Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 10:3
But in those [sacrifices there is] a remembrance again [made] of sins every year.
3. there is a remembrance again made of sins ] This view of sacrifices that they are “a calling to mind of sins yearly” is very remarkable. It seems to be derived from Num 5:15, where “the offering of jealousy” is called “an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.” Philo also speaks of sacrifices as providing “not an oblivion of sins, but a reminding of them.” De plant. Noe, 25. De Vit. Mos. iii. 10 (Opp. i. 345, ii. 246). But if the sacrifices thus called sins to remembrance, they also daily symbolised the means of their removal, so that when offered obediently with repentance and faith they became valid symbols.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year – The reference here is to the sacrifices made on the great day of atonement. This occurred once in a year. Of course as often as a sacrifice was offered, it was an acknowledgment of guilt on the part of those for whom it was made. As these sacrifices continued to be offered every year, they who made the offering were reminded of their guilt and their desert of punishment. All the efficacy which could be pretended to belong those sacrifices, was that they made expiation for the past year. Their efficacy did not extend into the future, nor did it embrace any but those who were engaged in offering them. These sacrifices, therefore, could not make the atonement which man needed. They could not make the conscience easy; they could not be regarded as a sufficient expiation for the time to come, so that the sinner at any time could plead an offering which was already made as a ground of pardon, and they could not meet the wants of all people in all lands and at all times. These things are to be found only in that great sacrifice made by the Redeemer on the cross.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb 10:3
Remembrance again made of sins
Sin remembered no more:
Memory is the source both of sorrow and of joy: like the wind, which is laden both with frankincense and with unpleasant odours, which brings both pestilence and health, which both distributes genial warmth and circulates cold.
The effect of memory depends on the subject of a particular recollection. This faculty is directed to past events, and if those which memory embraces have been joyous, the effect is joyous; if they have been grievous, the effect, unless there be some counteracting influence, is grievous. Among the multitude of sorrows, which, memory awakens, none is so bitter as that which arises from the recollection of sin. The recollection of sin is in this world variously originated. Sometimes pride leads a man to dwell on his past errors. He has a very high estimate of himself, and his complacency has been disturbed by some act of transgression, upon which be is constantly looking back. Vanity moves men to remember their errors. The vain man is anxious that others should have a good opinion of him, and his mortified vanity occasions him to look back upon his past faults and failures. Or he has a selfish desire for his own happiness: he sees in the past actions which have interfered with his enjoyment, and he cherishes the remembrance of sin because sin has been drying up the fountain of his pleasures. But turning from the evil powers which originate such recollections, we may look at a broken and contrite heart. Contrition of spirit cherishes the memory of transgression. The recollection of sin is occasioned by various influences, and the effect of these remembrances is various. Sometimes the recollection of sin hardens a man; sometimes it produces strong rebellion. On other occasions it induces deep depression. The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmities, but a wounded spirit, who can bear? There is a provision for forgetting our sins. But there was no such provision under the Law, nor in any of the ceremonies that Moses ordained. On the contrary, in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. That Jew would not be a true disciple to Moses and true child of Abraham who did not on the Day of Atonement call to mind his trespasses, although he had presented a trespass-offering, and all the sins he had committed, although he had presented his sin-offerings. If you look at the chapter, you will find that this passage is introduced for the sake of forming a contrast between the dispensation under Moses and the dispensation introduced by Christ. Now there is no remembrance again made of sins. We have had our day of atonement–the day upon which Christ hung on the Cross. We have had our sacrifice offered: it has been both offered and accepted. We have only to feel that it has been offered, and that it is accepted, and then the atonement which removes the outward guilt takes away also from the conscience the sense of guilt. In these sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. But by this one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Here the writer penned these words for the sake of expressing something else which these words suggest to every Christian; such as these thoughts: First, God has made provision for the practical forgetting of sin in His own conduct towards a believing transgressor; and, secondly, the state of the penitents heart should respond to this provision. This provision is revealed to him on purpose that he may take advantage of it–that he may get all the peace and joy it is calculated to minister. Thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. For the sake of cherishing the spirit of humility, it is right to remember sin; for the sake of learning patience and forbearance and a kind and forgiving spirit towards each other; for the sake of increasing our sense of obligation to the atonement of Christ, and stimulating our gratitude for the everlasting mercy of God, it is right to remember sin; but sin should be forgotten when the remembrance of it would operate as a barrier to intercourse with God. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace; not with the sullenness of Cain–my punishment is greater than I can bear–but with all the loving reliance of Abel–come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
1. As an obstacle to hope, there is to be no remembrance of sins. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Jehovah is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
2. As a check to filial reliance, there is to be no remembrance of sin. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
3. As marring our complacency in God, there is to be no remembrance of sin. He hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and annihilated the distance. You who were far off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ.
