HEBREWS 10:1-25 - A New And Living Way

Introduction

At the end of the film Saving Private Ryan, Capt. John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) confronts Matt Damon’s character (Lt. James Ryan) about the sacrifices that he and his men made in their attempts to bring Ryan home from war safely after the deaths of his brothers. Ryan stands over Miller’s dying body, horror struck at the sacrifice he and the others in the detachment made in order to bring him home alive. As Miller pulls Ryan in close to him, he whispers his dying words to the young solider: “Earn this... Earn it.” The movie ends forty years later as the elderly Ryan stands at Miller’s tombstone at the Normandy cemetery. He turns to his wife and says, “Tell me I am a good man...” Decades later, he is haunted by the sacrifice that gave him his life, reflecting that not a day has gone by that he has not remembered Miller’s dying words on that bridge in France. It is a moving scene, and it demonstrates the transformative power of gratitude in a man’s life. After seeing good men sacrifice their lives for him, Ryan is driven to honor them by striving to live a his life as a good man.

But consider that, at the moment Miller tells Ryan to “earn” his rescue, there at the end of the battle as the he has already been rescued. As the P51 tankbusters soar overhead, destroying the last of the German offensive, there was nothing Ryan needed to do in order to be saved. His deliverance had already been accomplished by the blood shed by Capt. Miller and others. It is (whether or not it was intended as such) a powerful echo of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—by the time we receive our salvation, it is too late to “earn it”—because His blood has already sealed our deliverance.

I want us to consider that as we turn to our passage this morning, because in the verses we just read the author of Hebrews is exhorting his readers to live in a particular way in response to the blood of Jesus Christ shed for them. In the same way that Matt Damon’s character in that movie couldn’t earn his deliverance, but only live up to it, we need to understand that the exhortations in this passage are not given so that we may earn our salvation, but so that we will live in right response to what Christ has done for us.

The first eighteen verses of Hebrews 10 is a comprehensive summary of everything that the author of Hebrews has said about the superiority of Christ and His sacrifice—remember, the author is writing this letter to plead with some believers from a Jewish background not to abandon Christ and go back to the Old Covenant sacrifices of Moses’ Law. Then, starting from verse 19, the author brings all of these excellencies of Christ’s work to bear on calling his readers to a faithful response to Christ’s sacrifice.

And so the way I want to summarize these verses today; what I aim to show you from our text is that you are called to

Live your life in LIGHT of the PERFECTIONS of Christ’s great WORK for you

You’ll notice that verse 19 begins with “Therefore, brothers...” Now remember one of our rules of Bible interpretation is that when you find the word “therefore”, you… look back to find out what it’s there for! (I know it’s corny, but that’s what makes it stick in your brain!) The author is pointing back to everything that came earlier in the chapter (and indeed, everything that has been written in this letter up to this point!) and saying, “In light of all of these things that are true about Christ and His work, brothers, this is what must be true of your lives”.

Verse 19 says

Hebrews 10:19 (LSB)

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

So the first thing we are to take from our text this morning is to see that Christ’s work is the source of

I. The great CONFIDENCE of the believer (Heb 10:19-21)

All that Christ has accomplished in His work has given us confidence to stand before God in His holiness. And in verses 19-21 the author ties that confidence back to at least three specific aspects of Christ and His work that gives us confidence to stand in God’s holiness. First, verse 19 says we have “confidence to enter the holy places by

The CLEANSING BLOOD of Jesus (v. 19; cp. Heb 10:1-4)

This is a reference back to the opening verses of Chapter 10—look at verses 1-4:

Hebrews 10:1–4 (LSB)

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

As we have seen repeatedly over the past several chapters, the Old Covenant sacrifices under the Levitical system could not guarantee complete forgiveness! That animal blood could “never make perfect those who draw near”. They could never assure the worshipper that his sins were forgiven; all those sacrifices could do is remind them of their guilt!

Hebrews 10:2–3 (LSB)

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. Animal sacrifices might cover over the guilt that you bear before God, but it could not cleanse you from a guilty conscience!

But here is the great promise of Christ’s blood-sacrifice: We have confidence in Him that our sins are forgiven! His blood completely erases not only the fact of our guilt, but erases the sting of our guilt!

