CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Hebrews 10:12. This man.—The expression is intended to remind us of His relation to us as federal Head. For ever.—Or as we use the word, “finally.” Never again to be repeated. Sat down.—Implying two things:
(1) the acknowledgment of the acceptance of His sacrifice; and
(2) the delegation to Him of the right and the power to apply to men the benefits gained by the sacrifice.
Hebrews 10:14. Perfected for ever.—As above, “finally.” Not “at once,” “entirely,” “as soon as they believe.” The word stands in relation to the “repetition” spoken of above.
Hebrews 10:15-18. Holy Ghost.—As the seal and witness. The redemption wrought by Christ alters, once for all, our standing with God. But this writer is evidently supremely anxious to impress the moral value and sphere of the redemptive work. Our vital and saving relations of faith and love, with Christ, bring to us a new principle of obedience, and inspiration to righteousness. With these established in us, all the past of our sin can be freely and fully forgiven. This concludes the doctrinal portion of the epistle, and the writer proceeds to give further exhortations, and fresh appeals and encouragements, all clearly intimating that his main purpose was not speculative or theological, but practical and moral. Indeed, the writer is rather a rhetorician than a theologian, with a keener eye to the setting of truth that tells than to the abstract value or argumentative soundness of the setting. Under the influence of the Alexandrian School, he is under constant temptation to overpress the significance of single words. And, altogether, his argument must be regarded as much better suited to the mystical mind of the East than to the logical mind of the West.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Hebrews 10:11-18
The Power of the Spiritual Sacrifice.—Over and over again the nature of our Lord’s sacrifice, as the sacrifice of an obedient will, is presented. He came to “do the will of God” perfectly, in man’s name, and to sacrifice Himself in the doing. We know the power of an old formal Jewish sacrifice of bull or of goat. It could cleanse the offerer from ceremonial defilement, and restore him again to tabernacle relations. In this paragraph we are helped to realise what is the power of the spiritual sacrifice of an obedient will. “By the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” “For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” The word “sanctified” here is not used of progressive sanctification, but of “consecration in a pure state to God’s service.”
I. Power on man the spirit.—George Macdonald makes one of his characters speak in this way: “We should not say, We are bodies, and have souls; we should say, We are souls, and have bodies.” The spiritual sacrifice has its range first in man’s spirit. The sacrifice of the obedient will has its power and persuasion on the human will. The essence of redemption is regeneration. Formal sacrifices have their power to change men’s relations. Christ’s sacrifice has power to change men themselves. They become “new creatures in Christ Jesus,” by the renewal of their wills in the holy constraint of His sacrificing love. Christ wins us to Himself, and that is winning us to His obedient Sonship.
II. Power on man the human.—For man is not pure spirit; he is put into, and limited by, a human body; and that has made a special set of conditions, which angels have no power to adapt themselves to. He only has power on man the human who, Himself, though spirit, became human: “took on Him the nature of Abraham, was made in likeness of man.” He is actually in our range and sphere—actually in our human limitations. His sacrifice has power on us because it is ours, it is human. We are “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
III. Power on man’s enemies.—The statement of Hebrews 10:13, “From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made the footstool of His feet,” may be simply rhetorical, the writer’s mind being full of the psalms from which he had been quoting, and so carried on to complete his reference. But there may be a suggestion intended which does not immediately appear. He who offered the sacrifice of the obedient will, and so gained power to save, will surely have enemies, who will resist His work, and try and keep men from rising out of their material systems, to accept a spiritual salvation. But those enemies will not conquer Him. He will eventually constrain even them, and they shall submit, and become as the footstool of His everlasting throne. And those who accept Him as their Saviour will have the same enemies to fight. But they who “suffer with Him shall also reign with Him.” Their enemies—the enemies of the spiritual—are His, and their subjection is guaranteed in the holy triumph which He is sure to win.
IV. Power on men’s motives.—This is the idea of the covenant which pledges that God, in and through Christ, will get right into men’s hearts, and so constrain them with His love—that they shall want to obey, resolve to obey, strive to obey, and enjoy obeying. Fear of God is man’s usual motive, and it never yet inspired a noble life. Love is Christ’s new motive, and it inspired His noble life, and it can inspire ours.