4. As hindering our enjoyment in God, there is to be no remembrance of sin. You are not to ask, Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? as though you would go if you could, or as though it would be a relief to take your eye from Gods eye and your lip from Gods ear; but your resolve must be, I will go to the altar of my God, to God my exceeding joy.
5. As darkening our prospects, there is to be no remembrance of sin. He has blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Why is it that some Christians do not realise all this? Why is it that sometimes fear gets the mastery over them? The answer is at hand. Many persons think that they are Christians when they are not. Their repentance has been a thoroughly selfish state of soul, and not a godly sorrow. (S. Martin.)
Reminders of sins:
As they in the time of the Law had many sacrifices to put them in remembrance of sin, so we in the time of the Gospel have many remembrancers of sin–sundry monitors to admonish us that we are sinners. The rainbow may be a remembrance of sin to us, that the world was once drowned for sin, and that it might be so still but for the goodness and mercy of God. Baptism daily ministered in the Church putteth us in mind of sin; for if we were not sinners we needed not to be baptized. The Lords Supper puts us in mind of sin: Do this in remembrance of Me, that My body was broken for you and My blood shed for you on the Cross. The immoderate showers that come oft in harvest and deprive us of the fruits of the earth may put us in mind of sin; for they be our sins that keep good things from us. Our moiling and toiling for the sustentation of ourselves with much care and wearisome labour; for if we had not sinned it should not have been so. The sicknesses and, diseases that be among us, the plague and pestilence that hath raged among us, the death of so many of our brethren and sisters continually before our eyes, &c., may put us in mind of sin; for if we had not sinned we should not have died. There be a number of things to put us in mind of sin; but there is nothing that can take away sin but Jesus Christ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Therefore let us all fly to this heavenly Physician for the curing of us. (W. Joules, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
If the legal sacrifices could have perfected their offerers, there would have been no remembrance of sins; but there is a remembrance of sins yearly, therefore they are weak and cannot perfect. These shadowy-sacrifices yearly reiterated, still left sins in their guilt and killing power, loading and grinding the conscience by accusation and condemnation for them, as well as setting them in the light of Gods countenance. For in the expiation day Aaron was to remember and to confess over the head of the scape-goat, laying his hands on it, all the churchs sins of the past year and life, notwithstanding former expiatory sacrifices offered for them, Lev 16:22. For as soon as that was done, their expiating virtue vanished, and so they renewed sacrifices without any spiritual profit by them, the guilt of past and present sins remaining still: whereas Christians now renewing sin, do renew their faith and repentance, but not their sacrifice for it; the virtue of which, in a full and final absolution, applied to them by the Spirit, makes them to have, upon their final accounts, no conscience of sin for ever.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Butso far from thosesacrifices ceasing to be offered (Heb10:2).
in, c.in the fact oftheir being offered, and in the course of their being offered on theday of atonement. Contrast Heb10:17.
a remembrancearecalling to mind by the high priest’s confession, on the day ofatonement, of the sins both of each past year and of all formeryears, proving that the expiatory sacrifices of former years were notfelt by men’s consciences to have fully atoned for former sins infact, the expiation and remission were only legal and typical(Heb 10:4; Heb 10:11).The Gospel remission, on the contrary, is so complete, that sins are”remembered no more” (Heb10:17) by God. It is unbelief to “forget” thisonce-for-all purgation, and to fear on account of “former sins”(2Pe 1:9). The believer, oncefor all bathed, needs only to “wash” his hands and”feet” of soils, according as he daily contracts them, inChrist’s blood (Joh 13:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But in those sacrifices,…. The Arabic version reads, “but in it”; that is, in the law; but the Syriac version reads, and supplies, as we do, , “in those sacrifices”, which were offered every year on the day of atonement:
there is a remembrance of sins made again every year; of all the sins that were committed the year past, and even of those that were expiated typically by the daily sacrifice, and others that had been offered; which proves the imperfection and insufficiency of such sacrifices: there was a remembrance of sins by God, before whom the goats were presented, their blood was sprinkled, and the people cleansed, Le 16:7 and there was a remembrance of them by the people, who, on that day, afflicted their souls for them,
Le 16:29 and there was a remembrance of them by the high priest, who confessed them over, and put them upon the head of the goat, Le 16:21 by which it was owned, that these sins were committed; that they deserved death, the curse of the law; that the expiation of them was undertook by another, typified by the goat; that this was not yet done, and therefore there was no remission, but a typical one, by these sacrifices; but that sins remained, and required a more perfect sacrifice, which was yet to be offered up. Legal sacrifices were so far from inducing an oblivion of sins, that they themselves brought them to remembrance, and were so many acknowledgments of them. Though Philo the Jew thinks the contrary, and gives this as a reason why the heart and brain were not offered in sacrifice, because
“it would be foolish, that the sacrifices should cause, not a forgetfulness of sins, but a remembrance of them q.”
