Hebrews Interactive Online Bible Study

Hebrews Ten

~ a walk through Hebrews ~

~ for the edification of the bride of Christ and centering on Him in these last days ~

*rules of engagement

Welcome:

Welcome to the online Hebrews Bible study. We welcome anyone who wishes to engage with us during these thirteen days and even go through and/or post after the study has ended. Want to learn more about this study, be sure to check out the Hebrews Bible Study Page here for more info.

 

Guest Commentary:

Today’s commentary is from brothesr Devin Duckworth, Wayne Johnson,  and Billy Witt. All three of these brothers reside in Tennessee, USA. You can reach any of them at GospelFellowshipsTN or facebook.

 

Jesus Christ Our All in All

1.Christ the Only Answer for Sin

Commentary by Brother Devin Duckworth

Hebrews 10:1-10: For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins ? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; 6 IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. 7 “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’ ” 8 After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law ), 9 then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, a word we all know and understand but also a word we all take so lightly. We have all sacrificed something in our time. Whether it is our finances, our time, or our jobs, among many other things, but I am here to tell you our definition of sacrifice and the biblical definition of sacrifice are totally different. The world’s definition of sacrifice: the act of giving up something that you want to keep, especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone. The Biblical definition of sacrifice: the offering of animal or human life or some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.

In the old covenant man had to continually offer sacrifices up to God to be cleansed of his sin and to have his relationship restored with God. They had the Law that no man could keep and not break, so man had to continually offer up these sacrifices to God. God being righteous and holy was not going to look past mans sinfulness.

These are a few things that stick out to me about the old covenant sacrifices: they had to be offered continually, they could not perfect the conscience which we can see in Heb 9:9, and as we can see in verse 4 above, it was impossible for these sacrifices to take away sins. Thus God made a new covenant. This covenant would bring a sacrifice greater than any other sacrifice before or after in human history. God would make a onetime sacrifice with man that would last for all eternity, His one and only Son Jesus Christ (God in the flesh). This would be the sacrifice that would do all the things the old covenant sacrifices couldn’t do. Jesus, who had always been, as John chapter one shows, left His high place in heaven to come die for the sins of the world. He knew no sin, but took on sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him 2 cor. 5:21. Christ’s blood was pure, without sin, and was the very blood of God Himself. Hebrews 9:10-14. Since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. 11 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”  For “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness ; for by His wounds you were healed.”

Concluding: Christ is the only, the only answer for sin. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice and the only way to God the Father.

2. One Sacrifice Sufficient and Forever 

Commentary by Brother Wayne Johnson

Hebrews 10:11-18  Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made an footstool for His feet. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:  I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,” He then says, 17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Within the old covenant the priest would offer every day the same sacrifices over and over.  Through this we can see that the sacrifices did not really take away their sins.  What all the animal sacrifices could not do, Christ done with His one and only sacrifice.  The work that God sent Christ to do was finished on the cross and through His resurrection Christ sits at the right hand of God victorious and triumphant.  He is waiting for the day that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him as Lord.  Verse 14 says we are perfected in Him. Colossians 2:10 says “we are complete in Him”.  We can stand before the almighty God, the creator of all things, because of the sacrifice Christ made.  We can know this by what verse 15 says that the Holy Spirit testifies to us.  Under the old covenant someone couldn’t say their sins will not be remembered.  Under Christ and His Lordship of our lives, our sins are remembered no more and there is no more offering for sin.  When Christ offered Himself as our sacrifice it was final and complete.

 

3. A New Way to God through Christ

Commentary by Brother Wayne Johnson

Hebrews 10:19-25 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with an sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and out bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

With Christ as our Lord we can come into the presence of God anytime we choose.  We can come in confidence and boldness.  On the Day of Atonement the high priest would go into the holy of holies only with the applied blood of an animal sacrifice.  This was done once a year.  I am glad I don’t have to have some man go before God on my behalf.  We are not limited to God once a year.  We come into God’s presence not by the blood of animals but by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Let us draw near every minute, every second of our lives.  In verse 20 that new way was obtained by the tearing of Jesus’ flesh on the cross. Through Jesus’ sufferings God tore the veil that restricted our access to Him.  We have full access to God through Christ. Hallelujah!!!!

