In our study of the book of Hebrews we’ve been looking at the contrast between Christ’s effective sacrifice of Himself versus the ineffective sacrifice of animals. If we want to please God; if we want to be perfect, that is having our conscience cleansed; if we want to live without guilt and shame, then we must approach God through Jesus Christ. There is no other way.
That contrast continues in Hebrews 10:11-14
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
This paragraph offers the answer to the problem posed in verses 1 through 4. We saw in those verses the complete inadequacy of the sacrifices offered by the priests. Here we see the complete sufficiency of the sacrifice offered by Christ. Notice all the contrasts: many priests versus Christ as our one High Priest; many sacrifices versus the one sacrifice of Christ Himself; repeated offerings versus the one offering for all time; and one you might have missed: notice that (verse 11) “every priest stands daily,” but when Christ has made his single sacrifice he (v. 12), “sat down at the right hand of God.”
The reference to sacrifices in verse 1 was to the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement; here it is to the daily sacrifices. There is simply no animal sacrifice available or imaginable that would ever suffice to take away sins. The sacrifices under the Old Covenant could never cure the sin problem, leaving us as a patient who continually needed the medicine, or like a weed that only has its head plucked out, not the root.
The priests “stand” to offer sacrifices day after day, time after time; they never sit down in either the tabernacle or the temple settings. Significantly, there are no chairs in the tabernacle—no provision whatsoever to sit down. This shows that their work is never complete. One can sense the futility in these words.
Jesus, on the other hand, offered only one sacrifice that was effective “for all time” (10:12). The words “for all time” are the same that are translated “continually” in verse 1, where it was said that the priests offer sacrifices “continually.” The priests had to offer sacrifices “continually,” but only Christ’s sacrifice has a “continual,” or everlasting, effect. Our salvation, therefore, is a “done deal.” Our perfection is accomplished. And in the timelessness of eternity our holiness will go on and on.
In contrast to the priests, who stand, Christ “sat down at the right hand of God,” indicating that his work was done. It was finished. It’s not simply that Christ sat, but sat “at the right hand of God,” the throne. It was a place of high honor and privilege. As we have seen elsewhere in the book of Hebrews, Christ is the royal priest. Having now taken his throne as king, the sacrificial phase of his priestly ministry is complete (while His intercessory ministry still continues). These verses in Hebrews affirm the idea that Christ’s sacrifice was enough.
Hebrews 1:3
After making purification for sins [on the cross], he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Hebrews 8:1
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
And Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Being seated at God’s right hand means at least three things here: First, is that His work is done. It is completely finished. There is nothing left to do for the forgiveness of sins. He does not “stand daily” to offer sacrifices for sin. The one sacrifice of His own body was perfectly complete, it was completely and eternally effective.
“For all time” (v. 12) can modify either “offered one sacrifice for sins,” or “sat down at the right hand of God,” or both. Both stress the finished work of Christ. English translations favor the first reading.
Second, it means that God is satisfied with His sacrifice. God honors Christ with the seat at His right hand to show how fully He is satisfied with the debt for sin that was paid by Christ. This is a great picture to encourage us that our sins are fully dealt with. F. F. Bruce said, “”A seated priest is the guarantee of a finished work and an accepted sacrifice” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 239).
Third, it means that Christ, together with His Father, is the sovereign ruler over all His enemies. They have been defeated already and that victory will culminate in the future. That’s what verse 13 stressed: He is “waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” In other words, everything Christ died to accomplish will be accomplished. No enemy can hinder His work in the end. The atonement was utterly complete, the Father was utterly satisfied; and all the enemies will fall utterly before the reigning Christ in heaven.
The author could have ended the quote (again from Psalm 110:1) after the reference to Jesus’ sitting at God’s right hand, but he adds (10:13), “waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” This goes back to 9:29, and the second coming of Christ, when He will rule and reign over the whole earth.
He may have done this for two reasons.