Hebrews 9:14 (LSB)

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Here is your confidence, Christian—the perfect sacrifice of Christ has completely and permanently taken away your guilt before God! There is no condemnation for you in Christ (Rom 8:1), you are a new creature in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), you are a beloved child calling out for your loving Father (Gal 4:6). The terror and apprehension that filled the hearts of the Levitical priests as they entered the dark menace of the Holy of Holies has been replaced by your joyful confidence to come before your Father in Heaven!

The great confidence of the believer is grounded in the cleansing blood of Jesus, and is found in

The WILLING SACRIFICE of Jesus (v. 20; cp. Heb 10:5-10)

Hebrews 10:19–20 (LSB)

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

Our confidence rests in Christ’s blood that cleansed us, and the sacrifice He made for us—earlier in Chapter 10 we read of Christ’s superior sacrifice:

Hebrews 10:5–10 (LSB)

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me; In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. “Then I Said, ‘Behold, I have come, In the scroll of the book it is written of Me, To do Your will, O God.’” After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The author is quoting from one of David’s psalms, Psalm 40, that are a prophecy about the coming of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice. And as he quotes from Psalm 40, he makes a striking contrast between the burnt offerings of the Old Covenant and the offering of Christ’s body in the New Covenant.

Consider verse 6--

Hebrews 10:6 (LSB)

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure.

YHWH took no “pleasure” in the bodies of bulls and goats sacrificed for sin, but then when Christ came, He said

Hebrews 10:7 (LSB)

“Then I Said, ‘Behold, I have come, In the scroll of the book it is written of Me, To do Your will, O God.’”

When Christ came to offer Himself, He did something no animal sacrifice ever did (or could do)—HE OFFERED HIMSELF WILLINGLY! And in verse 10 the author goes on to point to that willingness as the means by which we have been saved!

Hebrews 10:10 (LSB)

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Christian, the willing sacrifice of Christ is the source of your great confidence to enter His presence—It was the will of God the Father to save you: He would have been perfectly just to condemn you to damnation along with the rest of mankind, but instead it was His will to deliver you out of the death penalty you deserved.

And God the Son was willing to carry out His Father’s will! Christ was not dragged struggling to the sacrifice like the millions of bulls and goats and calves of the Old Covenant—He voluntarily chose the suffering of the Cross:

Philippians 2:6–8 (LSB)

who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

By this will, Christian, you have been made holy! See the great confidence that you have to enter the holy presence of God—a confidence that no one in the Old Covenant could have had! Your confidence is in the cleansing blood of Jesus, in the willing sacrifice of Jesus, and in

The PRIESTLY REIGN of Jesus (v. 21; cp. Heb. 10:11-18)

See it there in Verse 21 of our text:

Hebrews 10:21 (LSB)

and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Once again, the author is tying this exhortation to confidence back to his earlier statements in Chapter 10—look at verses 11-13:

Hebrews 10:11–13 (LSB)

And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies are put as a footstool for His feet.

As we’ve noted previously, there were no chairs in the Old Covenant tabernacle or Temple, because there was never time for a priest to sit down! The work of covering sin with blood never ended, because the sins never stopped coming and the blood was never powerful enough to take them away. But when Christ completed His sacrifice, He sat down because He never needed to die again!

There are at least two implications for Christ’s sitting down after offering His sacrifice—first, that He had completed His work of redeeming us; our sins would never need to be atoned for again. So see here your great confidence in your justification before God! You cannot be condemned for your sin anymore; you cannot be required to shed your own blood in payment for your lies, your lusts, your bitterness, your hatreds, your fears. As we will see (Lord willing) in Hebrews 12, we must reckon with God’s discipline for our remaining sins and corruptions, but we will never have to fear His damnation!

Your confidence in Christ, Christian comes from the fact that He has completed His work of redeeming you, and also that He is continuing His work of perfecting you. Look in verses 14-18:

Hebrews 10:14–18 (LSB)

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

No one under the Old Covenant could have the confidence that their very heart was being transformed into obedience; that their mind was being re-wired to love God and serve Him joyfully! No one under Moses could rest in the knowledge that God Himself would re-make them into righteous people! No one under the Old Covenant could rest in the promise that God would forget about their lawlessness!

But not only can you rest in those promises, Christian, but your confidence is found in the fact that these promises are being made by a High Priest who possesses all power and authority in Heaven and on earth! He is reigning from the right hand of the Throne today—nothing can stop Him from making you holy, Christian!

