Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 10:8
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;
8. which are offered by the law ] Rather, “according to the Law.” A whole argument is condensed into these words, which the context would enable readers to develop for themselves.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Above when he said – That is, the Messiah. The word above refers here to the former part of the quotation. That is, having in the former part of what was quoted said that God did not require sacrifices, in the latter part he says that he came to do the will of God in the place of them.
Sacrifice and offering, and burnt-offerings … – These words are not all used in the Psalm from which the apostle quotes, but the idea is, that the specification there included all kinds of offerings. The apostle dwells upon it because it was important to show that the same remark applied to all the sacrifices which could be offered by man. When the Redeemer made the observation about the inefficacy of sacrifices, he meant that there was none of them which would be sufficient to take away sin.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
In this verse the apostle repeats the whole testimony, produced out of the Psalm, only with a specification in a parenthesis,
which are offered by the law, viz. such sacrifices, against which the apostle argueth, which could not purge away sin, nor procure righteousness, nor make no more conscience of sins. He observes from the Psalm, that the will of God was plainly signified by his Spirit to David under the law, about the nature, state, and design of his institution of sacrifices, that they were typical of, and leading to, a better sacrifice than themselves; and that for their own sake only they were no way acceptable to God, and so rejected by him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. heChrist.
Sacrifice, c.Theoldest manuscripts read, “Sacrifices and offerings“(plural). This verse combines the two clauses previously quoteddistinctly, Heb 10:5 Heb 10:6,in contrast to the sacrifice of Christ with which God was wellpleased.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Above when he said, …. In the afore cited place,
Ps 40:7
Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein; this is a recapitulation of what is before said; and all kind of sacrifices are mentioned, to show that they are all imperfect, and insufficient, and are abolished; and the abrogation of them is expressed in the strongest terms, as that God would not have them, and that he took no pleasure in them:
which are offered by the law; according as that directs and enjoins: this clause is added, to distinguish these sacrifices from spiritual ones, under the Gospel dispensation, and which are well pleasing to God; and to prevent an objection against the abolition of them, taken from hence, that they are according to the law; and yet, notwithstanding this, God will not have them, nor accept of them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Saying above ( ). Christ speaking as in verse 5. “Higher up” (, comparative of , up) refers to verses Heb 10:5; Heb 10:6 which are quoted again.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Above when he said [ ] . Lit. saying above.
Introducing a partial repetition of the quotation.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Above when he said,” (anoteron legon hoti) “Saying above that,” above coming to do the will of his Father, Joh 4:34.
2) “Sacrifices and offerings,” (thusias kai prosphoras) “Sacrifices and offerings,” quoting the messianic-redemptive prophecy again more freely, Psa 40:6.
3) “And burnt offerings and offering for sin,” (kai holokautomata kai peri hamartias) “And burnt offerings and sacrifices concerning sin,” that were designed as personal acknowledgment of sin, Lev 1:1 to Lev 7:38.
4) “Thou wouldest not,” (ouk elelesas) “Thou didst not wish,” care for, when offered in hypocrisy and insincerity, apart from evidence of remorse for sin, Isa 1:11-18.
5) “Neither hadst pleasure therein,” (oude eudokesas) “Nor wast thou well pleased therewith,” Lev 22:20; So insincere had Israel become in formal sacrifice rites that they broke the sacrifice-law in offering sacrifices of the Law, Mal 1:12-14.
6) “Which are offered by the law,” (aitines kata nomon prospherontai) “Which are offered according to law,” in Jerusalem, up to the time this book of Hebrews was written, while the people of Israel had rejected the redeemer, Joh 1:11-12; Mar 7:6-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(8) Above when he said.Better, Whereas he saith above; or, as we might express it, Saying at the outset, Setting out with saying. In the following words the best MSS. have the plural, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and (sacrifices) for sin. The change from singular to plural is in harmony with the thought of Heb. 10:1-4, the repetition of sacrifices.
Which are offered by the law.Rather, such as are offered according to law. The change from the law to law seems intentional, as if the writer had in thought the contrast between any external law of ritual and a principle of inward obedience.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8, 9. Now for our author’s application of the passage quoted. He argues that the psalmist, first, (Heb 10:9,) depreciates sacrifices and offerings; and, second, exalts willing obedience; and then (Heb 10:10) infers that by that obedient will our atonement was wrought.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin were not your will, neither did you have pleasure in them (the which are offered according to the law),’
‘Saying above.’ In Heb 10:5-6.
‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin were not your will, neither did you have pleasure in them.’ For in the final analysis it was not a whole range of animal sacrifices that God wanted. They may have been many and varied, but they were a concession to human weakness, to meeting His people as they were, shaped by their environment. They were not His final will. Nor did He find any satisfaction in them when they were not offered from fully obedient hearts (this refers, the writer says, to those sacrifices made in accordance with ‘law’ – with legal requirements). What He required was obedience to His will, and what was therefore really necessary because of His holiness and purity, was an obedient and willing sacrifice, a sacrifice made by One Who knew all the truth and was fully submissive to His will at whatever cost.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Heb 10:8. By the law; That is, According to the law.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Heb 10:8-10 . Contrasting of the two main elements in the citation just adduced, and emphasizing of the fact that the one element, upon which God lays no stress, is represented by Judaism; the other , to which value is attached in God’s sight, is represented by Christianity.
] above , in the opening words of the declaration.
] sc . . The participle present , in place of which Schlichting, Grotius, Bleek, de Wette expect that of the aorist , is employed here, even as , Heb 10:5 , because the utterance, as being recorded in Scripture, is one still enduring. Only the author makes manifest, by the fact that he writes , not or , that less importance is to be attached to the indication as to the relation of time, in which the two statements are placed to each other, than to the contrasting of these two statements themselves; thus: while He saith above , etc., He has then said , etc.
] recitative particle, as Heb 7:17 , Heb 11:18 .
] The plural appropriately serves for the generalization of the utterance.
] as those things which are presented by virtue of legal precept . Suggestive reference to the imperfection and ineffectiveness of Judaism, since this makes salvation dependent precisely upon those ordinances of external sacrifice which God willed not, and in which He has no pleasure. The words are no parenthetic clause, as is still maintained by Bleek and Kurtz, but an addition essential to the argument of the writer, which does not interrupt the construction. They form the application , thus emphatically appended, of the first half of the thought in the Scripture citation, to Judaism , to which the parallel is formed in Heb 10:10 by the application of the second half to Christianity .
] refers back to the whole of the preceding substantives.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 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;
Ver. 8. Which are offered by the law ] To the great cost and charge of the offerers. This we are freed from, and are required no more than to cover God’s altar with the calves of our lips.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8 .] The Writer now proceeds to expound the prophecy; and in so doing, cites it again, but in a freer form, and one accommodated to the explanation which he gives. Saying (as he does) above (the present participle is used, not , because it is not the temporal sequence of the sayings, so much as their logical coherence, that is in the Writer’s thoughts. Similarly we say, “Holding as I do that, &c., I have ever maintained, &c.” The speaker is our Lord: cf. above, Heb 10:5 , ), that (mere particle of recitation: cf. reff.) sacrifices and offerings, and whole burnt-offerings, and sacrifices concerning sin thou wouldest not, nor yet didst approve (observe that the two distinct clauses of the previous citation are now combined, for the sake of throwing into contrast the rejection of legal sacrifices and the acceptable self-sacrifice of the Son of God), of such sort as ( does not, like the simple relative , identify, but classifies, the antecedent) are (habitually) offered according to (in pursuance of the commands of) the (whether the article is or is not retained, the English rendering will be the same; the according to which they were offered being not any general one, but the particular ordinance of Moses. If we say ‘according to law,’ we mean the same, but transfer ourselves to the standing-point of a Jew, with whom ‘the law’ was ‘law’) law ,
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Heb 10:8 . The significance of the quotation is now explained. “He takes the first away, that he may establish the second.” He declares the incompetence of the O.T. sacrifices to satisfy the will of God, in order that he may make room for that sacrifice which is permanently to satisfy God. , “Higher up,” here meaning “in the former part of the quotation,” corresponding to and contrasted with in Heb 10:9 . , i.e. , Christ, the subject of and . This is necessitated by in Heb 10:3 . Yet it is not Christ directly, but the mind of Christ uttered by God in Scripture. , perfect, as expressing that which permanently fulfils the will of God. is used in classic Greek of the destruction or abolition or repeal of laws, governments, customs, etc.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Sacrifice, offering. The Greek words are in plural
