With or Without Shedding of Blood
(No. 2951)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
30, 1875.
"Without shedding of blood is no remission." Hebrews 9:22.
WEEK after week, standing before this congregation to preach the things
concerning the Kingdom of Christ, I sometimes say to myself, "I wonder
how much longer I shall have to point out to some of these people the
way of salvation before they will walk in it–I wonder how many times I
shall have to preach to them the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in
the Crucified Christ of Calvary and how often I shall have to urge them
to an immediate decision for Christ, the renunciation of their
self-confidence and the forsaking of their sins?" It seems to me that
after I have done this, the right thing for me to do is to keep on
asking you, "Have you given due attention to these Truth of God? Do you
know them in your soul?" For, "if you know these things, happy are you
if you do them," but the very opposite of happy are you if you leave
them undone!
I am going to try to enlist the attention of any earnest, thoughtful
persons who are here, any of those who are still unconverted, but who
have begun to consider their ways and to turn unto the Lord. To you,
dear Friends, I mean to preach nothing but the simple Gospel of Jesus
Christ–and not to preach it as though I were addressing the settlers
in Australia or the pundits of Hindustan–but to preach it distinctly
to you and to urge you to accept it here and now. If you have not
accepted it by the time the sermon is done, it shall be through no
fault of mine–the blame must lie at your own door, that you have been
directed to the way of salvation, but have not walked in it–or that,
having heard the Gospel and taken some interest in it, you have
willfully rejected it.
The subject of my discourse is to be the remission–the putting away
and getting rid of sin–and that concerns every one of us, from the
youngest child to the oldest man or woman, for we are all sinners. It
is very common for people to say, "Oh, yes, we are all sinners!" But I
do not use that expression as they do. I mean that you have done wrong
and that I have done wrong and that we have, all of us, done wrong! "We
have done the things which we ought not to have done and we have left
undone the things which we ought to have done, and there is no health
in us." We have chosen the wrong instead of the right. We have chosen
to please ourselves rather than to please God. We have even lived as if
there were no God! If there had really been no God, our conduct might
not have been materially affected. We have all sinned in some way or
other–
"EEach wandering in a different way, But all the downward road."
And, dear Friends, we all of us need to be cleansed from this sin.
There is not one among us who can afford to live in sin, or who can
afford to die in sin. We may find a temporary pleasure in it, but it
must end in eternal loss to us unless there comes a time when God's
Grace saves us from it–we cannot be truly happy while we are out of
gear with God. And since we are immortal beings and our soul will not
die, but will live on forever, there will come a time in which the sin
which is unforgiven will be a sore plague to us. So it is vitally
important that we should enquire whether, being sinners, we have been
forgiven or not!
I hope I shall be able to reach the conscience of each person here
while I try to talk to you about two contrasts. First we have, in our
text, sin unremitted and sin remitted. And then, secondly, we have
without shedding of blood and with shedding of blood.
I. So, first, we will consider these two things which are so opposite
to each other–SIN UNREMITTED AND SIN REMITTED.
The Apostle says, "Without shedding of blood is no remission." I do not
like the sound of those words, "no remission" They seem to me like a
funeral knell–"no remission." That might have been the sound in the
ears of every sinner from the time of Adam until now–"no remission."
It would have made this world a dreadful prison if everywhere, when we
sat down to think of our sin, there stared us in the face the words,
"no remission." This is, indeed, one of the inscriptions across the
vault of Hell–"no remission," "no remission." I say that I cannot bear
the sound of those words, yet they must be sounded aloud, for there are
still some persons to whom they apply. I trust that the sounding of
those words in their ears may be the means of their awakening!
