From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
After His single sacrifice for sin offered once for all time, Christ took His seat at God's right hand to wait until all opposition is put under His feet. That waiting covers the present age, during which He serves as High Priest and Mediator for all who come to God through Him. His one offering is finished and complete forever, sufficient to pardon, cleanse and make holy all who trust in Him. It met the penalty of the broken law while honoring the law itself, opening the way for guilty sinners to draw near to God with confidence. By that death the divinely appointed types and shadows met their fulfillment and ceased, while the moral law engraved in stone remains binding.
Seated and Waiting
After offering one sacrifice for sins forever, Christ sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth waiting till His enemies are made His footstool and made subject to Him. His atoning work is finished and perfect, His single offering is sufficient, and by that one offering those who are set apart are made complete forever. His sacrifice is the basis for the forgiveness and sanctification described in the surrounding verses. He continues as High Priest over the house of God, interceding for those who come to God through Him. Through His blood His people have confidence to enter into God's very presence by a new and living way opened through His sacrificed flesh, to draw near with a true heart in full trust with cleansed conscience and life, and to stir one another to love and to right action. That instruction in Hebrews 10 is to be taken to heart by those working for God in faith.
His reign continues until that victory of complete subjection of all opposition is accomplished. By His death He caused the typical sacrifices to cease and then left His disciples and ascended to heaven to wait. That waiting time is the Christian age, when salvation through Christ alone is more fully brought to light. The ending of types did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone, including the Sabbath and the tithing system, but made duty more defined and extended. The widening gospel requires greater provisions to sustain the warfare, with greater gifts and offerings in proportion to light and blessings enjoyed, and the outpouring of the Spirit after the ascension leads to self-denial and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others.
His glorious humanity was hidden on earth when He was a man of sorrows pursuing the path of God's plan. After offering Himself as a sacrifice He as priest took the blood of His own atonement into the holiest of all and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and upon His own garments and blessed the people. That same humanity descends from heaven robed in glory triumphant and exalted to appear the second time to declare that there is to be no more sacrifice for sin.
Sacrifice Ending the Types
All the sacrificial offerings and temple ceremonies were divinely appointed types and shadows pointing forward to Christ the true offering, and in His death type met its antitype. The earthly sacrifices and priesthood pointed forward to His sacrifice and heavenly ministry as humanity's great High Priest and mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, fulfilling and explaining the ministry of the Jewish priests. Those ceremonies had no power in themselves to save but opened access to God only as they pointed to His perfect offering, and they were appointed to prove and test professed faith and obedience as illustrating His great atonement. When He came whom their sacrifices had been prefiguring, the Jewish nation, blinded and deceived by Satan, would not receive Him but led Him as a lamb to the slaughter.
By His one sacrifice on the cross He caused the typical sacrifices to cease and abolished them when the handwriting of ordinances was blotted out and nailed to it. When type met antitype those former offerings of the blood of beasts which foreshadowed His death became valueless, terminated in value, no longer acceptable to God, and without moral efficacy. The laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at His death, while His works were in strict accordance with both the moral and the ceremonial law, and as a Jew He observed the law binding upon the Jews to the hour of His death.
The blood of beasts kept incessantly flowing yet had no power in itself to save, to replace repentance, or to cleanse a heart hardened by selfishness, for those sacrifices were only symbols pointing to Christ whose blood would be shed for the sins of the world. Israel had made outward forms all important while losing the spirit of true worship, corrupting the sacrificial rites with heathen traditions and formalism and failing to look beyond the shadow to Christ the true offering for the sins of men. The great convocations had been made scenes of bloodshed and cruelty and the temple court a noisy market ruled by avarice, sharp trading, exorbitant prices and false dealing for profit, so the blood lost its solemn meaning and His own blood soon to be shed would be as little appreciated by priests and elders as the blood of beasts. Their rituals became hollow formalism when the people rejected Christ and resisted the grace and opportunities given to them.
