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Tag: hebrews

  • Hebrews 10- Come in, Fear not

    Holy of Holies – The Inner Sanctuary

    Dominus autem in templo sancto suo sileat a facie eius omnis terra!

    וַֽיהוָ֖ה בְּהֵיכַ֣ל קָדְשֹׁ֑ו הַ֥ס מִפָּנָ֖יו כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ פ

    The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

    Habakkuk 2:20 VUL, WlC, NIV

    Draw near to meet the LORD

    Hebrews 10:

    8 First he said, “You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar…

    11 Day after day every priest stands and repeatedly offers the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.

    The author of Hebrews brings the Law and well-known ritual of sacrifices of blood on the altar to compare the old and new covenants. He now asks us to approach the LORD in the sanctuary, the Holy Place.

    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

    Hebrews 10:31 KJV

    He invites us into the Holy of Holies, a place of the presence of the LORD, a place where the priest offers blood sacrifices to cover our sin, a place so holy that only one high priest will enter humbly just once a year.

    Boldness in the Blood of Jesus

    Therefore, be bold, have confidence – fear not.

    Come into the sanctuary, the Holy Place of the Lord. For before you, Christ Jesus has entered with the Perfect Sacrifice as our High Priest – He IS our Perfect Sacrifice by His own Blood.

    We have climbed the holy mountain, entered the courts of the Temple with thanksgiving and sacrifice. And as the Lord’s chosen we have come to this place to worship the Lord. Our High Priest is no longer a sinful man, but Christ; and He invites us to enter the Temple.

    Walk toward the altar of sacrifice, that holiest of places just past the curtain. (For in fact, by the crucifixion of Christ on the Cross the curtain is torn.)

    Hebrews 10:19-39

    So let us come near to God


    22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith…

    With sincere hearts sprinkled clean, our evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.  By the Blood of Christ, hold firmly to our confession of faith.

    Hold firmly, hold fast without wavering, since He who promised it is faithful.

    To do a good deed

    Here is our action and not our obligation or prescribed work for heaven.

    Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.

    Hebrews 10:24 GNT

    [CSB] 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other…

    Others in the flock of faith, the congregation of believers, are important. Yet how can the saints encourage each other in Christ if they neglect time together?

    A teacher of the Law asked the Messiah, Christ Jesus, “What is the greatest Commandment?” He responded, ‘love the LORD and love one another.’ Of course the faithful want to love the Lord God, yet the second (a golden rule) often challenges us.

    The writer of Hebrews challenges Christians to incite each other to agape love AND good deeds. It is a personal love of others to do God’s good will. And he cautions of the Day when all will be judged.

    Jesus had warned: “Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.” – Matthew 24:12 NLT

    Justified or Judged?

    Even in the first century followers of The Way often detoured in their own way. The love of some in the beginning of these last days had already grown cold.

    Sinners in Zion are terrified;
    Trembling has seized the godless.
    “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
    Who among us can live with continual burning?”

    33:14 פָּחֲדוּ בְצִיֹּון חַטָּאִים אָחֲזָה רְעָדָה חֲנֵפִים מִי יָגוּר לָנוּ אֵשׁ אֹוכֵלָה מִי־יָגוּר לָנוּ מֹוקְדֵי עֹולָֽם׃

    Isaiah 33:14


    Warning against Deliberate Sin

    Heb. 10:26 [NKJV] For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

    HELL! even for one who has accepted Christ, but turns away.

    [CSB] 28 Anyone who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy…29 How much worse punishment do you think one will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, who has regarded as profane the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

    Scriptural support

    Once again the writer of Hebrews quotes familiar Old Testament scripture to support his teaching of a new and better covenant he introduced in chapter 8.

    30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

    Deuteronomy

    32:35  לִ֤י נָקָם֙ וְשִׁלֵּ֔ם לְעֵ֖ת תָּמ֣וּט רַגְלָ֑ם כִּ֤י קָרֹוב֙ יֹ֣ום אֵידָ֔ם וְחָ֖שׁ עֲתִדֹ֥ת לָֽמֹו׃

    Habakkuk

    2:4 הִנֵּה עֻפְּלָה לֹא־יָשְׁרָה נַפְשֹׁו בֹּו וְצַדִּיק בֶּאֱמוּנָתֹו יִחְיֶֽה׃

    Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. – KJV

    Remember the early days

    32 … you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

    35 So don’t lose your confidence, since it holds a great reward for you. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will you can receive what he has promised.