What does it mean when we say that a man has sinned and that there is
no remission for him? It means, first, that he is the object of the
daily anger of God. God has a benevolent regard for him as one of His
creatures and is not willing that he should perish. God would
infinitely prefer that the sinner should turn to Him and live, but,
viewing him as an impenitent sinner, we read that "God is angry with
the wicked every day." I have learned not to take much notice of other
people's opinions, yet I do not like to make anybody angry if I can
help it. If I have ever done so–and sometimes it has happened
unintentionally–I have had no pleasure in reflecting that someone was
angry with me. And if it was somebody who would not be angry without a
cause, it has been a very painful thing to live under a consciousness
of his displeasure. I want you whose sins are unforgiven, to reflect
that God is angry with you every day. When He looks upon you, He cannot
regard you as a father regards a dear child who has done everything he
can to please him, but He must look upon you as a rebel–as one who has
revolted against Him and defied Him to His face. When He looks upon
your sin, His anger must flame forth. A man who is not angry with sin
must be a guilty man and, in proportion to the holiness of God must be
his abhorrence of evil.
Reflect, then, upon what a sad condition you are in. If God should
never smite you in His righteous wrath–if He should continue to give
you the mercies of this life every day just as He has done, I think,
dear Friend, that it ought to trouble you all the more that you are
still provoking Him by your continued sin. If you really are of the
noble spirit that I hope you are, you will not be so ungenerous as
merely to regret your faults because of the suffering it will bring to
yourself, but you will lament it because it offends so loving, so good,
so tender, so gracious a Being as the God of the whole earth! Were He
vindictive–had He no heart of compassion–if He had made no
proclamation of mercy and no terms of Grace–I could understand how you
could brazen your forehead and defy Him. But how can you live in enmity
against the God who has been so gracious to you? Let the thought of the
mercy of God make your unremitted sin such a burden upon your
conscience that you will not rest until you have repented of it and
been forgiven!
Remember, dear Friends, that, in addition to being the object of the
daily anger of God, you are in constant peril of suffering that anger
to the fullest. A single step may cause you to fall–and that fall may
lead to the grave. Who among us can tell all the perils of this mortal
life? I remember reading a work in which there were collected together
numerous instances of the simple means by which men have died, such as
the swallowing of a fruit stone, or the sticking of a small bone in the
throat, the breathing of some invisible noxious gas, or the failure of
some almost imperceptible organ in the body to perform its usual
functions. How suddenly death often comes! A friend said to me, this
morning, "Do you know that So-and-So is dead?" He was a dear fellow
servant of Christ, an eminent preacher of the Gospel. I had no idea,
when I saw him a little while ago in robust health, that he and I
should never speak to each other again in this world! You, also, must
often have heard of the death of friends–and someday people will tell
the survivors that you, too, are gone. With unremitted sin upon you,
you know where you will go, do you not? I need not tell you where they
are driven whose sin has never been forgiven–and whose sin never will
be forgiven–as they have passed out of this world unwashed in the
precious blood of Jesus!
May I very earnestly put to all of you who are still unsaved, this
question–"How will you be able to die with unremitted sin upon you?"
There are some of us who believe that there is a spot on this earth
where our mortal remains are to lie–and it is possible that the tree
of which the planks will form our coffin has already been cut down. We
expect to die unless the Lord shall soon come and that will amount to
much the same thing. And, expecting to die, we would like to be ready
to die and to have our house in order. I like to meet a sensible man
who insures his life so as not to leave his wife and family in poverty,
or who, when he has means at his disposal, lays by for a rainy day that
should he be out of
work, he will not need to go and beg. Now, if such provision as this is
commendable–and who will say that it is not–is it not much more
commendable with regard to eternal things? Are we to be careful about
lesser matters and yet to make no preparation for that last moment in
which we must pass out of this world to undergo the solemn testing in
the scales of unerring Justice? If unremitted sin is upon you–and it
is to be fearful that it is upon very many of you–I pray you to
consider what you will do in that dread hour when the immortal tenant
of your house of clay makes her fatal leap without a wing to buoy her
up–and sinks into despair and into yet deeper despair in the
bottomless abyss! God grant that none of our spirits may ever know what
it is to be found disembodied with unforgiven sin and afterwards to
hear the trumpet of the great Day of Judgment ring out–and to go back
into our risen bodies with sin unforgiven–and to be cast, body and
soul, into the lake that burns forever and ever!