God brought the Babylonian captivity and suspended the temple and its service so outward ceremonies would not become the sum-total of religion, to purge principles and practice from heathenism, to revive heart service, and to reveal the spiritual when outward glory was removed. In captivity without outward representation of God's presence, upon repentance the light of Christ shone into minds and hearts, and visions were given unfolding the overthrow of oppressors, the coming of the Redeemer, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom which He from henceforth expects. The light of the cross revealed the true significance of the earlier service and gave meaning to those types. Not one word proceeding from God becomes null and void until prophecy becomes history, which took place when type met antitype in the death of the Son of God.
He is the author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, the foundation of the whole Jewish economy and the finisher of the faith, the vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. The ceremonial observances were distinguished from the Decalogue and were to pass away because type met antitype in His one great offering for the sins of the world. He came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law, not making it of none effect, and in the light of that law a man sees himself a sinner, dies to sin, repents, has faith in Jesus as Saviour, and becomes obedient to its claims.
Complete Forgiveness in Christ
His one offering is sufficient, finished, perfect, and complete for all time, and by that one offering those who are set apart are made complete forever. After offering one sacrifice for sins He took His place at the right hand of God, where He now waits for the complete subjection of all opposition under His feet. His single sacrifice is complete and His atoning work is finished, and He continues as High Priest over the house of God, interceding for those who come to God through Him, with His reign continuing until that victory is accomplished. His death is the only complete sacrifice, and salvation comes through Christ alone, with Scripture as the infallible authority for this teaching.
His sacrifice is the basis for the forgiveness and sanctification described in the surrounding verses. It answers the penalty brought by transgression of God's law while preserving the honor of the law, for the sacrificial system taught fallen people to repent and trust in God through the promised Redeemer for pardon. Those ceremonies had no power to save in themselves but pointed to Christ, whose perfect offering opened access to God for guilty sinners. His atoning sacrifice brings peace and pardon to those who have transgressed God's law, and through His blood and sacrificed flesh His people have confidence to enter God's very presence by a new and living way, to draw near with a true heart in full trust with cleansed conscience and life.
On the cross He bore human sin as humanity's substitute and surety, endured its judicial punishment, and offered Himself as the final sacrifice to redeem people from the curse of the law. He bore the world's sin and the law's curse in separation from the Father. He purchased every soul with His own blood, and that sacrifice alone can save a soul into eternal life. The one great offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe, so works will not buy entrance into heaven. Forgiveness and God's grace are not secured by pilgrimages, offerings, images, prayers to saints, or other human works, nor by giving all possessions or even giving life itself, for salvation rests on Christ's sacrifice and not on any further human sacrifice.
The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin, and forgiveness of sins that cling like foul leprosy comes only through faith in that cleansing blood. Without shedding of blood there is no remission, a lesson God Himself explicitly planned in the many sacrifices and bleeding victims of the Jewish economy, impressed on mind and heart in solemn sacred ceremony and explained definitely by the priests. Christ needed no suffering to atone for Himself, and His depth of suffering was proportionate to the dignity of His person and His sinless exalted character. His spotless life, surrendered as a sacrifice, vindicated God's justice and the unchanging character of His law and settled forever the controversy between Satan and heaven's Prince. Through that perfect sacrifice Jesus bears sin, God forgives the repenting sinner and clothes him with perfect righteousness, and the Just died for the unjust and rose from the dead.
Heavenly Priesthood and Coming Victory
After His one sacrifice for sins He took His place at God's right hand to wait till His enemies are made His footstool and made subject to Him, His atoning work finished and perfect and by that one offering those set apart made complete forever. He continues as High Priest over the house of God, humanity's great High Priest and mediator and advocate in the heavenly sanctuary, interceding for those who come to God through Him. His ministry there fulfills and explains the ministry of the Jewish priests, for the earthly sacrifices and priesthood pointed forward to His sacrifice and heavenly ministry, and after giving Himself as the sacrifice for sin He continues His work of intercession while awaiting the subjection of His enemies. The completed sacrifice fulfilled the purpose of the old system, bringing peace and pardon to transgressors of God's law.
