Hebrews 10:11–18

10:11 When surveying the features of the law’s earthly sanctuary above (9:1–10), our author mentioned the daily ministries of many priests in its first section (the Holy Place) and the high priest’s yearly ministry (Day of Atonement) in the inner section (the Most Holy Place). He then discussed why the sacrificial blood presented by high priests “repeatedly” (pollakis; 9:25) on the Day of Atonement could not cleanse worshipers’ consciences, as Christ’s sacrifice has done once for all (9:11–10:10). Now the discussion returns to the daily ministry conducted by the ordinary priests.

Inside the Holy Place, the priests attended to the lampstand and offered incense on a daily basis, and weekly they replaced the bread of the Presence (Ex. 25:30; 27:20–21; 30:6–8). On the altar of burnt offering in the courtyard, priests sacrificed two year-old lambs each day (one in the morning and another in the evening; Ex. 29:38–46; Num. 28:1–8). These animal sacrifices, offered “frequently” (pollakis), are in view here. They were frequent, many, and redundant (“the same sacrifices”) because they could never take away sins. Their inability to atone for sins or cleanse consciences was demonstrated by the priests’ posture as they performed their acts of worship: those Levitical priests always stood (Deut. 18:5) because their work was never finished; the sacrifices they offered could never remove the guilt of sin.

10:12–14 In contrast to the Levitical priests, who perpetually stood to perform repetitive and ultimately ineffective service, Jesus “sat down at the right hand of God.” His enthronement is the result of his having offered “for all time” (eis to diēnekes; also in 7:3) a “single sacrifice.” The terms “for all time” and “single” will reappear in verse 14, so they function as bookends (an inclusio) surrounding and unifying this further argument for the superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice. At its center (vv. 12b–13) this argument revisits Psalm 110:1, enlisting its testimony to clinch the case that Christ has completed forever the removal of sin’s stain from our consciences.

Psalm 110:1 reads, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Jesus appealed to this passage to challenge his critics’ assumption that the Messiah, whom David calls “my Lord,” would be merely human (Matt. 22:41–45). This text is the source of NT passages teaching that Christ is now “at the right hand” of God in heaven (Matt. 26:64; Acts 2:33–36; 5:31; 7:55–56; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20). Paul alludes to this verse in 1 Corinthians 15:25–26, declaring that the risen Christ must reign until all his enemies—the last of which is death (cf. Rev. 20:7–14)—are subjected under his feet.

In Hebrews, Psalm 110:1 has been alluded to in the prologue (Heb. 1:3) and in the series of OT passages demonstrating the Son’s superiority to angels (1:13). The Son’s enthronement “at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” shows that his priestly ministry is conducted not in an earthly sanctuary but in “the true tent that the Lord set up” (8:1–2). Here in 10:12 our attention is drawn to Jesus’ posture: having offered the single sacrifice that finally removes sins, “he sat down” at God’s right hand. The prologue had profiled the two phases of the Son’s redemptive mission: “After making purification for sins, he sat down” (1:3). Later our author will encourage us to stay steadfast under suffering by directing our sight to Jesus and his two phases of ministry as mediator: he “endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2; cf. Luke 24:26; 1 Pet. 1:11).

Just as believers are awaiting Christ’s reappearance from heaven (Heb. 9:28), so he himself is waiting “until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” His death has already neutralized the Devil, “who has the power of death,” and has freed us from slavery to the fear of death (2:14–15). The blood of the Lamb has deprived that accuser of his right to press charges against us (Rev. 12:10–11). But both NT Scripture and Christian experience show that Christ’s archenemy and many lesser enemies still resist his rule and assault his people (Eph. 4:27; 6:11; 1 Pet. 5:8). Only in “the world to come” will everything be subjected under Christ’s feet. Even though he is already “crowned with glory and honor,” we “do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Heb. 2:5–9; cf. 1 Cor. 15:25–28).

Because Christ’s “single sacrifice for sins” achieved the forgiveness that animal deaths could never provide (Heb. 10:12), his “single offering” results in the “perfecting” and “sanctifying” of those who draw near to God through him (10:14). Throughout Hebrews, “perfect” (teleioō) carries the sense it acquired in the LXX, expressing the consecration qualifying priests (and other worshipers) to approach God’s presence in worship (cf. comment on 2:10). Although he was sinless, Christ was “perfected”—that is, “designated by God a high priest”—through his suffering (5:8–10; 2:10; 7:28). All others, stained by sin, can only be “perfected”—purified of defilement to draw near in worship—when their sins are atoned for and their consciences purified from pollution (7:19; 9:11; 10:1).

Although “are being sanctified” gives the impression of referring to the Holy Spirit’s progressive transformation of Christians’ character, the phrase is better understood as describing the holy standing conferred immediately on believers when their consciences are cleansed, once for all, by Christ’s atoning blood (cf. comment on 10:8–10). Under the OT law, animals’ blood “sanctified” for the purification of the flesh so that those previously defiled could thereafter rejoin Israel’s worshiping community (9:13). So also Christ’s single sacrifice for sins has cleansed our consciences and consecrated us as holy priests, once for all and for all time.

10:15 God’s word itself supports this conclusion, since the Holy Spirit “bears witness [martyreō] to us” in the new covenant prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31–34, previously cited in Hebrews 8:7–12. The Holy Spirit speaks in Scripture not only in the remote past, when the word came through prophets (Heb. 1:1), but also in the present, as he still speaks through those ancient texts to new covenant believers. For instance, Psalm 95, penned by David, is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in our “today” (Heb. 3:7). The old covenant’s regulations restricting access to the tabernacle were the Holy Spirit’s way of demonstrating that the way into God’s presence had not yet arrived (9:8). Through the OT, God bears witness (martyreō) on behalf of Jesus (Heb. 7:8, 17) and on behalf of ancient saints who responded to God’s promises in active faith (11:2, 4–5, 39). Now the Spirit speaks his testimony in the new covenant promises delivered through Jeremiah.

10:16–17 Having cited Jeremiah’s prophecy more fully in 8:7–12, our author selects two of the new covenant’s “better promises” to conclude his case for the superiority of this covenant, of which Christ is mediator (8:6).

First, God will put his laws into his people’s hearts. The contrast with the covenant at Sinai, which the Israelites broke, is made explicit by Paul when he describes the Spirit of the living God writing his message “not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor. 3:3). The author of Hebrews has contrasted cleansing rituals that touch only the flesh with the conscience-purifying effectiveness of Christ’s blood (Heb. 9:9–10, 13–14). It is not that believers merely imagine that they are presently sinless; rather, their sin’s defilement has been removed and no longer obstructs their communion with God.

Yet the writing of God’s laws into our hearts also includes the Holy Spirit’s transformation of our motivations, affections, and desires so that “the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” always visible to God (4:12), begin to conform to the heart of Jesus, who said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:6–8, cited partially in Heb. 10:7). When our author quotes Psalm 110:1 and 4 (as he repeatedly does), he may intend to evoke also the intervening verses, which state this promise in other words: “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments.” (Ps. 110:3).

Second, God “will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Whereas the Day of Atonement sacrifices were a “reminder of sins every year” (Heb. 10:3), under the new covenant God will no longer keep sinners’ offenses in mind; he will no longer relate to them in terms of their sin and guilt but rather will welcome them as holy through the purification they have received from Christ. Jeremiah 31:34 is one of several OT texts that portray God’s forgiveness as his refusal to “remember sins” (Pss. 25:7; 79:8; Isa. 43:25; 64:9; Ezek. 18:22; contrast Jer. 14:10). Instead of our sins, God “remembers” his mercy and his steadfast love (Ps. 25:6) through Christ, the mediator of the new covenant.

10:18 The closing comment underscores the importance of God’s commitment to “remember their sins . . . no more” because of Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice. His full and free forgiveness means that no further offering for sin is needed. Christ’s single sacrifice ended all the animal bloodshed God’s law had mandated for the era of anticipation (10:8–9).