22  Christ, the Perfect  Sacrifice (10:1-18)

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the roll of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.’ ” After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Thy will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. (10:1-18)

There is a story of an English village whose chapel had an arch on which was written: “We Preach Christ Crucified.” For years godly men preached there and they presented a crucified Savior as the only means of salvation. But as the generation of godly preachers passed, a generation arose that considered the cross and its message antiquated and repulsive. They began to preach salvation by Christ’s example rather than by His blood. They did not see the necessity of His sacrifice. After a while, ivy crept up the side of the arch and covered the word “Crucified,” and only “We Preach Christ” was visible. Then the church decided that its message need not even be confined to Christ and the Bible. So the preachers began to give discourses on social issues, politics, philosophy, moral rearmament, and whatever else happened to spark interest. The ivy on the arch continued to grow until it covered the third word. Then it simply read, “We Preach.”

In cultured, sophisticated Corinth, Paul was “determined to know nothing among [them] except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Christ crucified is the only hope of men, and that is the theme of Hebrews 10:1-18. Here is the record of Jesus’ death from the theological, rather than the historical, standpoint. We are shown the meaning and the depth of His death in all of its richness. In His death, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice.

In chapter 9 we saw the necessity of His sacrifice; here we see the character of His sacrifice. The first six verses lay the foundation by showing the ineffectiveness of the old sacrifices. We tread here some familiar ground in the study of this epistle.

THE FAILURE OF THE OLD SACRIFICES

Under the Old Covenant, the priests were busy all day long, from dawn to sunset, slaughtering and sacrificing animals. It is estimated that at Passover as many as three hundred thousand lambs would be slain within a week. The slaughter would be so massive that blood would run out of the Temple ground through specially prepared channels into the Brook Kidron, which seemed to be running with blood.

But no matter how many sacrifices were made, or how often, they were ineffective. They failed in three ways: they could not bring access to God; they could not remove sin; and they were only external.

THEY COULD NOT BRING ACCESS TO GOD

The great cry in the hearts of Old Testament saints was to be in the presence of God (cf. Ex. 33:15; Ps. 16:11). But they really had no way of getting there. Even the high priest on the Day of Atonement could not take the people inside the veil, where, symbolically, God dwelt. All the old ceremonies and sacrifices, though offered continually, year after year, could never make perfect those who draw near. They could never save, never bring access to God.

They were shadows and could only reflect the very form of the good things to come, the realities of the privileges and blessings of salvation. The law only pictured these things. The old rituals and practices “are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17). Christ is the fulfillment of the good things to come: forgiveness, peace, a clear conscience, security, and, above all, access to God. These blessings were only pictured in the Old Covenant, they were never realized.

Shadow (skia) refers specifically to a pale shadow, as contrasted with a sharp, distinct one. The law and the ceremonies and rituals together were only a pale shadow of the things Christ would bring. They were form without substance. They portrayed something real, but were not themselves real.

The very form (eikn), on the other hand, indicates an exact replica, a complete representation, or detailed reproduction. If photography had been in existence then, the writer possibly would have called it a photograph—a clear, sharp, detailed photograph in full color. The Spirit is saying that the old system was a shadow, whereas the new system is the actual substance, the very reality. Before Christ, no one could get closer to the good things of God than the shadows of them.

Judaism today is even without many of the shadows. Jews have the Scriptures, what we refer to as the Old Testament, and they continue to celebrate certain feast days. But they have no tabernacle or temple or priesthood, and therefore no sacrifices—daily or yearly. Yom Kippur is still observed, but without a high priest, without an altar, and without a sacrificial lamb. Because modern unbelieving Jews refuse to recognize the New Covenant God made with them, even the Old has lost much of its significance. What at best was pale, has faded even more. What was always indistinct has become even more indistinct. Most Jews follow neither the Scriptures nor the ceremonies. They will not accept the new sacrifice and have lost even the old. If, during the time when the previous covenant was in force, the old sacrifices could never make perfect, how much less effective would they be now—even if, somehow, they continued?

To make perfect (teleio) is to bring to completion, to bring to the intended end. The end to which the Old Covenant pointed was access to God, full salvation, but it was never intended to bring men to God. It did not make perfect because God never intended for it to make perfect. Its purpose was to picture, not to perfect.