This is, surely, enough for me to say upon that sorrowful theme, so let
us now think upon the brighter theme of remission. Our text seems to me
to be musical with hope–"Without shedding of blood is no remission."
Then it is clearly implied that, with shedding of blood, there is
remission! In the Gospel we always have glad news to tell. Unconverted
Sinner with your unremitted sin, we have glad news to tell you! And
this is it–your sin may be remitted! There is no sin of which you can
repent, which may not be forgiven you! There lives not a mortal man
who, if he repents of his sin, shall not find mercy! There is a sin
which is unto death, but those who commit it never ask for mercy, or
desire it. They are dead even while they live, their conscience is
seared as with a hot iron, and they rush to Hell willingly. But never
has a man sincerely anxious for salvation committed that sin! Let no
penitent man despair, for there is remission for every sin of which any
man truly repents and for which he exercises faith in the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!
The remission of sin which God gives to His people is complete. That is
to say, it wipes out all his sins, whatever they may have been. Now
look, Believer, there is the list of your sins, it is a huge roll! If I
were to unroll it, how long would it be? Would it not belt the globe
and reach from the earth to the sun and back again? Can you see all the
sin that is recorded there? Yet the moment that the blood of Jesus is
applied to that roll, the whole record is blotted out and there shall
never be any more sin inscribed there, for Jesus Christ never yet
divided a man's sins, forgiving some, and leaving others unforgiven! He
deals with sin in the mass, takes it all up and flings it into the sea,
or buries it in His own sepulcher! And never shall it have a
resurrection, for, says the Lord, "the iniquity of Israel shall be
sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found." In the Epistle from which our text is taken, the
Lord says, "I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds
will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no
more." King Hezekiah said to the Lord, "You have cast all my sins
behind Your back." And King David wrote, "As far as the east is from
the west"–and that is an infinite distance–"so far has He removed our
transgressions from us." So you see that God completely sweeps away our
sins when He remits them!
Further, the man who gets remission of sin, gets a clearance from all
danger of any penalty resulting from sin, so that he can sing–
"If sin is pardoned, I'm secure, Death has no sting beside! The Law
gave sin its damming power, But Christ, my Ransom, died."
In dying, Christ bought my pardon so that I have no cause to fear the
punishment of my sin! What a blessing it is that the sin is gone and
the penalty is gone too! When a man's sin is remitted, he comes to the
position which would have been his if he had never sinned. We fell,
federally, in Adam, and we fell, actually, by our own sin. But Christ
has put us back where Adam was in his state of innocence. No, He has
done more than that for us, for man was but man before he fell, but now
man is linked to the Eternal in the Person of the God-Man, Christ
Jesus, so we are nearer to God than Adam was before he fell! I said,
Sinner, that God was angry with you, but if your sin is remitted, His
anger is gone! What does a forgiven sinner say to God? "Though You were
angry with me, Your anger is turned away and You comforted me." "Like
as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear
Him." Jeremiah wrote, "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with
loving-kindness have I drawn you." It is sin that separates us from
God–when that is put away, there is no longer any separation–but we
are one in blessed amity, sacred relationship, holy concord and near
and dear communion!
Do all of you, dear Friends, know what this remission of sin is? There
are some of us who could boast of this–not that we could boast of
anything that we are, but we could boast and glory in the great
goodness of the Lord to us, the very chief of sinners! There are many
here who could join with me in this declaration, "We were guilty and
Hell-deserving, but, having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know
that our sins, which were many, are all forgiven. We are 'clothed in
the righteousness of Christ and are accepted in the Beloved!' And we
knowit and there is, therefore, now no condemnation to us who are in
Christ Jesus. And we are not afraid of any, for, 'being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' The peace
we have, through believing in Jesus, is so full, so rich, so deep, that
it cannot be broken! Death itself will only deepen it. We are not
afraid to die–why should we be? With the robe of His righteousness
upon us, we shall stand boldly even in the great Day of Judgment–and
with the name of Jesus upon us, He will welcome us and say to us,
'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world.'"
