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The Sabbath-School

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 9.

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The Sabbath-School.

Letter to the Hebrews.

CHAPTER 10: 1-9.

(Lesson 24, March 15, 1890.)
1. WHAT was the nature of the law of sacrifices? Heb. 10:1.
2. Was it exactly like the things of which it was the shadow?—Ib.
3. What differences were there between the priesthood of Aaron and that of Christ?
4. Could the sacrifices of that law make anyone perfect?—Ib.
5. If they could, what would have been the result? Verse 2.
6. Why would they have ceased to be offered? Ans.—They would have had the same power as the offering of Christ, and would not have needed to be repeated.
7. What is meant by their being remembrances of sin? Ans.—Their continual sacrifices were continual acknowledgments of sin. Verse 3.
8. Why were their sins kept in continual remembrance? Verse 4.
9. What is Christ represented as saying when he came into the world? Verse 5.
10. Did this mean that the Lord would not have any sacrifice?
11. From what scripture is this quoted? Ps. 40: 6-8.
12. For what can we say a body was prepared him? Ans.—For a sacrifice in contrast with those undesirable ones that could not take away sin.
13. Where was it written that he should thus come? Heb. 10:7. The volume of the book doubtless refers to the Pentateuch; for the Saviour said that Moses wrote of him, and that all things written in the law of Moses concerning him must be fulfilled. John 5:46; Luke 24:44.
14. For what did he say he came? Heb. 10:7.
15. What two things are spoken of in verses 6 and 7? Ans.—Burnt-offerings and the will of God.
16. What do we learn concerning the will of God in the verse from which this is quoted? Ps. 40:8.
17. Is the law the will of God? Ans.—There is no difference between the will of God and the law of God. The law of any ruler is his will. See Rom. 2:17, 18, etc.
18. Where did Christ say the law was? Ps. 40:8.
19. Where did God promise to put his law, in the new covenant? Heb. 8:10.
20. Who is the mediator for the fulfillment of this promise?
21. Would he make the sacrifice that he did, to accomplish this, if the law were not in his own heart?
22. What is meant by his taking away the first? Heb. 10:9.
23. What is the second, that he came to establish? See note.

NOTE.

VERSE 9 has also been obscured by the unwarranted additions of theologians, who have put their theories into their translations. In a certain translation of the New Testament, of high pretensions, it is made to read, “He taketh away the first will that he may establish the second.” But there are no two wills spoken of in the text. The rendering is intended to be equivalent to this: He taketh away the first covenant, that he may establish the second. No one is warranted in putting an idea into a text which is not written in the text, merely because the idea may be true. That construction is altogether foreign to the apostle's train of reasoning. There is a contrast presented throughout in verses 5-9, as follows:—
  1. “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire.”
  2. “I come to do thy will.”
He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. In this is found the only contrast in the argument, and it is made very prominent. The sacrifices and offerings of the Mosaic law could not perfect the conscience, could not reform the life, could not write the law of God in the heart. These are taken away, that he may come in whose heart is the law, and who alone can fulfill the promise of the new covenant.