q De Victimis, p. 841.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A remembrance (). A reminder. Old word from , to remind, as in Luke 22:19; 1Cor 11:24.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
A remembrance of sins [ ] . Each successive sacrifice was a fresh reminder of sins to be atoned for; so far were the sacrifices from satisfying the conscience of the worshipper. jAnamnhsiv, lit. a calling to mind. Comp. ver. 17, and see LXX, Num 5:15.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But in those sacrifices there is,” (all’ en autais) “But in those sacrifices there exists,” in the offering of those sacrifices, repeatedly, by the Jews at the Jerusalem temple, which continued until about five years after the book of Hebrews was written; There still existed for the Jews a shadow prophecy of their sacrifice, Col 2:17.
2) “A remembrance again made of sins,” (anamnesis hamartion) “A remembrance (again and again) of sins,” Mic 6:6-7. This repeated sacrifice privilege to the Jewish Christ-rejectors ceased, shortly after this writing, when the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem about A.D. 70, and they to whom the law of sacrifices had been given, who had rejected the Christ, were carried captive into all the nations, Joh 1:11-12; Mat 23:37-39; Luk 21:20-24.
3) “Every year,” (kat’ eniauton) “Yearly,” or “every year,” as instructed by the law, by the annual atonement offering, Lev 16:21; Heb 9:7. But the remembrance sacrifices of animals ceased in reminding Israel of her sins shortly after this was written, in fulfillment of the above cited prophecies of our Lord concerning them. Let it be recalled that those often called, often enlightened of Divine needs and rejecting them are eventually, suddenly doomed to certain Judgement. Men cannot persistently rebel against, despise, take lightly, or defy, the call of God to salvation or separated service without coming to fearful judgement therefor, Pro 1:22-30; Pro 29:1; Rom 2:4-5; Heb 4:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
3. A remembrance again, etc. Though the Gospel is a message of reconciliation with God, yet it is necessary that we should daily remember our sins; but what the Apostle means is, that sins were brought to remembrance that guilt might be removed by the means of the sacrifice then offered. It is not, then, any kind of remembrance that is here meant, but that which might lead to such a confession of guilt before God, as rendered a sacrifice necessary for its removal.
Such is the sacrifice of the mass with the Papists; for they pretend that by it the grace of God is applied to us in order that sins may be blotted out. But since the Apostle concludes that the sacrifices of the Law were weak, because they were every year repeated in order to obtain pardon, for the very same reason it may be concluded that the sacrifice of Christ was weak, if it must be daily offered, in order that its virtue may be applied to us. With whatever masks, then, they may cover their mass, they can never escape the charge of an atrocious blasphemy against Christ.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) There is a remembrance.Better, a remembrance of sins is made year by year. In each of the three prayers of the high priest (see Heb. 5:3) for himself and his house, for the priesthood, for the people, he made special acknowledgment of sin. I have sinned, I and my house and the sons of Aaron: Thy people have done perversely.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. But these sacrifices, so far from being an abolition of sins, are a reminder and remembrance of sins, every year; namely, on the day of atonement.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year, for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.’
But this was not so with ‘those sacrifices’. Indeed their continually being offered, rather than suggesting that they were a solution to the problem, was a continual reminder of the fact that they were not a solution but a temporary measure, something that must go on and on, but would never finally achieve their purpose. Year by year they drew attention to the failure of God’s people, and therefore to their own failure to make men perfect. And this was part of their purpose, to continually remind man that the wages of sin was death, to face men up with the awfulness of sin, to give a remembrance of sin, and to turn men to the One Who alone could deal with sin.