I wish with all my heart and soul that every one of you had received
the remission of your sin! I bless God that there are many in this
place who are humbly resting on the great atoning Sacrifice. My
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, do not question the remission of your
sins, for, to question that is to question the Word of God itself! God
Himself declares that every believer in Christ is justified and saved.
But many of you who have heard the Gospel, have not believed it. "This
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." This is
your greatest sin–that you have not believed on Jesus Christ, whom God
has sent! Oh, that God the Holy Spirit would convince you of the sin of
unbelief and enable you to repent of it and to lay hold on Jesus Christ
by a act of childlike faith, that you might live through Him!
II. This brings me to the second point of my discourse, which divides
itself into two parts–WITHOUT SHEDDING OF BLOOD–AND WITH SHEDDING OF
BLOOD.
"Without shedding of blood," says the Apostle–wherever that is the
case, there is no remission. It is not possible that any sin should
ever be forgiven to any man without shedding of blood. This has been
known from the very first. As soon as man had sinned, God taught him
that he needed a sacrifice. Adam and Eve, after they had sinned, tried
to clothe themselves with fig leaves, but that was not a sufficient
covering. God must kill some animals, shedding their blood and, in
their skins our first parents must be clothed. When Cain and Abel had
grown up, the only sacrifice that God would accept was the slain lamb.
To Cain and his sacrifice of the fruits of the earth, God had no
respect. Job is, perhaps, the earliest of the Patriarchs, but he
offered sacrifices for his children lest they should have offended God
while they were feasting. He did not think nor did any of those ancient
men who feared God think of finding acceptance with Him and remission
of sin–without shedding of blood.
This belief has been almost universally held. There is scarcely to be
found a tribe of men who have not believed in this. Wherever explorers
go, they find that wherever there is any conception of God, there is a
sacrifice in some form or other. Many people have thought it necessary
to make very great sacrifices and some have even imagined that they
could only expiate their guilt by offering up their own children, so
deeply-seated is the thought in our humanity that there must be a
sacrifice for sin! I scarcely know of any religion, except Socinianism,
without a sacrifice. Humanity craves for it and cannot do without it.
If anyone should proclaim a religion without a sacrifice, you would
soon see how quickly this building would be emptied, or any other place
of worship! There are always more spiders than people where the
Atonement is left out. Men must have a sacrifice–in their inmost
hearts they know their absolute need of it when they seek to approach
the Lord.
The old Mosaic Law revealed this need of a sacrifice for sin. The most
prominent thing about it–that which must have stuck everybody–was the
blood. I do not know whether you have ever realized that the
Tabernacle, which was praised for its beauty, must have looked like a
veritable shambles and the gorgeous Temple, itself, must have needed
abundant arrangements for its cleansing because of the continual
sacrifices offered there–because so much of the service consisted in
the shedding and sprinkling of blood. The most prominent idea that a
worshipper would get would be that there was something for which an
atonement was needed and that this involved the presentation of life
before God. And that is just the thought that God would have us still
retain in our minds, for, "without shedding of blood is no remission."
Do not quarrel with this Truth of God, dear Friends, for you cannot
alter it. It is not for me to stand here to justify the ways of God to
men, or to propound any theories of atonement. I have no theory. I
simply say what the Apostle says, "Without shedding of blood is no
remission." And there is no remission otherwise. You may stand and weep
for sin till you become a very Niobe, or be transformed into a dripping
well, or waste away in one continual shower of penitential lamentation,
but no sin will ever be washed away so! To repent of sin is a part of
your natural duty. And attention to one part of duty cannot atone for
the neglect of another part.
"Oh, but!" you say, "in addition to this weeping and lamentation, I
mean to amend." Well, suppose you do? If, from this time forth, you
never sin again–if a wrong thought, or word, or act should never again
stain your character, you will have done no more than it was your duty
to do! And the fulfillment of your duty will be no atonement for the
faults of the past–all your tears and all your efforts cannot put away
the guilt of the past, for "without shedding of blood is no remission."
