In Hebrews 10:724 we find a very deep and marvelous view of the Christian’s position and work. The inspired writer gives us, as it were, three solid pillars on which the grand edifice of Christianity rests. These are the will of God, the work of Christ, and the witness of the Holy Spirit. If we lay hold of these grand realities in simple faith, the soul must have settled peace. We may assert, with all possible confidence, that no power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever disturb the peace which is founded on Hebrews 10:7-177Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:7‑17).
Let us first dwell, for a few moments, on the manner in which the Apostle unfolds, in this magnificent passage, the will of God.
Pillar 1: the Will of God
Hebrews 10 opens by telling us about the utter inadequacy of the sacrifices under the law. They could never make the conscience perfect — they could never accomplish the will of God — they could never fulfil the gracious desire and purpose of His heart. “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. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.”
Note this carefully. “The worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” He does not say — “no more consciousness of sin.” There is an immense difference between these two things, and yet, I fear, they are often confounded. The Christian has, alas! the consciousness of sin in him, but he ought to have no conscience of sins on him, inasmuch as he is purged once and forever by the precious blood of Christ.
Some of the Lord’s people have a habit of speaking of their continual need of applying to the blood of Christ, which, to say the least, is by no means intelligent or in accordance with the accurate teaching of Holy Scripture. It seems like humility, but, we may rest assured, true humility can only be found in connection with the full, clear, settled apprehension of the truth of God, and as to His gracious will concerning us.
If it be His will that we should have “no more conscience of sins,” it cannot be true humility, on our part, to go on, from day to day and year to year, with the burden of sins on us. And, further, if it be true that Christ has borne our sins and put them away, forever — if He has offered one perfect sacrifice for sins, ought we not to know with complete assurance that we are perfectly pardoned and perfectly purged? Is it, can it be, true humility to reduce the blood of Christ to the level of the blood of bulls and of goats? But this is what is virtually done, though, no doubt, unwittingly, by all who speak of continually applying to the blood of Christ.
One reason why God found fault with the sacrifices under the law was, as the Apostle tell us, “In those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” This, blessed be His name, was not according to His mind. He desired that every trace of guilt and every remembrance of it should be blotted out, once and forever, and hence it cannot be His will that His people should be continually bowed down under the terrible burden of unforgiven sin. It is contrary to His will; it is subversive of their peace, and derogatory to the glory of Christ and the efficacy of His one sacrifice.
One grand point of the inspired argument, in Hebrews 10, is to show that the continual remembrance of sins and the continual repetition of the sacrifice go together, and therefore, if Christians now are to have the burden of sins constantly on the heart and conscience, it follows that Christ should be offered again and again, which would be blasphemy. His work is done, and hence our burden is gone — gone forever.
“It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God. Above when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified [or set apart] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.”
Here we are pointed, in the most distinct and forcible manner, to the eternal source of the whole matter, namely, the will of God — the purpose and counsel formed in the divine mind, before the foundation of the world, before any creature was formed, before sin or Satan existed. It was the will of God, from all eternity, that the Son should, in due time, come forth and do a work which was to be the foundation of the divine glory and of all the counsels and purposes of the Trinity.
It would be a very grave error to suppose that redemption was an afterthought with God. Blessed be His holy name, He did not have to sit down and plan what He would do, when sin entered. It was all settled beforehand. The enemy, no doubt, imagined that he was gaining a wonderful victory when he meddled with man in the garden of Eden. In point of fact, he was only giving occasion for the display of God’s eternal counsels in connection with the work of the Son. There was no basis for those counsels, no sphere for their display in the fields of creation. It was the meddling of Satan — the entrance of sin — the ruin of man that opened a platform on which a Saviour-God might display the riches of His grace, the glories of His salvation, the attributes of His nature, to all created intelligences.
There is great depth and power in those words of the eternal Son, “In the volume of the book it is written of Me.” To what “volume” does He here refer? Is it to Old Testament scripture? Surely not; the Apostle is quoting from the Old Testament. What then is the volume? It is nothing less than the roll of God’s eternal counsels in which the “vast plan” was laid, according to which, in the appointed time, the eternal Son was to come forth and appear on the scene, in order to accomplish the divine will, vindicate the divine glory, confound the enemy utterly, put away sin, and save ruined man in a manner which yields a richer harvest of glory to God than ever He could have reaped in the fields of an unfallen creation.