The author of Hebrews is bringing the full weight of all of his argumentation about the superiority of Christ to bear on this passage—see that everything he has written has been brought to a sharp point here with this word therefore. And like any weight that presses on a sharp point, that point is being driven into the lives of these believers! See what Christ has done for you—see the power of His blood to cleanse you from your sin and guilt; see the willing sacrifice He made of His own body in order to bring you into the presence of God; see the power and authority and finality of His sacrifice that not only promises your holiness before God but produces it in you!

Therefore, he writes, live your life in light of the perfections of Christ’s great work for you. In the great words of Francis Schaeffer, how should we then live? What should your life look like when you apprehend the magnitude of Christ’s perfections in His work toward you? You can never earn what has already been earned for you—but how do you live in a right response to all Christ has done?

The great confidence of the believer is found in the perfections of Christ’s person and work; and that great confidence of the believer is the ground for

II. The Great DUTIES of the believer (Hebrews 10:22-25)

Look again at our text, from verses 22-24: In light of Christ’s perfect blood, perfect sacrifice, perfect priesthood,

Hebrews 10:22–24 (LSB)

let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,

Now, another one of our basic rules of Bible study is to look for repeated words or phrases—did you see anything in these verses? there are three occurences of the phrase “let us...”, each one of them highlighting the way our confidence in Christ’s perfections should work themselves out in our lives. The first one is in verse 22: Because of the confidence that we have in the perfections of Christ’s work for us, let us

DRAW NEAR to God in FAITH (v. 22)

Your great confidence in God, Christian, means that you are fully assured of Christ’s work for you. The faith that you possess comes from a sincere heart (or true heart)—a heart that is free from the guilt and shame of your past by the blood of Christ that has washed away your sin (“sprinkled from an evil conscience). A heart that has been “washed with pure water”—a reference back to the water of the red heifer in Chapter 9 that washes away the impurity of death. Christian, your great duty in response to Christ’s perfect work for you is a heart that draws near to Him in faith—not a heart that shies away from God or hides from Him because you are consumed by thoughts that “God couldn’t save someone like me” or “I’m too much of a sinner for Christ to want me” or “I know God saves other people, but His promises don’t apply to someone as screwed up as I am”—a heart, in short, that is consumed by faithlessness and unbelief. The cleansing blood of Christ has washed you, the willing sacrifice of Christ has opened the veil to the Mercy Seat for you, the great High priesthood of Christ that lives and reigns at the right hand of God the Father has unalterably decreed your growth in holiness and righteousness—do not shy away from Him in unbelief!

Live your life in light of the perfections of Christ’s great work for you. Draw near to God in faith, and

HOLD FAST to Christ with HOPE (v. 23)

See here in verse 23:

Hebrews 10:23 (LSB)

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Throughout this letter, the author has been exhorting his readers not to waver in their faith—this letter was being written because so many of the Jewish believers were wavering in their commitment to Christ as Savior and considering that they ought to turn their backs on Him and go back to Moses’ Law and the Old Covenant—they were beginning to put their hope for their salvation back on the Levitical system of sacrifices; they were wavering over whether Christ’s atonement could really accomplish everything the sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem could.

But the author makes it clear in this letter that there is no way to go back to those old promises under Moses. They will not hold. Only Christ can deliver the salvation that He has promised; all that waits for those who go back to the Old Covenant (as we will see, Lord willing, next week) is death.

Your great confidence in God, Christian, means that you know that you can never go back to your old life before Christ. Everything that you thought would bring you happiness, all the ways you used to think you were showing yourself to be a good person, all of the enticements and allures of the world, the flesh and the Devil can bring you nothing but death. There is no hope in any of those things you have left behind—living your life in light of the perfections of Christ’s great work for you means that you cling to Christ alone for your hope.

The last exhortation for our lives in light of the perfections of Christ’s work for us is found in verses 24-25:

Hebrews 10:24–25 (LSB)

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

In light of Christ’s great work for us we draw near to God in faith, we hold fast to Christ in hope, and we are called to

STIR UP the saints in LOVE (vv. 24-25)

The body of believers that this epistle was written to was apparently already beginning to break up—some of their fellowship had stopped attending Christian worship on the Lord’s Day and were beginning to go back to the synagogues on Saturdays or the Temple instead. And so the author reminds them that they had duties towards one another—they couldn’t just go off by themselves and abandon their brothers and sisters in Christ.