by. See Heb 9:19.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] The Writer now proceeds to expound the prophecy; and in so doing, cites it again, but in a freer form, and one accommodated to the explanation which he gives. Saying (as he does) above (the present participle is used, not , because it is not the temporal sequence of the sayings, so much as their logical coherence, that is in the Writers thoughts. Similarly we say, Holding as I do that, &c., I have ever maintained, &c. The speaker is our Lord: cf. above, Heb 10:5, ), that (mere particle of recitation: cf. reff.) sacrifices and offerings, and whole burnt-offerings, and sacrifices concerning sin thou wouldest not, nor yet didst approve (observe that the two distinct clauses of the previous citation are now combined, for the sake of throwing into contrast the rejection of legal sacrifices and the acceptable self-sacrifice of the Son of God), of such sort as ( does not, like the simple relative , identify, but classifies, the antecedent) are (habitually) offered according to (in pursuance of the commands of) the (whether the article is or is not retained, the English rendering will be the same; the according to which they were offered being not any general one, but the particular ordinance of Moses. If we say according to law, we mean the same, but transfer ourselves to the standing-point of a Jew, with whom the law was law) law,-
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Heb 10:8-9. – , Above, when He said-then said He) Paul urges the order of the words of the psalm which depends on the particle, , , then, showing that it falls on that very time when the prophet sang the psalm in the character of Christ, and on that very point of time when, immediately after the words, , …, sacrifice, etc., placed , above, in the psalm, there sprang up the words, , , lo! I come. Therefore is altogether demonstrative of the present (comp. , , then, Psa 69:5), with an antithesis between the things concerned, from which the wisdom of the apostle infers the first and second, , (Heb 10:9); comp., after, ch. Heb 7:28, note. Let this be the terminus (the point of boundary between the Old and New Testament). Paul also puts, in the first place, the general word of the LXX., , then one more significant, ; whence it is evident, that , saying, is of the imperfect tense [when He said, or was saying]. But observe how great authority the Psalms possess. The oath of Jehovah was given at the very time when Psalms 110 was written. The solemn invitation was issued to the people when Psalms 95 was written; ch. Heb 4:7; Heb 7:28, note. The declaration of the Son was made when Psalms 2 was written; Act 13:33, note. So, the Messiah promised to GOD that He would do His will, at the time when Psalms 40 was written. This handwriting, which David executed, is opposed to the law written by Moses; Heb 10:8, at the end. Wherefore Christ always appealed with the greatest force to the Scriptures, and especially at the beginning of His passion.- , according to the law) The strong argument by which that very point which is asserted in Heb 10:1 is proved from the psalm.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Heb 10:8-10. Above when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt-offerings, and [offerings] 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, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all].
The use and signification of most of the words of these verses have already in our passage been spoken unto.
There are two things in these three verses:
1. The application of the testimony taken out of the psalmist unto the present argument of the apostle, Heb 10:8-9.
2. An inference from the whole, unto the proof of the only cause and means of the sanctification of the church, the argument he was now engaged in, Heb 10:10.
As to the first of these, or the application of the testimony of the psalmist, and his resuming it, we may consider,
1. What he designed to prove thereby: and this was, that by the introduction and establishment of the sacrifice of Christ in the church there was an end put to all legal sacrifices. And he adds thereunto, that the ground and reason of this great alteration of things in the church, by the will of God, was the utter insufficiency of those legal sacrifices in themselves for the expiation of sin and sanctification of the church. In verse 9 he gives us this sum of his design, He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
2. The apostle doth not here directly argue from the matter or substance of the testimony itself, but from the order of the words, and the regard they have in their order unto one another. For there is in them a twofold proposition; one concerning the rejection of legal sacrifices, and the other an introduction and tender of Christ and his mediation. And he declares, from the order of the words in the psalmist, that these things are inseparable; namely, the taking away of legal sacrifices, and the establishment of that of Christ. 3. This order in the words of the apostle is declared in that distribution of and , above and then. , above; that is, in the first place, these his words or sayings, recorded in the first place.
4. There are in the words themselves these three things:
(1.) There is a distribution made of the legal sacrifices into their general heads, with respect unto the will of God concerning them all: Sacrifices and offering, and whole burnt-offerings, and sacrifice for sin. And in that distribution he adds another property of them, namely, they were required according to the law.
[1.] He had respect not only unto the removal of the sacrifices, but also of the law itself, whereby they were retained; so he enters on his present disputation with the imperfection of the law itself, verse 1.
[2.] Allowing these sacrifices and offerings all that they could pretend unto, namely, that they were established by the law, yet notwithstanding this, God rejects them as unto the expiation of sin and the salvation of the church. For he excludes the consideration of all other things which were not appointed by the law, as those which God abhorred in themselves, and so could have no place in this matter And we may observe, that,
Obs. 21. Whereas the apostle doth plainly distinguish and distribute all sacrifices and offerings into those on the one side which were offered by the law, and that one offering of the body of Christ on the other side, the pretended sacrifice of the mass is utterly rejected from any place in the worship of God.
Obs. 22. God, as the sovereign lawgiver, had always power and authority to make what alteration he pleased in the orders and institutions of his worship.
Obs. 23. That sovereign authority is that; alone which our faith and obedience respect in all ordinances of worship.
(2.) After this was stated and delivered, when the mind of God was expressly declared as unto his rejection of legal sacrifices and offerings, , then he said; after that, in order thereon, upon the grounds before mentioned, he said, Sacrifice, etc. In the former words he declared the mind- of God, and in the latter his own intention and resolution to comply with his will, in order unto another way of atonement for sin: Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; which words have been opened before.
(3.) In the last place, he declares what was intimated and signified in this order, or in those things being thus spoken unto; sacrifices, on the one hand, which was the first; and the coming of Christ, which was the second, in this order and opposition. It is evident,
[1.] That these words, , He taketh away the first, do intend sacrifices and offerings. But he did not so do it immediately at the speaking of these words, for they continued for the space of some hundreds of years afterwards; but he did so declaratively, as unto the indication of the time, namely, when the second should be introduced.
[2.] The end of this removal of the first, was the establishment of the second. This second, say some, is the will of God; but the opposition made before is not between the will of God and the legal sacrifices, but between those sacrifices and the coming of Christ to do the will of God. Wherefore it is the way of the expiation of sin, and of the complete sanctification of the church by the coming, and mediation, and sacrifice of Christ., that is this second, the thing spoken of in the second place; this God would establish, approve, confirm, and render unchangeable.
Obs. 24. As all things from the beginning made way for the coming of Christ in the minds of them that did believe, so every thing was to be removed out of the way that would hinder his coming, and the discharge of the work he had undertaken law, temple, sacrifices, must all be removed to give way unto his coming. So is it testified by his forerunner, Luk 3:4-6, As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. So it must be in our own hearts; all things must give way unto him, or he will not come and make his habitation in them.
Heb 10:10. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all.] From the whole context the apostle makes an inference, which is comprehensive of the substance of the gospel, and the description of the grace of God which is established thereby.
Having affirmed, in Christs own words, that he came to do the will of God, he shows what was that will of God which he came to do, what was the design of God in it and the effect of it, and by what means it was accomplished; which things are to be inquired into: as,
1. What is the will of God which he intends; By the which will.
2. What was the design of it, what God aimed at in this act of his will, and what is accomplished thereby; We are sanctified.
3. The way and means whereby this effect proceedeth from the will of God; namely, Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, in opposition to legal sacrifices. 4. The manner of it, in opposition unto their repetition; it was once for all. But the sense of the whole will be more clear, if we consider,
1. The end aimed at in the first place, namely, the sanctification of the church. And sundry things must be observed concerning it:
(1.) That the apostle changeth his phrase of speech into the first person, We are sanctified; that is, all those believers whereof the gospel church- state was constituted, in opposition unto the church-state of the Hebrews and those that did adhere unto it: so he speaks before, as also Heb 4:3, We who have believed do enter into rest. For it might be asked of him, You who thus overthrow the efficacy of legal sacrifices, what have you yourselves attained in your relinquishment of them?We have,saith he, that sanctification, that dedication unto God, that peace with him, and that expiation of sin, that all those sacrifices could not effect.And observe,
Obs. 25. Truth is never so effectually declared, as when it is confirmed by the experience of its power in them that believe it and make profession of it. This was that which gave them the confidence which the apostle exhorts them to hold fast and firm unto the end.
Obs. 26. It is a holy glorying in God, and no unlawful boasting, for men openly to profess what they are made partakers of by the grace of God and blood of Christ. Yea, it is a necessary duty for men so to do, when any thing is set up in competition with them or opposition unto them.
Obs. 27. It is the best security in differences in and about religion, (such as these wherein the apostle is engaged, the greatest and highest that ever were,) when men have an internal experience of the truth which they do profess.
(2.) The words he useth are in the preterperfect tense, , and relate not only unto the things, but the time of the offering of the body of Christ. For although all that is intended herein did not immediately follow on the death of Christ, yet were they all in it, as the effects in their proper cause, to be produced by virtue of it in their times and seasons; and the principal effect intended was the immediate consequent thereof.
