Hebrews 10:1-18 (from the NRSV (Anglicised), with OT quotes in italics)
1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshippers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
6 in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God”
(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).’
8 When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, ‘See, I have come to do your will.’ He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10 And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’, 13 and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
16 ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds’,
17 he also adds,
‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Reflection
These verses sum up the long middle portion of Hebrews. The letter has portrayed Jesus as his people’s high priest, and explained his death as sacrifice – against an Old Testament background, yet distinct and different from worship prescribed there. Now the threads are drawn together.
One sacrifice and many: the cross is unique and sufficient, as ‘a single sacrifice for all time’ (v.12). The repeated priestly sacrifices have kept worshippers aware of sin rather than really doing away with it (vv.2-3). Whereas the pardon Jesus brings is full and final (v.17). It does not need endless topping-up: no further offering is necessary (v.18).
Outer and inner: lines from Psalm 40 (in vv.5-7) contrast sacrificial worship with the commitment of the human heart to God. Hebrews uses this quote to suggest that Jesus made animal sacrifice unnecessary, by committing his body and mind to the will of God (vv.8-10). This commitment, in turn, releases the will of God into people’s lives in a new way (v.16). The renewing power of Jesus ‘perfects’ the worshipper inwardly (v.14; as in 9:14), in ways that animal sacrifices could not.
Old covenant and new: Jeremiah’s new covenant prophecy, introduced in chapter 8, resurfaces here (vv.16-17). These two quotes bookend Hebrews’ discussion of sanctuary and sacrifice. Things are different now, suggests the writer: a new covenant is taking effect. You would expect a new holy place (heaven) and a new kind of offering (Jesus), with a power and permanence unavailable earlier.
Time and eternity: after making his offering ‘once for all time’, Jesus waits in authority in heaven, until the time when his power will be fully known (vv.12-13). History has not seen the last of Jesus. That thought informs Hebrews’ pastoral advice and encouragement later in this chapter.
For prayer
Do you know anyone who is burdened by old mistakes or by opportunities missed? Pray for that person to know a new sense of freedom and forgiveness – coming from God, perhaps also from other people involved, and echoing firmly within the person’s own heart. Pray for the coming of hope, assurance, pardon and renewal in Jesus.