And it is no different in our day. Our world is so suffused with utter isolation and self-centeredness in every area of life that we import that same attitude into our church fellowship. The main purpose for attending worship on the Lord’s Day is what it does for me; If I get anything out of it; if it is convenient for me; if it fits my preferences.

But the Scriptures here make it clear that there is far more to corporate worship than what you get out of it—Christian, you have a duty to your brothers and sisters in Christ. You have no warrant from the Scriptures to say that your participation in the life of this Body is yours alone to decide—your fellow Christians need you. Never forget the strength and encouragement that your fellow church members draw from your mere presence here in worship. The attitude that says “I don’t need to go to a church to worship God; I can worship just as well in my tree stand in the morning...” is an attitude reveals an embarrassing ignorance about the nature of the Christian life!

Because it is not only for you to come into the presence of God to offer Him the praise He is due; it is not only to hear His Word and be transformed by it; it is also so that you may be a help and encouragement and strength for your fellow believers gathered here.

And it is not just being absent from the building that is in view here in these verses. It’s easy to read this verse and think to yourself, “Well, at least this verse doesn’t apply to me—I’m here after all!!” But consider carefully that there is more than one way to “forsake our own assembling together” for worship. Yes, you can demonstrate a self-centered attitude when you neglect to attend worship, but you also demonstrate that sinful self-centeredness when you neglect to participate in worship.

One of the most encouraging signs of our growth in this area at Bethel has been our increasing comfort level with (and joy in) congregational singing. In far too many places in the evangelical church, there is a trend toward what can only be described as singing as spectator sport—a trained “worship team” stands up front on a lighted platform and belts out technically proficient music while the congregation stands in the dark singing along (maybe), but is mostly drowned out by the high-powered music pumping out from the stage.

What we often fail to realize is that the recovery of congregational singing in church was one of the fundamental achievements of the Reformers in the sixteenth century. (The Church didn’t have smoke machines and middle aged musicians in fauxhawks and skinny jeans in 1507, but it did have professional choirs that were expected to do all the singing in worship!) One of the lasting marks of what the Reformers accomplished (particularly Martin Luther) was applying sola Scriptura to corporate worship. What does God’s Word say about how we are to sing in church? Colossians 3:16 says that we are to

Colossians 3:16 (LSB)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God.

Do you see the connection with our text? We are commanded to “stir one another up to love and good deeds” (Heb 10:24), and one of the central ways that we are do that is by singing to one another. When you stand silent every Sunday during congregational singing, it is a form of “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”!

This is one reason we have to be so grateful for the way that God is growing us as a congregation—we are learning to love singing together! (And if you’re not there yet; if you’re still hanging back and uncomfortable singing out loud because of whatever notions or attitudes you have about singing, if you cannot approach your duty to sing in worship with gratitude to God for the perfections of Christ’s great work for you, then repent where you need to, ask for grace to obey God’s Word in this area, and hang in there—we’ll make a Christian of you yet!)

Christian, live your life in light of the perfections of Christ’s great work for you—you will never earn what He has done, but your life must reflect the price that was paid to save you. Are you drawing near with a sincere heart of faith in Christ’s sacrifice for you, or are you wallowing in your guilt and shame, doubting that He really is capable of cleansing you? Are you holding fast in the hope you have in Christ, or are you beginning to look back at the world’s promises to care for you and satisfy you and deliver you? Are you committed to the spiritual growth of your brothers and sisters in Christ, or are you more concerned with your own personal preferences and desires?

Beloved, the only remedy for your addiction to your old shame, the only cure for your wavering hope, the only fix for your self-centered spirituality is found in the only place any redemption from sin is found—in the cleansing blood of the Son of God that cleanses you completely and unalterably from all of your past sin and shame; the willing sacrifice of His flesh that has permanently opened the way for you to enter His presence for mercy and grace and hope; His great high priestly reign that not only has completed your forgiveness but will unfailingly transform your selfish, cold, weak-hearted love into a warm-hearted compassion and joy in your fellow believers that seeks their greatest joy by opening their eyes more and more to the excellencies of your Savior. So live your life—draw near in faith, hold fast in hope, reach out in love—in light of the perfect work and magnificent person of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

Jude 24–25 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________