This truth gives immense stability to the believer’s soul. Indeed it is utterly impossible for human language to set forth the preciousness and blessedness of this line of truth. It is such rich consolation to every pious soul to know that One has appeared in this world to do the will of God — whatever that will might be. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” Such was the one undivided purpose and object of that perfect human heart. He never did His own will in anything. He says, “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” It mattered not to Him what that will might involve to Himself, personally. The decree was written down in the eternal volume that He should come and do the divine will, and, all homage to His peerless name! He came and did it perfectly. He could say, “A body hast Thou prepared Me.” “Mine ears hast Thou opened.” “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened Mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:36.
Pillar 2: the Work of Christ
This leads us, in the second place, to contemplate the work of Christ. It was ever the delight of the heart of Jesus to do His Father’s will and to finish His work. From the manger at Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary, the one grand object that moved His devoted heart was the accomplishment of the will of God. He perfectly glorified God, in all things. This, blessed be God, perfectly secures our full and everlasting salvation, as the Apostle, in this passage, so distinctly states. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.”
Here our souls may rest in sweetest peace and unclouded certainty. It was the will of God that we should be set apart to Himself, according to all the love of His heart, and all the claims of His throne. Our Lord Christ, in due time, in pursuance of the everlasting purpose as set forth “in the volume of the book,” came forth from the glory which He had with the Father, before all worlds, to do the work which forms the imperishable basis of all the divine counsels and of our eternal salvation.
And — forever be His name adored! — He has finished His work. He has perfectly glorified God in the midst of the scene in which He had been so dishonored. At all cost He vindicated Him and made good His every claim. He magnified the law and made it honorable. He vanquished every foe, removed every obstacle, swept away every barrier, bore the judgment and wrath of a sin-hating God, destroyed death and him that had the power of it, extracted its sting, and spoiled the grave of its victory. In a word, He gloriously accomplished all that was written in the volume of the book concerning Him, and now we see Him crowned with glory and honor, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
He traveled from the throne to the dust of death, in order to accomplish the will of God, and having done so, He has gone back to the throne, in a new character and on a new footing. His pathway from the throne to the cross was marked by the footprints of divine and everlasting love, and His pathway from the cross back to the throne is sprinkled by His atoning blood. He came from heaven to earth to do the will of God, and, having done it, He returned to heaven again, thus opening up for us “a new and living way” by which we draw nigh to God, in holy boldness and liberty, as purged worshippers.
All is done. Every question is settled. Every barrier is removed. The veil is rent. That mysterious curtain, which for ages and generations had shut God in from man and had shut man out from God, was rent in twain, from top to bottom, by the precious death of Christ, and now we can look up right into the opened heavens and see on the throne the Man who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. A seated Christ tells out, in the ear of faith, the sweet emancipating tale that all that had to be done is done — done forever — done for God — done for us. Yes, all is settled now, and God can, in perfect righteousness, indulge the love of His heart, in blotting out all our sins and bringing us nigh to Himself in all the acceptance of the One who sits beside Him on the throne.
Carefully note the striking and beautiful way in which the Apostle contrasts a seated Christ in heaven with the standing priest on earth. “Every priest standeth 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 for ever [ — in perpetuity], sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected for ever [in perpetuity] them that are sanctified.”
This is exquisitely beautiful. The priest, under the Levitical economy, could never sit down, for the obvious reason that his work was never done. There was no seat provided in the tabernacle or in the temple. There is remarkable force and significance in the manner in which the inspired writer puts this. “Every priest” — “standeth daily” — “offering oftentimes” — “the same sacrifices” — “which can never take away sins.” No human language could possibly set forth, more graphically, the dreary monotony and utter inefficacy of the Levitical ceremony.
How strange that, in the face of such a passage of Holy Scripture, Christendom should have set up a human priesthood, with its daily sacrifice — a priesthood, moreover, not belonging to the tribe of Levi, not springing from the house of Aaron, and therefore having no sort of divine title or sanction. Also, as to the sacrifice, it is without blood, and therefore it is a sacrifice without remission, for “without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22).
Hence, Christendom’s priesthood is a daring usurpation, and her sacrifice a worthless vanity — a positive lie — a mischievous delusion. The priests of whom the Apostle speaks in Hebrews 10 were priests of the tribe of Levi and of the house of Aaron — the only house, the only tribe ever recognized of God as having any title to assume the office and work of a priest on earth. And, further, the sacrifices which the Aaronic priests offered were appointed by God for that time, but they never gave Him any pleasure, inasmuch as they could never take away sins, and they have been forever abolished.
