10:22 Sprinkling indicates cleansing.

‡10:22 I suppose most people take a bath before going to church, but how about in our daily devotions?

§10:29 “By which he was sanctified”, that is what the Text says. “His people” presumably refers to people who belong to Him. Verse 31 is not talking about the ordinary consequences of ordinary sin—the clear implication is that God is especially unhappy! To “trample the Son of God under foot” refers to a public repudiation in insulting terms; the reference is to a former Christian who is in open rebellion against God.

*10:30 Some 4% of the Greek manuscripts omit “says the Lord” (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.).

†10:30 See Deuteronomy 32:35-36.

‡10:34 I wonder if Paul is referring to the two years he was a prisoner in Caesarea, since he is evidently writing from Rome (13:24 below). The chief priests doubtless had spies there to make a note of anyone who helped him.

§10:38 See Habakkuk 2:3-4.

*10:39 The emphasis here is on human responsibility. To “back away” from one's commitment to Christ and His Kingdom is to return into the ruin from which he had been delivered.