(3.) This end of God, through the offering of the body of Christ, was the sanctification of the church: We are sanctified. The principal notion of sanctification in the New Testament, is the effecting of real, internal holiness in the persons of them that do believe, by the change of their hearts and lives. But the word is not here so to be restrained, nor is it used in that sense by our apostle in this epistle, or very rarely. It is here plainly comprehensive of all that he hath denied unto the law, priesthood, and sacrifices of the old testament, with the whole church-state of the Hebrews under it, and the effects of their ordinances and services; as,
[1.] A complete dedication unto God, in opposition unto the typical one which the people were partakers of by the sprinkling of the blood of calves and goats upon them, Exodus 24.
[2.] A complete church-state for the celebration of the spiritual worship of God, by the administration of the Spirit, wherein the law could make nothing perfect.
[3.] Peace with God upon a full and perfect expiation of sin; which he denies unto the sacrifices of the law, verses
[4.] Real, internal purification or sanctification of our natures and persons from all inward filth and defilement of them; which he proves at large that the carnal ordinances of the law could not effect of themselves, reaching no farther than the purification of the flesh.
[5.] Hereunto also belong the privileges of the gospel, in liberty, boldness, immediate access unto God, the means of that access, by Christ our high priest, and confidence therein; in opposition unto that fear, bondage, distance, and exclusion from the holy place of the presence of God, which they of old were kept under. All these things are comprised in this expression of the apostle, We are sanctified.
The designation of such a state for the church, and the present introduction of it by the preaching of the gospel, is that whose confirmation the apostle principally designs in this whole discourse; the sum whereof he gives us, Heb 11:40, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
2. The whole fountain and principal cause of this state, this grace, is the will of God, even that will which our Savior tendered to accomplish, By the which will we are sanctified. In the original it is, In which will; in for by, which is usual. Wherefore we say properly, by which will; for it is the supreme efficient cause of our sanctification that is intended. And in that expression of our Savior, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, it is evident,
(1.) That it was the will, that is, the counsel, the purpose, the decree of God, that the church should be sanctified.
(2.) That our Lord Christ knew that this was the will of God, the will of the Father, in whose bosom he was. And,
(3.) That God had determined (which he also knew and declared) that legal sacrifices could not accomplish and make effectual this his will, so as the church might be sanctified thereon. Wherefore the will of God here intended (as was intimated before) is nothing but the eternal, gracious, free act or purpose of his will, whereby he determined or purposed in himself to recover a church out of lost mankind, to sanctify them unto himself, and to bring them unto the enjoyment of himself hereafter, See Eph 1:4-9.
And this act of the will of God was,
(1.) Free and sovereign, without any meritorious cause, or any thing that should dispose him thereunto without himself: He purposed in himself. There are everywhere blessed effects ascribed to it, but no cause anywhere. All that is designed unto us in it, as unto the communication of it in its effects, were its effects, not its cause. See Eph 1:4, and this place. The whole mediation of Christ, especially his death and suffering, was the means of its accomplishment, and not the procuring cause of it.
(2.) It was accompanied with infinite wisdom, whereby provision was made for his own glory, and the means and way of the accomplishment of his will. He would not admit the legal sacrifices as the means and way of its accomplishment, because they could not provide for those ends; for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
(3.) It was immutable and irrevocable, it depended not upon any condition in any thing or person without himself: He purposed in himself. Nor was it capable of any change or alteration from oppositions or interveniencies.
(4.) It follows hereon that it must be infallibly effectual, in the actual accomplishment of what was designed in it, every thing in its order and season; it cannot in any thing be frustrated or disappointed. The whole church in every age shall be sanctified by it. This will of God some would have not to be any internal act of his will, but only the thing willed by him, name]y, the sacrifice of Christ; and that for this reason, because it is opposed to legal sacrifices, which the act of Gods will cannot be. But the mistake is evident; for the will of God here intended is not at all opposed unto the legal sacrifices, but only as to the means of the accomplishment of it, which they were not, nor could be.
Obs. 28. The sovereign will and pleasure of God, acting itself in infinite wisdom and grace, is the sole, supreme, original cause of the salvation of the church, Rom 9:10-11.