Again the writer stresses that the same sacrifices were offered year after year, . . . continually. The repetition of the old sacrifices is a theme that itself is repeated many times in Hebrews. You can pile shadow on shadow on shadow, and you still have no substance. Repetition of a symbol is like multiplying with zero. No matter how many times you repeat the process, the result never increases.

Why, then, did God go to all the trouble to establish the Old Covenant, with its shadow ceremonies, its shadow rituals, its shadow sacrifices? What was the point? As we have learned, the first point was simply that, even as a shadow, it had a purpose—to reflect the reality of which it was the shadow. It pointed to the salvation that was to come. It was to make God’s people expectant. “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry” (1 Pet. 1:10). A shadow of something—certainly a God-given shadow—is immeasurably better than no evidence at all.

Second, the purpose of the shadow sacrifices was to remind God’s people that the penalty of sin is death. The blood that sometimes flowed from the altar came from animals who were killed as sacrifices for sin. The people were constantly being reminded that the wages of sin is death, because death was going on all day long throughout their history as animals were being slaughtered.

Third, God gave His people the sacrifices as a covering for sin. Even a shadow is better than nothing if it can to some degree cover sin. When properly offered from a true heart of faith, the old sacrifices removed immediate, temporal judgment from God. To despise the sacrifices was to be cut off from His people and to incur His temporal punishment, because it betrayed an unbelieving, disobedient heart. Those sacrifices were temporal and they had some temporal effect and value. They could not bring a person into God’s presence, but they were important in maintaining a demonstration of a person’s covenantal relationship to Him.

THEY COULD NOT REMOVE SIN

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. (10:2-3)

With their shadow, the animal sacrifices could cover, but never remove, sin. Yet removal of sin is what men need. Sin and guilt eat away at us. But the old system could not remove sin or guilt. If it could have, the sacrifices would have stopped. Once having removed sin, they would no longer have been necessary.

The old sacrifices not only did not remove sin, but they were a continual reminder that they could not. In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. Even the covering of sin was temporary. It lasted only until the next sin. It was a burdensome, disappointing system.

Suppose you get sick and the doctor gives you a prescription. You get it filled and start taking the medicine. If it works, every time you look at the bottle you are happy and are reminded that you are cured, that the sickness is gone. But if it does not work, every time you look at the bottle it reminds you that the medicine is ineffective and that you are still sick. It may sometimes give relief from the symptoms, but it does nothing to cure the disease. A person who must take a medicine to stay alive cannot be said to be cured.

The old sacrifices and ceremonies had somewhat this same effect on Israel. Instead of removing her sins, they only gave temporary relief and were a constant reminder that her sins were still there. Another year, another lamb, another sacrifice—and the sins were still there. The sacrifices kept reminding the people that they were sinful, and that they were at the mercy of God and could not enter into His presence. Far from erasing sin, the Tabernacle and Temple sacrifices only served to call attention to it.

Consciousness in 10:2 translates the same Greek word (suneidsis) as does “conscience” in 9:9; 10:22; and 13:18. The basic meaning is the same in all four places. The word has to do with man’s innate awareness of wrong in his life and of his sense of guilt because of it. Conscience is built into man’s makeup. It acts on our minds and hearts much as pain acts on our bodies. Guilt reacts to moral and spiritual injury in much the same way that pain reacts to physical injury. Both are warning systems. Neither is enjoyable, but both serve a good purpose.

Old Testament believers were never freed from the presence and awareness of guilt or, consequently, from the anxiety and tension that it brings (see Rom. 5-6). It is a wonderful blessing for Christians to know that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1). It is a wonderful thing to be free from guilt and to recognize that our sins are continually being forgiven by the grace of God through the death of Christ.

