Speaking about Christian life, the author of the letter recalls ancient prophecies whose meaning comes down to the fact that the messianic age is the age of universal redemption and forgiveness of sins...
Speaking about Christian life, the author of the letter recalls ancient prophecies whose meaning comes down to the fact that the messianic age is the age of universal redemption and forgiveness of sins. He understands perfectly well that nothing of the kind can be achieved by the partial purification that traditional Yahwist purifying sacrifices could provide. Something must happen that will qualitatively change the situation with purification. And this something must undoubtedly be connected with the Person of the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. Thus the image takes shape of what is usually called the redemptive sacrifice of Christ.
The issue, of course, is not ransom in the sense in which we usually understand that word today, not that God buys someone back from the devil, paying for the redeemed with the life of His Son. The issue is redemption in the sense in which purifying sacrifices in the Old Testament books are sometimes called redemptive: they free a person from the power of sin, partially and for a time, at the cost of God's intervention and the death of the animal offered in sacrifice, which, of course, is in no way guilty of the sins of those who are freed from them through the sacrifice being offered. So Christ too takes upon Himself the consequences of the sins we have committed, and for this He comes into the fallen world, which in the end kills Him. And He consents to being killed, although He is, of course, in no way guilty of the sins whose consequences He takes upon Himself, and indeed has no part in any sin at all.
Yet without such cleansing intervention, the fullness of sanctification will remain inaccessible to fallen humanity, just as the Kingdom will remain inaccessible. Christ voluntarily gives up His life, goes to death, sacrifices Himself in order to intervene in the situation connected with our sins, in order to deal in our place with the consequences of what we have done, because we ourselves will never be able to deal with those consequences. This is the sense in which both Paul and his disciple, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, speak of redemptive sacrifice.
10
10:1 From all that has been said it appears, that the law, the Mosaic dispensation, being a bare, unsubstantial shadow of good things to come, of the gospel blessings, and not the substantial, solid image of them, can never with the same kind of sacrifices, though continually repeated, make the comers thereunto perfect, either as to justification or sanctification.How is it possible, that any who consider this should suppose the attainments of David, or any who were under that dispensation, to be the proper measure of gospel holiness; and that Christian experience is to rise no higher than Jewish?
10:2 They who had been once perfectly purged, would have been no longer conscious either of the guilt or power of their sins.
10:3 There is a public commemoration of the sins both of the last and of all the preceding years; a clear proof that the guilt thereof is not perfectly purged away.
10:4 It is impossible the blood of goats should take away sins - Either the guilt or the power of them.
10:5 When he cometh into the world - In the fortieth psalm the Messiah's coming into the world is represented.It is said, into the world, not into the tabernacle, Heb 9:1; because all the world is interested in hissacrifice. A body hast thou prepared for me - That I may offer up myself. Psa 40:6,etc
10:7 In the volume of the book - In this very psalm it is written of me. Accordingly I come to do thy will - By the sacrifice of myself.
10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice thou hast not chosen - That is, when the Psalmist pronounced those words in his name.
10:9 Then said he - in that very instant he subjoined.Lo, I come to do Thy will - To offer a more acceptable sacrifice; and by this very act he taketh away the legal, that he may establish the evangelical, dispensation.
10:10 By which will - Of God, done and suffered by Christ.We are sanctified - Cleansed from guilt, and consecrated to God.
10:11 Every priest standeth - As a servant in an humble posture.
10:12 But he - The virtue of whose one sacrifice remains for ever. Sat down - As a son, in majesty and honour.
10:13 Psa 110:1.
10:14 He hath perfected them for ever - That is, has done all that was needful in order to their full reconciliation with God.
10:15 In this and the three following verses, the apostle winds up his argument concerning the excellency and perfection of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. He had proved this before by a quotation from Jeremiah; which he here repeats, describing the new covenant as now completely ratified, and all the blessings of it secured to us by the one offering of Christ, which renders all other expiatory sacrifices, and any repetition of his own, utterly needless.
10:16 Jer 31:33, etc