Hebrews 10
Questions answered from Hebrews 10
Short answers from Always Ready that cite this chapter
Chuck Smith on Hebrews 10
Verse by verse, the C2000 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
Verses 1-39
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very substance of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect ( Hebrews 10:1 ).
Now notice the law was only a shadow of the good things to come. The value of the studying of Leviticus and the studying of the law, to the Christian, is that it foreshadows the work of Jesus Christ, the offering of Jesus Christ, and the high priestly nature of Jesus Christ. The shadow, it's not the substance. Paul tells us this in Colossians, chapter 2, where Christ through His death blotted out the handwriting and the ordinances that were against us, nailing them to His cross and triumphing over them in it. Therefore, don't let any man judge you in respect of meat, or drink, or new moons, or holy days or Sabbath days, for these were all a shadow of things to come, but the substance is Christ. So Christ standing here in this point in history. His shadow was cast over the past history. The shadow of Christ is there in the law and in the sacrifices. You can see that they foreshadow Him, but they were only the shadow. Jesus is the substance that casts the shadow. And so there is a real substance in Jesus. These things were only foreshadowing His coming. Once He came they were no longer necessary, no longer necessary to have the shadows, for we now have the substance in Jesus.
For if they could have been perfect sacrifices that had put away the sins then would they not have ceased to be offered? ( Hebrews 10:2 ).
In other words, they would have done it once in Moses' day and that would have been it. They wouldn't have to offer animals every day. They wouldn't have to offer animals once a year in the Holy of Holies. It would have been sufficient had they been able to perfect man. "Then would they not have ceased to be offered?"
Because the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins ( Hebrews 10:2 ).
Now this was under the old covenant, and had it been effective, once being cleansed, they should have no more conscience of sins. Showing that it did not bring that to them under the old covenant, however, the glorious thing is that in this new covenant through Jesus Christ, once being purged, we really should not have any more consciousness of sins. There is this purging. It's complete, the cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ is complete, and the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses. In the Greek, it is present perfect tense. It is continually cleansing us from all sins. What a glorious thing, that continual cleansing by Jesus Christ.
But in those sacrifices there was a reminder again made for sins every year ( Hebrews 10:3 ).
Every year when the priest would go in, you'd be reminded again of your guilt and of your sin.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins ( Hebrews 10:4 ).
It is impossible that they could actually take away your sins. They made what they called the kophar for sins. In the Hebrew, kophar, which is translated atonement. It is probably a bad translation. It should be translated covered. It made a covering for their sins, but it did not put their sins away. It only covered their sins.
Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me ( Hebrews 10:5 ):