First, he didn’t want his readers to grow discouraged because of the cross, as if it represented a defeat for God. Perhaps their unbelieving Jewish friends were taunting them for their belief in a crucified Messiah. If Jesus is really Lord, then why do His people suffer persecution and martyrdom? The author says, “Just wait! The day is coming when Jesus’ enemies will all become His footstool, just as Psalm 110 predicts.”
Second, the author may be giving a subtle warning to his readers. If they abandoned the faith and went back to Judaism, they would be placing themselves on the losing side in history. They would be making themselves enemies of Jesus, and that’s not where you want to be, because Jesus’ enemies are headed for certain defeat and judgment. (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-28-total-forgiveness-hebrews-101-18)
While the priests kept “performing” their duties, Christ “waits.” He is waiting “for his enemies to be made his footstool.” Those enemies are Satan, his demons and all who oppose the reign of Jesus Christ. One day every knee will bow.
Everything that now hinders our progress towards fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives will one day be eliminated. There will be no obstacles to our perfection.
Everything that God wills, everything that Christ died for, will be accomplished. His priestly offering makes God’s royal conquest possible.
Beginning with the word “for,” verse 14 explains why no further offering for sin is necessary. It is because Christ’s offering for sin was completely effective. By Christ’s singular offering “he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” The word “offering” here refers to the death of Christ (cf. v. 10).
“Made perfect” he writes this time, using one of his favorite words. In 2:10, 5:9, 10:14, 11:40, 12:23 he uses the verb. In 6:1, 7:11, 12:2 it is the noun and in 9:11 the adjective, always with the thought of completeness in mind.
Now, this is exactly the opposite of what the old covenant could accomplish. The old covenant could never make anyone perfect, but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ perfects “for all time those who are being sanctified.” God’s goal is for us to become like Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29) and His sacrifice makes this possible. In fact, it makes it inevitable.
The verb tenses here are quite intriguing. Christ “has perfected” us, in the past, but in Hebrews 6:1 our writer had said “let us…go on to maturity,” literally, “to perfection,” placing perfection in a yet-to-be-determined future. And, in this verse (10:14) we are also “being sanctified” (present tense), although Hebrews 6:10 said we “have been sanctified,” in the past.
This verse is bringing together two vital truths:
First, positionally and in God’s eyes we are already truly perfect! We are completely, totally and finally forgiven of all our sins and God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to us so that He now sees us as saints with no condemnation (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 8:1). We are perfected now in the sense of verse 17 as God says, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
But second, the practice of believers on a day-to-day basis is that we are “being sanctified” on a constant, ongoing basis. We are growing in holiness every day. God has “granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), everything we need for life and godliness. This aspect of sanctification is performed through the New Covenant provision of verse 16, “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds…”
Something more is achieved by Christ’s death than the removal of guilt. We have been sanctified. And the verb is in the perfect tense. It is actually done. Our sanctification is perfectly accomplished by Christ for all time. (Raymond Brown, The Bible Speaks Today: Hebrews, 178)
Our positional standing before God as saints, fully sanctified, is granted instantly the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ. The practical outworking of our sanctification is worked out over a lifetime of faith and obedience.
This verse means that you can have the assurance that you now stand perfected and completed in the eyes of your heavenly Father, not because you are perfect now, but precisely you are not perfect now but are “being sanctified,” “being made holy” before God.
Bob George has written, in his book Classic Christianity: “Relentlessly the New Testament hammers home the message that Jesus Christ offered Himself as one sacrifice for all time. When will we believe it? In contrast to the Old Covenant priests who are pictured as “standing” and making continual sacrifices, Christ is shown as having sat down. Why is He seated? Because “It is finished” (John 19:30). The writer of Hebrews reaches the climax of his argument in 10:14, “Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” Jesus Christ has done it all! (Bob George, Classic Christianity, pp. 65-66).
Does that sound too bold? Is that kind of thinking out of bounds?