And repentance and good works are not shedding of blood!
Suppose you add to these things what you call religiousness? Very well.
Do so. Attend the House of Prayer, join in the petitions of the saints
as far as you can, sing with them, but, all the while mind what you are
doing, for you may be adding to your sin instead of decreasing it, by
relying upon such things as those! I repeat the declaration that you
have only done what you ought to have done and that cannot make amends
for your previous misdeeds and neglects, so that there, too, you rest
upon a broken reed.
Are you so foolish as to hope that sin can be put away by some sleight
of hand that may be practiced by so-called "priests"? A plague upon
them! They swarm on the face of this earth–these men who say that they
are endued with some strange power by which they can remit human guilt
by the muttering of certain words and by passing you through certain
performances which are generally attended with the transference of some
part of your substance to the pockets of the so-called "priests!" O
Sirs, be not deceived by them! Open your eyes and see for yourselves
what there can be in one of your fellow men just because there have
been laid upon his head the hands of a man wearing lawn sleeves, that
he should have the power to put away your sins! If this folly is to be
believed, do not let us hear any more about "the enlightened 19th
Century." It would be a disgrace to the people of any century to
believe in such a transparent lie as that! Go to the living God for
pardon, for He alone can give it! Make your confessions at His feet–
only there they will be valid! And when you have confessed your sin to
God, do not in any degree rely on sacramental efficacy, or on priestly
power, but trust wholly to the shedding of blood! There is your hope!
But without shedding of blood, priest or no priest, sacrament or no
sacrament, you will be lost as surely as you are a human being and a
sinner!
My last point is to be with the shedding of blood there is remission.
That is a much more delightful topic. If God had not provided the
Sacrifice for sin, my text would have sounded the death-knell of all
our hopes. "Without shedding of blood–no remission," would have been
like the flaming sword of the cherubim keeping us back from the Tree of
Life. "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering,"
was the sweet assurance of Abraham to Isaac. But to us there is a still
sweeter assurance–God has provided the Lamb for a burnt offering!
Listen to this, you who would have remission! God Himself came into
this world. He who was offended by man's sin, condescended to become
the Sacrifice to put away that sin! And coming here, He took upon
Himself a human body, spotless and without taint of original sin. And
here He lived as Man, perfect Man, yet just as truly very God of very
God. When He had reached the appointed time, He offered Himself upon
the altar as the one Sacrifice for human sin and, by the shedding of
His blood, there is remission for sin! Think of this great Truth of
God! Here was an innocent Sufferer, the value of whose life was worth
more than an innumerable number of ours. It did more for the honor of
God's Law for Christ to die than if we had all died, for all created
beings will see how just God is when He will not let His own Son escape
even when guilt is only imputed to Him.
Jesus Christ has died. The Son of God has offered Himself as a
Sacrifice for sin! So now, whoever believes on Him shall have immediate
remission of sin. It hardly matters how I tell you this great Truth so
long as I make it clear to you. If I spoke it ungrammatically, if I
uttered it so that you had to lean forward and strain your ears to
catch the message, it would not matter as long as you were able to
understand it. You are bound to lay hold of this Truth of God, for it
is your life! If you do not grasp it, whose fault will it be? If I
stood in the midst of a company of criminals condemned to die and told
them that a free pardon could be obtained in a certain way, there would
not be one of them who would criticize my voice or my manner because,
if they really wanted pardon, they would all be taken up with the
thought of getting it! It
does not matter to me what criticism you may happen to make about me. I
shall sleep just as well, I daresay, for all that–and live as long!