With Christ as our head we need to encourage each other in our following of Jesus.  Lift each other up with love and humility.  The people that these scriptures were written to were being led to forsake their confession of Christ by going back to the old covenant.  The writer did not tell them to hold fast to their salvation, but to hold fast to their confession of hope.  Our security is not in ourselves nor is it in other people.  Our hope is secure only in Christ (Heb.7:25).  Fellowship with other true believers is a key to spiritual growth.  As the day of the Lord approaches we need to grow closer through unity with the body of Christ and through oneness with our Lord Jesus.  As suffering and persecution comes upon each believer it is this unity with brothers and sisters in Christ and our closeness with Christ that we will endure those hard times. Just as the last of verse 23 states,

He who promised is faithful.  God’s word is faithful and God’s word is truth and we as Christ’s church need to live out that truth each day of our lives.

4. Life Changing Chapters Through Warnings

Commentary by Brother Billy Witt

Brother Jeremy asked us to discussed important life altering chapters in the book of Hebrews, and I have been seeking to do just that dear brothers and sisters through the chapters he has graciously given me. Chapters dipped in warning to those who would disobey their Lord Jesus Christ.  For many, many years after my birth into Christ Kingdom I knew next to nothing of the warnings given to blood bought saints throughout the book of Hebrews, and other parts of the NT. I was instead led to be well versed in places like 1 JN 1:9, and many other precious promises like it, always the promises, never the warnings! Eternal consequences for continual disobedience to Christ Lordship, accept for loss of rewards were never discussed. It was not till I began opening the Bible up for myself without teachers around me and the eighty commentaries that normally set in front of me as I studied, that the Holy Spirit through prayer and asking started revealing His great warnings to me through His word (JN 14:26). Honestly seeing these great consequences for continual willful sin for even born again Christians was and is very sobering to me. It encourages me to fight all the harder against sin, through Christ and His magnificent grace. Trusting that as I submit to Him, or [obey His commands], He will shower upon me grace to withstand even the most tempting of carnal fleshly sins (James 4:7). Now since I have attempted to reveal the effects of these chapters in my own life. Let us now look at Hebrews 10:26-31 together.

5. Warning against Laying Aside Christ Laws.

Commentary by Brother Billy Witt

 

Hebrews 10:26-31 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The author warns the Hebrew Christians that if He, they or us, “go on sinning willfully, meaning, deliberately, voluntarily, or intentionally, “after receiving the knowledge of the truth,” Christ gospel and Christ commands. That, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment…” Then he gives us an example from the old covenant, saying, “for anyone who sets aside,” meaning rejects, annuals, or discards, “the Law of Moses dies, meaning, is killed “without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” Now if this was the consequence for disobedience for the old covenant saints.  Then what is revealed concerning the new covenant saints who willfully disobey Christ commands? Thankfully the author and not I reveals that a ”much severer punishment” will be received by any blood bought saint who “has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, [meaning to make Holy] and has” [by this] “insulted, [meaning to treat] the Spirit of grace [with reproach or despite]?” By laying aside, rejecting, or ignoring Christ commands, and instead continuing in willful, deliberate, or even intentional sin!  O dear church of Christ take heed for “the Lord [Jesus Christ] will judge His people,” severely for such willful disobedience, if not repented of and discontinued. Vengeance will be His and, “it is a terrifying [meaning fearful, dreadful, or horrifying] thing to fall into the hands of the living God,”

6. Warning against Drawing Back from the Truth.

Commentary from Brother Billy Witt, with guidance from brother Greg Gordon.

Hebrews 10:32-39 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Though in America those seeking to live for Christ have a very deem view of trails and suffering which is being portrayed within these first few verses. We will in the future understand it much clearer, when we face reproaches and tribulations, and loss of our property, and are made public spectacles for our Lord as is happening even as you read this, to our brothers and sisters in other countries. However as the author brings back to remembrance the Hebrew Christians birthing into Gods kingdom, do you remember yours?  Do you remember throwing all your idols out the door? Do you remember when what was to come was much more important than this sinful world we are living in? Do you remember your constant thoughts of Christ and the eternity to come with Him, when you would think of bowing, hugging and worshiping Him as intimately as possible? Loving Him dearly as you rescuer and great escape? O, dear brothers and sisters do you still see this clearly? Is your faith, your belief growing stronger in Him or dimmer? For James warned us dear brothers and sisters, that“…if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, ²⁰ let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death [meaning rejection from the kingdom of God,] and will cover a multitude of sins.” “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, [meaning boldness or confidence in speaking the truth] which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised,” meaning your great salvation. So we must live by Faith dear brothers and sister in Him. Who has called us, growing strong in His word, for the author desires “that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.”For “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, meaning [disbelieving] after she had welcomed the spies in peace,” but through faith even she partook of the promises to come through Christ Jesus.

After Thoughts:

 

Kingdom of Heaven – Jenny and Tyler