The apostles' preaching of the risen Christ undermined the ceremonies centered on those offerings, since His sacrifice made the Jewish sacrificial offerings ineffective. From henceforth He expects till the overthrow of the oppressors of God's people and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom with the coming of the Redeemer, as unfolded in the visions given to the prophets in captivity. To that waiting till His enemies are subdued belongs the Old Testament testimony about Christ and His mission, that the Messiah was foretold to come first in humility, suffer and be slain, and later return in power and glory to establish His kingdom and rule over the nations.
The laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at His death when type met antitype and those offerings became valueless and no longer acceptable, but the law of ten commandments did not die with Him. His death did not destroy His Father's law but magnified and honored it and enforces obedience to all its holy precepts, and the ending of types did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone, lessen its claims, set men free from it, destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures, or bring righteousness to an end. Teaching that the ten commandments died with Christ turns the crucifixion and resurrection to Satan's advantage, and trampling the holy law under foot moves all Heaven with indignation. If that holy law which God will not change or abolish could be abolished, man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, who was crucified and rose again the third day to save its transgressors.
The ceremonial observances are distinguished from the Decalogue and were to pass away, for Christ is the foundation of the whole Jewish economy and in His one great offering for the sins of the world type met antitype. That ending of types did not repeal the Sabbath and the tithing system but made duty more defined and extended. Christ fulfilled all the requirements of God in perfect and entire obedience, magnified the law and made it honorable, revealed its spiritual nature and immutable character, and declared that disobedience can never be rewarded with eternal life. As Substitute and Surety He opened a way by which humanity allied by living faith to divinity can keep all God's commandments and teach others to do the same, for He came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law, being the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's people from Adam's day and of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, the Finisher of the faith, vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies, in whose law's light a man sees himself a sinner, dies to sin, repents, has faith in Jesus as Saviour, and becomes obedient to its claims. Scripture is the infallible authority for the teaching that His death is the only complete sacrifice and that salvation comes through Christ.
Faithful Life and Witness
Because His one offering is finished and perfect and makes those set apart complete forever, and because He continues as High Priest over the house of God while waiting for all opposition to be put in complete subjection under His feet, His people have confidence to enter into God's very presence through His blood by a new and living way opened through His sacrificed flesh. They are to draw near with a true heart in full trust with cleansed conscience and life. They are to stir one another to love and to right action. In that setting of His expectation that His enemies will be subdued, believers need not continue in sin, and through prayer they may receive grace to overcome Satan's strategies.
Through that sacrifice Jesus bears sin, God forgives the repenting sinner and clothes him with perfect righteousness, and the Holy Spirit works in, with, and through believers to form a character like the character of Christ. That Christlike character is shown by heavenly love flowing out, growing hatred for sin, and work to save sinners. He purchased every soul with His own blood, and that sacrifice alone can save a soul into eternal life, so that giving all possessions or even giving life itself cannot do that work. Contemplating the greatness of His sacrifice leads to comprehending the greatness of the salvation. Proving untrue to God and the truth and doing despite to the Spirit of grace brings disappointment to Jesus because of what He paid with His blood.
A legal religion is a mistake and a deception, for fastings and prayers practiced in a self-justifying spirit are abominable to God. Solemn assemblies for worship, rounds of religious ceremonies, external humiliation, and imposed sacrifice only testify that the doer counts himself righteous and entitled to heaven. Such cold, legal religion is loveless and Christless and can never lead souls to Christ, and the one great offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe, so works will not buy entrance into heaven. The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin, and forgiveness of sins that cling like foul leprosy comes only through faith in that cleansing blood, for without shedding of blood there is no remission, a lesson God Himself planned in many sacrifices and bleeding victims to teach in solemn sacred ceremony explained definitely by the priests. Christ needed no suffering to atone for Himself, and His depth of suffering was proportionate to the dignity of His person and His sinless exalted character. Angels are amazed at indifference to these vital truths while men continue willing subjects under captivity of Satan and sin after so much was endured in the divine person of the Son of God, and the truth calls for habits of contemplation of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of the life of Christ until there is a deep sense of the aggravating character of sin and hatred of it as a vile thing.