    37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.. 38 My righteous people, however, will believe and live..

    We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

    Hebrews 10:39 GNT
    To be continued...

  • Hebrews 10- Sacrifice and Offering

    Offering on the Altar


    I waited patiently for the LORD;
    40:6  זֶ֤בַח וּמִנְחָ֨ה לֹֽא־חָפַ֗צְתָּ אָ֭זְנַיִם כָּרִ֣יתָ לִּ֑י עֹולָ֥ה וַ֝חֲטָאָ֗ה לֹ֣א שָׁאָֽלְתָּ׃

    Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
    My ears You have opened.
    Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

    Psalm 40:6 Masoretic Text; NKJV

    The Perfect Sacrifice

    The author of Hebrews states that in Christ we have a High Priest who does not need to repeatedly make offering and sacrifice. Therefore, the sacrificial blood of the Messiah on the Cross represents a new and better covenant.

    Once again, he logically makes his case supported by the evidence of well-known scripture.

    Hebrews 10:

    Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

    He refers to the many rules and regulations of sacrifice and offering prescribed in the Mosaic law. Moses gave us a law of better things to come, a mere shadow of true worship. When we finally make the perfect sacrifice, becoming completely purified before the Lord, wouldn’t we then stop making more sacrifices? Wouldn’t our guilt be left covered?

    Sin remains in the shadow sacrifice of the Law, because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse sin perfectly.

    We have awaited a Messiah.. patiently.. a High Priest Perfect for all time. From
    a thousand years before, the writer quotes David’s well known Psalm 40:

    Patience

    I waited patiently for the Lord,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry for help.
    2 He brought me up from a desolate pit,
    out of the muddy clay,
    and set my feet on a rock,
    making my steps secure.
    3 He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.

    Think of this hope in the hearts of faithful Jews when the writer reminds us:

    6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
    you open my ears to listen.
    You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.
    7 Then I said, “See, I have come;
    in the scroll it is written about me.

    Psalm 40:6-7A CSB

    ‘The Lord is trying our patience,’ they must have thought as Rome dominated their land, their city and culture. We wonder why the Lord has not blotted out evil and accepted faithful worshipers only – faithful in these last days.

    Those receiving this letter in the first century would have known the next verses of the Psalm as well. The writer of Hebrews continues:

    Hebrews 10:9 [quote of Psalm 40] he then says, See, I have come to do your will.

    He takes away the first to establish the second.

    The author’s firm reason taken in the second half of verse 9 compare the old and new covenants. He then follows this statement of God’s will with:

    By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

    Hebrews 10:10 CSB

    The priest of their shadow sacrifices stands imperfectly at the altar day after day.

    12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

    Testimony of the Holy Spirit

    Then the writer of Hebrews then adds even more support from Scripture.

    15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

    16 This is the covenant I will make with them
    after those days,

    the Lord says,

    I will put my laws on their hearts
    and write them on their minds

    Hebrews 10:16 quote from Jeremiah 31
    By Микеланжело Буонаротти - Электронная библиотека.Музеи Ватикана., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2284599
    Jeremiah by Michaelango

    A new covenant – ” Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—

    The writer of Hebrews appeals to scripture of the prophet Jeremiah, 600 years before Christ, for support of the New Covenant where sacrifice and offering will no longer be required.

    He concludes:

    18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

    Enter the Sanctuary through the Blood of Jesus

    Several editors of Hebrews take different directions for labeling the next section of chapter 10, which we will examine in my next post. Again the author quotes scripture known to faithful Jews as he pursues the argument for the Messiah Jesus.

    Note just a few headings for the section to come:

    • How We Should Live? – ISV
    • Hold Fast Your Confession – NKJV
    • Exhortations to Godliness – CSB
    • The Full Assurance of Faith – ESV
    • Let Us Come Near to God – GNT

    All, thoughtful considerations of scriptural application to our lives. If you would like to take a preview, take it from the Greek in verse 19.

    10:19 ἔχοντες οὖν ἀδελφοί παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ αἵματι Ἰησοῦ

    To be continued...

  • Hebrews 9- Covenant Ministry

    Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

    Hebrews 9:15B NLT

    It’s not an exact translation from the Greek, but the heart of the author’s message from his letter to the Hebrews. He now proceeds from the main point in Hebrews 8 that Christ is our High Priest to the nature of a new and better covenant.