And it was inevitable that they could only be a reminder to men of sin, and their need for mercy, for, if they only thought about it they would realise that the blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sins. How could they be sufficient to do so? What power had they to do so? They were but sacrifices of dumb beasts which had no choice in the matter. How could the blood of such bulls and goats make men perfect? The whole idea was impossible. All they could be at their very best was the proof of repentance from a heart which had failed, but desired to be obedient to God. Although let that not be dismissed as unimportant.
For what was much more important to God than sacrifices was obedience (see 1Sa 15:22; Psa 50:8-14; Psa 51:16-17; Hos 6:6; Isa 1:10-17; Jer 7:21-23). It was only sacrifice that resulted from a desire to be obedient that was acceptable to God. It was surely therefore clear that these offerings must be insufficient in themselves but were portraying a greater reality than they themselves possessed. It should be clear that if man’s sin was to be taken away, and if man was to be made perfect, a far greater sacrifice and a far greater power than theirs would be required, a sacrifice both voluntary and tied up with full obedience, a sacrifice which was greater far than all of them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Heb 10:3 . Contrast to . In such wise, however, that the offerers should have no more consciousness of guilt, the matter does not stand; on the contrary, there lies in the yearly repetition of the sacrifices the yearly reminder that sins are still remaining, and have to be expiated. [97] Comp. Philo, de Victim . p. 841 A (with Mangey, II. p. 244): , .
De plantat. No , p. 229 B (I. p. 345): .
Vit. Mos . 3. p. 669 E (II. p. 151): ( sc . the , and of the impious), .
] sc . .
] not: commemoratio (Vulgate, Calvin, Clarius, al .) or commemoratio publica (Bengel and others), so that we must think of the confession of sin (tract. Jom . iv. 2, iii. 8, vi. 2) which the high priest made on the great day of atonement with regard to himself and the whole people (Schlichting, Grotius, Braun, al .); but: reminding, recalling to memory . Comp. 1Co 11:24-25 ; Luk 22:19 .
[97] To join on the words of ver. 3 to those of ver. 1, and then to look upon ver. 2 as a parenthesis (Kurtz, Hofmann), is inadmissible, even apart from the , of frequent use after a question because , ver. 3, points back to the kindred , ver. 2.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2308
SEASONS OF PENITENCE RECOMMENDED
Heb 10:3. In those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
IN the institutions of the Mosaic law, burthensome as they were, God consulted the best interests of his people. Repentance, faith, and obedience, were inculcated in them all. The daily sacrifices and frequent ablutions were intended to shew them, that they stood in need of mercy and of spiritual renovation: and the authority with which they were enjoined, taught them, that their whole happiness depended on an entire submission to the will of God. Those ordinances had also a further use; which was, to lead the minds of all to the contemplation of mysteries, which should in due season be more fully revealed. They did not themselves convey any solid or lasting benefit: they were mere shadows, which indicated indeed a substance; but which would vanish away, when that substance should appear. This is the view given of the law in the passage before us. The Apostle says, 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 worshippers, once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins. Hence it appears, that the most solemn institutions of the law, not excepting the sacrifices offered ou the great day of annual expiation, were, in fact, no more than mere remembrances of sins, which could never be removed, but by that better Sacrifice which should in due time be offered.
But that we may have a fuller insight into this subject, I will endeavour more distinctly to shew,
I.
For what end those annual remembrances of sins were enjoined
Doubtless they were intended, as the whole of the Mosaic ritual also was, to separate the Jewish people more entirely from all the nations of the world. But they were more particularly designed,
1.