But I beseech you not to let any remarks or thoughts about me, or the
place, or anything else drive any of you from this conviction–that you
must either be saved or lost! That you must have your sins forgiven or
else you will be ruined forever! That the only way of getting them
forgiven is through the shedding of blood and that the only way of
availing yourselves of the efficacy of the shedding of blood of Christ
is by simple confidence in Him! Does anybody misunderstand that
expression? Then I put it thus–give yourself up deliberately into the
hands of Christ to save you from the consequences of your sin. As one
who is falling, drops because he must, but drops cheerfully because
another stands with outstretched arms to catch him, so drop into the
Savior's arms! We are all prone to sin, but if we give ourselves up to
Christ, He will change our natures and make us love holiness. He will
renew our hearts so that we shall seek after that which is good, pure,
lovely and excellent in the sight of God. Salvation from the propensity
to sin, as well as from the guilt of sin, will be given at once to
everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ!
"But I do not feel right," one says. Feeling right is not the
all-important matter. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall
be saved."
"I will go home and pray," says another. That is not what I urge you to
do first. First, believe, and thenpray. To put prayer in the place of
faith is to suggest to God that He should change the plan of salvation,
which is, as I just reminded another Friend, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved." "What am I to do, then? Am I to
believe that Jesus Christ died for me in particular?" I did not say
that. You are to trust Jesus Christ whether you have any particular
interest in Him or not. You will find out your particular interest in
Christ in due time. Just now, look at Christ upon the Cross. That is a
spectacle that is well worthy of your careful observation! There He
hangs, He who made all worlds! With hands and feet fastened to the
accursed tree, He hangs there to die the death of a slave–the death
that the Romans would scarcely inflict upon slaves unless they had
committed some extraordinary crimes. He whom the angels worship, hangs
there to die, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."
Can you not trust your soul with Him? Will you not believe that God,
for Christ's sake, can forgive you? Will you not now rush into His arms
and confess your sins, yet look up and say, "I know that You can
forgive, for Christ has died, and I do rest my soul on His atoning
Sacrifice"?
I remember–though it was many years ago–when first I really
understood that I was simply to look to Jesus Christ and that, doing
so, I would be saved. I felt in my heart that I wished I had known it
long before, for I had been for years seeking rest and finding none–I
only needed to be told that there was nothing for me to do but simply
look to Christ! Oh, how I did leap at that message! It was the best
sermon I ever heard, yet it was, in itself, a very poor one. But it had
in it that which was the means of saving my soul. I trusted Christ then
with my soul and now I have nothing else to rest on. I have preached
some thousands of times since that day and God has given me many souls,
but I have not found any improvement as to the way of salvation. I
trusted wholly in Christ, then, and well I might, for I had nothing
else to trust to! And I trust in nothing but Jesus Christ, now, and
well I may, for I still have nothing else to trust to!
If there is a poor sinner here who sees the lifeboat of faith come
close up to him and he is afraid to step in, if it is any comfort to
you, Sinner, let me tell you that if you step into that lifeboat and
are lost, I must be lost, too, for I do not know of any other way of
escape! If there is anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ and is damned, I
must be damned with him–I am perfectly willing to go with him to
prison and to death. If my Lord Jesus Christ is not able to save a
sinner just as he is, then He is not able to save me. And if the blood
of Jesus Christ cannot wash out sin, then mine will never be washed
out, for I have nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ to trust to, and
I say to Him–
"Other refuge have I none– Hangs my helpless soul on You." O Sinner,
you can hang where I can hang and where all God's people are hanging!
"Ah," you say, "you do not know what a great sinner I am." No, and you
do not know what a great Savior He is! "Ah, but I have such a hard
heart!" But His heart was broken and He can break yours! "Yes, but it
will be an amazing thing if He ever saves me." Ah, there you are right,
and so it is when He saves anybody–and He delights to work wonders of
Grace! I wonder which will be the biggest wonder in Heaven–you or
I–or someone else here or elsewhere? Well, we shall see when we get
there, but mind that you get there! God bless you, for His dear Son's
sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: HEBREWS 9:18-28; 10:1-25.
Hebrews 9:18-22. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated
without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the
people according to the Law, he took the blood of calves and of goats,
with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book,
and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which
God has enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the
tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things
are by the Law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no
remission. Under the Law of God, some things were purified by fire or
by water, but, "almost all things" were "purged with blood" and there
was, and still is, no remission of sin "without shedding of blood."