But there was no such freedom of conscience under the previous covenant. In fact, the more faithful and godly the person was, the guiltier he was likely to feel, because he was more aware of and sensitive to God’s holiness and his own sinfulness. He was torn between his knowledge of God’s law and his knowledge of his own breaking of that law. We only have to read Psalm 51 to realize how deeply David felt his guilt. He was “a man after God’s own heart,” and yet he was never free from his consciousness of his guilt before God. David knew, as this psalm also testifies, of God’s love and mercy and grace. But the deliverance he describes so beautifully is always future. He knows that salvation, with its cleansing and renewing and joy, is coming. He does not speak as one who has experienced it, when he says, “My sin is ever before me” (Ps. 51:3).

It is not that the Christian, who really is cleansed of sin, is no longer conscious of sin in his life. No one should be more aware of his own sin than the Christian, because, just as the faithful and godly Old Testament saint, he is more aware of God’s holiness and standards of righteousness. The Christian should be conscious of his sin, but his conscience should no longer be unduly burdened by it.

It is the unbeliever, and the carnal or untaught believer, who is deluded about the presence of sin in his life. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” and “we make Him a liar” (1 John 1:8, 10). Proverbs 28:13 is true in every dispensation—”He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” The forgiven sinner is not insensitive to sin, but he knows he is forgiven in Christ and is thereby delivered from fear of judgment.

THEY WERE ONLY EXTERNAL

The old sacrifices were also ineffective because they were only external. They never got to the heart of the problem. Sin is very often manifested outwardly, but its cause is always internal. The old sacrifices had no way of reaching inside of a person and changing him. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. These sacrifices only sanctified “for the cleansing of the flesh,” the external, but “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God” (9:13-14), cleanses our consciences, the internal.

There was no real relationship between a person’s sin and an animal sacrifice. The relationship was only symbolic, typical. It was impossible for the blood of an amoral animal to bring forgiveness for a man’s moral offense against God. Only Jesus Christ, the perfect union of humanity and deity, could satisfy God and purify man. Only His death could be the ultimate sacrifice, the only effective sacrifice.

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure. (10:5-6)

It is essential to know that the external ceremonies had an internal requirement to make them acceptable to God. The person who did not sacrifice out of an honest heart was not covered even externally or ceremonially (see Amos 4:4-5; 5:21-25). It is this sort of sacrifice that Thou hast not desired. The people had taken what was meant to be a symbol of real faith and used it as a substitute for faith. Their trust was in the outward form. It came to be seen as a form of magic, wherein the prescribed words or actions automatically produced the desired result. God Himself had instituted the sacrificial system, but as a means for expressing obedience to Him, not as a means of using Him.

As Samuel reminded Saul when the old system was relatively new, “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). To sacrifice without obedience, to go through a ritual without faith and devotion to God, was mockery and hypocrisy that was worse than no sacrifice at all. In Psalm 51 David describes the only kind of sacrifice acceptable to God, even under the Old Covenant: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:17). Isaiah says much the same thing.

“What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.... So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless; defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” (Isa. 1:11, 15-18)

When sacrifices were not offered in the right spirit, they could not even cover sin temporarily. They even lost their symbolic value. They were mere form without content and were absolutely worthless. Instead of pleasing God, they became an abomination that He hated (Isa. 1:13-14).

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE NEW SACRIFICE

The ineffectiveness of animal sacrifices is now compared to the effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice. Seven superiorities of the new are mentioned.

IT REFLECTS GOD’S ETERNAL WILL

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me; . . . Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the roll of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.’ ” (10:5, 7)

Christ’s sacrifice was effective first of all because it was God’s will all along. In the mind of God, before the world was ever created, He knew that the old system would be ineffective. From the beginning He had planned that Jesus would come and die. When He conies into the world, . . . He says, “a body Thou hast prepared for Me.” When Christ was ready to be incarnated, standing on the edge of heaven, as it were, talking to His Father, He acknowledged that His own body was to be the sacrifice that would please God.

God could never have been satisfied with animal offerings and He became less satisfied with them as they became a sham and a mockery. To many offerers they had come to be meaningless religious ritual, and had nothing to do with obedience or faith.

