NOTES for Heb 10:11-18

Once again recalling Jeremiah's words about the new, messianic union-covenant (vv. 15-17; cf. Jer. 31:31-33), the author of the letter thereby moves from the concept of the external Torah to the concept of the inner Torah, and also to the image of the living Torah, which was well known not only to Jewish tradition but also to early Christian tradition. These concepts and images were foundational for the Christian worldview of his teacher as well: Paul in his letters also turned more than once to the theme of the inner Torah and to the image of the living Torah, seeing them as the basis for understanding what Christianity and life in the Kingdom are.

The main distinguishing feature of life in the Kingdom, the author of the letter, following the apostle, considers to be freedom from sin, which makes the former priestly Torah no longer relevant: in its former quality it was directed precisely toward resisting sin, which cannot exist in the Kingdom (v. 18). Yet its meaning and significance remain the same: the main purpose of the priestly Torah was the sanctification of the people, and this task remains relevant. Life in the Kingdom is sanctified life, so that the residents of the Kingdom need sanctification no less, and even more, than those who sought and awaited the Kingdom in our still-untransformed world in pre-Christian times. Moreover, they need sanctification in all its fullness, which the former priesthood cannot give, but whose possibility is opened to them with the coming of the Savior (vv. 11-14). And this sanctification had to be not external, touching first of all the body of the one being sanctified, but internal, beginning in the heart and eventually taking hold of the whole person.

Of course, such sanctification cannot be instantaneous, since it presupposes a person's final liberation from sin and the transformation of his nature; but by definition it does not allow repetition. If, for any reason, this spiritual process is interrupted, a falling back is inevitable, and then everything has to begin again from the start. In the Kingdom there is not and cannot be repeated cleansing and repeated sanctification: repeated cleansing would mean that a resident of the Kingdom at some moment ceased to be one, cutting himself off from the life he had lived before, and now he needs to return, in a certain sense beginning everything from zero. That is why the author of the letter speaks of the perfection of those being sanctified: they have already become residents of the Kingdom, now awaiting its final triumph and Christ's return in glory (vv. 12-14).