April 14, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Hebrews? Here’s today’s reading:
Hebrews 10 (NIV)
Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. .........Continue Reading
This chapter is a reminder of the difference between grace and the law. While it is clear good deeds and following old covenant laws are not required for our purification before Christ as the blood of Jesus has done that which we could never do on our own but rather It is that very sacrifice that should motivate service and following God’s commands out of fear of the Lord and a desire to bring Him glory.
Our tendency can be to try to “earn” our righteousness but that can never happen. Also in the same respect we may feel that sacrifice gives us a free ticket to live how we want disregarding God’s plans for our lives.
Hebrews 10
“let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Hebrews 10:22 NIV
https://www.bible.com/111/heb.10.22.niv
Hebrews 10
“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;”
Hebrews 10:5 NIV
https://www.bible.com/111/heb.10.5.niv
Very true, give to God through Christ what is required first, while also obeying laws of society that are put in place.
Hebrews 10
After establishing once again the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ’s sacrifice over the sacrifice of animals, the writer tells his readers to make sure we respond to and receive from it all that God intends. First we should draw near to God. We should take advantage of the access that Jesus makes possible and pursue the knowledge of and intimacy with God. Second, we should cling to the hope that flows from the reality of having this relationship with God. With Him in our lives, we have a confident expectation of what the future holds. Third, we should spur one another on to love and good deeds. Those are the things that God encourages in our lives and we have an important role to encourage the same things in each other’s lives. And in order to do that, we do the fourth thing and that is keep meeting together. And we can’t let COVID stop us from dong that in some way because our fellowship is an essential aspect of our Christian lives. Fifth we should sin less even if we will never be sinless. And when we do sin, no animal sacrifices will fix that. The same grace that establishes us in Christ addresses the sins we commit after salvation as well. And lastly the passage encourages us to persevere even in the presence of opposition. Persecution will be an inherent part of our Christian lives. We just can’t let it keep us from being and doing what God calls us to do be and do. It will be rewarded. In the end, WE WILL WIN!
And here is where we switch from the arguments of the first 10 chapters to the point of those arguments.
22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I think this is an oft misinterpreted scripture: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”
I think this is referring to unbelief. Paul (and I think it is Paul because he refers in verse 34 to them sharing with him while he was “in chains”) has just gone in to depth as to why Christ’s sacrifice is the fulfillment of all. Once they have put their faith in Christ to accomplish their salvation, they cannot then go back to the old ways of offering a sacrifice of bulls or goats for their sins. He is encouraging them by remembering what they endured already and their assurance in the faith. He is encouraging them to press on in what they know/knew: “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
“For yet a little while,
And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.”
I don’t believe they are in jeopardy of losing their salvation, I think he is just sharing the truth that the old system is no longer available, suitable or sufficient and reversion to that reliance is basically unbelief. Belief in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins is the only way to have a relationship with God and attain to eternal life.
After Jesus fulfilled his purpose, he waits for his enemies to be his footstool. He conquered his enemies by dying on the cross and being raised to life. By his sacrifice, he made us holy and perfect forever, that is so wonderful and amazing! He says our sins and lawless acts he will remember no more. Because of this, our guilt has been washed away. We are to approach Jesus with sincerity, assurance, and a clear conscience. Out of love we encourage one another, meet and help one another. Take no mind to those people who do evil and insult God, they will be punished in God’s time. We are not to fret about it, God has it under control. When we are persecuted, do not give up. Persevere in the faith knowing we will receive what God has promised!
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
19Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.