(Hebrews 10:19-31)
by Pastor Jerry Marshall, New Community Church
Since the seventh chapter of this book, the writer has been addressing the issue of the superior sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ who is our superior high priest and who presented His once for all time sacrifice in a superior place which is heaven, the abode of God. The purpose for presenting this important information was to strengthen the faith of the Jewish believers so that they might remain steadfast in their loyalty and devotion to Jesus as their Messiah and Savior as they faced persecution (cf. 10:32-39).
In addition, the writer of Hebrews sought to convince those Jews who had been enlightened to the truth of the true identity of Jesus and His saving work, but had not yet committed to placing their total trust in Him for the salvation of their soul. These Jews, who had associated with the church but yet were not part of the church, were in dire danger of committing apostasy.
As the writer brings his discussion of the superiority of the sacrifice of Christ to a close, he issues both an invitation and a strong word of exhortation as a practical response to what he has written about since the seventh chapter.
I. The Invitation (10:19-25)
(v.19) The word "confidence" comes from the Greek word, parrësía which speaks of an outspoken conviction of the truthfulness of something, or a sort of open and courageous attitude of certainty. In this passage, it is the confidence that we can come boldly into the presence of God by way of the superior sacrifice of Christ presented in our behalf. This certitude is linked with what the writer addressed previously in this chapter as well as chapters 7-9.
To the Jew who took the Old Covenant seriously, this invitation would be awesome, terrifying and yet wonderful. Only one Jew, the high priest could enter into the holy of holies but once a year. He did this with a sense of profound reverence and with a genuine fear. But now, because of the sacrifice of our great high priest and because we possess His righteousness, all true believers can enter into the holy place with a sense of confidence that is not rooted in their accomplishments or merits, but in Christ and His provision of salvation. A true believer can enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.
(v. 20) We enter by a new and living way which is descriptive of the sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of our Lord that has provided the exclusive way by which mankind can be saved (cf. John 14:6, Acts 4:12). It is interesting to note that the early disciples of Jesus were called "followers of The Way".
This way was opened through the veil, that is, His flesh. This clearly teaches that the veil between the two compartments of the tabernacle was a type of the body of our Lord. In order for us to have access into God's presence, the veil had to be rent, that is, His body had to be broken in death. This reminds us that we cannot draw near by Christ's sinless life, but only by His vicarious death. Only through the mortal wounds of the Lamb can we go in. Every time we enter God's presence in prayer or worship, let us remember that the privilege was bought for us at tremendous cost.1
(vv. 21-25) The writer of Hebrews uses the triad of Christian virtues; faith, hope and love to make his point (vv. 22-24). The reality of having Jesus as our great high priest prompts the writer of Hebrews to invite his readers to draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. To draw near to a holy God is a blood-bought privilege.
There is a fourfold description of how we should be spiritually groomed in entering the throne room.
1. With a sincere heart. The people of Israel drew near to God with their mouth, and honored Him with their lips, but their heart was often far from Him (Matthew 15:8). Our approach should be with utter sincerity.
2. In full assurance of faith. We draw near with utter confidence in the promises of God and with the firm conviction that we shall have a gracious reception into His presence.
3. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. This can be brought about only by the new birth. When we trust Christ, we appropriate the value of HIs blood. Figuratively speaking, we sprinkle our hearts with it, just as the Israelites sprinkled their doors with the blood of the Passover lamb.
4. And our bodies washed with pure water. Again this is symbolic language. Our bodies represent our lives. The pure water might refer to the word (Ephesians 5:25-26), to the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39), or to the Holy Spirit using the word in cleansing our lives form daily defilement.
We are cleansed once for all from the guilt of sin by the death of Christ, but cleansed repeatedly from the defilement of sin by the Spirit through the word (see John 13:10). Thus we might summarize the four requisites for entering God's presence as sincerity, assurance, salvation, and sanctification.2
(v. 23) The exhortation in this verse (23) reminds us of Hebrews 4:14. This is a strong appeal to remain steadfast in terms of our faith in Christ as the Messiah and the Savior and not be tossed around in our expectant confidence of all that has been promised to us in Christ. The foundation of our hope is the very nature of God who has a proven track record of being faithful. Faithfulness is a part of the very fiber of His nature.
When God makes a promise, that promise will infallibly be kept. He has taken the initiative in making the promise, and He will fulfill His purposes in making it.3
A true believer will be around in the end. He may become discouraged or frustrated, and occasionally fall into a sinful habit. But he will hold fast the confession of his hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. A true believer's faith and hope are never in vain, because they are in God who is faithful to His promises. "Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass" (1 Thessalonians 5:24). God will do His part and the true believer will also do his.4
(v. 24) This is one of about 50 "one another" commands or exhortations in the New Testament. Jesus said that the mutual exchange of Christ-like love is a testimony to the world that we are truly His disciples (John 13:34-35).
(v. 25) The Jewish readers were having a hard time breaking with the Old Covenant, with the Temple and the sacrifices. They were still holding on to the legalism and ritual ceremony, the outward things of Judaism. So the writer is telling them that one of the best ways to hold fast to the things of God—the real things of God that are found only in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ—is to be in the fellowship of His people, where they could love and be loved, serve and be served. There is no better place to come all the way to faith in Christ, or to hope continually in Him, than the church, His Body.5
The word "forsaking" is a translation of the Greek word enkataliepo which refers to a willful deserting or abandoning. In this context, it is a willful abandoning. In this context, it is a willful abandoning of the church assembled for worship, instruction and fellowship. This had become the habit of some probably due to the persecution inflicted upon the Jewish believers by their fellow Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah and Savior (cf. 10:32-39).