Jesus’ supreme mission on earth was to do His Father’s will. Over and over in the gospels, Jesus speaks of His having come to do the Father’s will and only the Father’s will. His was the perfect sacrifice because it was offered in perfect obedience to God. During the wilderness temptations, Satan’s purpose was to deter Jesus from His divine mission, to turn Him from His Father’s will. Satan even prompted the unwitting disciples to try to dissuade Jesus from His mission—as when Peter, thinking he was showing loyalty to his Master, rebuked Jesus for suggesting that He had to die and be resurrected (Mark 8:31-33). “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here” (John 14:31). When He said this, Jesus was about to be arrested. His saying, “Let us go,” therefore, referred to the crucifixion, Jesus’ ultimate act of obedience to the Father.

From Jesus’ teaching to them, the disciples should long beforehand have realized that their Lord’s ministry was to lead to His suffering and death. They should, in fact, already have known this from the Scriptures. They knew He was the Messiah, and they should have known that the Messiah was to come to die. What could have been a clearer prediction of the Messiah’s sacrificial death than these words of Isaiah?

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. (Isa. 53:4-5)

It was not dying in itself, of course, that was Jesus’ ultimate act of obedience, but rather His taking man’s total sin upon Himself in His death. His greatest test of obedience was in the garden, when He prayed, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for Thee; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). Many people, before and after Jesus, have willingly and bravely faced a martyr’s death. But no one else has, or could have, taken upon himself the sins of the whole world. No one else has been, or could have been, so utterly repulsed at the prospect. And no one else has been, or could have been, so obedient.

On the cross Jesus was saying, “Father, I know You are not satisfied with the old system and the old sacrifices, but I know You are satisfied with Me and with My sacrifice. So I will gladly pay the price of obedience.”

IT REPLACES THE OLD SYSTEM

After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Thy will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. (10:8-9)

The writer continues his commentary on Psalm 40:6-8, which he has referred to in verses 5-7, pointing out that God took away the first, that is, the old sacrifices, to make way for the second, the new sacrifice. His point was to show the Jewish readers—again—that the Old Covenant was not then, never had been, and never could have been satisfactory. It was not meant to be permanent or truly effective, only temporary and symbolic. God’s focus was always on the second covenant, the superior covenant, the perfect covenant. And that second covenant has now come in Jesus Christ. “You cannot be under two covenants at the same time,” they are being told, “and now that the second has come, the first has to go.” Whatever purpose and validity the first one had are now past. It no longer has any purpose or validity. God has forever set it aside. All this repeated emphasis reveals a pleading heart, calling the readers to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

IT SANCTIFIES THE BELIEVER

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (10:10)

The new sacrifice is effective because it sanctifies the believer, makes him holy. The old system had no way of making a man holy. To be sanctified, or made holy (hagiaz), basically means to be set apart. When the word is used in Scripture of men, it always refers to being set apart by God for God. From this same Greek word group we also get saint. In biblical terms, a saint is a person whom God has set apart for Himself. It is God’s will that we be set apart, not only positionally but practically. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3).

The Greek verb form in verse 10 (we have been sanctified) is a perfect participle with a finite verb, which shows in the strongest way the believer’s continuing and permanent salvation. The force of the statement is, “You have been permanently made holy.” This fulfills the desire of our Lord, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16; cf. Lev. 11:44).

One act, in one moment, provided permanent sanctification for everyone who places his trust in Jesus Christ (cf. Col. 2:10; 2 Pet. 1:3-4). On the cross, He sanctified us, set us apart unto Himself, forever holy and dear to Himself and to the Father.

Our positional standing before God and our practical standing are, of course, quite different things. If we are in Christ, we will forever be in Christ. This position before the Father will not be modified an iota throughout all eternity. But our practical holiness, as we all know, is all too changeable. Speaking to the Christians at Colossae, Paul wrote, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. . . , and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth” (Col. 3:5, 7-8). All these believers to whom Paul was speaking were positionally holy, but many of them—possibly all of them—were not practically holy. It is God’s will that our practice match our position, that we really become in person who we are in Christ.

It is positional holiness that is in mind in Hebrews 10:10, for the holiness here is an accomplished fact—we have been sanctified. Regardless of how holy our walk may be, in our standing we are completely and permanently set apart unto God if we have trusted in the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

IT REMOVES SIN

And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. (10:11-12)

Christ’s sacrifice is effective because it removes sin, which the other covenant could never do. The New Covenant went from daily sacrifice to one sacrifice, from ineffective sacrifices to the one perfectly effective sacrifice.