To make them sensible of their need of a Saviour
[Every offering had this tendency: no man could see his victim bleed, without seeing and acknowledging what was his own desert before God. But, if there had been no day of annual expiation appointed, the people would have been ready to imagine that every offering which they had presented to God had actually taken away the sin for which it had been offered. To guard against this fatal error, a day was appointed annually for a more especial remembrance of their sins, and for a deeper humiliation of their souls before God on account of them. Thus they were taught that neither their repentances nor their sacrifices had really availed to put away their sins: for, if they had, there had been no occasion for a repetition of them. Moreover, the same ordinances being still appointed annually, and annually observed, they were made to feel, that not even these more solemn rites had been able to prevail for the expiation of sin; so that, in fact, the guilt contracted throughout their whole lives still abode upon their souls; no offerings, which they had ever presented, having been able to remove it. In the view of this, they were particularly required to afflict their souls [Note: Lev 16:29; Lev 16:31.]. And, in truth, this ordinance was well calculated to produce in them the deepest humiliation: for, having occasion every year to review their lives through the past year; and to add, as it were, the sum of their recent iniquities to the incalculable score that was against them in consequence of former transgressions; and being at the same time necessitated to see that nothing which they either had done, or could do, could cancel the smallest portion of their debt; they would, of necessity, be led to cry for mercy with the deepest contrition, and to acknowledge their need of that Saviour whom they were instructed to expect.]
2.
To shew, then, the insufficiency of the legal sacrifices
[Nothing could carry stronger conviction with it than this particular ordinance: for, if former sacrifices had prevailed, why should they be repeated? What occasion was there for the annual offerings, if the occasional ones had answered their full end? or why should the same sins be atoned for in a future year, which have been expiated in the present year, if the present expiation has been satisfactory and complete? Here, then, was the axe laid to the root of all self-righteous conceits. It was to no purpose that these ordinances were of Divine appointment; or that they were observed according to the strict letter of the law: they were never intended to serve as real expiations of sin; nor was the observance of them ever intended to form a justifying righteousness before God: they were intended only to shadow forth a Saviour, to whom all must look, and through whom all must be justified; and the very repetition of them was, in fact, not only a remembrance of the sins which rendered a Saviour necessary; but a pledge, that such a Saviour as they needed should in due time be sent them.]
3.
To direct their eyes to that Great Sacrifice that should in due time be offered
[In every sacrifice which was offered, they saw the Lord Jesus Christ exhibited before them: and were reminded, that in due time he should come to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. They were informed, that there was to arise from the loins of Abraham, a Seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed. The Prophets Isaiah and Daniel had fully described the way in which the promised seed should effect the work assigned him: that he should be cut off, but not for himself; that he should be wounded for our transgressions, and be bruised for our iniquities [Note: Isa 53:5-6; Isa 53:11. Dan 9:24.]; that he should make his soul an offering for sin; and that in this way he should finish transgression, and make an end of sin, and bring in an everlasting righteousness, by which all the sinners of mankind, who should believe in him, should be justified. Now, all this was set before them; and was seen by them, with more or less distinctness, according to the faith they had in exercise: and in every sacrifice which, from year to year, was offered, they saw an herald sent, and heard his proclamation, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world!]
That we may bring the matter more home to ourselves, let us consider,
II.
What good may be expected from stated remembrances of sins amongst us
It is granted, that nothing equivalent to the Mosaic ordinances is required of us. Yet, if we were to appoint stated seasons for ourselves seasons for reviewing our past lives, and for special humiliation of our souls before GodI am persuaded we should find it highly conducive to our spiritual welfare. Such seasons would be useful,
1.
For the deepening of our repentance
[We are apt to lose, very speedily, the convictions which sin has fastened upon our mind. At first, perhaps, they are pungent, and cause considerable anguish; but in a little time the impression wears away, and we almost forget that we have sinned at all. But if we had stated seasons for calling our ways to remembrance, our past convictions would be revived, and our humiliation before God be greatly promoted. The sins of early life being thus from time to time set before us, and those of daily incursion being added to them, we should have juster views of our extreme unworthiness. The whole life would then appear to be, what in reality it is, one continued scene of iniquity. For want of such seasons of recollection, men view their sins as they do the heavens in a cloudy night, when they can see only here and there a star of greater magnitude, and at remote distances: whereas, if our self-examinations were strict, and our retrospect frequent, our lives would appear rather like the heavens in the clearest night, full of stars of a greater or lesser order, and so connected as scarcely to leave an interval between them. With such views of ourselves, our repentance would not be slight, partial, transient; but deep, universal, permanent.]
2.
For the endearing of the Saviour to us
[True is that saying, that where much is forgiven, men will love much; and little, where little has been forgiven. Now, if we be in the habit of bringing before our eyes the sins of our whole life, and of viewing them, even as God does, in the aggregate, how shall we adore that mercy of God that has been extended to us, and that love of Christ which he has evinced in giving himself for us! Verily, it will appear almost incredible that even God himself should be capable of such condescension and grace. This self-knowledge is at the root of the experience of the saints in heaven. Behold them all prostrate before the throne, and casting down their crowns at the Saviours feet; whilst they sing, To Him that loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood. This is the state of mind which self-knowledge has a tendency to generate: and if our seasons of humiliation were more deep and frequent, we should more resemble the glorified saints, both in the nature and in the expressions of our joy.]