Now, in view of all this, what shall we say of Christendom’s priests and Christendom’s sacrifices? What will a righteous Judge say to them? We cannot attempt to dwell on such an awful theme. We can merely say, alas! for the poor souls who are deluded and ruined by such antichristian absurdities. May God in His mercy deliver them and lead them to rest in the one offering of Jesus Christ — that precious blood that cleanses from all sin.
May many be led to see that a repeated sacrifice and a seated Christ are in positive antagonism. If the sacrifice must be repeated, Christ has no right to His seat and to His crown — God pardon the very penning of the words! If Christ has a divine right to His seat and to His crown, then to repeat a sacrifice is simply a blasphemy against His cross, His name, His glory. To repeat, in any way, or under any form whatsoever, the sacrifice is to deny the efficacy of Christ’s one offering, and to rob the soul of anything like the knowledge of remission of sins. A repeated sacrifice and perfect remission are an absolute contradiction in terms.
Pillar 3: the Witness of the Holy Spirit
But we must turn to the third grand point in our subject, namely, the witness of the Holy Spirit. This is of the deepest possible importance for us to understand. It gives great completeness to the subject. How are we to know that Christ has, by His work on the cross, absolutely and divinely accomplished the will of God? Simply by the witness of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. This is the third pillar on which the Christian’s position rests, and it is as thoroughly divine and, therefore, as thoroughly independent of man as the other two. It is very evident that man had nothing to do with the eternal counsels of the Trinity — nothing to do with the glorious work accomplished on the cross. All this is clear, and it is equally clear that man has nothing to do with the authority on which our souls receive the joyful news as to the will of God, and the work of Christ, inasmuch as it is nothing less than the witness of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot be too simple as to this. It is not, by any means, a question of our feelings, our state of mind or our experiences — things interesting enough in their right place. We must receive the truth solely and simply on the authority of that sublime Witness who speaks to us in Holy Scripture. Thus we read, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; 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.”
Here, then, we have fully before us the solid foundation of the Christian’s position and the Christian’s peace. It is all of God, from first to last. The will, the work and the witness are all divine. The Lord be praised for this glorious fact! What should we do, what would become of us, were it otherwise? In this day of confusion, when souls are tossed about by every wind of doctrine — when the beloved sheep of Christ are driven hither and thither, in bewilderment and perplexity — when ritualism with its ignorant absurdities, rationalism with its impudent blasphemies, and spiritualism with its horrible involvement with demons are threatening the very foundation of our faith, how important it is for Christians to know what those foundations really are and to consciously rest thereon.
It is absolutely essential to the enjoyment of settled peace that the heart should rest solely on the authority of Holy Scripture. Nothing else will stand. Inward evidences, spiritual experiences, comfortable states of mind and happy feelings are all very good, very valuable and very desirable; indeed we cannot prize them too highly in their right place. But, most assuredly, their right place is not at the foundation of the Christian position. If we look to such things as the ground of our peace, we shall very soon become clouded, uncertain and miserable.
We cannot be too simple in our apprehension of this point. We must rest like a little child on the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the Word. It is blessedly true that “he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” And again, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” All this is essential to Christianity, but it must not, in any way, be confounded with the witness of the Holy Spirit, as given to us in Holy Scripture. The Spirit of God never leads anyone to build on his work as the ground of peace, but only on the finished work of Christ and the unchangeable Word of God. We may rest assured that the more simply we rest on these, the more settled our peace will be, and the clearer our evidences, the brighter our state of mind, the happier our feelings, the richer our experiences. In short, the more we look away from self and rest in Christ, on the clear authority of Scripture, the more spiritually minded we shall be, and the inspired Apostle tells us that “to be spiritually minded [or, the minding of the Spirit] is life and peace.” The best evidence of a spiritual mind is childlike repose in Christ and His Word. The clearest proof of an unspiritual mind is self-occupation. It is dangerous to allow our minds to be occupied with our evidences or our anything. It looks like piety, but it leads away from Christ — away from Scripture — away from God, and this is not piety or faith or Christianity.
We need to grasp, with great distinctness, the importance of committing our whole moral being to the divine authority of the Word of God. It will never fail us. All else may go, but “the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Heart and flesh may fail. Internal evidences may become clouded; feelings and experiences may all prove unsatisfactory, but the Word of the Lord, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the clear voice of Holy Scripture, must ever remain unshaken. “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”