    Old Covenant Ministry

    Priest before Tabernacle
    High Priest in Holy of Holies

    Remember how the sanctuary is a holy place to the LORD, separated from the sin of the world. Only the priests may enter as the worshipers stand near and the unclean kept distant. To think of the sanctuary as ‘only a tent’ would be contemporary error, for it is the Tent Altar where the LORD meets with His worshipers, hopefully accepting their sacrifices through the appointed priest.

    Hebrews 9:

    Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves.

    He continues with description of the holy place familiar to all Jews from scripture.

    6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

    The High Priest alone enters the Holy of Holies, the inner room of the sanctuary, and that just once a year. (A special place to meet the LORD, within the confines of a Tent or Temple.) Then this author of the letter to the Hebrews points to the holy sacrifice.

    And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

    Hebrews 9:7B NLT

    A Revelation of the Holy Spirit

    We do not preach much about the Person of the Holy Spirit, once called the Holy Ghost. He is a revelation of the New Testament (or new covenant), which the writer of Hebrews unwraps here as when Christ is revealed.

    τοῦτο δηλοῦντος τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου μήπω πεφανερῶσθαι τὴν τῶν ἁγίων ὁδὸν ἔτι τῆς πρώτης σκηνῆς ἐχούσης στάσιν

    Hebrews 9:8 Greek NT
    • The Holy Spirit makes this the way into the Holy place.
    • The path into the Holy place had not been revealed while the outer or first Tabernacle was still standing. [This would also be evident by the succession from Tent to Temple to rebuilt temples made by man for worship of God.]
    • The author tells his first century Hebrew readers “[the first Tabernacle] is
      a symbol for the present time [the first generation after Christ’s anointing.]
    • Neither gifts nor sacrifices offered can make the worshiper perfect in conscience.
    • Since offerings [gifts or sacrifices to the LORD] are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings.
    • God imposed ceremonial ordinances only until the time of reformation.

    This reformation of worship revealed by the Holy Spirit creates a new covenant with the Lord.

    But when the Messiah appeared as cohen gadol of the good things that are happening already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), he entered the Holiest Place once and for all.

    Hebrews 9:11-12A Complete Jewish Bible

    I like this translation, for it provides a contemporary context to the readers of Hebrews. The Messiah appeared, the Tabernacle is a less perfect Tent and Christ entered the Holiest Place once and for all.

    Just a contemporary reminder for 21st century readers:

    “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. For in Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire, Χριστός Christos is the anointed Messiah of God. We sometimes forget that faithful Jews had expected our Messiah for centuries ‘before Christ.’

    New Covenant Ministry

    Christ (the Messiah) appeared as High Priest. And He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time.

    Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood…

    Hebrews 9:12A KJV

    Think of the ritualistic sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Are we not repulsed by the slaughter and blood at the alter of sacrifice?

    Christ brings a cleansing of blood by His own Sacrifice!

    By His own Blood Christ obtained eternal redemption for the worshipers of God.
    פָּדָה Redeem your soul from sin through our Savior’s blood.

    then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!

    Hebrews 9:14 Complete Jewish Bible

    Jesus, our Mediator

    15 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance..

    [Don’t miss this:]

    .. because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

    The writer of Hebrews now presents a legal case for dissolution of the old covenant.

    • a death has occurred
    • a will exists and is valid because of the death
    • (for a will is never in effect while the one who made it is living.)
    • Moses initiated the first covenant by blood (quoting Exodus 24)

    Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said,

    “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”

    Exodus 24:8 CSB

    The writer of Hebrews words it as a vow or covenant reminiscent of marriage.

    20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. – KJV

    21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. – KJV

    In fact, according to the Torah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

    Hebrews 9:22 CJB

    Copies cleansed

    23 Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these.

    Christ entered heaven itself (not a copy). He appeared on our behalf in the very presence of God. Once, not many times like a priest on earth.

    … But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

    Some versions translate this as the consummation or completion of the ages. Jesus speaks of the ages as both ending and forever. Believers would do well to consider it.

    And just as it is appointed for people to die once

    —and after this, judgment

    — so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,

    will appear a second time, not to bear sin,

    but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

    Hebrews 9:27 CSB

    Do you look forward to the judgment? Have you considered the love of God to offer the Blood of His only Son to bear your sin? And do you await Christ’s completion of God’s new covenant?

    The writer of Hebrews continues with more good news in Christ’s sacrifice.

    To be continued...