Instead of forsaking the assembly, they needed to run to the assembly in order to be fully engaged in mutual encouragement. And this is to be the response of those who are members of the body of Christ especially as the day of Christ's Second Coming draws near. For then the saints will suffer greatly and will be in need of the comfort and encouragement of the body of Christ.
II. The Exhortation (10:26-31)
A. Don't reject the sufficient sacrifice (vv. 26-31)
This is the fourth of the five parenthetical warnings issued by the writer of this book. It is addressed to those Jews who have been enlightened to the truth about Jesus and His work of redemption but have not yet trusted in Him to liberate them from sins' curse and condemnation.
(vv. 26-27) Here is possibly the clearest and most concise scriptural definition of apostasy-receiving knowledge of the truth, that is, the gospel, but willfully remaining in sin. An apostate has seen and heard the truth—he knows it well—but he willfully rejects it.6 The proof of the apostate's rejection is that the knowledge of the truth has not made any difference in interrupting his ongoing pattern of sin as a lifestyle. Having rejected the sufficient sacrifice of Christ for salvation, the apostate has left himself without any sacrifice for sins. The Old Testament sacrifices cannot cleanse his conscience and take his sins away.
Every apostate is an unbeliever, but not every unbeliever is an apostate. Many people have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel, even in part. They are sinful and, of course, do not believe in Christ, because they have never heard of Him or of His claims. An apostate, however, is well acquainted with the gospel. He knows more than enough to be saved.
The apostate rejects the saving work of Jesus Christ at the point of full and complete revelation. What he can expect for his rejection is a day of certain judgment (v. 27).
It is impossible to renew the apostate to repentance (Hebrews 6:4-6). He has knowingly and willfully cut himself off from God's grace in Christ. His fate is a fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
(v. 28) The doom of the lawbreaker in the Old Testament is now introduced to form a backdrop against which to contrast the greater doom of the apostate. A man who broke Moses' law by becoming an idolater died without mercy when his guilt was proven by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:2-6).
(v. 29) The apostate will be counted worthy of much worse punishment because his privilege has been much greater. The enormity of his sin is seen in the three charges that are leveled against him:
1. He has trampled the Son of God underfoot. After professing to be a follower of Jesus, he now brazenly asserts that he wants nothing more to do with Him. He denies any need for Christ as Savior and positively rejects Him as Lord.
2. He has counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing. He counts as useless and unholy the blood of Christ which ratified the New Covenant. He had been set apart by this blood in a place of external privilege. Through his association with Christian people, he had been sanctified, just as an unbelieving husband is sanctified by his believing wife (1 Corinthians 7:14). But that does not mean he was saved.
To have trampled under foot means to have scorned, to have counted as worthless. A person who sees a coin on the sidewalk may think it is a slug and walk by it or perhaps kicks it into a gutter. He doesn't bother to pick it up and examine it. Some people walk by Christ and think He is nothing. They see Him clearly, and have gotten close enough to example Him carefully had they chosen to. But they count Him as worthless, and go on their way. It is a fearful and damning thing to count as worthless the One whom the Father has declared to be of infinite worth.7
3. He has insulted the Spirit of grace. The Spirit of God had illuminated him concerning the good news, convicted him of sin, and pointed him to Christ as the only Refuge of the soul. But he had insulted the gracious Spirit by utterly despising Him and the salvation He offered.
(v. 30) Willful repudiation of God's beloved Son is a sin of immense magnitude. God will sin in judgment on all who are guilty of it. He has said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay" (see Deuteronomy 32:35). Vengeance in this sense means full justice. When used of God it has no thought of vindictiveness or of "getting even". It is simply the meting out of what a person actually deserves. Knowing the character of God, we can be sure that He will do as He has said by repaying the apostate in just measure.
And again, "The Lord will judge His people". God will avenge and vindicate those who truly belong to Him, but here in verse 30, the obvious reference is to judgment of evil people.
If it causes difficulty to think of apostates being spoken of as His people, we should remember that they are His by creation and also for a while by profession. He is their Creator though not their Redeemer and they once professed to be His people, even though they never knew Him personally.
(v. 31) The abiding lesson for all is this: do not be among those who fall into God's hands for judgment because it is a fearful thing. Nothing in this passage of Scripture was ever intended to disturb and unsettle the minds of those who truly belong to Christ. The passage was purposely written in its sharp, searching, challenging style so that all who profess the name of Christ might be warned about the terrible consequences of turning away from Him.8
1 MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997). Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (Heb 10:20). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
2 MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997). Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (Heb 10:22). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
3 Morris, L. (1981). Hebrews. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 12: Hebrews Through Revelation (F. E. Gaebelein, Ed.) (104). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
4 MacArthur, J. (1996). Hebrews (267). Chicago: Moody Press.
5 MacArthur, J. (1996). Hebrews (268). Chicago: Moody Press.
6 MacArthur, J. (1996). Hebrews (272). Chicago: Moody Press.
7 MacArthur, J. (1996). Hebrews (279). Chicago: Moody Press.
8 MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997). Believer's Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (Heb 10:28-31). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