23-26. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the
Heavens should be purified with these, but the Heavenly things
themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered
into the Holy Place made with hands which are the figures of the true,
but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the Presence of God for us:
nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters
into the Holy Place every year with blood of others; for then must He
often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in
the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. In every respect, our great High Priest was superior to the
high priests under the Law, though, in some points, they resembled Him
and were types of Him.
27, 28. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto
them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. His one offering so fully met all the claims of Divine
Justice on behalf of all His people that there was no need of another
offering for sin, and no room for it, so His Second Coming will be
"without a sin offering unto salvation," as the passage may be
rendered.
Hebrews 10:1. For the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and
not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which
they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect
This refers to the old Ceremonial Law, under which the Jews lived so
long. They always had to go, year after year, offering the same kind of
sacrifices because the work of atonement was never perfectly done–men
were not cleansed or saved by it–so the process had to be continually
repeated.
2. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the
worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
There would have been no need to bring another lamb to be offered if
the one which was presented had put away sin! There would have been no
need of another Day of Atonement if the sacrifice on the one day had
really made atonement for sin.
3, 4. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins
every year For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins. Their blood was only a picture, an emblem, a
type of far more precious blood–the shadow of the real Atonement which
was afterwards to be offered.
5. Therefore, when He comes into the world. That is, the true Messiah,
the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, our Redeemer–"When He comes into
the world"– 5. He says. According to Psalm 40:6-8–
5-9. Sacrifice and offering You would not, but a body have You prepared
Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of
Me), to do Your will, O God. Above when He said, Sacrifice and offering
and burnt offerings and offering for sin You would not, neither had
pleasure therein; which are offered by the La w; then said He, Lo, I
come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first, that He may
establish the second. He takes away the type because the great Antitype
has come! He abolishes the offering of bull, goats and lambs because HE
has come whom they all foreshadowed!
10. By which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once and for all Or, "once." It can never be offered
again. The pretence of offering up the body and the blood of Christ in
the "mass" is sheer profanity! It has been done once and there is no
need of a repetition. To suppose that it could be repeated is to imply
that it was incomplete on the first occasion! But it was not, for by it
we are already sanctified!
11, 12. And every priest stands daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but
this Man, after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins forever, sat down
at the right hand ofGod. It was done, wholly done, and done forever!
Nothing was to be added to it and, therefore, Jesus "sat down" in the
place of honor and power "at the right hand of God"–
13, 14. From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Or, "set apart." He has fully saved all those for whom He
died. His one Sacrifice was so effectual that, by it, He has forever
put away the sin of the whole multitude of those that believe in Him.
15. Whereof the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us. And what more
veritable Witness can we have? That to which the Holy Spirit bears
testimony must never be questioned by us.
15-17. For after He hadsaid before, This is the Covenant that I
willmake with them after those days, says the lord, I will put My Laws
into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sin
and iniquities will I remember no more. What a wonderful Covenant that
is–not that He will bless you if you keep the Law, but that you shall
be enabled to keep it and that He will lead you to do so by putting His
Law, not on tablets of stone where your eyes can see it, but on the
fleshy tablets of your heart where your soul shall feel its force and
power so that you shall be obedient to it! Meditate on those glorious
words–"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."
18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
If the sins themselves have gone and God will remember them no more, no
further sacrifice is required for them! What need have you of cleansing
if you are so clean that God, Himself, sees no sin in you? O glorious
purgation by the atoning Sacrifice of Christ! Rejoice in it and praise
the Lord for it forever and ever!
19-25. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enterinto the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new andliving way, which He has consecrated
for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High
Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true 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
profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that
promised) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to
good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as
you see the day approaching. Notice the practical teaching of this
great Truth of God! If you have been thus washed, do not defile
yourselves again. If, by God's rich mercy, you have been delivered from
the transgressions of the past, let gratitude move you to holy living
and endeavor not only to grow in Grace, yourselves, but to help others
in the same direction, so that the abounding mercy of God may have
abundant praise from us. God grant it for His name's sake! Amen.