V. Power on men’s sins.—The prophet Ezekiel forshadowed the gospel dispensation in a way which has not been sufficiently noticed. He says that if God can only get a man himself right, He can at once, fully and freely, forgive all His sins. “If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die” (Ezekiel 18:21). It is a part of the new covenant, that whenever we, in Christ, become sons again, with God’s laws in our love, and God’s will our delight, our “sins and iniquities shall be remembered no more.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Hebrews 10:14. The Sanctifying Power of a Spiritual Sacrifice.—“For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” “Are sanctified” should be rendered “are being sanctified.” To understand this verse it is necessary to remember that the cleansing effected by means of the old Levitical sacrifices was, from the Jewish point of view, a sanctifying. The man cleansed and restored was a man sanctified. But such sanctifying, such ritual cleansing, was only the shadow and suggestion of the true sanctifying, the spiritual cleansing. A man heart-cleansed, conscience-cleansed, and so restored to his right relations with God, is the man truly sanctified. And what has to be shown is, that the one spiritual offering which Christ made of His whole human life, in one sublime and perfect obedience to the will of God, has an effective power unto such spiritual sacrifice. By “perfected for ever” is clearly meant, proved wholly effective, so that no other supplementary agency can ever be necessary. How then does that one sacrifice which Christ offered act in a way of sanctifying upon our hearts and lives.
1. It presents to us the model of what a sanctified life for humanity is?
2. It acts persuasively upon us, urging us to make the same surrender to God.
3. It puts into a state of separation unto God all who by faith are linked with it. Christ and His people are together sanctified.
4. As a spiritual sacrifice it is influential in our spiritual relations; but those are our permanent and eternal relations, and whatever sanctifying work is done in them can never need to be re-done. Sanctify a man’s will, and you have sanctified the man’s life, and sanctified the man for ever. We may gain some illustration of the sanctifying power of a surrendered will by considering the moral influence upon us of severe, and life-long, and hopeless sufferers from disease, who have entered into the perfect peace of yielding their wills wholly to God.
Hebrews 10:17. Self-sacrifice the Way to Happiness.—The way of happiness is the path of principle, and the governing principles of life, which lead to nobility of character, are bound up in Christ’s salvation. Human life, even under civilisation, is placed face to face with the elements of danger.
I. The highest, happiest, noblest life is a life of self-sacrifice in common conditions.—In our quiet circle we may defeat the selfishness that is around us; and if we cannot undo the selfishness of civilisation, we can undo it in ourselves, and in some that are round our life-path.
1. Let no one say that God has placed us in such a position that to be selfish, avaricious, lustful, worldly, cannot be helped. The theory of “can’t help it” is hateful, because it is utterly cowardly and entirely false. “Can’t help it” is the answer of materialism; it is a base philosophy.
2. Utilitarianism will not help us. There is no morality without God.
II. To do God’s will is a motive to self-sacrifice.—God is the sanction of moral life. In our calm moments, and in our moments of terror, the great motive to stay us constantly in life’s great struggle is God. We can do right, not because there is a law, but because the law expresses the law of the Lawgiver—the great, the beautiful, the holy God.
III. God in Christ is the expression of supereminent love.—To feel the love of wife, of mother, of sister, of child, of friend, makes us feel the dignity of life; to feel the love of Jesus, God in humanity, makes us feel that self-sacrifice is possible, that we had better perish than be selfish, that our love of God has increased the great motive of our love of men.
IV. Power to do what there is motive to enforce is submitted to us all.—Grace is offered in answer to prayer, to help us to do His will, to speak His will, to speak His word, to be content to do it, with His law in us. His love is over us; He will not forsake us.—Canon Knox-Little.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10
Hebrews 10:18. Remission of Sins.—A French girl of fourteen once appeared before Napoleon, and casting herself at his feet cried, “Pardon sire! pardon for my father!” “And who is your father?” asked Napoleon; “and who are you?” “My name is Lajolia,” she said; and with flowing tears added, “but sire, my father is doomed to die.” “Ah! young lady,” replied Napoleon,” I can do nothing for you. It is the second time your father has been found guilty of treason against the State.” “Alas!” exclaimed the poor girl, “I know it, sire; but I do not ask for justice; I implore pardon. I beseech you, forgive, oh, forgive my father!” After a momentary struggle of feeling, Napoleon gently took the hand of the young maiden, and said, “Well, my child, for your sake, I will pardon your father. That is enough; now leave me.”