The instruction in Hebrews 10 is to be taken to heart by those working for God in faith, since Christ waits at God's right hand until His enemies are made subject to Him. Workers in cities should read Hebrews 10 and 11 carefully and apply them to themselves, going forward in faith doing their very best. As they watch and work and pray God will hear and answer their petitions and give them an experience invaluable for their later work. That waiting time is the Christian age, when salvation through Christ alone is more fully brought to light after He by His death caused the typical sacrifices to cease and then left His disciples and ascended to heaven. The widening gospel requires greater provisions to sustain the warfare, with greater gifts and offerings in proportion to light and blessings enjoyed, and the outpouring of the Spirit after the ascension leads to self-denial and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others, while the ending of types did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone, including the Sabbath and the tithing system, but made duty more defined and extended.
The sacrifices performed under the law were appointed by the heavenly Father to prove and test the professed faith and obedience of His people, were typical of the Lamb of God and illustrated His great atonement as the true sacrifice to which the innocent victims pointed in shedding His own blood for the sins of the world. When He came whom their sacrifices and offerings had been prefiguring, the Jewish nation, blinded and deceived by Satan, would not receive Him but led Him as a lamb to the slaughter. They continued looking forward to a Messiah who had already come, so they persisted in sacrifices that could not replace His atonement. Their rituals became hollow formalism when the people rejected Christ and resisted the grace and opportunities given to them. The blood of beasts kept incessantly flowing in the temple, but it had lost its solemn meaning because the great convocations had been made scenes of bloodshed and cruelty and the temple court had been made a noisy market ruled by avarice, sharp trading, exorbitant prices and false dealing for profit, and Jesus knew His own blood, soon to be shed, would be as little appreciated by the priests and elders as the blood of beasts they kept flowing.
After His single sacrifice for sin offered once for all time, Christ took His seat at God's right hand to wait until all opposition is put under His feet. That waiting covers the present age, during which He serves as High Priest and Mediator for all who come to God through Him. His one offering is finished and complete forever, sufficient to pardon, cleanse and make holy all who trust in Him. It met the penalty of the broken law while honoring the law itself, opening the way for guilty sinners to draw near to God with confidence. By that death the divinely appointed types and shadows met their fulfillment and ceased, while the moral law engraved in stone remains binding.
Seated and Waiting
After offering one sacrifice for sins forever, Christ sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth waiting till His enemies are made His footstool and made subject to Him. His atoning work is finished and perfect, His single offering is sufficient, and by that one offering those who are set apart are made complete forever. His sacrifice is the basis for the forgiveness and sanctification described in the surrounding verses. He continues as High Priest over the house of God, interceding for those who come to God through Him. Through His blood His people have confidence to enter into God's very presence by a new and living way opened through His sacrificed flesh, to draw near with a true heart in full trust with cleansed conscience and life, and to stir one another to love and to right action. That instruction in Hebrews 10 is to be taken to heart by those working for God in faith.
His reign continues until that victory of complete subjection of all opposition is accomplished. By His death He caused the typical sacrifices to cease and then left His disciples and ascended to heaven to wait. That waiting time is the Christian age, when salvation through Christ alone is more fully brought to light. The ending of types did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone, including the Sabbath and the tithing system, but made duty more defined and extended. The widening gospel requires greater provisions to sustain the warfare, with greater gifts and offerings in proportion to light and blessings enjoyed, and the outpouring of the Spirit after the ascension leads to self-denial and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others.
His glorious humanity was hidden on earth when He was a man of sorrows pursuing the path of God's plan. After offering Himself as a sacrifice He as priest took the blood of His own atonement into the holiest of all and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat and upon His own garments and blessed the people. That same humanity descends from heaven robed in glory triumphant and exalted to appear the second time to declare that there is to be no more sacrifice for sin.
Sacrifice Ending the Types
All the sacrificial offerings and temple ceremonies were divinely appointed types and shadows pointing forward to Christ the true offering, and in His death type met its antitype. The earthly sacrifices and priesthood pointed forward to His sacrifice and heavenly ministry as humanity's great High Priest and mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, fulfilling and explaining the ministry of the Jewish priests. Those ceremonies had no power in themselves to save but opened access to God only as they pointed to His perfect offering, and they were appointed to prove and test professed faith and obedience as illustrating His great atonement. When He came whom their sacrifices had been prefiguring, the Jewish nation, blinded and deceived by Satan, would not receive Him but led Him as a lamb to the slaughter.
By His one sacrifice on the cross He caused the typical sacrifices to cease and abolished them when the handwriting of ordinances was blotted out and nailed to it. When type met antitype those former offerings of the blood of beasts which foreshadowed His death became valueless, terminated in value, no longer acceptable to God, and without moral efficacy. The laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at His death, while His works were in strict accordance with both the moral and the ceremonial law, and as a Jew He observed the law binding upon the Jews to the hour of His death.
The blood of beasts kept incessantly flowing yet had no power in itself to save, to replace repentance, or to cleanse a heart hardened by selfishness, for those sacrifices were only symbols pointing to Christ whose blood would be shed for the sins of the world. Israel had made outward forms all important while losing the spirit of true worship, corrupting the sacrificial rites with heathen traditions and formalism and failing to look beyond the shadow to Christ the true offering for the sins of men. The great convocations had been made scenes of bloodshed and cruelty and the temple court a noisy market ruled by avarice, sharp trading, exorbitant prices and false dealing for profit, so the blood lost its solemn meaning and His own blood soon to be shed would be as little appreciated by priests and elders as the blood of beasts. Their rituals became hollow formalism when the people rejected Christ and resisted the grace and opportunities given to them.
God brought the Babylonian captivity and suspended the temple and its service so outward ceremonies would not become the sum-total of religion, to purge principles and practice from heathenism, to revive heart service, and to reveal the spiritual when outward glory was removed. In captivity without outward representation of God's presence, upon repentance the light of Christ shone into minds and hearts, and visions were given unfolding the overthrow of oppressors, the coming of the Redeemer, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom which He from henceforth expects. The light of the cross revealed the true significance of the earlier service and gave meaning to those types. Not one word proceeding from God becomes null and void until prophecy becomes history, which took place when type met antitype in the death of the Son of God.
He is the author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, the foundation of the whole Jewish economy and the finisher of the faith, the vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. The ceremonial observances were distinguished from the Decalogue and were to pass away because type met antitype in His one great offering for the sins of the world. He came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law, not making it of none effect, and in the light of that law a man sees himself a sinner, dies to sin, repents, has faith in Jesus as Saviour, and becomes obedient to its claims.
Complete Forgiveness in Christ
His one offering is sufficient, finished, perfect, and complete for all time, and by that one offering those who are set apart are made complete forever. After offering one sacrifice for sins He took His place at the right hand of God, where He now waits for the complete subjection of all opposition under His feet. His single sacrifice is complete and His atoning work is finished, and He continues as High Priest over the house of God, interceding for those who come to God through Him, with His reign continuing until that victory is accomplished. His death is the only complete sacrifice, and salvation comes through Christ alone, with Scripture as the infallible authority for this teaching.
His sacrifice is the basis for the forgiveness and sanctification described in the surrounding verses. It answers the penalty brought by transgression of God's law while preserving the honor of the law, for the sacrificial system taught fallen people to repent and trust in God through the promised Redeemer for pardon. Those ceremonies had no power to save in themselves but pointed to Christ, whose perfect offering opened access to God for guilty sinners. His atoning sacrifice brings peace and pardon to those who have transgressed God's law, and through His blood and sacrificed flesh His people have confidence to enter God's very presence by a new and living way, to draw near with a true heart in full trust with cleansed conscience and life.
On the cross He bore human sin as humanity's substitute and surety, endured its judicial punishment, and offered Himself as the final sacrifice to redeem people from the curse of the law. He bore the world's sin and the law's curse in separation from the Father. He purchased every soul with His own blood, and that sacrifice alone can save a soul into eternal life. The one great offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe, so works will not buy entrance into heaven. Forgiveness and God's grace are not secured by pilgrimages, offerings, images, prayers to saints, or other human works, nor by giving all possessions or even giving life itself, for salvation rests on Christ's sacrifice and not on any further human sacrifice.
The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin, and forgiveness of sins that cling like foul leprosy comes only through faith in that cleansing blood. Without shedding of blood there is no remission, a lesson God Himself explicitly planned in the many sacrifices and bleeding victims of the Jewish economy, impressed on mind and heart in solemn sacred ceremony and explained definitely by the priests. Christ needed no suffering to atone for Himself, and His depth of suffering was proportionate to the dignity of His person and His sinless exalted character. His spotless life, surrendered as a sacrifice, vindicated God's justice and the unchanging character of His law and settled forever the controversy between Satan and heaven's Prince. Through that perfect sacrifice Jesus bears sin, God forgives the repenting sinner and clothes him with perfect righteousness, and the Just died for the unjust and rose from the dead.
Heavenly Priesthood and Coming Victory
After His one sacrifice for sins He took His place at God's right hand to wait till His enemies are made His footstool and made subject to Him, His atoning work finished and perfect and by that one offering those set apart made complete forever. He continues as High Priest over the house of God, humanity's great High Priest and mediator and advocate in the heavenly sanctuary, interceding for those who come to God through Him. His ministry there fulfills and explains the ministry of the Jewish priests, for the earthly sacrifices and priesthood pointed forward to His sacrifice and heavenly ministry, and after giving Himself as the sacrifice for sin He continues His work of intercession while awaiting the subjection of His enemies. The completed sacrifice fulfilled the purpose of the old system, bringing peace and pardon to transgressors of God's law.
The apostles' preaching of the risen Christ undermined the ceremonies centered on those offerings, since His sacrifice made the Jewish sacrificial offerings ineffective. From henceforth He expects till the overthrow of the oppressors of God's people and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom with the coming of the Redeemer, as unfolded in the visions given to the prophets in captivity. To that waiting till His enemies are subdued belongs the Old Testament testimony about Christ and His mission, that the Messiah was foretold to come first in humility, suffer and be slain, and later return in power and glory to establish His kingdom and rule over the nations.
The laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at His death when type met antitype and those offerings became valueless and no longer acceptable, but the law of ten commandments did not die with Him. His death did not destroy His Father's law but magnified and honored it and enforces obedience to all its holy precepts, and the ending of types did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone, lessen its claims, set men free from it, destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures, or bring righteousness to an end. Teaching that the ten commandments died with Christ turns the crucifixion and resurrection to Satan's advantage, and trampling the holy law under foot moves all Heaven with indignation. If that holy law which God will not change or abolish could be abolished, man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, who was crucified and rose again the third day to save its transgressors.
The ceremonial observances are distinguished from the Decalogue and were to pass away, for Christ is the foundation of the whole Jewish economy and in His one great offering for the sins of the world type met antitype. That ending of types did not repeal the Sabbath and the tithing system but made duty more defined and extended. Christ fulfilled all the requirements of God in perfect and entire obedience, magnified the law and made it honorable, revealed its spiritual nature and immutable character, and declared that disobedience can never be rewarded with eternal life. As Substitute and Surety He opened a way by which humanity allied by living faith to divinity can keep all God's commandments and teach others to do the same, for He came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law, being the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's people from Adam's day and of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, the Finisher of the faith, vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies, in whose law's light a man sees himself a sinner, dies to sin, repents, has faith in Jesus as Saviour, and becomes obedient to its claims. Scripture is the infallible authority for the teaching that His death is the only complete sacrifice and that salvation comes through Christ.
Faithful Life and Witness
Because His one offering is finished and perfect and makes those set apart complete forever, and because He continues as High Priest over the house of God while waiting for all opposition to be put in complete subjection under His feet, His people have confidence to enter into God's very presence through His blood by a new and living way opened through His sacrificed flesh. They are to draw near with a true heart in full trust with cleansed conscience and life. They are to stir one another to love and to right action. In that setting of His expectation that His enemies will be subdued, believers need not continue in sin, and through prayer they may receive grace to overcome Satan's strategies.
Through that sacrifice Jesus bears sin, God forgives the repenting sinner and clothes him with perfect righteousness, and the Holy Spirit works in, with, and through believers to form a character like the character of Christ. That Christlike character is shown by heavenly love flowing out, growing hatred for sin, and work to save sinners. He purchased every soul with His own blood, and that sacrifice alone can save a soul into eternal life, so that giving all possessions or even giving life itself cannot do that work. Contemplating the greatness of His sacrifice leads to comprehending the greatness of the salvation. Proving untrue to God and the truth and doing despite to the Spirit of grace brings disappointment to Jesus because of what He paid with His blood.
A legal religion is a mistake and a deception, for fastings and prayers practiced in a self-justifying spirit are abominable to God. Solemn assemblies for worship, rounds of religious ceremonies, external humiliation, and imposed sacrifice only testify that the doer counts himself righteous and entitled to heaven. Such cold, legal religion is loveless and Christless and can never lead souls to Christ, and the one great offering that has been made is ample for all who will believe, so works will not buy entrance into heaven. The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin, and forgiveness of sins that cling like foul leprosy comes only through faith in that cleansing blood, for without shedding of blood there is no remission, a lesson God Himself planned in many sacrifices and bleeding victims to teach in solemn sacred ceremony explained definitely by the priests. Christ needed no suffering to atone for Himself, and His depth of suffering was proportionate to the dignity of His person and His sinless exalted character. Angels are amazed at indifference to these vital truths while men continue willing subjects under captivity of Satan and sin after so much was endured in the divine person of the Son of God, and the truth calls for habits of contemplation of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of the life of Christ until there is a deep sense of the aggravating character of sin and hatred of it as a vile thing.
The instruction in Hebrews 10 is to be taken to heart by those working for God in faith, since Christ waits at God's right hand until His enemies are made subject to Him. Workers in cities should read Hebrews 10 and 11 carefully and apply them to themselves, going forward in faith doing their very best. As they watch and work and pray God will hear and answer their petitions and give them an experience invaluable for their later work. That waiting time is the Christian age, when salvation through Christ alone is more fully brought to light after He by His death caused the typical sacrifices to cease and then left His disciples and ascended to heaven. The widening gospel requires greater provisions to sustain the warfare, with greater gifts and offerings in proportion to light and blessings enjoyed, and the outpouring of the Spirit after the ascension leads to self-denial and self-sacrifice for the salvation of others, while the ending of types did not repeal or relax the original law engraved in tables of stone, including the Sabbath and the tithing system, but made duty more defined and extended.
The sacrifices performed under the law were appointed by the heavenly Father to prove and test the professed faith and obedience of His people, were typical of the Lamb of God and illustrated His great atonement as the true sacrifice to which the innocent victims pointed in shedding His own blood for the sins of the world. When He came whom their sacrifices and offerings had been prefiguring, the Jewish nation, blinded and deceived by Satan, would not receive Him but led Him as a lamb to the slaughter. They continued looking forward to a Messiah who had already come, so they persisted in sacrifices that could not replace His atonement. Their rituals became hollow formalism when the people rejected Christ and resisted the grace and opportunities given to them. The blood of beasts kept incessantly flowing in the temple, but it had lost its solemn meaning because the great convocations had been made scenes of bloodshed and cruelty and the temple court had been made a noisy market ruled by avarice, sharp trading, exorbitant prices and false dealing for profit, and Jesus knew His own blood, soon to be shed, would be as little appreciated by the priests and elders as the blood of beasts they kept flowing.