Heb 10:11-12 | KingComments | STEP | . So the Lord Jesus has fully accomplished God’s will. He thereby created a completely new situation. The old imperfect system has been replaced by what He Himself did. He is the center of God’s blessing. The will of God can be executed, because of what He has done and because of Who He is. And what is that will here? God wanted a new generation of priests that would be able to draw near to Him in His holy presence. The Lord Jesus has taken care of that by accomplishing God’s will. He has met all of the holy conditions of God. In that way He has given to God a righteous foundation to sanctify us. God has “sanctified” or separated us for Himself on the basis of the offering of His Son. The power of the offering is eternal. Therefore our sanctification is “once for all”, which means continuous, everlasting, forever. We belong to God forever, in accordance to the powerful effect of this sacrifice. God’s will was the sacrifice of Christ. God’s will was also that we would be sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ. ‘Sanctified’ means ‘set apart’ and means here that we are made fit to be in God’s presence, to be in His sanctuary. Isn’t it impressive that considering that, God had prepared a body for the Lord Jesus? Only by preparing Him a body the Lord Jesus was able to offer Himself as ‘a sacrifice’. With that in mind He said, when He instituted the Supper, of the bread after He had broken it: “This is My body which is given for you” ( ). Every time when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we may remember that. . How totally different did the Old Testament services happen and how disappointing were the results. In the tabernacle and in the temple the priests stood continuously before the altar. Thus they exerted their ministry standing, which indicates that their work was never finished. They were not allowed to rest from their work. Time after time new sacrifices had to be offered: daily, weekly, monthly and annually. It was a cycle of offerings which was repeated over and again. And added to that the offerings the Israelite had to bring personally whenever he had sinned again. The conclusion of the writer is simply shocking: they can never possibly take away sins. With this conclusion he erased the whole Jewish service. If someone from the readers would ascribe any value to it, he would enormously dishonor God and damage himself as well. That goes also for you and me. You shouldn’t want to have anything to do with it either. And you surely will not want to if you carefully take a look at what’s the opposite of that whole insufficient service. . To demonstrate that to you the writer places opposite to all those priests who daily brought the same sacrifices the Priest Who offered only one sacrifice for the sins. And because this was a perfectly adequate sacrifice, He “for all time”, which means permanently, uninterruptedly, continuously, “sat down”. That shows the perfect rest which is the result of His work. Christ does not have to stand up anymore to bring such a sacrifice again. And where does He sit? “At the right hand of God.” Therein God’s perfect recognition and the acceptance of His work are expressed. That He Himself went to sit there indicates the glory of His Person. He does not arrogate this place Himself, but He knows that He has fully responded to God’s will and can therefore be there. God gave that place to Him ( ). . But Christ does not remain seated forever. From the moment He went to sit and after that (“from that time”), He is waiting until the moment He will rise again. When He rises it will not be to offer Himself again, but to realize in judgment the final and definite results of His sacrificial work ( ). You also saw this in the concluding verses of the previous chapter ( ). The reason there to appear for the second time is also not to die again for the sins. There His second appearance is related to the salvation of the believers. Here it is in relation to the subjection of His enemies. The Lord Jesus is waiting for that. The writer again refers to the impressive verse from Psalm 110 ( ). There you hear how God promises Christ to make His enemies His footstool. The Lord Jesus is waiting for the fulfillment of that promise patiently and persistently ( ; ). Only at God’s time He will rise and not earlier. . The word “for” indicates the reason why Christ was able to take the place at the right hand of God. He “has perfected for all time those who are sanctified”. Here you have the content of the will of God. Through the offering of Christ everyone who is sanctified is made perfect in conscience, a conscience that is free from any burden of sin and fear for the judgment. Those who are sanctified are those who are separated for the service to God, the priestly service in the sanctuary. On that place you are put and that “for all time”. That means that there never is any moment, in which you, as one who is sanctified, will not stand in the complete value of the work of Christ before God. Perhaps you feel at times that some doubt rises whether you are really a child of God. You still disappoint yourself so often. Then read this verse and believe what it says. Doubt is only taken away by faith that God has perfectly accepted the work of the Lord Jesus and that its testimony is given in writing by the Holy Spirit in the Scripture. The value that Christ and His work have to God, determines how God sees every person who has confessed his sins and has accepted Christ as the propitiation for his sins. Therefore it doesn’t depend on your feeling or view, but on your faith in God and what He has said about His Son. If you do not believe what God says here in His Word, you make Him a liar ( ). Therefore do not allow anyone to rob the assurance of your salvation by erroneous teachings, in particular Christians who take the law as rule of life. Throw your anchor in God’s Word. . Added to this testimony of God in His Word the testimony of “the Holy Spirit” is given, Who also “testifies” to the perfectly accomplished offering and its effect. You will experience this testimony inwardly in your heart if you believe God’s Word. There is always a perfect match of the Word and the Spirit. Both the Word and the Spirit always point at the Lord Jesus and His work. You can read the Word, while the Holy Spirit gives you the inner conviction that what you read is the truth. . The testimony that the Holy Spirit gives here is based on the Word and it is from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. It is the testimony to “us”, who are first of all the Hebrew readers from that time and then the remnant in future. The quotation from Jeremiah relates to that. In chapter 8 ( ) this quotation was already given attention to. It is a good thing to read the explanation about that again. It mainly deals with the effect of the new covenant in the millennial kingdom of peace. Here the quotation is rather meant to indicate that under the new covenant an inward work of the Holy Spirit is happening in the heart and in the mind of the believers. It is wonderful to see that each of the three Persons of the Godhead has His own place and His own share in order to present you as believer perfect before God. 1. God is the source of your salvation. It was His will to sanctify you. 2. He was able to sanctify you because His Son has accomplished the necessary work for that purpose. 3. Of God’s will and of the work of the Lord Jesus you obtained knowledge and you took part of it through the testimony of the Holy Spirit in your heart. You can also put it like this: The assurance that God will remember your sins and lawless deeds no more, is 1. because of the irreversible will of God and 2. because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ and 3. because of the absolute testimony of the Holy Spirit. . Before Christ accomplished the work sins were remembered or reminded ( ). After all, there was formerly no offering that could blot out sins radically. But through the offering of Christ they don’t exist anymore to God. If God doesn’t remember the sins anymore, then every necessity for a new offering is missing. . This verse is the conclusion from the quoted prophecy from Jeremiah 31 and from the whole previous argument. Because the one offering has worked forgiveness no other offerings can be offered anymore to work forgiveness. What has been forgiven does not need an offering for sins anymore. No sin has been left that still needs forgiveness and therefore an offering for the penalty of all sins is already paid in full. Therefore each right of existence of the Old Testament offering service has been nullified. It has no value and meaning anymore. Now read Hebrews 10:10-18 again. Reflection: Are you entirely sure that God has sanctified you once for all through Christ and His offering?