3.
For the augmenting of our vigilance against the recurrence of sin
[It is a truth not generally considered, that the sins which more easily beset us in early life, continue, more or less, our besetting sins to the end of our days. Pride, envy, wrath, malice, lewdness, covetousness, rarely leave the soul of which they have once got an undisturbed possession. Now, if a person has been in the habit of self-examination from year to year, and of seeing by what temptations chiefly he has been overcome, he will know the better against what he needs more especially to watch: he will have seen, how, on many occasions, that, which, if resisted in the first moment, might have been easily overcome, has, by being harboured in the mind, acquired an ascendant over him, and defied his utmost efforts to subdue it. He will have seen, especially, how he has been betrayed, by unwatchfulness, into sins to which he had no natural propensity; and that there is not an evil in the human heart against which he has not reason to watch and pray. In a word, he will feel the need of committing himself wholly to the guidance of his God, and of crying continually, Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.]
From this subject, then, we may learn,
1.
What use to make of the present season [Note: It would be a proper subject for New-Years Day or Lent, or a Fast Day, or Birth Day.]
[There are seasons which seem to claim somewhat more than an ordinary regard. The commencement of a new year, or the return of our natal day, may well lead us to a review of the past year, and consequently of our whole lives: and, were it so improved, how far more profitable should we find the season, than if it were spent in carnal mirth! I may add, too, how important is this suggestion in reference to eternity! Thousands go into the eternal world without having ever, in their whole lives, devoted one single day to the revision of their lives, and to humiliation for their sins. God forbid, my brethren, that you should be of that unhappy number! Let me recommend it to you all to begin, this day, to call your ways to remembrance; to enter minutely into the sins of your early youth, and of every succeeding year, even to the present hour. Let me recommend you to mark, not merely the sins of greater enormity, but those which the world accounts slight and venial. Let me recommend to you to notice the sins of omission, as well as of commission; and the sins of defect, as well as those of utter neglect. Could you be prevailed upon to take such a retrospect, it could not fail of being attended with the best consequences to your spiritual edification in this life, and to your eternal welfare in the life to come.]
2.
What especially to aim at, in all the exercises of your souls
[There is a frame of mind peculiarly characteristic of the advanced Christian: and which, I conceive, is suggested by the considerations of my text. You have seen that the most pious of Gods people, no less than others, were to observe a day in every year for the special purpose of remembering their past sins, and of afflicting their souls on account of them; whilst, at the same time, they were to renew their applications to God for mercy through the appointed sacrifices. A sense of sin was not to weaken their hope of Gods mercy, on the one hand; nor was their confidence in Gods mercy to weaken their sense of sin, on the other hand: both were to be retained in constant and united exercise; that so, whilst they rejoiced with trembling, they might tremble with rejoicing. Now, this is a state of mind by no means so common as might be wished. The generality of Christians, if they could feel towards God as a loving, obedient, and devoted spouse towards her husband, would conceive that they had attained the highest state of which they are capable. But, to make that image fully suited to our case, we must suppose the spouse to have been originally taken from the lowest and most degraded state by her husband; and, after her union with him, to have dishonoured him, and debased herself, by the grossest enormities. We must further suppose her husband to have followed her with the most affectionate entreaties to return to him; to have assured her of his most entire forgiveness; and, having prevailed on her to return, to be exercising towards her all imaginable kindness, without ever once uttering a single word of upbraiding. Now, suppose her to become faithful and obedient, and you will have a juster conception of the Christians state. Though her husband has forgiven her, can you imagine that she has forgiven herself? On the contrary, does not every act of love on her husbands part fill her with deeper humility and self-abhorrence, for having ever acted so basely towards one of so exalted a character? Does not her whole intercourse with him, from day to day, augment her admiration of him, and her lothing of herself? Yes; though forgiven, she never for a moment