3. The means of accomplishment and making effectual of this will of God, is the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Some copies after read , and then the sense must be supplied by the repetition of in the close of that verse, who by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ were once sanctified. But there is no color for this supply, for the word once doth directly respect the offering of Christ, as the following verses, wherein it is explained, and the dignity of this sacrifice thence demonstrated, do prove. Wherefore this article belongs not unto the text, for it is not in the best copies, nor is taken notice of in our translation. Why and in what sense the sacrifice of Christ is called the offering of his body, was before declared. And by which, , refers not to the cause of our sanctification, which is the will of God, but unto the effect itself. Our sanctification is wrought, effected, accomplished by the offering of the body of Christ,
(1.) In that the expiation of our sin and reconciliation with God were perfectly wrought thereby:
(2.) In that the whole church of the elect was thereby dedicated unto God; which privilege they are called into the actual participation of through faith in the blood of Christ:
(3.) In that thereby all the old legal sacrifices, and all that yoke, and burden, and bondage wherewith they were accompanied, are taken out of the way, Eph 2:15-16 :
(4.) In that he redeemed us thereby from the whole curse of the law, as given originally in the law of nature, and also renewed in the covenant of Sinai:
(5.) In that thereby he ratified and confirmed the new covenant, and all the promises of it, and all the grace contained in them, to be effectually communicated unto us:
(6.) In that he thereby procured for us, and received into his own disposition, in the behalf of the church, effectually to communicate all grace and mercy unto our souls and consciences. In brief, whatever was prepared in the will of God for the good of the church, it is all communicated unto us through the offering of the body of Christ, in such a way as tendeth unto the glory of God and the assured salvation of the church.
This offering of the body of Jesus Christ is the glorious center of all the counsels of the wisdom of God, of all the purposes of his will for the sanctification of the church. For,
(1.) No other way or means could effect it:
(2.) This will do it infallibly; for Christ crucified is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto this end. This is the anchor of our faith, whereon alone it rests.
4. The last thing in the words gives us the manner of the offering of the body of Christ. It was done : once for all, say we, once only; it was never before that one time, nor shall ever be afterwards, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. And this demonstrates both the dignity and efficacy of his sacrifice. Of such worth and dignity it was, that God absolutely acquiesced therein, and smelled a savor of eternal rest in it: and of such efficacy, that the sanctification of the church was perfected by it, so that it needed no repetition. It also made way for the following state of Christ himself, which was to be a state of glory, absolute and perfect, inconsistent with the repetition of the same sacrifice of himself. For, as the apostle shows, verses 12, 13, after this sacrifice offered, he had no more to do but to enter into glory. So absurd is that imagination of the Socinians, that he offered his expiatory sacrifice in heaven, that he did not, he could not enter into glory, until he had completely offered his sacrifice, the memorial whereof he carried into the holy place. And the apostle lays great weight on this consideration, as that which is the foundation of the faith of the church. He mentions it often, and argues from it as the principal argument to prove its excellency above the sacrifices of the law. And this very foundation is destroyed by those who fancy unto themselves a renewed offering of the body of Christ every day in the mass. Nothing can be more directly contrary unto this assertion of the apostle, whatever color they may put upon their practice, or whatever pretense they may give unto it.
Wherefore the apostle in the next verses argues from the dignity and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, by its difference from and opposition unto the legal sacrifices, which were often repeated.
Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Reciprocal: Lev 1:3 – a burnt Jer 3:16 – The ark Eze 45:23 – seven bullocks Rom 10:4 – Christ Col 2:14 – the handwriting Heb 10:4 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Heb 10:8. This verse is mostly an exnlanation or repetition of the pre-ceding ones, to the effect that the displeasure of God was concerning the sacrifices of the law. Of course it should be understood that such a condition of mind came after those sacrifices had served the divine purposes.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 10:8. The writer now comments on the quotation: Saying above as he (i.e Christ, see Heb 10:5) does say, etc. Which is more than the relativeit describes quality, and makes this remark apply to all offered under the Lawthen and now (present tense).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
God took no delight in sacrifices as such if they were not the product of a proper attitude. He took away the first Mosaic Covenant and its sacrifices to establish the second New Covenant. Psalms 40 announced the abolition of the old sacrificial system. This was God’s will, and it satisfied Him. The writer’s view of sanctification here, as elsewhere in this epistle, is positional rather than progressive. God sets aside all believers to Himself at conversion. That is what is in view here.
"Indeed it can be said that sanctification in Hebrews is almost equivalent to justification in Romans, both referring to our position, not to our condition. But there is this vital difference of standpoint: that justification deals with position in relation to God as Judge, while sanctification deals with position in relation to our fellowship with God and our approach to Him in fellowship." [Note: Thomas, p. 125. Cf. Hodges, "Hebrews," p. 804.]
". . . we must be on our guard lest we read this epistle with Pauline terminology in mind." [Note: Morris, p. 99.]