Apply it to Christ's death as the testator, and nothing can be plainer or more forcible. Looking up, she saw silhouetted in the evening sky not the form of a tiger, but of a man, who vaulted down into the pit. It is such a fidelity to the end that is urged by the author here. Then comes a total change: God takes up the matter Himself, acting in view of man's sin; but in Jesus, in the very Messiah for whom the Jews were waiting, he has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and has accomplished this mighty work, as admirably befitting the goodness of God, as it alone descends low enough to reach the vilest man, and yet deliver him with a salvation which only the more humbles man and glorifies God. The writer to the Hebrews has taken the words of the psalm and put them into the mouth of Jesus. "By the which will" (not man's, which is sin, but God's) "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.". (2.) "By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.". Christ is doing nothing there to take away sin; nor when He comes again will He touch the question of sin, because it is a finished work. It would be death to attempt to come to God in the way of the covenant of works; but this way we may come to God, and live. As the day begins, as the day ends and ever and again in the midst of its activities, we should turn aside, if only for a moment, and enter God's presence. It is told that in the days of the Hitler terror there was a man in Germany who was arrested, tried, tortured and put into a concentration camp. The athlete will make his great effort because the goal beckons him on. The death of Christ, both in the sense of a victim sacrificed, and of a testator, though a double figure, is evident to all, and tends to the self-same point. Let us then seek to combine these two things perfect nearness to God, and the place of utter scorn in the presence of man. Holding fast the permanence of the blotting out of our guilt, may we nevertheless and besides own the need of such an One as Christ to intercede for us, and deal in grace with all our feebleness or faults. II. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. He has but one settled purpose of goodness about us; He watches and judges for our good, and nothing but our good. (2.) Never was there a time when men used terms with a more equivocal design than at the present moment. Verse 36. For by one offering and for all time he perfectly gave us that cleansing we need to enter into the presence of God. He could know nothing of the mystery of the church, Christ's body, nor of her bridal hopes; but he did look for what is called here the "heavenly Jerusalem," that city "whose maker and builder is God." "And, as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. But the higher the privilege, the greater the danger of either despising or perverting it. For the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is complete. But this essential difference separates between the city for which Abraham looked and the bride so symbolised in the Apocalypse. It is the same Jesus who lived and died and rose again and is at the right hand of God. If you have and prize one alone, you have only got the half of Christianity yea, of its foundations. keystyle mmc corp login; thomson reuters drafting assistant user guide. The wise men of the present day are fast giving up the truth of creation. Indeed it is only the body that is here spoken of. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage .read more. New Living Translation Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. We must never forget that there is no such thing as a "common" man in the sight of God. Obviously far more people in the ancient world read Greek than Hebrew. "Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience; in all things willing to live honestly. What is the inference from that? It is the obedient car of which the psalmist is thinking. The inheritance of eternal life is indeed certain to us, but as life is like a race, we ought to go on towards the goal. This then is the monument for such as we are. With that, he waited silently in the pit until again there was crunching at the top of the pit. Thus, before he enters on the subject of the sacrifices at length, he takes notice of the covenants, and thence he draws a conclusion from the well-known prophecy in Jeremiah, where God declares that the days were coming when He would make a new covenant. the book of Hebrews A W Tozer preached these messages as part of a 40 sermon series shortly before his death . Instead of pining after that which is about to be destroyed, or repining at the call to go out to the place of Christ's shame on earth, Christianity, which replaces Judaism now, may well cause us to offer "the sacrifice of praise to God continually." James has said, "Have patience brethren; establish your souls for the Lord is waiting for the complete fruit of harvest" ( James 5:7 ). (ii) Jesus is the High Priest over God's house in the heavens. Then, having finished this part of the subject, the apostle turns to another characteristic in believers the mighty power of faith which knows how to draw on God, and breaks through all difficulties. Grace be with you all. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. In order that in this body, He might become the perfect, complete sacrifice for man. Are those two things true of you? It actually does mean a portrait, and would mean a photograph, if there had been such a thing in those days. The content of our hope is our complete salvation in Christ. I want to be listed in that hall of fame, those who believe in the promises God. The Old Testament is all about Jesus Christ. But what punishment can be sorer than to die without mercy? For then would they not have ceased to be offered? The fulfilment of the Melchisedec Order is found in Christ, and in Him alone. The father of the faithful was the one first called out by promise. (3) The Christians who received this epistle had already endured great hardship and suffering and should not throw all that away by becoming indifferent. They were to suffer patiently their trials, looking forward to their termination; and in order to encourage them patiently to endure, he reminds them in the next verse that it will only be for a very short time. Once Christ had come, the awfulness of sin lay not in its breaking of the law but in its trampling of the love of Christ under foot. The hill of Zion up to this time had been the constant menace of the enemy against the people of the Lord; but in due time, when David reigned, it was wrested out of the hands of the Jebusites, and became the stronghold of Jerusalem, the city of the king. (4) Patience should be exercised in order to win the crown of life. But these things were ineffective to remove the real pollution of sin. Moffatt speaks of "the levitical drudges" who, day in day out, kept offering these sacrifices. Hebrews 3:6 b and Hebrews 10:23; and Hebrews 3:17 and Hebrews 10:26). If one lives by faith during times of duress, then he will receive reward from God. These characteristics he proves to be really found in Christ Himself. Sinful man cannot be one with a holy God.Paul, writing to the Corinthians, who lived in that city that was so debauched, that the word Corinthian became a synonym for a totally debauched person. In this phrase there is no allusion whatever to the church; nor indeed anywhere in the Hebrews is there any reference to its distinctive portion in union with its Head. There is a trying day coming on us all, the day of our death, and we should observe all the signs of its approaching, and improve them to greater watchfulness and diligence in duty. Had they been taunted with having no altar, possessing nothing so holy and so glorious in its associations? He does not think merely for the thrill of intellectual satisfaction but only that he may the more forcibly appeal to men to enter into the presence of God. . These priestesses in the temple of Aphrodite were prostitutes. To the writer to the Hebrews the whole business of sacrifice was only a pale copy of what real worship ought to be. So, taketh away the first that He might establish the second. "For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" When he dwelt in Mesopotamia, he had a promise to bring him into Canaan; and when he got there, he had a promise of what was higher to lead his heart above. And almost all things are according to the law purged with blood; and without shedding, of blood is no remission. Christ with Belial and all." Look unto Jesus. The NT does not reject the notion that Christians will receive rewards, though, of course, that is never the prime motive for service." The duty itself--to hold fast the profession of our faith, to embrace all the truths and ways of the gospel, to get fast hold of them, and to keep that hold against all temptation and opposition. Therefore all such recurring sacrifices only call sins to remembrance; but what the blood of Christ has done is so completely to blot them out, that God Himself says, "I will remember them no more. When the Messiah was crucified, Judaism was in principle a dead thing: if it was in any sense kept up, it was no more than a decent time before its burial. From the description he gives of the sin of apostasy. It is a better substance than any thing they can have or lose here. The writer to the Hebrews says in effect: "Look at what has been done for you; look at the shed blood and the broken body of Christ; look at what your new relationship to God cost; can you treat it as if it did not matter? (5) Christ is faithful and will surely come to reward his followers as he promised. Because of Jesus the barrier of sin is for ever taken away. First, He makes a scene where sin enters at once. (ii) Sin is the failure to see the sacredness of sacred things. Therefore is it that men so naturally slip into, or rest on, second causes. He faced it all with gallantry and emerged erect and unbroken. But what at Zion? So I don't know how we can do any more than we are every night of the week around here and during the day, but anyhow . 1. The day of the Lord will come. Now is the time for self-denying labour, and endurance in grace; by-and-by the account must be given to the Lord that appointed them. The sacrifice acceptable to, God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge. Here observe, (1.) Boldness to enter into the holiest. Thus, the "saving of the soul" here has to do with ruining the Christian life. The grounds why Canaan could not consistently be made prominent in this epistle as a present thing, but only as a hope, we have already seen. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." [2.] Here, it is plain, we have the chief lineaments of revealed truth. As they are companions, so do they test a walk with God; one is faith, the other is suffering. "The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. Would he give up Isaac? Scripture: Hebrews 10:23-25. 37 For, "But my righteous[ b] one will live by faith. Christ has obtained redemption, and this is witnessed by the token of the veil rent from top to bottom. You're in no position to call the shots. 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If the writers concern had been the salvation of those readers who were unbelievers, this would have been an opportune time for him to exhort them to believe in Christ. Commentary on Hebrews 10:26-31. Others doubtless could speak of their Ararat, their Olympus, their Etna; but which boasted of the true God that loved His people in the way that Zion could? Hebrews 10:19-25 is an encouraging bridge between two major sections of the book of Hebrews. The happiness of the saints in heaven is substance, something of real weight and worth. The best that they could do was to give him a distant and spasmodic contact with God. For if they could have been perfect sacrifices that had put away the sins then would they not have ceased to be offered? "As it is appointed unto men once to die," wages of sin, though not all, "but after this the judgment," or the full wages of sin, "so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;" this He has finished; "and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (i) Jesus is the living way to the presence of God. 'It was therefore a crisis after the most painful accumulation of evils that weighed on the heart of Israel. "Through faith he instituted the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. It became us to have a Priest, "holy, harmless, undefiled, made higher than the heavens.". What man could not offer, Jesus offered. This is, as is well known, the special characteristic of the millennium. Charles Wesley in his great hymn appealed to men: It was when the flesh of Christ was rent upon the Cross that men really saw God. The communion of saints is a great help and privilege, and a good means of steadiness and perseverance; hereby their hearts and hands are mutually strengthened. If we formed our Christian character practically on such epistles as those to the Ephesians and Colossians alone, depend on it there may not be the hard lines of the law, but there will be very far from the fervent affections which become him who feels the grace of Christ. Can there be a doubt that Christianity is meant? The exhortation is based on a number of considerations, among which are these: (1) We have a great high priest who has opened up the new and living way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. David cried out, "Oh how happy is the man whose transgressions are forgiven. Christendom prefers the middle course; it will have neither the conscious nearness, to God, nor the place of Christ's reproach among men. The difference is very great. Next, it is a " counting of the blood of the covenant an unholy thing .". Nothing but obedience could open the way to God; disobedience set up a barrier that no animal sacrifice could ever take away. Then he went on to say: "Behold, I come to do your will." Nor is it pleasant to nature. 6. Oh how happy is the man whose sins are covered. The appeal of the writer to the Hebrews is one that could be made to every man. What had immediately preceded this, The cross. It became God to give Him to die; for such was our estate by sin that nothing short of His atoning death could deliver us; but, having delivered us, God would make us to be heavenly. During a time of rebellion, she went out and lived in open adultery with the leader of the rebellion. For the martyred saint's blood the earth cried to God for vengeance; but Christ's blood proclaims mercy from God, and the millennial day will be the glorious witness of its depth, and extent, and stability, before the universe. Hebrews 10:36 King James Version 36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Were it a question of the mystery of Christ the Head, and of the church His body, this would not be proved from the Old Testament, which does not reveal it at all. Here, (1.) The tapestry must be looked on as a whole before the full greatness is disclosed. But as for you who believe in Jesus, wait not for the Romans; let Judaism be nothing but a corpse, which does not concern you. The mean looks and sounds well, but is utterly false for the Christian. Here are Christians who were tempted to give up. God has made great and precious promises to believers, and he is a faithful God, true to his word; there is no falseness nor fickleness with him, and there should be none with us. We hold this in the face of difficulties, doubts, and discouragements. 2. To profess this hope is to be saved. And what is the effect of it? And of what did Christianity speak? He first brings us into the joy and nearness of His presence. Thus the cross and heavenly glory must go together. "But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor by blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood entered in once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption." For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This change was clearly taught in the book of Psalms. By abandoning meeting together, believers can drift away and cease to thrive. In contrast, Jesus had made a sacrifice that neither could nor need be repeated. that after ye have done the will of God: there is the purposing will of God, which is done by himself; and there is his revealed will, touching the salvation of men, which is done by his Son; and there is his will of precept to be done by men; and which, when done aright, is done according to the rule of his word, in faith, from love, through the strength of Christ, and by the assistance of his Spirit and grace, with a view to his glory, and without any dependence on what is done: and the will of God regards suffering, as well as doing; for to that the saints are also called, to which patience is necessary: ye might receive the promise; that is, of eternal life; not the promise itself, which they had received already, but the thing promised; which is the sense, in which this word is often used in this book, Hebrews 6:12 which is so called, to show that it is not of works, for promise and merit do not agree together; but that it is of grace, and will certainly be enjoyed, but must be patiently waited for. It is not so much the glory of a promising start that the Lord desires as it is the glory of a faithful finish. Alas! And so Paul warned the Corinthian believers concerning having a relations with a harlot. Those were now gone from the scene of their trials and labours, of "whom, considering the issue of their conversation, imitate the faith. Heaven, therefore, by man's own conviction, must be arrayed in justice against earth because of sin, But the day is coming when Israel shall be no more rebellious, and the nations shall be no longer deceived, and Satan shall be dethroned from his bad eminence, and all idols shall flee apace, and God shall be left the undisputed and evidently Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth. Thither they are to be brought, and there are means for the road to keep us moving onward. The severest and final trial of Abraham's faith was giving up the son, in whom all the promises were infolded, to receive him back on a resurrection ground in figure. To mark that as yet the veil was unrent. Christianity. Jesus sits down in perpetuity. 65:17, Isaiah 66:22-24, 2 Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 21:1-7) to live with them (Hebrews 4:1-9, Hebrews 12:2-24), in all eternity in peace, love, and joy. In doing so he points out the true nature of faith. After the Babylonian captivity, the Hebrew language was almost dead. The Greek word parresia, which appears in Hebrews 10:19 ("confidence") and in Hebrews 10:35 ("confidence"), frames the section and forms an inclusio tying the thought together. He describes Him thus in His judicial character. Not of course that one denies that He has His own proper place, for all is perfect as to each person of the Trinity and all else, but never to this end. III. to the foundations, which became apparent too, too quickly in Solomon's son. Satan craftily suggests every kind of trouble in order to discourage us. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching ( Hebrews 10:25 ). For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. But here is One who proffers Himself to come, and does come. He uses two words to indicate what he means. They have trodden under foot the Son of God. Christianity does not demand the impossible; but if we were always as honest, as kind, as courageous, as courteous as we can be, life would be transformed. That is to say, God is owned in His glory, as Creator of all by His word. If we are ever to have fellowship with God, obedience is the only way. In Hebrews 10:1-39 he applies the matter to the present state of the believer. 12:4 a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while # Phil. But this time is not yet come. It is not so much the power but the love of God which must conquer in the end. We are not those that draw back. The undivided place of Christ is more fully witnessed now, when there are no others to occupy the thought or to distract the heart from Him as seen by faith in glory on high. It is implied here that this promise will not be received unless we are patient in our trials, and the prospect of this reward should encourage us to endure them. He does not require to add more to the person and facts of Christ than the Old Testament furnishes, to prove the certainty of Christianity and all its characteristic truths with which he occupies himself in this epistle. It is very likely that the writer to the Hebrews did not know any Hebrew at all and therefore it is the Septuagint that he uses. (1.) They may be cleansed from guilt, from filth, from sinful fear and torment, from all aversion to God and duty, from ignorance, and error, and superstition, and whatever evils the consciences of men are subject to by reason of sin. 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