Bob George continues, “Notice that it doesn’t say we act perfect; this is talking about identity. But the Bible says that through Jesus Christ we have been made totally acceptable in the eyes of a holy God!” (Classic Christianity, p. 66)
Hebrews 10:14 tells us that we have been made perfect forever. There is nothing left to do. Anything short of this kind of faith is not faith in the gospel. When we believe that we have to do something to make ourselves acceptable to God, we are believing in an anti-gospel. It is not “good news” because we can never be certain we have done enough good to outweigh the bad we’ve done.
But if Christ has offered up one sacrifice for sins for all time, if He has sat down because there’s no more work to be done, then that means we can take a seat as well and rest in the work that He has done in our behalf.
We don’t have to be like the priests, offering up ultimately ineffective sacrifices day after day, year after year.
- We can stop trying to kill off sinful parts of ourselves in the hope that God might be satisfied.
- We can stop trying to sacrifice ourselves.
- We can stop trying to pull ourselves together and discipline ourselves to do the right thing.
- We can stop punishing ourselves and stop trying harder and harder again and again and stop asking God to help us in our effort to be adequate before him.
- We can rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Like our high priest, we can sit down and rest from our working to satisfy God, reflecting on the amazing grace of Jesus Christ in doing all the work for us.
When this happens, something amazing happens: We will actually start doing the will of God from the heart. And that is where the New Covenant comes in! The rest of chapter 10 focuses once again (see Hebrews 8) on the New Covenant and its provisions.
As Christians under the New Covenant, a common question is: What place does the law have in my life? Certainly we already know that the law does not save us, only Christ’s sacrificial death does that. But what about as a guide for our daily lives?
Andrew Farley, in his book The Naked Gospel, says, “So if the Scriptures say that the law has no place in the life of the believer, the most logical question is this: If the law isn’t our moral guide, then what is? As Christians, we have an inborn desire for our behavior to turn out right. In fact, the desire to please God is what drives some to embrace the error of law-based living” (Andrew Farley, The Naked Gospel, p. 90).
He goes on to say, “Fortunately, God hasn’t taken us out from under the law and left us with nothing. When we believe, the Holy Spirit lives in us. The Spirit produces fruit through us as we depend on him. But it’s important to recognize the ‘system’ that the Holy Spirit uses in place of the law. He operates through a radically different system, namely, one called grace” (Andrew Farley, The Naked Gospel, p. 90).
Verses 15-18 re-introduce us to the New Covenant provisions:
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
This is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:33. But notice that the Holy Spirit “bears witness” in the present, through the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote in the past. This tells us that not only did the Holy Spirit inspire Jeremiah to write these words in the first place, but also that the Holy Spirit is currently speaking to them (and us) through the words of Jeremiah. The Scriptures, though they were written long ago, still speak to us today. We still need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to illumine the Scriptures to our hearts.
The Spirit here speaks of the New Covenant. The writer dealt with this in Hebrews 8, there quoting Jeremiah more fully. Here he is summarizing and putting into in a chronologically order to illustrate the two aspects of the New Covenant.
The first aspect is the internalizing of God’s law. In the Old Covenant. The Lord “put” His laws in the temple and “wrote” them on tablets of stone. In the New Covenant he puts them “on their hearts…and on their minds.” These words “heart” and “mind” refer to the inner person. When the Lord gave His laws to Israel, He did so in an external way designed to penetrate the hearts of the people. But the people’s hearts were hard and they rejected the Lord and His laws. Their “obedience” turned out not to be obedience at all, but rather compulsive, perfunctory adherence void of any trust or love.
The New Covenant, brought about by Christ, changes all that. Mostly, it changes human hearts, giving them a new, softened hearts; something the Old Covenant could not do. Now our hearts can love and trust God and that love and trust enables us to obey God so that we can perform His will wholeheartedly.
The author may have cited this part of the New Covenant promise to preempt any criticism from a Jewish reader to the effect that setting aside the Law (10:9) would lead to lawless living. “Not so! God’s people are marked by an obedience from the heart.”
Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before,
Since we have seen His beauty, are joined to part no more
To see the Law by Christ fulfilled, and hear His pardon voice,
Transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice. — John Newton
Grace Still Amazes 