These two verses are a series of contrasts—the many priests with the one Priest, the continual standing of the old priests with the sitting down of the new, the repeated offerings with the once-for-all offering, and the ineffective sacrifices that only covered sin with the effective sacrifice that completely removes sin.

The Levitical system had twenty-four orders, in each of which were hundreds of priests who took turns serving at the altar. This system did not lack for priests, but it did lack effectiveness. All the priests together could not make an effective sacrifice for sin. Christ was but one priest, yet His work was perfectly and permanently effective.

The Levitical priests always stood because their ministry was never finished. Christ, after His sacrifice sat down at the right hand of God, because His work was finished.

The Levitical sacrifices, with all their priests and all their repetition, could never take away sins. Christ’s sacrifice took away the sins of believers for all time.

IT DESTROYED HIS ENEMIES

Waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. (10:13)

Christ’s sacrifice was effective because it conquered His enemies. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament did nothing to get rid of Satan. They had absolutely no effect on him at all, nor on the godless demons and people who served him. But when Jesus died on the cross, He dealt a death-blow to all His enemies. First of all, He conquered “him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Second, He also triumphed over all the other fallen angels (Col. 2:14-15). Third, He disarmed and triumphed over all rulers and authorities of all ages who have rejected and opposed God (Col. 2:15). He is now only waiting until all His enemies be made a footstool, that is, until they acknowledge His lordship by bowing at His feet (Phil. 2:10).

Jesus Christ will stand above all those who were His enemies. He won the victory over them at the cross. There, all the enemies of God throughout the ages gathered together to inflict on Him their worst, which was death. But Jesus conquered death just as He conquered the other enemies. He went in one side of death and out the other. Not only that, but He conquered death for all who ever have and ever will believe in God. Jesus Christ turned Satan’s worst into God’s best.

IT PERFECTS THE SAINTS FOREVER

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (10:14)

The new sacrifice was effective because it gives believers eternal perfection. Again, it must be emphasized that perfection is eternal salvation. To make perfected here mean “spiritually matured” would not be consistent with the context. The death of Jesus Christ removes sin forever for those who belong to Him. We are totally secure in our Savior. We need cleansing when we fall into sin, but we need never fear God’s judgment on us because of our sin. As far as Christ’s sacrifice is concerned, we have already been sanctified and perfected—which is why He had to sacrifice Himself only once. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin (10:18). The forgiveness is permanent because the sacrifice is permanent.

IT FULFILLS THE PROMISE OF A NEW COVENANT

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (10:15-17)

Finally, the new sacrifice of Christ is effective because it fulfills the promise of a New Covenant. In other words, the new sacrifice had to be made and had to be effective because God promised that it would be. The new sacrifice was central to the New Covenant, which God said would put His laws upon their heart, and upon their mind, and which would cause Him to forget their sins and their lawless deeds. The new sacrifice was effective, therefore, because it had to accomplish these things (prophesied in Jeremiah 31:33-34) in order for God to fulfill His promises, which cannot be broken.

Though the New Covenant was new, it was not a new revelation, but the fulfillment of an old one. Now that it had arrived, Jews, more than any others, should have welcomed it with unbounded joy and relief. The promise was not Jeremiah’s, but was God’s—the very witness of the Holy Spirit.

The readers were being put on the horns of a great dilemma, which they could not escape. The Holy Spirit, through the writer of Hebrews, is saying, “You cannot accept the teaching of your own beloved prophet Jeremiah and yet reject the New Covenant he prophesied. You cannot accept one without the other.” To accept Jeremiah is to accept Jesus Christ. To reject Jesus Christ is to reject Jeremiah (not to mention the many other prophets who spoke of the Messiah) and to reject the Holy Spirit Himself.

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. (10:18)

The work of sacrifice is done. There will be no more. Forgiveness is already provided for those who trust in this one perfect sacrifice. Why would anyone want to go back to the old sacrifices, which were never finished and never effective? To reject is to have no other hope of forgiveness—ever.

“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Salvation—glorious and perfect salvation—is promised in the Old Covenant and purchased in the New.