‏ Hebrews 10:11-12

Sanctified by the Will of God

Heb 10:10. So the Lord Jesus has fully accomplished God’s will. He thereby created a completely new situation. The old imperfect system has been replaced by what He Himself did. He is the center of God’s blessing. The will of God can be executed, because of what He has done and because of Who He is. And what is that will here? God wanted a new generation of priests that would be able to draw near to Him in His holy presence. The Lord Jesus has taken care of that by accomplishing God’s will. He has met all of the holy conditions of God.

In that way He has given to God a righteous foundation to sanctify us. God has “sanctified” or separated us for Himself on the basis of the offering of His Son. The power of the offering is eternal. Therefore our sanctification is “once for all”, which means continuous, everlasting, forever. We belong to God forever, in accordance to the powerful effect of this sacrifice.

God’s will was the sacrifice of Christ. God’s will was also that we would be sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ. ‘Sanctified’ means ‘set apart’ and means here that we are made fit to be in God’s presence, to be in His sanctuary. Isn’t it impressive that considering that, God had prepared a body for the Lord Jesus? Only by preparing Him a body the Lord Jesus was able to offer Himself as ‘a sacrifice’. With that in mind He said, when He instituted the Supper, of the bread after He had broken it: “This is My body which is given for you” (Lk 22:19). Every time when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we may remember that.

Heb 10:11. How totally different did the Old Testament services happen and how disappointing were the results. In the tabernacle and in the temple the priests stood continuously before the altar. Thus they exerted their ministry standing, which indicates that their work was never finished. They were not allowed to rest from their work. Time after time new sacrifices had to be offered: daily, weekly, monthly and annually. It was a cycle of offerings which was repeated over and again. And added to that the offerings the Israelite had to bring personally whenever he had sinned again.

The conclusion of the writer is simply shocking: they can never possibly take away sins. With this conclusion he erased the whole Jewish service. If someone from the readers would ascribe any value to it, he would enormously dishonor God and damage himself as well. That goes also for you and me. You shouldn’t want to have anything to do with it either. And you surely will not want to if you carefully take a look at what’s the opposite of that whole insufficient service.

Heb 10:12. To demonstrate that to you the writer places opposite to all those priests who daily brought the same sacrifices the Priest Who offered only one sacrifice for the sins. And because this was a perfectly adequate sacrifice, He “for all time”, which means permanently, uninterruptedly, continuously, “sat down”. That shows the perfect rest which is the result of His work. Christ does not have to stand up anymore to bring such a sacrifice again.

And where does He sit? “At the right hand of God.” Therein God’s perfect recognition and the acceptance of His work are expressed. That He Himself went to sit there indicates the glory of His Person. He does not arrogate this place Himself, but He knows that He has fully responded to God’s will and can therefore be there. God gave that place to Him (Psa 110:1).

Heb 10:13. But Christ does not remain seated forever. From the moment He went to sit and after that (“from that time”), He is waiting until the moment He will rise again. When He rises it will not be to offer Himself again, but to realize in judgment the final and definite results of His sacrificial work (Isa 33:10-12).

You also saw this in the concluding verses of the previous chapter (Heb 9:26-28). The reason there to appear for the second time is also not to die again for the sins. There His second appearance is related to the salvation of the believers. Here it is in relation to the subjection of His enemies. The Lord Jesus is waiting for that.

The writer again refers to the impressive verse from Psalm 110 (Psa 110:1). There you hear how God promises Christ to make His enemies His footstool. The Lord Jesus is waiting for the fulfillment of that promise patiently and persistently (2Thes 3:5; Rev 3:10). Only at God’s time He will rise and not earlier.

Heb 10:14. The word “for” indicates the reason why Christ was able to take the place at the right hand of God. He “has perfected for all time those who are sanctified”. Here you have the content of the will of God. Through the offering of Christ everyone who is sanctified is made perfect in conscience, a conscience that is free from any burden of sin and fear for the judgment. Those who are sanctified are those who are separated for the service to God, the priestly service in the sanctuary. On that place you are put and that “for all time”. That means that there never is any moment, in which you, as one who is sanctified, will not stand in the complete value of the work of Christ before God.

Perhaps you feel at times that some doubt rises whether you are really a child of God. You still disappoint yourself so often. Then read this verse and believe what it says. Doubt is only taken away by faith that God has perfectly accepted the work of the Lord Jesus and that its testimony is given in writing by the Holy Spirit in the Scripture.

The value that Christ and His work have to God, determines how God sees every person who has confessed his sins and has accepted Christ as the propitiation for his sins. Therefore it doesn’t depend on your feeling or view, but on your faith in God and what He has said about His Son. If you do not believe what God says here in His Word, you make Him a liar (1Jn 5:10). Therefore do not allow anyone to rob the assurance of your salvation by erroneous teachings, in particular Christians who take the law as rule of life. Throw your anchor in God’s Word.

Heb 10:15. Added to this testimony of God in His Word the testimony of “the Holy Spirit” is given, Who also “testifies” to the perfectly accomplished offering and its effect. You will experience this testimony inwardly in your heart if you believe God’s Word. There is always a perfect match of the Word and the Spirit. Both the Word and the Spirit always point at the Lord Jesus and His work. You can read the Word, while the Holy Spirit gives you the inner conviction that what you read is the truth.

Heb 10:16. The testimony that the Holy Spirit gives here is based on the Word and it is from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. It is the testimony to “us”, who are first of all the Hebrew readers from that time and then the remnant in future. The quotation from Jeremiah relates to that. In chapter 8 (Heb 8:10 ; 12) this quotation was already given attention to. It is a good thing to read the explanation about that again. It mainly deals with the effect of the new covenant in the millennial kingdom of peace. Here the quotation is rather meant to indicate that under the new covenant an inward work of the Holy Spirit is happening in the heart and in the mind of the believers.

It is wonderful to see that each of the three Persons of the Godhead has His own place and His own share in order to present you as believer perfect before God.

1. God is the source of your salvation. It was His will to sanctify you.

2. He was able to sanctify you because His Son has accomplished the necessary work for that purpose.

3. Of God’s will and of the work of the Lord Jesus you obtained knowledge and you took part of it through the testimony of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

You can also put it like this: The assurance that God will remember your sins and lawless deeds no more, is

1. because of the irreversible will of God and

2. because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ and

3. because of the absolute testimony of the Holy Spirit.

Heb 10:17. Before Christ accomplished the work sins were remembered or reminded (Heb 10:3). After all, there was formerly no offering that could blot out sins radically. But through the offering of Christ they don’t exist anymore to God. If God doesn’t remember the sins anymore, then every necessity for a new offering is missing.

Heb 10:18. This verse is the conclusion from the quoted prophecy from Jeremiah 31 and from the whole previous argument. Because the one offering has worked forgiveness no other offerings can be offered anymore to work forgiveness. What has been forgiven does not need an offering for sins anymore. No sin has been left that still needs forgiveness and therefore an offering for the penalty of all sins is already paid in full. Therefore each right of existence of the Old Testament offering service has been nullified. It has no value and meaning anymore.

Now read Hebrews 10:10-18 again.

Reflection: Are you entirely sure that God has sanctified you once for all through Christ and His offering?