forgets what she is, or what she deserves: and her whole soul is prostrate before God and man, even in the midst of her fondest endearments or her sublimest joys. Here is the Christian character: here is the character which I wish you all to attain. Do not mistake; you need not rush into gross sins in order to have a foundation for it: the adulteries of every one of you are manifest enough, without any fresh iniquities: you need only see how you have treated your divine Husband, and what base lusts you have harboured in your bosoms, from your youth up even until now, and you will see that you have need to walk softly before God all your days, and to lothe yourselves before him in dust and ashes. This is walking humbly with God. This will not abate either your confidence or your joy: but it will temper the one with fear, and the other with contrition.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Ver. 3. Made of sins every year ] A solemn confession of them, and what great need they had of a Saviour to expiate them, laying their hands on the head of the sacrifice, in token that they had in like sort deserved to be destroyed.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3 .] Which cessation is far from being the case, as is the having no more conscience of sin: But (on the contrary: opposes the whole question of Heb 10:2 , in both its clauses) in them (the sacrifices: not in the fact of their being offered, but in the course of their being offered on the day of atonement, see below) there is a recollection (‘recalling to mind;’ the usual meaning of : better than “public mention,” as vulg., “commemoratio,” Calv., Bengel, al.: so also Schlichting, Grot., Jac. Cappell., al., thinking on the solemn confession of the sins of Israel made by the high priest, Lev 16:20 f. But the other is simpler, and suits the context better. Where sins are continually called to mind, there clearly the conscience is not clear from them. Several passages occur in Philo closely resembling this: e. g. De Plant. No, 25, vol. i. p. 345, , , , . (Num 5:15 , ) : De Victim. 7, vol. ii. p. 244, , , : and Vita Mos. iii. 10, p. 151, , , , , . , , ) of sins year by year:
remembrance again. Greek. anamnesis. See 1Co 11:24.
every year. Same as “year by year”, Heb 10:1.
3.] Which cessation is far from being the case, as is the having no more conscience of sin:-But (on the contrary: opposes the whole question of Heb 10:2, in both its clauses) in them (the sacrifices: not in the fact of their being offered, but in the course of their being offered on the day of atonement, see below) there is a recollection (recalling to mind; the usual meaning of : better than public mention, as vulg., commemoratio, Calv., Bengel, al.: so also Schlichting, Grot., Jac. Cappell., al., thinking on the solemn confession of the sins of Israel made by the high priest, Lev 16:20 f. But the other is simpler, and suits the context better. Where sins are continually called to mind, there clearly the conscience is not clear from them. Several passages occur in Philo closely resembling this: e. g. De Plant. No, 25, vol. i. p. 345, , , , . (Num 5:15, ) : De Victim. 7, vol. ii. p. 244, , , : and Vita Mos. iii. 10, p. 151, , , , , . , , ) of sins year by year:
Heb 10:3. , in those) sacrifices.-, a remembrance) public; comp. Heb 10:17.-, of sins) viz. those of the last year, and of all years. The day of expiation was not on that day on which Christ was crucified, but on the tenth day of Tisri, of which see Ord. Temp., p. 22. The forgetting [the remembering no more] of sins is opposed to this admonitory remembrance: Heb 10:17.- , yearly) An Epanalepsis;[57] comp. Heb 10:1. He is speaking chiefly of the solemn yearly sacrifices.
[57] See Append. The same word in beginning of the preceding and in the end of the following member: or antecedent repeated after a parenthesis.-ED.
sins
Sin
(See Scofield Rom 3:23).
a remembrance: Heb 9:7, Exo 30:10, Lev 16:6-11, Lev 16:21, Lev 16:22, Lev 16:29, Lev 16:30, Lev 16:34, Lev 23:27, Lev 23:28, Num 29:7-11, 1Ki 17:18, Mat 26:28
Reciprocal: Num 5:15 – bringing Neh 10:34 – at times Eze 18:22 – his transgressions Eze 29:16 – bringeth Eze 45:18 – and cleanse Mat 5:17 – but Heb 10:1 – with Heb 10:26 – there
Heb 10:3. Remembrance again made. But it does NOT SAY that the sins were remembered against them as it is so frequently expressed. Every year when the national atonement day arrived, the nation had a public and formal reminder of sin by the entrance of their high priest into the most holy place with the blood of atonement. Contrary to that, our High Priest entered once and forever into the presence of God with the blood of the New Covenant, and it has never had to be repeated.
Heb 10:3. But, on the contrary, there is in those sacrifices a remembrance madea recalling to mind, on the part of the worshippers and on Gods partof sins year by year.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament