Hebrews 10:19

Heb_10:19-22

Boldness to enter into the holiest

The Christians exalted privilege

I.

THE HOLIEST PLACE.

1. The special residence of the Deity.

2. The scene of holy services.

3. The residence of holy beings.

4. From this place those blessings are communicated that make us holy.

II. THE WAY OF ACCESS.

1. A new way.

2. A living way.

3. A consecrated way.

III. THE MANNER OF APPROACH.

1. With boldness.

2. With a true heart.

3. In full assurance of faith.

4. With hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

5. With bodies washed with pure water.

Application. Learn:

1. The gospel method of salvation. The blood of Jesus. Its expensiveness and its preciousness.

2. There must be personal application before we can enjoy its benefits.

3. All who thus personally approach shall obtain mercy.

4. How shall they escape who neglect so great salvation? (J. Burns, D. D.)

The house of God and the way to it

I. THE HOUSE OF GOD. What a Divine house is the physical universe, if we had but minds capable of realising its unity and looking upon it as a whole! What a great house even this earth of ours is, full of things innumerable both great and small I And yet this is but the uttermost court to this house. But the physical universe, whatever be its glory, can never be the true house and home of intelligence, thought and will. Only men build up the home of man. And He whose image man wears, and whoso child he is, says, My people are My portion; Israel is My inheritance. What a sphere, then, of intelligence, love, and perfected will there must be as the aim and end of a physical universe which is so glorious! And if mans nature rests in nothing less than man, and demands a human home in which to dwell, what a sphere of voluntary thought and reflection there must be for God, the Maker of heaven and of earth, and the Father of us all! But just as within the sphere of the physical, we require the intelligent, so within the sphere of intelligence there must be that of friendship, for the house of God. The universe of His friends, of His innocent, as well as of His redeemed and happy creatures--these form the house of God; this is Mount Zion, the mountain of the house of the Lord, the dwelling-place of the Most High--to which we are invited to draw near, to an innumerable company ofangels, to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to God, the Judge of all. The Fathers dwelling-place is in the house of His children. But this, the house of His friends is a house of many mansions; it has its outer courts, its vestibule, its holy chambers, and its holiest; and between the outer courts, occupied by the children of earth, and that holiest of holies, what intervening abodes there are of angels, of elders, of principalities, of thrones, of dominions, of powers, and of the redeemed of all ages and experiences--throughout which, and in whom, God is all and in all! But within the holiest is enthroned, in meekest majesty, One who is set over the House of God, and who, in bodily presence, is the House of God, in the express image of His person and the brightness of His glory, in whom it pleases all the Fathers fulness to dwell, and who is the home of His eternal rest.

II. THE WAY TO IT. We must not forget, in considering the way to this house, that the house itself is spiritual, that it is the home for the thoughts, for the affections, for the will of God; a sphere in which His Spirit finds fellowship, satisfaction and rest; in which He is all and in all--the spring, the source of all power and life, and of all the forms of life answering to the power. Then, clearly, it must be a house only accessible on certain definitely determined conditions; conditions, not arbitrary, but imposed by the very nature of things, given in the very nature of God and His relations to His creatures. Everything has its own way by which it may be entered. Things must be related to have access to each other. Spiritual things have spiritual ways of access, and require spiritual discernment. No wonder then that the text speaks of the way to the House of God as a new way. It is not the original way of mans primitive nature, but a way newly opened up in view of the necessities of the state and circumstances into which mans sin and sinfulness had brought him, a way for sinners into the holiest of holies, the presence of God. The way of His descent to us may become the way of our ascent to Him. But, it is further called a living way, not merely because it leads to life, nor because it gives life, nor because it vitally renews itself, nor because its use is restricted to the living--though in all these senses there is much truth; but because it is a way set up in Him who is the Life. Christ is the way to Christ, as the light is the way to the sun, and the seed-life of the flower the way to the flower. He is the life-fountain and also the stream which conducts to it. But, in addition to its being a new and living way; it is also said to be a way which Christ has consecrated for us through the veil of His flesh. By this expression, the veil of His flesh, the apostle gathers up in unity of significance the whole incarnate relations of the Son of Man, in His representative character, on our behalf, and represents them as a veil of separation between Him and the house of His glory which He had with the Father before the world was, and says, Only through that can there be a way for man to God. And this was true for Christ Himself as well as for us. Only by the rending of the veil of His flesh could He, who came out from God, return to Him.

III. THE SEVERAL CHARACTERISTIC QUALIFICATIONS WITH WHICH WE ARE EXHORTED TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD WITHIN THE VEIL. Let us draw near in the full assurance of faith; that is, being fully assured that this way of access to God for sinful men has been opened up; thai God has solved His own problem; and that in Christ, His representative and ours, the Son of God and Son of Man, it stands a completed work, with its gate on this side the veil, for us as for Him--the cross, and, through the veil, its goal--the cross crowned in glory. Assured of this, let us draw Hear, none daring to make us afraid; for should any arrest our course, and demand our right; to enter within the holiest, we can point them to the way, and to our hearts, sprinkled with the blood of Him who in our nature and in our name is set over the house of God. Having this assurance of faith, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. An assured faith in the fact that we have the new and living way of access to God cannot fail to beget a stedfast hope. Faith not only warrants but demands hope, is in fact the substance of our hope. And He who is its Author has made abundant provision for its growth and expansion in the great exceeding precious promises He has given us, through which we become partakers of the Divine nature, and receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. (W. Pulsford, D. D.)

Entering into the holiest

I. THE WARRANT TO ENTER INTO THE HOLIEST.

1. The blood of Jesus. This blood is the most precious thing that we can conceive of. It is set before us in Scripture in different views.

(1) It is compared to the blood of the passover lamb. It may therefore be said to be the blood of protection and of deliverance.

(2) It is compared with the blood and water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, used by Moses at Sinai. It may therefore be said to be the blood that ratifies the covenant.

(3) It is compared with the blood used on the day of atonement. It may therefore be said to be the blood by which we draw nigh unto God.

(4) As under the Old Testament, almost all things were purged with blood, so it is said to be the blood which cleanseth us from all sin.

(5) To show its unspeakable value, it is said to be the blood of God Act_20:28).

2. Another warrant is, that we have a new and living way--that is, a way quite different from that which the high priest had of old to enter into the holy of holies.

3. This way is said to be consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. Now, every obstacle is removed; and every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is warranted to enter for himself into the immediate presence of God, and there transact all the concerns of his own soul.

4. Another powerful and suitable warrant is expressed in these words--and having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near. When we consider this High Priest, what He is, what He has done, and what He is continuing to do, we have encouragement inexpressible. He is God and man. He is our Brother--our Righteousness--our Sanctification--our Redemption. How glorious is our great High Priest! How happy to be under His guidance--His management--His care!

II. YOUR WELCOME.

1. Draw near with a true heart. This implies that you have nothing in view but the supply of grace which you find you need. Let this lead you to inquire of what graces you stand in the utmost need; and let this alone employ all your present desires and petitions to your heavenly Father.

2. Another evidence of your welcome is full assurance of faith. This you can have by the study of Christ, in His person, and offices and intercession. In all He is, in all He does, and in all He has done, He is perfect. He can save every soul, be the condition of that soul what it may. But farther, He can give the Holy Spirit, to unite unto Himself--to conform to the Divine image. In one word, He can give full assurance of faith. Did you ever ask this assurance from Him? Did He ever deny it to you? This assurance is your welcome.

3. A farther evidence of your welcome is to draw near with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. This is done by the Holy Spirit, for Christs sake. When the Spirit enables you to believe, lie at the same time applies to your heart the virtue of the precious blood of Christ. This removes all opposition to faith--to love--to every other grace in the mediatorial person of Christ. This purges the conscience from dead works (Heb_9:13-14). With such attainments you may, with full welcome, draw near to the mercy seat; for these constitute your welcome there.

4. The last evidence of welcome mentioned in our text is, our bodies being washed with pure water. This language is also figurative, and is taken from the act of consecrating Aaron and his sons to the priests office.

This is obtained by the promise (Eze_36:25-27). (James Kidd, D. D.)

The true worshipper

1. I would first lead you to consider for a moment the term brethren: Having, therefore, brethren. There was a strong feeling of brotherhood amongst the Jews, not only on account of their original stock, but on account of their separation from the rest of the world; but the term here denotes the spiritual brotherhood of believers in Jesus Christ. It is not merely that believers are united by natural affections, without any intervening medium; but they are united to each other in Jesus--and that is the closest tie which the soul of man can ever know. What a difference it would make in our treatment of each other, if we could recognise with a loving heart our brotherhood in Christ Jesus! How many jealousies it would remove; and how many of those heart-burnings, which eat as a canker into our spiritual life!

2. Notice, in the next place, the term boldness. This is put in contrast with the fear under the law, which deprived the worshipper of all confidence; and it marks the holy liberty of the child of God, compared with the bondage in which he was held under the law. One of the great snares of Satan is to endeavour to beat men off from this point, as if it were presumption, But read the Word, and see for yourselves what is said upon the subject. He suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.

3. But still observe--it is by the blood of Jesus, because without shedding of blood there is no remission. It is the blood of Christ alone that annihilates the distance between the believing sinner and God; there is no approach but through that blood, and those who are afar off are made nigh by it.

4. This is called a new and living way, because it is peculiar to the new covenant of grace, and because it is always new and efficacious; it does not wax old, as did the first covenant; that was for a time only, till the times of reformation, we are told, but this is for ever. And it may be called living, because it is the only way of entering into life.

5. But the apostle goes on to say, that our Lord has consecrated for us this way through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The meaning of this expression appears to be, that as when the veil was rent at the death of our Lord there was no longer any hindrance to entering into the holiest, so Christs flesh being rent by His death, a way was opened to all believers, by the sacrifice which He offered, into the very kingdom of heaven. There is very much instruction for us here. Every other priesthood but the priesthood of Christ has the effect of keeping the worshipper at a distance from God; but His priesthood is put before us as a motive to draw near.

6. Another expression is made use of, which is full of point. In full assurance of faith. Faith is needed in Gods service, because without faith it is impossible to please Him. Full assurance is to be understood of faith in the priesthood of Christ. It is the superiority of that priesthood which the apostle aims to establish throughout this Epistle. And the assurance of faith does not respect the assurance which a man has of his own salvation, but of the efficacy of Christs priesthood, and the sufficiency of His atonement and intercession, as opposed to all other ways of access.

7. But the apostle goes on to say--having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. This is a consequence of our having a full assurance of the efficacy of Christs priesthood, that we get delivered from the burden of an evil conscience. The conscience of every man has been defiled by sin, nor could the offerings under the law perfect a man with respect to it; but the blood of Jesus can, and when applied to the conscience takes away the condemning power of sin, as respects the guilt of it.

8. Another effect is, that the man desires to perfect holiness in the fear of God; which is just what we are taught in the last phrase of the text--our bodies washed with pure water. This denotes purity of life and conversation. Thus must we be careful to cultivate holiness of life, if we would approach Him with acceptance; as the former clause, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, had reference to our justification, so this latter clause has reference to our sanctification, or to our growth in grace and conformity to the image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.)

The rent veil

I. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE.

1. In actual historical fact the glorious veil of the temple has been rent in twain from the top to the bottom: as a matter of spiritual fact, which is far more important to us, the separating legal ordinance is abolished. Jesus has made thee nigh, as nigh to God as even He Himself is.

2. This rending of the veil signified, also, the removal of the separating sin. Pardon, which removes sin, and justification, which brings righteousness, make up a deed of clearance so complete that nothing now divides the sinner from his reconciled God. The Judge is now the Father: He, who once must necessarily have condemned, is found justly absolving and accepting. In this double sense the veil is rent; the separating ordinance is abrogated, and the separating sin is forgiven.

3. Next, be it remembered that the separating sinfulness is also taken away through our Lord Jesus. It is not only what we have done, but what we are that keeps us apart from God. Through the death of our Lord Jesus the covenant of grace is established with us, and its gracious provisions are on this wise: This is the covenant, &c., I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts. When this is the ease, when the will of God is inscribed on the heart, and the nature is entirely changed, then is the dividing veil which hides us from God taken away: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

II. WHAT WE HAVE.

1. We have boldness to enter in.

2. Let us follow the example of the high priest, and having entered, let us perform the functions of one who enters in, Boldness to enter in suggests that we act as men who are in their proper places.

3. If you will look at the text, you will notice that this boldness is well grounded. Having therefore boldness. Paul is often a true poet, but he is always a correct logician.

4. Why is it that we have boldness? Is it not because of our relationship to Christ which makes us brethren

5. We may have this boldness of entering in at all times, because the veil is always rent, and is never restored to its old place.

III. How WE EXERCISE THIS GRACE.

1. We come by the way of atonement.

2. An unfailing way.

3. A living way.

4. A dedicated way.

5. A Christly way. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Objective religion necessary:

To be ever lifting ourselves by our will, to be hanging round our own works, canvassing our defects, studying the pathology of our own evils, were enough, of itself, to drive one mad. The mind becomes wearied and lost in its own mazes, discouraged and crushed by its frequent defeats, and virtue itself, being only a conscious tug of exertion, takes a look as unbeautiful as the life is unhappy. Therefore we need, all alike, some objective religion; to come and hang ourselves upon the altar of sacrifice sprinkled by the blood of Jesus, to enter into the holiest set open by His death, to quiet our soul in His peace, clothe it in His righteousness and trust Him as the Lamb of God that taketh away our sin. In these simple, unselfish, unreflective exercises, we shall make our closest approach to God. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)

A new and living way

The new and living way opened by Jesus

1. The way is new, not the old road of outward sacrifice, but the devotion of willing hearts.

2. Jesus dedicated it to the use of the redeemed host by first travelling along it Himself (for the essence of the dedication ceremony consisted in a solemn opening for the first time to public use).

3. It is also a living way, the path of a living spirit, not a routine of mechanical obedience; by quickening in us His own spiritual life Christ brings us near to God, and unless His spirit live in us we cannot follow in His way.

4. This way leads through the veil of flesh. The flesh is a real veil, shutting men out from the sight and knowledge of God, just as the typical veil shut out all but the high priest from the holy chamber of Gods presence. It forms an obstacle not only against the unclean and sinful, who desire to hide themselves from Gods holy eye and wilfully build up a wall between themselves and Him, but -even against Gods own people who, in spite of an earnest desire to come to Him, are hindered by the necessary imperfection of their mortal nature. Even Jesus Himself had to make His way through this veil of flesh; for He was made subject to the infirmity of the flesh, and liable to temptation. Sinless as He was, He had the understanding and the will of the flesh, its thoughts and desires, its natural appetites and affections. He had therefore to crucify the flesh in will and to be crucified in deed, to put off His mortal garment, and pass through death unto life, before He could altogether pierce the veil of flesh. By passing through this Himself He opened a way for His brethren also to pass through. As the typical veil was rent asunder at His death, so a wide road was opened through the veil of flesh, that all those whom He hath consecrated in His blood may enter in the strength of His spirit into the presence of God. (F. Rendall, M. A.)

The new and living way:

This way may be thus called in opposition to the typical way into the holiest of all, which was a dead way to all but the high priest; none but he might enter into it, nor he himself but once a year, and then not without blood; and that is a dead way through which no man passeth. Again, it is a living way, in opposition not only unto this which led into the most holy place, but unto that into Paradise: for this is a living safeway, and one may pass through it and live; both the other were dangerous and mortal. That in the tabernacle and temple was so: it was mortal to any but the high priest, and to him too at all times but once in the year; and then, too, if he presumed to enter without blood. The other passage into Paradise was obstructed with a flaming sword, and no man could have access to the Tree of Life, but must be slain and burnt to ashes. So that this is a way of life, permanent and safe. (G. Lawson.)

A new and living way

The apostle says it is a new way. The literal translation of the word is, a newly slain way; it is evidently an allusion to the sacrifice of Christ. If the word be taken in its strict sense it is not new, for it is as old as Adam in Paradise, it is as old as Abraham journeying from Ur of the Chaldees; but in another sense it is new. It is old in years, but it retains its new and beautiful attraction. It is as if a person were to live a thousand years in the same condition as at thirty-six--he would be always young--he would be old in years, but he would retain the appearance of perfect manhood. So this way is old, in the sense that it has been long revealed; but it is new in this sense, that it retains and expresses on the heart of him who walks in it all the joy that results from the novelty of a possession received for the first time, it is therefore, a new way. We read in the Apocalypse of the new song, that is, a song whose music never palls upon the ear, ever new, ever beautiful. So we say of the gospel, it is a new religion because it never parts with its attractions, it never becomes obsolete because the heart of him who receives it loves it the more he knows it, and the more he loves it the more he studies it; and every fresh view he has of that gospel only deepens the impressions of its excellence which he received when he first heard it. It is called also a living way. If you walk upon a dead road your foot becomes weary as you walk; but this is a living way, it gives life to the walker. The more he walks upon it, the more vigorous, the more delighted, the more able he becomes. It is as if you could conceive a person walking upon a road, and having transferred from the road into his physical economy constant supplies of vigour that would make him walk and not faint, run and not be weary. So the longer you know this blessed gospel, the more you enjoy it; the more you draw from God, and the more you receive: you find real religion is not a dead dogma deposited in the intellect, but a living spring and fountain of life and power ever welling up into everlasting life. (J. C. Cumming, D. D.)

A new and living way

A way which was new, not only as being a way now opened for the first time, but as being a way which would never become old, worn and obsolete. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

The way to God should be inquired about

I was coming here (Lame) from Carrickfergus in a gig. Taking for granted that I knew the road well enough I drove right on, passing many people going to market. After a while I began to doubt whether I was right; and meeting a gentleman on horseback, I said to him, How far is it to Lame? This is not the way, said he; you are two miles past where you should have turned to the left up the hill. Come back with me and Ill show you the right way. Then, striking his forehead with his hand, he shouted, You could fool, why didnt you inquire in time? So you go on from day to day, thinking you are going right to heaven: but youre in the wrong way. The great God has told you the right way in His blessed Bible. The priest says you mustnt read it; but if you dont inquire youll find youre wrong, as I did. (Gideon Ouseley.)

An High Priest over the house of God

The priesthood of Christ

I. THE DENIAL OF THE PROPER PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST BREAKS THE INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW

TESTAMENTS. Revelation is the glow of an early morning, shining to the perfect day. The foundation of the building was laid in the patriarchal ages; and it rose to the completion when by the ascension of Christ He became the head of the corner, and gave the weight and beauty of His majesty to give stability and ornament to the building. All the Scriptures testify of Him; to Him give all the prophets witness: as our great High Priest, Christ was seen with Moses and Elias, who spake with Him of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. They had looked forward to His day, not with curiosity merely, but with lively interest, as to the consummation of that sacrifice of which theirs were but the types, and their faith in that alone was imputed to them for righteousness.

II. As the connection between the two Testaments would be broken by the denial of the priesthood of Christ, so THE HARMONY BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT DISPENSATIONS OF REVEALED RELIGION TO MAN WOULD BE DESTROYED. The frame-work of revealed religion has been precisely the same in all ages: that man is a sinner; that on the ground of his own right he cannot be justified; that law, though it admits of atonement and satisfaction, is inexorable in the exaction of its penalty; that the guilty can only be pardoned through the sufferings of the innocent; that God can only be approached through mediation; and that intercession for the guilty is admissible only as it has respect to sacrifice for sin. How impressive, how solemn are these truths, transmitted as they are to us by the testimony of all ages, and marked and signalised by the rites of the Church wherever she has erected her temples! This is sufficient to prove that they are the expression of the counsels of the Divine mind; that they are the axioms on which He governs the guilty race; and that, like Himself, they are unchangeable.

III. If we have not in the gospel a real sacrifice and a real priesthood, then CHRISTIANITY LOSES ITS EXCLUSIVE CHARACTER, and can no longer claim to be the religion of mankind. That the religion of Jesus Christ makes such a claim cannot be doubted; and that it was understood by its first preachers to have this exclusive character is matter of history and not of reasoning.

IV. IF WE HAVE NO SACRIFICE, NO PRIESTHOOD, IN THE GOSPEL, THEN CHRISTIANITY, INSTEAD OF BEING THE CONSUMMATION AND PERFECTION OF ALL OTHER DISPENSATIONS OF RELIGION TO GUILTY MAN, IS IN FACT INFERIOR, IMPERFECT, AND THE LOWEST IN HOPE AND CONSOLATION. Who can lay his hand upon his heart and appeal to God that he has never offended in thought, in word, in temper, or in deed? The same gospel which reveals the righteousness of faith reveals also the wrath of God from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God, No; thanks be to infinite mercy, we are not so left. We have a High Priest over the house of God. If any man sin, there is a sacrifice of infinite value: the death of the incarnate Son of God. Repentance, and a believing application to the blood of atonement, are followed by conscious pardon. The grace of the Holy Spirit is given to the humble and praying believer to realise in his experience and conduct the holiness of the gospel. (R. Watson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 10:19-22. Having therefore — The apostle, having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, now proceeds to exhortation, deduced from what has been treated of from Heb 5:4. For though there are some occasional intermixtures of doctrines, consonant to those before insisted on, yet his professed design henceforward is to propose to, and press on, the believing Hebrews, such duties as the truths he had insisted on laid a foundation for, and showed to be necessary to be practised. Having therefore boldness — The word παρρησια, thus rendered, properly means liberty of speech; and by an easy figure, boldness, or confidence, as it is rendered chap. Heb 3:6. Here it signifies that boldness which arises from a firm persuasion of our title to appear before God as pardoned persons, through the blood of Christ. To enter into the holiest — That is, the true sanctuary, the holy place not made with hands, the immediate gracious presence of God himself in Christ Jesus. Whatever was typically represented in the most holy place of old, we have access to, especially into the favour and friendship of God, and a state of fellowship with him. Of this privilege the blood of Christ, or his sacrifice, is the procuring cause. By this, all causes of distance between God and believers are removed. For on the one hand, it made atonement for our sins, and procured our free justification; and on the other gives peace to our consciences, and removes every discouraging fear of approaching him, whether in his ordinances here, or in his kingdom and glory hereafter. By a new and living way — He calls it a new way, because it was but newly made and prepared; belongs to the new covenant, and admits of no decays, but is always new, as to its efficacy and use, as in the day of its first preparation; whereas that of the tabernacle waxed old, and so was prepared for a removal. And he terms it a living way, because all that use it are alive to God, and in the way to life everlasting. And this is no other than the way of faith, or confidence in the mercy and promises of God, through the sacrifice of Christ, according to the revelation made thereof in the gospel; which he hath consecrated — Prepared, dedicated, and established; through the veil, that is, his flesh — He refers to the veil that was interposed between the holy and the most holy place of the Jewish tabernacle and temple: see Heb 9:3. This veil, on our Lord’s death, was rent from the top to the bottom, by which the most holy place became visible and accessible to all that were in the outward tabernacle; by which fact was signified, that by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice, whereby his flesh was torn and rent, the God of heaven was manifested, and the way to heaven laid open to all true believers. And having a High-Priest over the house — Or family; of God — Who continually appears in the presence of God, and ever lives to make intercession for us; let us draw near — To God; with a true heart — In godly sincerity, and with fervent desire after such blessings of the gospel as we have not yet received; in full assurance of faith — That we shall find acceptance with God through the mediation of our High-Priest, and the answer of our petitions; having our hearts sprinkled — That is, cleansed, by the application of Christ’s blood; from an evil conscience — Namely, a conscience defiled with the guilt of past sin. See on Heb 9:14. When the Israelites were ceremonially polluted, they were to be cleansed by sprinkling them with the water of separation, described Num 19:2-10; but the sprinkling or cleansing here recommended is not of the body from ceremonial pollution, but of the soul from the guilt and distress of an accusing conscience. This cleansing is effected neither by water nor by the blood of beasts, but by faith in Christ’s blood, shed as a sin-offering, whereby the repenting sinner hath a full assurance of pardon. And our bodies washed with pure water — All our conversation unblameable and holy, through the influence of God’s sanctifying Spirit. This seems to be spoken with an allusion to the high-priest’s washing his body with water before he entered the inward tabernacle, Lev 16:4. In that manner also the Levites were purified, (Num 8:7,) to prepare them for the service of the sanctuary.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

PART SECOND.

ADMONITORY, INSPIRATIONAL, AND PERSONAL, CONCLUSIONS.

1. ADMONITORY—Having such a High Priest, beware of unbelief tending to apostasy and death, Heb_10:19-39.

19. Having—In 19-22 we have a somewhat varied typical structure. Since the true atonement, Christians are a new Israel, and their divine privileges are sketched as parallel, yet superior, to those of the old Israel. The parallel in detail may be tabulated as follows:—

Us, the new Israel — the old Israel.

Our immediate access to God — Israel’s temple access. The gracious Presence — The holiest.

By blood of Jesus — By animal sacrifices. Through his flesh — Through the temple veil. Our High Priest — The Jewish high priest.

In this our new temple, the house of God, we have a high priest, Jesus; under him an entrance even to the holiest, or gracious divine Presence; by sacrifice, namely, his shed blood; through the veil, his crucified flesh.

Therefore—As a deduction from the entire previous argument. This full hortatory and personal deduction occupies the remainder of the epistle.

Boldness—Both of heart and utterance. This boldness of heart is founded on our confidence in our mighty and royal High Priest. It pours itself forth in great freedom of utterance, namely, of prayer, of thanksgiving, and of profession and testimony to the world.

To enter—Literally, of entrance; like Israel’s entrance before God into the sanctuary. But the new Israel enters with its high priest, even to the holiest. The holiest into which Christ entered is, indeed, the highest heaven, (Heb_8:1; Heb_9:24;) but in the present parallelism the divine Presence to which the Christian, through the atonement, has access, is, though locally different, yet spiritually identical with that.

Blood—The most real antitype to the blood of the animal victims offered when, on the great day of atonement, the Jewish high priest entered the holiest.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Heb_10:19.—Compare chaps. Heb_4:14-16. Brethren.—A sign of the conciliatory tone which the writer is anxious to preserve. Boldness.—See on chaps. Heb_3:6, Heb_4:16. Enter into the holiest.—Free access to the sanctuary. This point the writer has argued. By the blood of Jesus.—ἐν τῷ αἵματι. Moulton says, “It is not that we enter with the blood, as the high priest entered the Holy of Holies (Heb_9:25); no comparison is made between Christ’s people and the Jewish high priest. But as when he entered within the veil the whole people symbolically entered in with him, so do we enter with our High Priest, who ‘by means of His own blood’ entered for us into the immediate presence of God. In that through which He entered we have our ‘boldness to enter.’ ”

Heb_10:20. Consecrated.—Or “inaugurated.” His flesh.—“Through His suffering humanity He passed to His glory.”

Heb_10:21. An high priest.—ἱερέα μέγαν, a great priest. See Zec_6:11-13.

Heb_10:22. Sprinkled, etc.—Allusion is to the ceremonies by which the Jewish priests were cleansed from ceremonial defilements. The writer thinks of Christian believers as being “priests unto God” (Rev_1:5-6).

Heb_10:23.—For faith, R.V. properly reads “hope.” Without wavering.—Or, “so that it do not bend.”

Heb_10:24. Provoke.—A singular word to use here, because it is generally employed in a bad sense. There seems to be an implied reproof of the contentions of the disciples, which had been “provocations” in a bad sense.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Heb_10:19-25

Duty rests on Privilege.—In this section the hortatory portion of the epistle really begins There have been, again and again, hortatory “asides”; now there is a general practical application of the truths to which attention has been so earnestly directed. The main position of the writer is briefly stated afresh, and in terms which show that he still had the solemn ceremonies of the great Jewish Day of Atonement in his mind. He had fixed attention on this fact—the way into the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence was manifested in sacred symbols, had never been open and free to everybody. A veil hid it away, and that veil never might be passed save on definitely arranged conditions. “Into the second tabernacle the high priest went alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of the people.” That was picture-teaching of spiritual things. The Holy Ghost signified something by it. The Holy of Holies represents the “more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands”—the place in which God now receives His people. Free access there is lost for man by reason of his wilfulness and sin. God has put a veil which no sinful man may pass. And yet the fact is, that the veil is now done away. The fact is, that man now has free access to God’s spiritually manifested presence. How has this come about? and what is involved in our now having this extraordinary liberty and privilege? The first question is answered by the writer in this way: “But Christ having come, a High Priest of the good things to come [or that are come], through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” The material ceremonies of the material tabernacle secured for Israelites material privileges, and pictured and foreshadowed the spiritual ceremonies of the spiritual tabernacle which secure for all men spiritual privileges. When we speak of Christ, we need to remember that the Holy of Holies which He entered is the spiritual presence of God; that the blood which He took is spiritual blood, the offering of Himself, His will, His life, His perfect obedience of sonship; that the veil through which He entered was His life in the flesh, in which the perfection of His obedience was tested and proved; and that the benefits and privileges which He secured for us were wholly spiritual benefits, summed up in right soul-standing with God, and free soul-access to Him. This privilege is restated for us in Heb_10:19 : “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a great Priest over the house of God.” The old priest went into the old sanctuary, but took no one in with him. When he went in, he closed the veil behind him. When he came out, he carefully closed the veil again. Our new and spiritual High Priest, being Himself also His infinitely acceptable offering, took the veil aside, and went in, leaving the veil drawn aside, and the way in open for every one who would come to God by Him. That High Priest went in, and never came out again, and never closed the veil behind Him, and never will. There it stands to-day just as He left it, thrust right back; and there He stands to-day, just as He took His stand when He entered, as sacrifice and priest, the Holy Place. And there the open way is, just as He made it; and by that way we have freedom and boldness of access to God. If those Christian Jews to whom the epistle was written would but enter fully into their new and spiritual privileges in Christ Jesus, they would readily let the old, formal, and material system pass away, and they would be no longer disturbed in mind by those who exaggerated the importance of what was but temporary and preparatory. If they did enter fully into their spiritual privileges, they would surely find that those privileges brought calls to duty, and that the earnest and persistent fulfilment of the duty ensured the constant renewal and constant enjoyment of the privileges. The safeguard of religious truth and religious privilege is not contention and dispute, but an earnest, devoted, obedient life of love and service.

I. Our duty to ourselves.—It is not selfishness or self-centredness to do our duty to ourselves—to meet our obligations to ourselves. A man is just as truly put in trust of himself as he is put in trust of others. “Every man must bear his own burden,” the responsibility of being himself. No man can rightly neglect his own spiritual life upon the excuse that he is busily attending to other people’s. Three things are urged by this writer, as included in our duty to ourselves—Prayer, Purity, Profession.

1. We must freely use our new-found privilege of access to God. Prayer is the spiritual agency by means of which our souls pass along the new Christ-opened way into the presence and communion of God. “Let us draw near, with a true heart, in fulness of faith.”

2. We must be very jealous about that condition of using the new Christly way which is the condition on our side. It is not anybody who may pass in, only those who are aiming at personal purity, who are setting their wills upon righteousness, whose consciences do not accuse them of wilful and purposed sin, and who are putting a strong hand of control upon their daily conduct and relations, to ensure that they run in lines of consistency and righteousness. “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water”—figures evidently taken from the anxiety of the high priest, on the Atonement Day, to secure both bodily and moral purity before venturing through the veil.

3. And we must recognise the importance of a steady persistency in the profession of our faith, and a constant readiness to make confession of our faith, whenever the call to make confession comes. Spiritual safety is guaranteed when a man has no idea of hiding whose he is and whom he serves—when he can say, even before those who persecute him, as did the saintly Polycarp, “I am a Christian.” It was the half-shame and half-fear which were keeping the Jewish Christians from openly confessing Christ, that put their standing in Christ in peril. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope, that it waver not.”

II. Our duty to one another.—It is of the very essence of a Christian Church that those who stand in the recovered sonship are brought into mutually helpful relations in the recovered brotherhood. A Christian is his “brother’s keeper.” We are responsible to one another for what we can do for one another in the culture and fitting expression of that spiritual life which we have in common. It is not often set before us with sufficient clearness and force, that our duty to fellow-Christians is not merely common-place, every-day, human kindness. This is due from man to man in the ordinary human brotherhood. Our call is to serve our Christian brethren precisely in the sphere of their Christian, that is, their spiritual, life. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.” In every Church there are the strong and the weak: “Let those who are strong bear the infirmities of the weak.” In every Church there are the advanced, the experienced, the saintly: let them provoke to all goodness the beginners, the young, and those whose life is in its struggling-time. Spiritual things, virtues, powers, experiences, are never to be thought of as personal possessions: they are trusts for use; they are for mutual edification. The man will lose them who thinks to keep them to himself; the man will keep them who uses them in service to others. Provoke others, then, to love, which is the essence of the Christian life; and to good works, which are the essentials of the expression of the Christian life. Each may be the “helper of another’s joy.” And the peril of the Jewish Christian Churches would be easily removed, if only they would take proper spiritual care of one another.

III. Our duty to the Church.—We stand in relation not only to one another, but also to the Church, as a body, to which we may belong. We are responsible for our personal example of godliness, and for our loyalty to all the Church’s arrangements and claims. This is put into one matter—one which we are surprised to find thus early in the history of the Church causing serious anxiety: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is.” Nothing puts a man’s spiritual life in more serious peril than irregular attendance at the services of his Church; nothing more readily checks the process of spiritual culture; nothing affords a more injurious example to others; and nothing indicates a weaker sense of the responsibilities under which a man comes in entering the fellowship of a Church. These duties wait on privilege. There can be no enjoyment of the privilege without meeting the obligations. Let no one deceive himself on that point.

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Heb_10:19. Free Admission to the Holiest.—The humility which is suitable to the Christian life is suitable also in our relations to the Christian truth. We never can, at any one time, see wholes of truth. As with our bodily, so with our mental vision, we may see the front and one side, but we cannot at the same time see the other side and the back. It is well to bear in mind the fact that each representation of truth made to us is only one aspect of it. It may be the best aspect for us, and not be also the best aspect for others. We should therefore hold each setting of religious truth charitably, and with due consideration of the differing thoughts and feelings of others. Each man has a different apprehension of the truth of the Reconciliation or Atonement. Some approach it as philosophical inquirers, and some as conscious sinners. (These are likely to see special value in the substitutionary aspects of the Redeemer’s work.) Some as saved ones, who, looking back, try to understand the salvation. (These are likely to give special prominence to the moral power in our Redeemer’s work.) But all sides and aspects of a truth must be taken into due account if we would apprehend it as a whole.

I. The condition of entrance into the Holiest.—“By the blood of Jesus.” Great spiritual verities are illustrated by the old Jewish ritual. The “Holiest” was separated from the “Tabernacle,” picturing for us the truth that, as men, the worship of the Creator, the God of providence, can be carried on daily; but, as sinners, God is, in some sense, hidden, and can only manifest His favour on conditions. The “mercy-seat” is within the space called the “Holiest.” Many think of the “mercy-seat” as if it were a common thing belonging to the outer court, and always accessible. Note the significance of the veil, and the mode of entrance. The conditions on which sinners can come to God are given in the text and context.

1. The blood of Jesus. This was required on God’s side. It was necessary to the vindication of God’s truth, and the honouring of God’s law, so that no dishonour should come to Him while extending His mercy to sinners, and so that all presumption might be checked. God was honoured in Christ’s obedience unto death, in His surrender of life, or blood-shedding.

2. The humanity of Jesus—“His flesh.” This was required on man’s side. The God we cannot see is behind the veil of Christ’s flesh. Only through the humanity of Jesus do we come to God—to know God—to hold communion with God. It is quite impossible for us men to come to a God conceived only as an abstraction. He must be God manifest.

3. The priesthood of Jesus. This is needed both by God and by us. It represents a living mediation. On such a basis we may well have “boldness, and access with confidence.”

II. The joy of being in the Holiest.—Having free admission to it is a “sacred joy.” Conceive the joy of the high priest while privileged to be within the veil. In the older days there was no abiding there, nor indeed any frequent going there. Show—

1. Our joy in gaining admission to God. Imagine a high priest going into the Holiest for the first time. Compare our first sense of being within the veil.

2. Our joy in securing liberty of access. Gaining the feeling of a right to enter. The right of gracious invitation, and an offered way.

3. Our joy in using our privilege. Able to go to God in all our difficulty, trouble, faintness, feebleness, and sin. As men, we can always go into the outer court to praise, and to thank God, and to worship. Should it not be a joy indeed to us that—as sinners—we can always go into the “Holiest?”

Conclusion.—

1. How firmly based is our forgiveness and acceptance with God! The “Holiest” opened; the “veil” rent; the “blood” sprinkled; the Priest before the “mercy-seat” for us.

2. How large is our privilege of access! “Boldness to enter”! Is it too large? Does it seem to be too easy? God’s commonest mercies are the most necessary, yet the most neglected. Shall it be so with this? A rent veil, and none, or but few, passing through it! A living Priest, and no worshippers, or but few, for Him to present! The Angel of the covenant standing, and no prayers, or but few, for Him to put into His censer!

The Veil of the Flesh.—The veil in the Temple which interposed between the worshipper and the visible presence of Jehovah is compared to the body of Christ (Joh_2:21). As the veil concealed the glory of Jehovah from ocular sight, so the body of Jesus shrouded His original glory. As God dwelt behind the veil in the earthly Temple, so God dwells behind the veil of human flesh in the person of Jesus: that is, God can be approached only by means of Him. The rending of the Temple veil at the death of Christ attested the fact that His death gave a right of free access to every man to the presence of God. The typical meaning which is here attached to the veil shows that the actual approach to God is made by the existing humanity of Jesus.—Webster and Wilkinson.

Heb_10:20. The New and Living Way.—“Consecrated,” or “dedicated,” or even better, “inaugurated.” This way was opened to us by Christ; in it we follow Him. For Him, the way into the Holiest led through the veil—His flesh. As the veil concealed from the high priest the place of God’s presence, which he could enter only by passing through the veil, so, although in His earthly life Jesus dwelt in the presence of God, yet as our representative He could not enter the heavenly sanctuary until He had passed through and out of His life of flesh (see Heb_9:11). There is probably a covert allusion to the rending of the Temple veil in the hour when Jesus thus passed through the rent veil of His flesh. This way is new (Heb_9:8; Heb_9:12), it is living, for in truth this “way” is living union with Christ (Joh_14:6).—Dr. Moulton.

The Body of Christ a Tabernacle.—In many passages the human nature or body of Christ seems to be regarded as a kind of temporary tabernacle, or veil of the Divine nature which dwelt in Him. As God dwells behind the veil in His earthly Temple, so God dwells behind the veil of Jesus’ body in His spiritual temple, i.e. He can be approached only through the medium of this, or by means of this.

Heb_10:23. Holding fast Profession.—The text invites consideration of the duties involved in a Christian profession, and of the watchfulness that is necessary if we are to keep faithful to it. The profession, or confession, of Christ is a voluntary act; and by voluntary efforts it is to be maintained.

I. The duties involved in a Christian profession.—

1. Allegiance to certain revealed truths, as revealed. We are under no obligation to be loyal to those truths as any particular man may have been pleased to restate them.

2. Submission to the living rule of Christ.

3. Keeping of certain well-defined rules, and doing of certain carefully prescribed works. After unfolding each of these, press home the command of the text, “hold fast,” with

(1) head,

(2) heart,

(3) hand.

II. The dangers attending a Christian profession.—The great danger called to mind here is liability to wavering.

1. Liability to waver from allegiance to truth. Note the influence of speculation and criticism—the wisdom of this world; and of religious prejudice, bigotry, sectarianism, and exclusiveness, which are always trying to shift us from God’s truth to men’s opinions.

2. Liability to waver from submission to the living rule of Christ. Easily drift to become self-pleasers and men-pleasers. The inspiring truth of Christ’s living high-priesthood is meant to counteract this. All will be well if we keep Him constantly in soul-vision.

3. Liability to waver in the fulfilment of Christian obligations. That danger always comes when the spiritual health flags, and the vital force is lowered. Depressed life is always attended with neglect of duty. Health and activity and energy in service always go together.

Holding fast Profession.—Observe—

1. The duty of “holding fast profession” itself. Getting and keeping such hold as will effectually secure us against

(1) persecution;

(2) temptation.

2. The manner in which we must do this: without

(1) wavering;

(2) without doubting;

(3) without disputing;

(4) without dallying with temptation to apostasy.

3. The motive or reason enforcing this duty. God’s faithfulness to His promise should be our perpetual inspiration.

Heb_10:24. Mutual Consideration and Mutual Provocation.—As Christian individuals responsibilities, obligations, claims, and duties come to us. As members of Christian communities our fellow-members have claims upon us, and we have claims upon them. All human relationships involve mutual responsibilities. God purposes to carry on His redeeming and sanctifying work in small circles by the piety, the gracious words, and hallowing influence of individuals, and in larger circles by the piety, devotion, zeal, and aggressive activity of Churches.

I. We ought to consider one another.—To know one another, to be interested in one another, to be ready to serve one another, but especially to be interested in the Christian well-being and progress of those who are united to us in the Christian fellowship. Take interest in others, and spheres of work and influence are sure to open before us. There are always spiritually feeble ones whom we may strengthen: the permanently feeble, who are always finding it difficult to maintain the religious life; the temporarily feeble, in times of bodily sickness, or family or business troubles. But if we are to be true helpers one of another, it will be necessary for us to watch against the upgrowth of those jealousies and misunderstandings and prejudices that tend to divide us one from another. We should give more thought to our oneness in Christ, and less to our mutual peculiarities and infirmities.

II. We ought to provoke one another to love and good works.—This we may do by—

1. Our example of Christian living. That example should be no doubtful or uncertain witness. With sincerity we should be able to say, “Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ.”

2. By our joy in meeting Christian obligations and fulfilling Christian duties. This has a most inspiring influence. Illustrate from

(1) attendance on means of grace;

(2) generosity and charity;

(3) Christian aggressive work.

3. By our anxiously using our opportunities for speaking to others. The living Christian should be doing the same work as the living word, which is given “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.” “Ye which are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,” and help others into the spirit of “love” and the life of “good works.”

Pastor and People.—Attention may be fixed on the way in which the writer puts himself into his recommendations and counsels. “Let us consider one another.” He was not only a brother-Christian, he was a teacher, he may have been an apostle: he evidently had some personal office in relation to the Jewish Christian Churches, or some especial authority in them. Advice is never effectively given when the adviser in any sense holds himself aloof from the advice he gives. It is most effective when it is evident that the adviser applies the advice to himself. He carries us with him when he says we, not you. Here then pastor and people are called upon to “consider one another” and to “provoke one another.”

I. What can pastors do for the people?—The word “provoke” is generally used by us in a bad sense, but it need not be. It is a suitable word with which to describe a minister’s work, if we will take it aright. It means, “stir up; urge with all holy persuasions; do not let rest; keep on stirring up; never mind if there is resistance; keep on trying to get a gracious and good influence.”

1. Ministers may provoke by presenting inspiring examples. “Be thou an ensample to the flock.” The example should not be merely of truthfulness, integrity, purity, and “heavenly, Divine charity”: it should be a specifically Christly example of forbearance—“the servant of the Lord must not strive”; of gentleness; of meekness, in its nobler sense of “non-self-assertiveness”; of sympathy, which enables him to come helpfully near to all kinds of human sorrow. But we may not limit ministerial examples to Christly graces; the minister must be an ensample of Christly activity and energy. To deal with this fully would need an audience of ministers. Enough to say now, that a minister should be what he can make himself and what Christ can make him; but in actual fact he too often is only what the people make him, and then he is far down below what, in his moments of noble aspiration, he intensely longs to be. He would, when he is his truest self, provoke men by an inspiring example.

2. Ministers may “provoke” by wise and strong and spiritual teachings. Fearing that he had given offence to a leading member of his congregation by some very strong appeals which he had been led to make, a clergyman foolishly went to him to explain and apologise. The man was wiser than the minister, for he very quietly replied, saying, “My dear sir, it is a very poor sermon that does not hit somebody.” Smoothness and platitudes are helpless, hopeless, and injurious things. Men can go to sleep, and even die in their sins. A minister must so teach as to provoke. He must provoke men to think; provoke men to examine the beliefs which they are holding to-day for no other reason than that they have held them for years; provoke them to self-examinations, that they may see whether their spirit and their conduct are such as “becometh the gospel of Christ”; provoke them to see whether they are cherishing evil, untrustful, unforgiving feelings towards any others; provoke them to put away their sins and self-indulgences; provoke them to the renewal of their neglected religious duties. Christian teachings are not sweet, soft playings on a harp. They are not mild nothings of sentimental comfort. They are—they ought to be—clarion-calls to come forth to the “help of the Lord against the mighty,” who in these days are imperilling the Christian truth, the Christian righteousness, and the Christian charity. We want the holy provocations of a vigorous, searching, and strong ministry.

3. Ministers may provoke by spiritual quickenings. There is something required more than example, and more than teaching. It is the mysterious quickening influence of vigorous, healthy, refined, sensitive, spiritual life. Sometimes we use the term “mesmeric,” and we say of ministers that they have a strange mesmeric power over their congregations. Call it what we may, we all know what is meant, for we ourselves have come again and again into its power. High soul-life has quickened soul-life in us. Spiritual power has provoked the dying embers of our soul-life, and stirred them into a flame again. That supremely good work ministers may do for the people. They may, but only on conditions that are not easily realised.

4. And ministers may provoke by leading the people into new enterprises and good works. The initiative need not always come from the minister; but the leadership of the enterprise, when started, may properly come from him; and with wisdom, courage, and persistency he may help over early difficulties, and guide development along healthy lines.

II. What can the people do for their pastors?—“Provoke to love and good works.” Provoke in a good sense. Ministers are but human. They are as susceptible to kindly surroundings of trustfulness, to signs of sympathy and affection, as other people are; and they readily respond when sweet confidences and loving services tell how God is using them in culturing religious life and virtue. The spiritual life and power of ministers flag very readily, and they have always to set the counsel well in view, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” What then can the people do for their minister?

1. Trust him. He cannot always do what the people think to be wise; he often does not do what the people think he ought to do; and he is sure to say, if he really is a man of God and not a mere time-server, what the people think he ought not to say. Trust him. If he is in God’s lead and keeping, trust him. Depend upon it God’s truth and God’s honour are as precious to him as to any of his people.

2. Stand by him. A minister, in coming to preside over a people, commits his reputation, his ministerial reputation, to their charge, and they should be very jealous of it. Calumniators there may be; let them be outside his Church. The healthiest thing for a Church to do is to insist that it will discuss the teachings which the minister presents, but it will not discuss the minister. How wise the rebuke of the good man who, checking remarks at his table that tended to disparage the minister, calmly but firmly said, “He is our minister, and I never allow such remarks as these in my house.”

3. Pray for him. That is the truest and most blessed form of provocation. When persons get out of sympathy with their minister, they always cease to pray for him, or their prayer becomes a mere grumbling to God about him. That prayer-power is always at the command of a congregation, and a marvellous power it is to provoke pastors unto “love and good works.” And when they thus each provoke the other, what a noble life they can live together as pastor and people! what sacrificing services they can render together! Services then are times of refreshing. Christian work is done then with full consecration. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works.” Let us use our power of mutual provocation.

Heb_10:25. The Duty of the House of God.—“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” We have all been surprised to find that our Christian brethren have passed through our experience, have felt our feelings, have battled with our difficulties, and have won the rest which we have gained, by the very means which we had employed. As soon as we know the heart-story of our brethren, we find in how large a measure it is true that “no temptation has taken us but such as is common to man.” And the idea we have of the singularity of our own experience we are disposed to transfer to the Church itself. Men say that there never has been such a period in the Church’s history as the present. It has never been surrounded with the same evils and temptations, or been marked by the same peculiarities. But the truth is, that there is no temptation that has taken the Churches of to-day but such as is common to Churches. In the early days of first love and zeal, the Christian teachers had to deal with a difficulty which sorely troubles the Church of to-day. Men were neglecting the “assembling of themselves together.”

I. Religion is a personal thing, an individual thing, a spiritual thing.—A personal thing—each man must attend to it himself. An individual thing—no man can lose himself in a crowd of seekers; he must stand alone before God, and carry his sin-burden alone to Christ. A spiritual thing—mere association with services and ceremonies cannot secure it; it belongs to a man’s heart, not his hands or his head or his tongue. The best things are liable to abuse. Divine truths suffer, in practically working them out, through our infirmities. We are always too ready to exalt one truth above another, one form of duty at the expense of another. Some make too much of the individuality and personality of religion, and because they are growing all by themselves, are growing long and thin and pale and weak, as many “only children” do growing up all by themselves in homes. A man set by himself to nourish his own religion can never reach the highest stages of Christian life and experience. There is, indeed, a long roll of saintly men and women who, in hermit cells and in monastic and conventual seclusion, have sought holiness, but their lives have always fallen short of the Christian ideal. There are Christian virtues which never can be nourished in this way. All that part of Christian character which relates to the unselfish demands association with others. If a Christian is to be in health, he must not only breathe Christian feeling and feed on Christian truth, he must also feel the power of daily contact with those who are conscious of the same sins, glory in the same Saviour, and labour to win the same holiness. Upon Christian associations, in worship and in work, the culture of a high, worthy, Christian life depends.

II. The religion of Jesus Christ makes plain demand on us not only to nourish our own life, but also to interest ourselves in the Christian life of others.—The Christian spirit in us urges us to care for others, that

(1) they should begin the godly life, and

(2) that they should walk worthy of their vocation. We are gathered up together as redeemed sons of God, children together of the one Father, heirs together of the same infinite inheritance; and there is properly expected from us a family, a brotherly, interest in each other. In the early days of the Church all who had truly learned of Christ consecrated themselves to works of charity and mercy: they relieved the sick and afflicted; they instructed in Christian truth; they preached in order that, if possible, all men might be saved. Our Lord left us an example. In His life the most prominent thing is care for others, self-sacrifice in the effort to bless others. He is never seeking to get pleasure; He is always trying to give pleasure. And He gets the truest and best pleasure in the giving. The first natural cry of a renewed soul is for some one with whom to talk about the new emotions. We cannot be glad, as Christians, without wanting somebody to stand beside us, and join their voice to our psalm of thanksgiving. We cannot pray, but we want some one to kneel beside us, and utter their heart out along with ours in fervent wrestlings and supplications. We cannot listen to the preached word with profit unless others sit beside us, and the dews of Divine truth are refreshing also the soil of their hearts. Plants and trees never do well unless they grow together. It is a pilgrim path we have to tread, but the pilgrims may walk together. The spirit of sin is the spirit of separation. Sin makes men walk in lonely paths, thinking their own thoughts, wrestling with their own doubts. If it were not the spirit of sin, we might say it was the spirit of the age in which we live. The selfishness of modern business competition is opposed to that generous thoughtfulness of others which properly distinguishes the Christian. The world would cut off every tie that binds us to others. Christ would make every tie hold more closely.

III. Our modes of assembling together are practically fitted to accomplish both these ends—to strengthen and develope our own religious life, and to exhibit and express our interest in the religious life of others.—Our text evidently puts our “assembling together” as a means of “provoking one another to love and good works”; and that is the only kind of “provoking” Christians ever should do. Our modes of assembling are mainly of three kinds:

1. We assemble together for purposes of Christian fellowship.

2. We assemble together for purposes of worship and instruction.

3. And we assemble together to remember our Lord’s death, with the help of His appointed emblems. We need all these kinds of meetings. We need all for the full development of our own life. We need all for the adequate expression of our consideration for others.

The Day approaching.—Christians ought to observe the signs of the times, such as God has foretold. There was a day approaching, a terrible day, to the Jewish nation, when their city should be destroyed, and the body of the people rejected of God for rejecting Christ. This would be a day of dispersion and temptation to the chosen remnant. Now the apostle puts them upon observing what signs there were of the approach of such a terrible day, and upon being the more constant in meeting together and exhorting one another, that they might be the better prepared for such a day. There is a trying day coming on us all, the day of our death, and we should observe all the signs of its approaching, and improve them to greater watchfulness and diligence in duty.—Matthew Henry.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

SECOND SECTION

______

EXHORTATIONS, WARNINGS AND PROMISES, SUGGESTED BY THE PRECEDING DISCUSSION

I

A decided, steadfast and livingly attested adherence to the Christian faith in Christian fellowship is urgently enforced by a reference to the second coming

Heb_10:19-25

19Having therefore, brethren, boldness [confidence] to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath [om. hath] consecrated [initiated 21ἐνεκαίνισεν] for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; And having a high priest [a great priest] over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having [had] our hearts sprinkled13 from an evil conscience; and [having had] our bodies washed with pure water, 23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for he is faithful that promised; 24And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

[Heb_10:19.—ἔχοντες οὖν, having therefore, emphatic in position.—παῤῤησίαν, confidence, boldness.—εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων, for our entrance into (lit., the entrance of) the sanctuary; E. Ver. “the holiest,” right as to the substantial idea, though incorrect as to expression.

Heb_10:20.—ἣν ἐνεκαίνισεν ἠμῖν ὁδόν, which entrance he initiated for us, as away, etc.

Heb_10:21.—ὶερέα μέγαν not a high-priest, but a great, exalted priest.

Heb_10:22.—ρεραντισμένοι, having been sprinkled, λελυμένοι, having been washed. These not parts of the exhortation, but conditions of it. The first clause to be connected with what precedes, the second with what follows.

Heb_10:23.—κατέχωμεν, let us hold our confession of faith unwavering; ἀκλινή without article attached predicatively to ὁμολογίαν.

Heb_10:25.—τὴν ἐπισυναγωγὴν ἑαυτῶν, our own (synagogal) assemblage; the term being transferred from the synagogue to the Christian assemblies.—βλέπετε, ye behold.—K.].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Heb_10:19.—Confidence to enter in, etc.—The παῤῥησία, of which Christians as such find themselves in possession, is in this passage also not freedom, or a rightful claim (Erasm., Grot., etc.), but the joyful and confident spirit, which is conscious and avails itself of its right, and of its freedom in its assertion. The words ἐν τῷ αἵματι are not with Bl., Stier, etc., to be referred barely to εἵσοδον, but to the whole clause; for the reference is not here, as Heb_9:25, to the high-priestly entrance of Jesus (Heinrichs), nor to our entrance made through the blood of Jesus, but to our παῤῥησία in respect to the entrance, which παῤῥησία has its ground and origin in the blood of Jesus, Eph_3:12. This entrance, which forms the gate-way to the holiest of all, is, in its nature, an ὁδὸς πρόσφατος καὶ ζῶσα, and, as such, has been consecrated for our use by Jesus our πρόδρομος, Heb_6:20, and our ἀρχηγός, Heb_2:10. Ἤν is erroneously referred by Seb. Schmidt, Hammond, etc., to παῤῥησία. The epithet πρόςφατος—newly slaughtered, now points to the fact that, previously non-existent, it has been originated by the sacrificial death of Jesus (Theodoret with the most), and not to its perpetual freshness (Ebr.). The term ζῶσα, living, emphasizes its vital power and internal efficacy, (Hofm. Del.); not its end, as producing life, (De Wette), nor its imperishableness (Bl.), nor the character of those who walk upon it (Stier, Ebr., etc.). The author is speaking not of a subjective relation of Christians, but of an objective medium, which is figuratively designated, on the one hand, as an εἴισοδος, on the other as a ὁδός, but by the added qualifying term is immediately withdrawn front the limitations of the imagery contained in the names to the sphere of the moral truths which the imagery represents. To this imagery belongs also the designation of the flesh of Jesus as a veil through which the new and living way leads into the holiest of all. The connection of διὰ τοῦ καταπετ. with ἐνεκαίνισεν (Schlicht., Böhm., Hofm., Del.), would require διά to be taken instrumentally; but the veil cannot be the means of consecration, or of the possibility of treading the way into the holiest of all; but requires to be done away, or rent asunder, in order to open an entrance for the church. We must, therefore, take διά locally, and connect it with ὁδόν, understanding οὖσαν or ἄγουσαν. [So also Alford. And yet the immediate addition of σάρξ, flesh, to καταπέτασμα would seem to render it probable that the author had his mind quite as much on the instrumental use of διά as the local. We enter through the veil locally, and through the flesh, i.e., Christ’s crucified body, instrumentally.—K.].

Heb_10:21.—A great priest over the house of God.—Klee, Klein and others, take the words ἱερέα μέγαν together as = high-priest. But the priest whom we Christians have, is, as He who sits enthroned at the right hand of God as rex sacerdotalis, styled a great priest, exalted above every other priesthood, Heb_4:14. By οἶκος τοῦ θεοῦ Theophyl., Bl., De W., Lün., Riehm and others understand heaven, or the heavenly sanctuary; Theodoret, Œc., Calov, Este, Thol., Ebr. and others, the household of believers, the family of the children of God; while Del. would unite both conceptions. The former reference has in its favor the above-mentioned εἴσοδος τῶν ἁγίων and the designation of Christ as λειτουργός (Heb_8:2) of the heavenly sanctuary, (com. Heb_9:11) to whose permanent priestly function the writer makes frequent reference. [In favor of the other explanation is the writer’s use of οἶκος, Heb_3:2 ff., which is applied to the church founded by Moses, and to the New Testament church founded by Christ, but which is nowhere in the Epistle (unless here) applied to the Sanctuary. The latter meaning, too, is equally in harmony with the connection, and in fact more directly calculated to inspire the hope and confidence which the writer is now striving to awaken. The import of the phrase may be doubtful, but I incline to prefer the latter.—K.].

Heb_10:22.—Having had our hearts sprinkled, etc.—The writer has previously stated clearly the two great prerogatives enjoyed by Christians, which furnish not merely an objective possibility, but also the practical inducement and motive for approaching and drawing near to God. He now mentions first the subjective condition in which the προσέρχεσθαι can and must take place viz: that of a true heart επ’ ἀληθινῆς καρδίας (בְּלֵב שָׁכֵם) (Isa_38:3) ἐν πληροφορίᾳ πίστεως, and then in a participial clause, their actual fitness for this. The sprinkling which reaches the heart, and the consequence of which is styled the doing away in us of an evil conscience —purification from guilt is, evidently sprinkling with the blood of Christ, Heb_9:14; Heb_12:24; 1Pe_1:2, whereby the expiatory offering up of His life is appropriated to the person, and He, as freed from the stain of sins, is enabled to appear in priestly service before God; as also the priests of the Old Covenant received, at their consecration, a like sprinkling with blood (Exo_29:21; Lev_8:30); nay, in the making of the Old Covenant, the whole people were sprinkled with the blood of the covenant sacrifice (Exo_24:8). We thus refer the language, not to sanctification (Beng., Menk., Stier), but to justification on the ground of a propitiation.

Heb_10:23.—And having had our bodies washed, etc.—Another form of Levitical cleansing and sanctifying was washing with pure water, which Aaron and his sons likewise had to submit to at their consecration (Exo_29:4): to which also the priests, as often as they went into the Sanctuary, submitted their hands and feet, from the brazen vessel or laver, before the entrance into the holy place (Exo_30:20 ff; Exo_40:20 ff.); but to which the high-priest, on the annual day of atonement, submitted his whole body, Lev_16:4. To this rite allusion is evidently made, and as shown by the word σῶμα, we are not, with Calv. and others to take the water according to Eze_36:25, as a symbol of the outpouring of the Spirit, or as indicating washing away of sins generally (Limb. Ebr., etc.), and least of all with direct reference to the blood of Christ, (Reuss). We must recognize expressly a reference to baptism, Eph_5:26 : Tit_3:5. For baptism forms the transition point from the objective system of salvation to its subjective appropriation through the grace which by virtue of the Divine arrangement it sacramentally imparts, and contains in itself the obligation to holiness on the part of the reconciled and justified, Rom_6:3 ff.; 1Pe_3:21; and also actually works the washing away of sin, Act_22:18; 1Co_6:11. Grammatically this clause forms the transition from the first to the second part of the exhortation, which would utterly lack connection, if the two participial clauses, were both of them referred either to the preceding προσερχώμεθα (Pesh., Primas., Luth., Bl., De W., Del., etc.), or to the following κατέχωμεν, (Hofm.). In favor too of this connection of καὶ λελου. with κατέχωμεν (as held by Thol., Lün., etc.) is the fact that with baptism stands connected the ὁμολογία, which may signify just as well the active confessing of the hope, as the passive profession, whose object is the Christian hope. The clause assigning the reasons for steadfastness reminds us of 1Co_1:19; 1Co_10:13; 1Th_5:24; 2Th_3:3.

Heb_10:24.—And let us give heed to one another, etc.—The third part of the exhortation, similarly adjoined by καὶ, refers to the duty of love toward the members of the church, in special reference to their position at the time, while the first has to do with faith and the second with hope. The purpose of their mutual and watchful regard is a παροξυσμός, which, (while elsewhere in the New Testament, denoting stirring up and irritation in a bad sense Act_15:39; 1Co_13:5) here as sometimes in the classics, the following Gen. shows to be employed in a good sense.

Heb_10:25.—Not forsaking, etc.—The words apply neither to a neglect of duty toward the church (Bl.), nor to the forsaking of her when involved in peril, distress and need (Böhm!). For ἐπισυναγωγή never signifies the Christian body (Calv., Just., Bl., etc.) but only assembly, congregation (2Ma_2:7; 2Th_2:1), and it is only the ἑαυτῶν that restricts this to the readers, as a Christian and worshipping assembly (Chrys. and the most). The incidental clause ὡς ἔθος τισίν shows that the withdrawal from the religious assemblages had with some already begun, yet that no “formal apostasy is meant, but only a neglect, marking an abatement of zeal at no wide remove from apostasy,” (Del.). The day of Christ’s re-appearing is called here as 1Co_3:13 simply “the day” (ἡ ἡμέρα). The ὅσῳ is to be constructed not with ἐγγίζουσαν, but with βλέπετε=ὅσῳ μᾶλλον.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Christians find themselves in possession of two important advantages, which not merely establish the possibility, but furnish a practical living inducement to draw near to God. These advantages are: 1, the joyful and confident boldness to make use of the entrance to the formerly closed, but now opened heavenly sanctuary; 2, the Priest over the house of God, exalted above every priesthood, Jesus Christ.

2. This boldness is found only within the sphere of the influence, and in the power of the blood, of Jesus Christ. For during the life of Jesus Christ on earth, His flesh had the same influence as the veil between the outer and inner sanctuary of the Temple. Full and unobstructed communion with God had in this a barrier which must first be overcome, but which was completely removed in the sacrificial death of Christ. Thus it becomes apparent also here that it is not the doctrine and example of Jesus that render possible our communion with God, but the death of the God-man, which, in its connection with atonement and propitiation, as indicated by the train of thought through the entire Epistle, can neither be the mere figurative representation of an idea, nor have a simply moral significance. Our way to God leads always through this rent veil of the flesh of Jesus Christ, which is the henceforth unveiled and ever open gateway to heaven.

3. Since Christ has gone into heaven, in order therein to remain, and there, as in the true sanctuary, on the ground of His completed work of redemption, to appear in the presence of God for us, the exercise of His Priestly office in mediation, intercession and blessing, takes place in the most perfect manner, and without interruption. It only remains now that we, as His ransomed Church, gather ourselves thither unto Him.

4. Before we are called to appear before God in eternity, we should so avail ourselves in time of the means of access to the heavenly sanctuary, that the characteristic marks of Christians, in faith, hope and love, shall be found in us. Faith gains its fulness from the sprinkling of the heart with the blood of Jesus Christ, whereby are produced the certainty of our reconciliation with God, and the experience of our justification. Hope, which expresses itself in holding fast our confession of specifically Christian faith, finds its warrant in the appropriation of the grace of baptism, and draws its nourishment from the promises of the one only reliable and faithful God. Love, whose rights and obligations lie in the needs and blessings of communion and fellowship, finds occasion, stimulus and strength for its exercise in participation in Christian worship, and has its living connection with faith and love in awaiting and preparing for the approaching day of the Lord’s return.

5. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ, the day which ends the circling round of days and merges time into eternity, is not merely apprehended by itself as in a sort of standing and perpetual proximity, but is expected by the disciples as approaching, with the conviction that every new morning may possibly be the last; and with the feeling that those who are called and are qualified to judge the signs of the times (Matthew 24) may by no means overlook the premonitory signs, occurring in history, of the coming of this decisive day of judgment and salvation.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The wishes, thoughts and ways of the Christian tend not merely into the earthly, but into the heavenly sanctuary.—Our drawing near to God: 1, in its basis and foundation; 2, in its means; 3, in its blessings.—The right use of the means of grace: 1, in their quality; 2, in their effects.—How we have to dispense the gifts of grace imparted to us beneficially to ourselves and to others.—Whereby we make every day a day of blessing.—We need not fear the final judgment, if we rightly improve the present time.—We must not merely expect the day of the Lord, but prepare ourselves for it.—How we overcome the perils of society by the blessings of Christian fellowship.—How we must recompense fidelity with fidelity.—The character of those who would come to God.—The connection of faith, hope and love in the life of the true Christian.—To the nature of the way opened to us into the heavenly sanctuary, should our walk in it correspond.

Starke:—A Christian must conduct with great thoroughness and gentleness his admonitions to his neighbor.—Faith in Christ is the way to God.—Christ is the great High-priest in respect: 1, to His person; 2, to His office; 3, to believers, of whom He is the Head.—Whoever would be great, and have what is great, must make choice of Jesus.—If the heart has rightly apprehended the grace of God, and believes that Christ is a living, gracious, kind and sweet Saviour, it also so uses that grace, and so feels the attraction of the love of the Lord Jesus, that it penetrates even to His gracious seat.—The way to heaven can be entered by him only who has a living faith in his Saviour, holds constantly to his confession of hope, and has a zeal that provokes to love and good works.—Neither doubter nor despairer can enter into the kingdom of God.—The faithfulness of God is above all faithfulness. God is faithful to fulfil what He has promised, and to guard what He has given. Should not this furnish to our faith and hope a double basis for a joyful confession?—One Christian must be guardian of another, and rebuke with words whatever runs counter to God and virtue.—Every one must look first to himself, and seek in all respects to make a certain advancement, and keep and increase what he has: but this same well regulated self-love he must also evince for his neighbor, on the ground of a common membership in the spiritual body of Jesus Christ.—Mere external contact with the worship of God fails indeed to secure salvation; but wilful contempt of it is the way to ruin and damnation.—The diligent contemplation of the displays of God’s punitive justice in death and the final judgment, may and should serve us as a perpetual discipline in godliness.

Rieger:—The pure water of baptism has drawn our body and its members into the service of the Lord, and also raised it to the dignity of a future resurrection. It is, therefore, a capital point in the hope that has been bestowed on us, and to which we must adhere, that even in our body which has wrung from us many sighs over sin and death, we shall yet be penetrated and pervaded by the salvation of God.—Love draws great quickening from hope; but by the exercise of love, hope again gains ever wider scope.—Without fervent zeal in ourselves, mutual admonition is of no account.

Hahn:—He in whom is the life of Christ, has also the entrance into the sanctuary.—By faith our spirit has, even in the present life, an entrance into the sanctuary; but God has, in baptism, also appropriated to himself our body as that in which the life of Christ is to be made manifest.

Heubner:—God ever vouchsafes to the believer the privilege of approach; is ever accessible, ever to be addressed.—Our hope itself, and more than this, our confession of hope also, we should ever hold fast.—How deeply have Christians to reflect on what has been bestowed on them with Christ and His death.

Tholuck:—How, in our own time, are we to consider the forsaking of the Christian assemblies? a, in its causes; b, in its consequences.

Menken:—That the way has been consecrated for us, indicates our right to walk in it; and also an obligation resting on us not to decline walking in it.—Not in the Spirit, not in His higher nature and dignity, not in so far as He was in the form and essential likeness of God, has the Son of God consecrated for men the living way into the holiest of all; but rather in so far as He has humbled himself to the form of a servant in our sinful flesh, and in the flesh has suffered and conquered.—From the signs of the times, from the rent veil, from the opened sanctuary, we see that the first grand division of our world’s history has past by, and in a sense and measure, such as never before, the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ draws near.

Gerok:—Of our sacred priestly obligations: 1, Priestly approach to the mercy seat; 2, the priestly sprinkling of our hearts; 3, the priestly holding fast to our confession of hope; 4, the priestly receiving of one another in love.

Footnotes:

[13]Heb_10:22.—Cod. Sin. A. C. D*. write ρεραντισμένοι.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10:19-25 The author of Hebrews repeats words and concepts from 4:14-16 to mark off and summarize the central section (4:14–10:18) and to introduce the exhortations that follow, offering a concise statement of the message of Hebrews: The new covenant, established by Jesus’ superior ministry, gives us a superior basis for drawing near to God and for persevering in the Christian life.

10:19 The earthly Most Holy Place was not freely accessible (see study note on 9:3). Now, however, the very presence of God in heaven (9:11, 24) is open because of the blood of Jesus in his sacrificial death (9:11–10:18).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 10:19. Ἔχοντες, having) The exhortation is derived from those things which have been treated of from ch. Heb 5:4, beginning at the recapitulation.—εἴσοδον—ἱερέα μέγαν, entrance—High Priest) Heb 10:21. The apostle treated of the High Priest from ch. Heb 5:4-5; of the entrance from ch. Heb 9:1; Heb 9:12. Now he makes mention (in reverse order), by Chiasmus, of the entrance in this verse, and of the High Priest, Heb 10:21, at the commencement of his exhortation. There is the same, both sentiment and figure, at ch. Heb 6:20: comp. the following chapters.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

to Heb_13:25

Heb_10:19 to Heb_13:25. The dogmatic investigations are at an end; on the ground thereof the author now applies himself anew to exhortations to the readers. These are at first of the same kind as those before addressed to the readers, and are distinguished from the latter only by their greater copiousness of detail, afterwards, however, assume a greater generality of contents. These are followed by the close of the epistle.

Heb_10:19. Οὖν] Conclusion from the investigations made chap. 5 onwards.

ἀδελφοί] Heb_3:1; Heb_3:12, Heb_13:22.

παῤῥησίαν] not: freedom or authorization (Vatablus, Jac. Cappellus, Grotius, Ernesti, Schulz, Böhme, Stengel, al.), but: firm, joyful confidence.

εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων] in respect to entrance into the sanctuary, i.e. of entering into the sanctuary, or heavenly Holy of Holies (τῶν ἁγίων, of the same import as εἰς τὰ ἅγια, comp. Heb_9:8). Arbitrarily would Heinrichs refer the words to the entering of Jesus, in that he regards εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγ. ἐν τῷ αἵμ. Ἰησοῦ as equivalent to εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὐτοῦ, which is impossible.

ἐν τῷ αἵματι Ἰησοῦ] upon the ground, or by virtue of the blood of Jesus. Belongs to the whole proposition: ἔχοντες παῤῥησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων, not merely to εἴσοδον (Akersloot, Storr, Schulz, Böhme, Klee, Paulus, Bleek, Bisping). The passage, Heb_9:25, by no means pleads in favour of the latter mode of apprehending it, since at Heb_9:25, but not in the present passage, ἐν can be understood in the material sense: with; the reference of the ἐν αἵματι in the two places is an entirely different one.

Heb_10:19-25. The readers, in possession of such an exalted High Priest, and of the blessings obtained by Him, are with decision and constancy to persevere in the Christian faith, to incite each other to love and good works, and notas had become a practice with someto forsake the assemblies for Christian worship. So much the more should they thus act, since the Parousia is near at hand. Comp. on Heb_10:19-25 the similar exhortation Heb_4:14; Heb_4:16.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 10:19 . Ἔχοντες οὖν , ἀδελφοί .… “Having then, brethren, confidence for the entrance into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, a way which He inaugurated for us fresh and living, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” For the form of the sentence cf. Heb 4:14 . παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον , cf. Heb 3:6 and Heb 4:16 προσερχώμεθα μετὰ παρρησίας , also Eph 3:12 . ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν παρρησίαν καὶ τὴν προσαγωγὴν . εἴσοδος may either mean an entrance objectively considered, or the act of entering. Weiss adopts the former meaning, compelled as he supposes by the ὁδὸν which follows in apposition and referring to Jud 1:24 and Eze 27:3 . He would therefore translate “boldness as regards the entrance”. The objection to this interpretation is the meaning put upon εἰς which more naturally expresses the object or end towards which the παρρησία is directed, the entering in, not merely the object about which the παρρησία is exercised. Cf. 2Co 7:10 , μετάνοιαν εἰς σωτηρίαν . But cf. Winer on εἰς . The expression in Heb 9:8 , τὴν τῶν ἁγίων ὁδὸν , also favours Weiss’s interpretation. τῶν ἁγίων as the Greek commentators remark, here means “heaven”. ἐν τ . αἵματι Ἰησοῦ , on the whole, it is better to join these words not with παρρησίαν but with εἴσοδον . Bleek sees a reference to Heb 9:25 , ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς εἰσέρχεται εἰς τὰ ἅγια ἐν αἵματι ἀλλοτρίῳ . ἣν ἐνεκαίνισεν ἡμῖν ὁδὸν … “The new and living way which He inaugurated [or dedicated] for us.” The antecedent of the clause is εἴσοδον , and this way into the holiest is here further described as first used by Christ that it might be used by us. For ἐγκαινίζειν means to handsel, to take the first use of a new thing. See Deu 20:5 . He has entered within the veil as our πρόδρομος (Heb 6:19-20 ) and has thus opened a way for us. It is πρόσφατον , recent, fresh. The lexicographers are agreed that, originally meaning fresh-slain and applied to νεκρός , πρόσφατος came to be used of flowers, oil, snow, misfortune, benefits, in Sirac. Heb 9:10 , of a friend; in Ecc 1:9 οὐκ ἔστι πᾶν πρόσφατον ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον . It was a way recently opened. Christ was the first who trod that way. Wetstein, who gives many examples of the use of the word, cites also from Floras , i. 15, 3, an interesting analogy: “Alter [Decius Mus] quasi monitu deorum, capite velato, primam ante aciem diis manibus se devoverit, ut in confertissima se hostium tela jaculatus, novum ad victoriam iter sanguinis sui semita aperiret”. καὶ ζῶσαν , not as a way that abides (Chrys., etc.) nor as leading to life eternal (Grotius, etc.), nor as a way which consists in fellowship with a Person (Westcott), but as effective, actually bringing its followers to their goal. Cf. Heb 4:12 . So Davidson and Weiss. διὰ τοῦ καταπετάσματος , a further characteristic of the way, it passed through the veil, that is, His flesh, which must first be rent before Christ could pass into the holiest. “This beautiful allegorizing of the veil cannot, of course, be made part of a consistent and complete typology. It is not meant for this. But as the veil stood locally before the holiest in the Mosaic Tabernacle, the way into which lay through it, so Christ’s life in the flesh stood between Him and His entrance before God, and His flesh had to be rent ere He could enter” (Davidson).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19-13:25.] The third great division of the Epistle: Our duty in the interval of waiting between the beginning and accomplishment of our salvation. And herein, 10:19-39, exhortation to enter boldly into the holiest place, 19-22: to hold fast our profession, 23: to stir up one another, 24, 25: in consideration of the fearful punishment which awaits the rejecters of Christ, 26-31: and in remembrance of the previous sufferings which they underwent when first converted, 32-34. Finally, exhortation not to cast away confidence, for the time until His coming is short, and during that time, faith is the life of the soul.

There has been no exhortation, properly speaking, since ch. 7:1, i. e. during the great doctrinal argument of the Epistle. Before that, argument and exhortation were rapidly alternated. But so exquisite is the skill of arrangement and development, that the very exhortation with which he closed the former portion of the Epistle where first he began to prepare the way for his great argument, ch. 4:14-16, is now resumed, deepened indeed and expanded by the intervening demonstration, but in spirit and substance the same: προσερχώμεθα μετʼ ἀληθινῆς καρδίας ἐν πληροφρίᾳ πίστεως here, answering to προσερχώμεθα μετὰ παῤῥησίας τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς χάριτος there, and κατέχωμεν τὴν ὁμολογίαν here to κρατῶμεν τῆς ὁμολογίας there.

19.] Having (ἔχοντες is placed first as carrying the emphasis: ‘possessing, as we do …’) therefore (as above proved: οὖν collects and infers), brethren (see on ch. 3:1), confidence (see on ch. 3:6 παῤῥησία here as well as there is not justification, right (ἐξουσίαν Hesych.) to enter, but purely subjective, confidence, boldness) as regards the (our, see below) entering into the holy places (for construction, see reff. καὶ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ ἀφέθησαν ἡμῖν τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, παῤῥησίαν ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸ εἰσέρχεσθαι εἰς τὰ ἅγια, τουτέστιν εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. Thl. ἡ εἴσοδος is our entering, not Christ’s entering, as Heinrichs and Dindorf: see ch. 4:16, προσερχώμεθα μετὰ παῤῥησίας τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς χάριτος) in the blood of Jesus (the ἐν introduces that wherein the confidence is grounded: cf. ref., ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν παῤῥησίαν καὶ [τὴν] προσαγωγήν. He having once entered in with His blood as our High Priest, and thereby all atonement and propitiation having been for ever accomplished, it is in that blood that our boldness to enter in is grounded. To understand ἐν, with Bleek and Stier, as in ch. 9:25, εἰσέρχεται εἰς τὰ ἅγια … ἐν αἵματι ἀλλοτρίῳ, is in fact to make us, as priests, renew Christ’s offering of Himself. “We enter,” says Stier, “with the blood of Jesus, even with the same, wherewith He entered before us:” which is very like a contradiction in terms, and is at all events inaccurate theology. We do not take the blood of Christ with us into the presence of God: it is there already once for all, and our confidence of access is therein grounded, that it is there. See note on ch. 12:24),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sum of the former treatise: We are not shut out now of the holy place, as the Fathers were, but we have an entrance into the true holy place (that is, into heaven) seeing that we are purged with the blood not of beasts, but of Jesus. Neither as in times past, doth the high Priest shut us out by setting the veil against us, but through the veil, which is his flesh, he hath brought us into heaven itself, being present with us, so that we have now truly an high Priest, which is over the house of God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

I. Here the apostle sets forth the dignities of the gospel state. It is fit that believers should know the honours and privileges that Christ has procured for them, that, while they take the comfort, they may give him the glory of all. The privileges are, 1. Boldness to enter into the holiest. They have access to God, light to direct them, liberty of spirit and of speech to conform to the direction; they have a right to the privilege and a readiness for it, assistance to use and improve it and assurance of acceptance and advantage. They may enter into the gracious presence of God in his holy oracles, ordinances, providences, and covenant, and so into communion with God, where they receive communications from him, till they are prepared to enter into his glorious presence in heaven. 2. A high priest over the house of God, even this blessed Jesus, who presides over the church militant, and every member thereof on earth, and over the church triumphant in heaven. God is willing to dwell with men on earth, and to have them dwell with him in heaven; but fallen man cannot dwell with God without a high priest, who is the Mediator of reconciliation here and of fruition hereafter.

II. The apostle tells us the way and means by which Christians enjoy such privileges, and, in general, declares it to be by the blood of Jesus, by the merit of that blood which he offered up to God as an atoning sacrifice: he has purchased for all who believe in him free access to God in the ordinances of his grace here and in the kingdom of his glory. This blood, being sprinkled on the conscience, chases away slavish fear, and gives the believer assurance both of his safety and his welcome into the divine presence. Now the apostle, having given this general account of the way by which we have access to God, enters further into the particulars of it, Heb 10:20. As, 1. It is the only way; there is no way left but this. The first way to the tree of life is, and has been, long shut up. 2. It is a new way, both in opposition to the covenant of works and to the antiquated dispensation of the Old Testament; it is via novissima - the last way that will ever be opened to men. Those who will not enter in this way exclude themselves for ever. It is a way that will always be effectual. 3. It is a living way. It would be death to attempt to come to God in the way of the covenant of works; but this way we may come to God, and live. It is by a living Saviour, who, though he was dead, is alive; and it is a way that gives life and lively hope to those who enter into it. 4. It is a way that Christ has consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh. The veil in the tabernacle and temple signified the body of Christ; when he died, the veil of the temple was rent in sunder, and this was at the time of the evening sacrifice, and gave the people a surprising view into the holy of holies, which they never had before. Our way to heaven is by a crucified Saviour; his death is to us the way of life. To those who believe this he will be precious.

III. He proceeds to show the Hebrews the duties binding upon them on account of these privileges, which were conferred in such an extraordinary way, Heb 10:22, Heb 10:23, etc.

1. They must draw near to God, and that in a right manner. They must draw near to God. Since such a way of access and return to God is opened, it would be the greatest ingratitude and contempt of God and Christ still to keep at a distance from him. They must draw near by conversion, and by taking hold of his covenant. They must draw near in all holy conversation, like Enoch walking with God. They must draw near in humble adorations, worshipping at his footstool. They must draw near in holy dependence, and in a strict observance of the divine conduct towards them. They must draw near in conformity to God, and communion with him, living under his blessed influence, still endeavouring to get nearer and nearer, till they come to dwell in his presence; but they must see to it that they make their approach to God after a right manner. (1.) With a true heart, without any allowed guile or hypocrisy. God is the searcher of hearts, and he requires truth in the inward parts. Sincerity is our gospel perfection, though not our justifying righteousness. (2.) In full assurance of faith, with a faith grown up to a full persuasion that when we come to God by Christ we shall have audience and acceptance. We should lay aside all sinful distrust. Without faith it is impossible to please God; and the stronger our faith is the more glory we give to God. And, (3.) Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, by a believing application of the blood of Christ to our souls. They may be cleansed from guilt, from filth, from sinful fear and torment, from all aversion to God and duty, from ignorance, and error, and superstition, and whatever evils the consciences of men are subject to by reason of sin. (4.) Our bodies washed with pure water, that is, with the water of baptism (by which we are recorded among the disciples of Christ, members of his mystical body), or with the sanctifying virtue of the Holy Spirit, reforming and regulating our outward conversation as well as our inward frame, cleansing from the filthiness of the flesh as well as of the spirit. The priests under the law were to wash, before they went into the presence of the Lord to offer before him. There must be a due preparation for making our approaches to God.

2. The apostle exhorts believers to hold fast the profession of their faith, Heb 10:23. Here observe, (1.) The duty itself - to hold fast the profession of our faith, to embrace all the truths and ways of the gospel, to get fast hold of them, and to keep that hold against all temptation and opposition. Our spiritual enemies will do what they can to wrest our faith, and hope, and holiness, and comfort, out of our hands, but we must hold fast our religion as our best treasure. (2.) The manner in which we must do this - without wavering, without doubting, without disputing, without dallying with temptation to apostasy. Having once settled these great things between God and our souls, we must be stedfast and immovable. Those who begin to waver in matters of Christian faith and practice are in danger of falling away. (3.) The motive or reason enforcing this duty: He is faithful that hath promised. God has made great and precious promises to believers, and he is a faithful God, true to his word; there is no falseness nor fickleness with him, and there should be none with us. His faithfulness should excite and encourage us to be faithful, and we must depend more upon his promises to us than upon our promises to him, and we must plead with him the promise of grace sufficient.

IV. We have the means prescribed for preventing our apostasy, and promoting our fidelity and perseverance, Heb 10:24, Heb 10:25, etc. He mentions several; as, 1. That we should consider one another, to provoke to love and to good works. Christians ought to have a tender consideration and concern for one another; they should affectionately consider what their several wants, weaknesses, and temptations are; and they should do this, not to reproach one another, to provoke one another not to anger, but to love and good works, calling upon themselves and one another to love God and Christ more, to love duty and holiness more, to love their brethren in Christ more, and to do all the good offices of Christian affection both to the bodies and the souls of each other. A good example given to others is the best and most effectual provocation to love and good works. 2. Not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, Heb 10:25. It is the will of Christ that his disciples should assemble together, sometimes more privately for conference and prayer, and in public for hearing and joining in all the ordinances of gospel worship. There were in the apostles' times, and should be in every age, Christian assemblies for the worship of God, and for mutual edification. And it seems even in those times there were some who forsook these assemblies, and so began to apostatize from religion itself. The communion of saints is a great help and privilege, and a good means of steadiness and perseverance; hereby their hearts and hands are mutually strengthened. 3. To exhort one another, to exhort ourselves and each other, to warn ourselves and one another of the sin and danger of backsliding, to put ourselves and our fellow-christians in mind of our duty, of our failures and corruptions, to watch over one another, and be jealous of ourselves and one another with a godly jealousy. This, managed with a true gospel spirit, would be the best and most cordial friendship. 4. That we should observe the approaching of times of trial, and be thereby quickened to greater diligence: So much the more, as you see the day approaching. Christians ought to observe the signs of the times, such as God has foretold. There was a day approaching, a terrible day to the Jewish nation, when their city should be destroyed, and the body of the people rejected of God for rejecting Christ. This would be a day of dispersion and temptation to the chosen remnant. Now the apostle puts them upon observing what signs there were of the approach of such a terrible day, and upon being the more constant in meeting together and exhorting one another, that they might be the better prepared for such a day. There is a trying day coming on us all, the day of our death, and we should observe all the signs of its approaching, and improve them to greater watchfulness and diligence in duty.

V. Having mentioned these means of establishment, the apostle proceeds, in the close of the chapter, to enforce his exhortations to perseverance, and against apostasy, by many very weighty considerations, Heb 10:26, Heb 10:27, etc.

1. From the description he gives of the sin of apostasy. It is sinning wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, sinning wilfully against that truth of which we have had convincing evidence. This text has been the occasion of great distress to some gracious souls; they have been ready to conclude that every wilful sin, after conviction and against knowledge, is the unpardonable sin: but this has been their infirmity and error. The sin here mentioned is a total and final apostasy, when men with a full and fixed will and resolution despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour, - despise and resist the Spirit, the only sanctifier, - and despise and renounce the gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life; and all this after they have known, owned, and professed, the Christian religion, and continue to do so obstinately and maliciously. This is the great transgression: the apostle seems to refer to the law concerning presumptuous sinners, Num 15:30, Num 15:31. They were to be cut off.

2. From the dreadful doom of such apostates. (1.) There remains no more sacrifice for such sins, no other Christ to come to save such sinners; they sin against the last resort and remedy. There were some sins under the law for which no sacrifices were provided; but yet if those who committed them did truly repent, though they might not escape temporal death, they might escape eternal destruction; for Christ would come, and make atonement. But now those under the gospel who will not accept of Christ, that they may be saved by him, have no other refuge left them. (2.) There remains for them only a certain fearful looking for of judgment, Heb 10:27. Some think this refers to the dreadful destruction of the Jewish church and state; but certainly it refers also to the utter destruction that awaits all obstinate apostates at death and judgment, when the Judge will discover a fiery indignation against them, which will devour the adversaries; they will be consigned to the devouring fire and to everlasting burnings. Of this destruction God gives some notorious sinners, while on earth, a fearful foreboding in their own consciences, a dreadful looking for it, with a despair of ever being able either to endure or escape it.

3. From the methods of divine justice with those who despised Moses's law, that is, sinned presumptuously, despising his authority, his threatenings and his power. These, when convicted by two or three witnesses, were put to death; they died without mercy, a temporal death. Observe, Wise governors should be careful to keep up the credit of their government and the authority of the laws, by punishing presumptuous offenders; but then in such cases there should be good evidence of the fact. Thus God ordained in Moses's law; and hence the apostle infers the heavy doom that will fall upon those that apostatize from Christ. Here he refers to their own consciences, to judge how much sorer punishment the despisers of Christ (after they have professed to know him) are likely to undergo; and they may judge of the greatness of the punishment by the greatness of the sin. (1.) They have trodden under foot the Son of God. To trample upon an ordinary person shows intolerable insolence; to treat a person of honour in that vile manner is insufferable; but to deal thus with the Son of God, who himself is God, must be the highest provocation - to trample upon his person, denying him to be the Messiah - to trample upon his authority, and undermine his kingdom - to trample upon his members as the offscouring of all things, and not fit to live in the world; what punishment can be too great for such men? (2.) They have counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing; that is, the blood of Christ, with which the covenant was purchased and sealed, and wherewith Christ himself was consecrated, or wherewith the apostate was sanctified, that is, baptized, visibly initiated into the new covenant by baptism, and admitted to the Lord's supper. Observe, There is a kind of sanctification which persons may partake of and yet fall away: they may be distinguished by common gifts and graces, by an outward profession, by a form of godliness, a course of duties, and a set of privileges, and yet fall away finally. Men who have seemed before to have the blood of Christ in high esteem may come to account it an unholy thing, no better than the blood of a malefactor, though it was the world's ransom, and every drop of it of infinite value. (3.) Those have done despite unto the Spirit of grace, the Spirit that is graciously given to men, and that works grace wherever it is, - the Spirit of grace, that should be regarded and attended to with the greatest care, - this Spirit they have grieved, resisted, quenched, yea, done despite to him, which is the highest act of wickedness, and makes the case of the sinner desperate, refusing to have the gospel salvation applied to him. Now he leaves it to the consciences of all, appeals to universal reason and equity, whether such aggravated crimes ought not to receive a suitable punishment, a sorer punishment than those who had died without mercy? But what punishment can be sorer than to die without mercy? I answer, To die by mercy, by the mercy and grace which they have despised. How dreadful is the case when not only the justice of God, but his abused grace and mercy call for vengeance!

4. From the description we have in the scripture of the nature of God's vindictive justice, Heb 10:30. We know that he has said, Vengeance is mine. This is taken out of Psa 94:1, Vengeance belongs unto me. The terrors of the Lord are known both by revelation and reason. Vindictive justice is a glorious, though terrible attribute of God; it belongs to him, and he will use and execute it upon the heads of such sinners as despise his grace; he will avenge himself, and his Son, and Spirit, and covenant, upon apostates. And how dreadful then will their case be! The other quotation is from Deu 32:36, The Lord will judge his people; he will search and try his visible church, and will discover and detect those who say they are Jews, and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan; and he will separate the precious from the vile, and will punish the sinners in Zion with the greatest severity. Now those who know him who hath said, Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense, must needs conclude, as the apostle does (Heb 10:31): It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Those who know the joy that results from the favour of God can thereby judge of the power and dread of his vindictive wrath. Observe here, What will be the eternal misery of impenitent sinners and apostates: they shall fall into the hands of the living God; their punishment shall come from God's own hand. He takes them into the hand of his justice; he will deal with them himself; their greatest misery will be the immediate impressions of divine wrath on the soul. When he punishes them by creatures, the instrument abates something of the force of the blow; but, when he does it by his own hand, it is infinite misery. This they shall have at God's hand, they shall lie down in sorrow; their destruction shall come from his glorious powerful presence; when they make their woeful bed in hell, they will find that God is there, and his presence will be their greatest terror and torment. And he is a living God; he lives for ever, and will punish for ever.

5. He presses them to perseverance by putting them in mind of their former sufferings for Christ: But call to mind the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions, Heb 10:32. In the early days of the gospel there was a very hot persecution raised up against the professors of the Christian religion, and the believing Hebrews had their share of it: he would have them to remember,

(1.) When they had suffered: In former days, after they were illuminated; that is, as soon as God had breathed life into their souls, and caused divine light to spring up in their minds, and taken them into his favour and covenant; then earth and hell combined all their force against them. Here observe, A natural state is a dark state, and those who continue in that state meet with no disturbance from Satan and the world; but a state of grace is a state of light, and therefore the powers of darkness will violently oppose it. Those who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution.

(2.) What they suffered: they endured a great fight of afflictions, many and various afflictions united together against them, and they had a great conflict with them. Many are the troubles of the righteous. [1.] They were afflicted in themselves. In their own persons; they were made gazing-stocks, spectacles to the world, angels, and men, Co1 4:9. In their names and reputations (v. 33), by many reproaches. Christians ought to value their reputation; and they do so especially because the reputation of religion is concerned: this makes reproach a great affliction. They were afflicted in their estates, by the spoiling of their goods, by fines and forfeitures. [2.] They were afflicted in the afflictions of their brethren: Partly while you became companions of those that were so used. The Christian spirit is a sympathizing spirit, not a selfish spirit, but a compassionate spirit; it makes every Christian's suffering our own, puts us upon pitying others, visiting them, helping them, and pleading for them. Christians are one body, are animated by one spirit, have embarked in one common cause and interest, and are the children of that God who is afflicted in all the afflictions of his people. If one member of the body suffers, all the rest suffer with it. The apostle takes particular notice how they had sympathized with him (Heb 10:34): You had compassion on me in my bonds. We must thankfully acknowledge the compassions our Christian friends have shown for us under our afflictions.

(3.) How they had suffered. They had been mightily supported under their former sufferings; they took their sufferings patiently, and not only so, but joyfully received it from God as a favour and honour conferred upon them that they should be thought worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. God can strengthen his suffering people with all might in the inner man, to all patience and long-suffering, and that with joyfulness, Col 1:11.

(4.) What it was that enabled them thus to bear up under their sufferings. They knew in themselves that they had in heaven a better and a more enduring substance. Observe, [1.] The happiness of the saints in heaven is substance, something of real weight and worth. All things here are but shadows. [2.] It is a better substance than any thing they can have or lose here. [3.] It is an enduring substance, it will out-live time and run parallel with eternity; they can never spend it; their enemies can never take it from them, as they did their earthly goods. [4.] This will make a rich amends for all they can lose and suffer here. In heaven they shall have a better life, a better estate, better liberty, better society, better hearts, better work, every thing better. [5.] Christians should know this in themselves, they should get the assurance of it in themselves (the Spirit of God witnessing with their spirits), for the assured knowledge of this will help them to endure any fight of afflictions they may be encountered with in this world.

6. He presses them to persevere, from that recompense of reward that waited for all faithful Christians (Heb 10:35): Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Here, (1.) He exhorts them not to cast away their confidence, that is, their holy courage and boldness, but to hold fast that profession for which they had suffered so much before, and borne those sufferings so well. (2.) He encourages them to this by assuring them that the reward of their holy confidence would be very great. It carries a present reward in it, in holy peace and joy, and much of God's presence and his power resting upon them; and it shall have a great recompense of reward hereafter. (3.) He shows them how necessary a grace the grace of patience is in our present state (Heb 10:36): You have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise; that is, this promised reward. Observe, The greatest part of the saints' happiness is in promise. They must first do the will of God before they receive the promise; and, after they have done the will of God, they have need of patience to wait for the time when the promise shall be fulfilled; they have need of patience to live till God calls them away. It is a trial of the patience of Christians, to be content to live after their work is done, and to stay for the reward till God's time to give it them is come. We must be God's waiting servants when we can be no longer his working servants. Those who have had and exercised much patience already must have and exercise more till they die. (4.) To help their patience, he assures them of the near approach of Christ's coming to deliver and to reward them (Heb 10:37): For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. He will soon come to them at death, and put an end to all their sufferings, and give them a crown of life. He will soon come to judgment, and put an end to the sufferings of the whole church (all his mystical body), and give them an ample and glorious reward in the most public manner. There is an appointed time for both, and beyond that time he will not tarry, Hab 2:3. The Christian's present conflict may be sharp, but it will be soon over.

7. He presses them to perseverance, by telling them that this is their distinguishing character and will be their happiness; whereas apostasy is the reproach, and will be the ruin, of all who are guilty of it (Heb 10:38, Heb 10:39): Now the just shall live by faith, etc. (1.) It is the honourable character of just men that in times of the greatest affliction they can live by faith; they can live upon the assured persuasion they have of the truth of God's promises. Faith puts life and vigour into them. They can trust God, and live upon him, and wait his time: and, as their faith maintains their spiritual life now, it shall be crowned with eternal life hereafter. (2.) Apostasy is the mark and the brand of those in whom God takes no pleasure; and it is a cause of God's severe displeasure and anger. God never was pleased with the formal profession and external duties and services of such as do not persevere. He saw the hypocrisy of their hearts then; and he is greatly provoked when their formality in religion ends in an open apostasy from religion. He beholds them with great displeasure; they are an offence to him. (3.) The apostle concludes with declaring his good hope concerning himself and these Hebrews, that they should not forfeit the character and happiness of the just, and fall under the brand and misery of the wicked (Heb 10:39): But we are not, etc.; as if he had said, "I hope we are not of those who draw back. I hope that you and I, who have met with great trials already, and have been supported under them by the grace of God strengthening our faith, shall not be at any time left to ourselves to draw back to perdition; but that God will still keep us by his mighty power through faith unto salvation." Observe, [1.] Professors may go a great way, and after all draw back; and this drawing back from God is drawing on to perdition: the further we depart from God the nearer we approach to ruin. [2.] Those who have been kept faithful in great trials for the time past have reason to hope that the same grace will be sufficient to help them still to live by faith, till they receive the end of their faith and patience, even the salvation of their souls. If we live by faith, and die in faith, our souls will be safe for ever.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Here begins the third and last division of the Epistle; our duty now while waiting for the Lord's second advent. Resumption and expansion of the exhortation (Heb 4:14-16; compare Heb 10:22-23 here) wherewith he closed the first part of the Epistle, preparatory to his great doctrinal argument, beginning at Heb 7:1.

boldness--"free confidence," grounded on the consciousness that our sins have been forgiven.

to enter--literally, "as regards the entering."

by--Greek, "in"; it is in the blood of Jesus that our boldness to enter is grounded. Compare Eph 3:12, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence." It is His having once for all entered as our Forerunner (Heb 6:20) and High Priest (Heb 10:21), making atonement for us with His blood, which is continually there (Heb 12:24) before God, that gives us confident access. No priestly caste now mediates between the sinner and his Judge. We may come boldly with loving confidence, not with slavish fear, directly through Christ, the only mediating Priest. The minister is not officially nearer God than the layman; nor can the latter serve God at a distance or by deputy, as the natural man would like. Each must come for himself, and all are accepted when they come by the new and living way opened by Christ. Thus all Christians are, in respect to access directly to God, virtually high priests (Rev 1:6). They draw nigh in and through Christ, the only proper High Priest (Heb 7:25).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness] The apostle, having now finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, and fully shown the superiority of Christ to all men and angels, and the superiority of his priesthood to that of Aaron and his successors, the absolute inefficacy of the Jewish sacrifices to make atonement for sin, and the absolute efficacy of that of Christ to make reconciliation of man to God, proceeds now to show what influence these doctrines should have on the hearts and lives of those who believe in his merits and death.

Boldness to enter] παρρησιαν εις την εισοδον. Liberty, full access to the entrance of the holy place, τωναγιων. This is an allusion to the case of the high priest going into the holy of holies. He went with fear and trembling, because, if he had neglected the smallest item prescribed by the law, he could expect nothing but death. Genuine believers can come even to the throne of God with confidence, as they carry into the Divine presence the infinitely meritorious blood of the great atonement; and, being justified through that blood, they have a right to all the blessings of the eternal kingdom.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Having therefore, brethren, etc. He states the conclusion or the sum of his previous doctrine, to which he then fitly subjoins a serious exhortation, and denounces a severe threatening on those who had renounced the grace of Christ. Now, the sum of what he had said is, that all the ceremonies by which an access under the Law was open to the sanctuary, have their real fulfillment in Christ, so that to him who has Christ, the use of them is superfluous and useless To set this forth more fully, he allegorically describes the access which Christ has opened to us; for he compares heaven to the old sanctuary, and sets forth the things which have been spiritually accomplished in Christ in typical expressions. Allegories do indeed sometimes obscure rather than illustrate a subject; but when the Apostle transfers to Christ the ancient figures of the Law, there is no small elegance in what he says, and no small light is attained; and he did this, that we may recognize as now really exhibited in him whatever the Law shadowed forth. But as there is great weight almost in every word, so we must remember that there is here to be understood a contrast, — the truth or reality as seen in Christ, and the abolition of the ancient types.

He says first, that we have boldness to enter into the holiest. This privilege was never granted to the fathers under the Law, for the people were forbidden to enter the visible sanctuary, though the high priest bore the names of the tribes on his shoulders, and twelve stones as a memorial of them on his breast. But now the case is very different, for not only symbolically, but in reality an entrance into heaven is made open to us through the favor of Christ, for he has made us a royal priesthood.

He adds, by the blood of Jesus, because the door of the sanctuary was not opened for the periodical entrance of the high priest, except through the intervention of blood. But he afterwards marks the difference between this blood and that of beasts; for the blood of beasts, as it soon turns to corruption, could not long retain its efficacy; but the blood of Christ, which is subject to no corruption, but flows ever as a pure stream, is sufficient for us even to the end of the world. It is no wonder that beasts slain in sacrifice had no power to quicken, as they were dead; but Christ who arose from the dead to bestow life on us, communicates his own life to us. It is a perpetual consecration of the way, because the blood of Christ is always in a manner distilling before the presence of the Father, in order to irrigate heaven and earth.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(19) The exhortation which here begins is very similar to that of Heb_4:14-16. Its greater fulness and expressiveness are in accordance with the development in the thought.

Therefore.—The chief thoughts taken up are those expressed in Heb_9:11-12. The word “boldness” has occurred in Heb_3:6; Heb_4:16. (See the Notes.)

By the blood of Jesus.—Better, in the blood of Jesus; for the meaning probably is, “Having’ therefore boldness in the blood of Jesus for entering into the Holy (i.e., the Holiest) Place.” It is not that we enter “with the blood,” as the high priest entered the Holy of Holies (Heb_9:25): no comparison is made between Christ’s people and the Jewish high priest. But as when he entered within the veil the whole people symbolically entered in with him, so do we enter with our High Priest, who “by means of His own blood” entered for us (and as our “Forerunner,” Heb_6:20) into the immediate presence of God. In that through which He entered we have our “boldness to enter.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19–25. An exhortation to Christian confidence and Fellowship

19. brethren] Heb_3:1; Heb_3:12, Heb_13:22.

boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus] Rather, “confidence in the blood of Jesus, for our entrance into the Holiest.” This right of joyful confidence in our access to God through Christ is dwelt upon in Eph_2:18; Eph_3:12.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By a new and living way,.... Which is Christ, the God-man and Mediator; who is called the "new" way, not as to contrivance, revelation, or use; for it was contrived before the world was, and was revealed to our first parents, immediately after the fall, and was made use of by all the Old Testament saints; but in distinction to the old way of life, by the covenant of works; and because newly revealed with greater clearness and evidence; see Heb 10:8 and because it is always new, it never will be old, nor otherwise, there never will be another way: some render it, "a new slain way"; because Jesus was but newly slain, and his blood lately shed, by which the way is, and entrance is with boldness: and Christ is a "living way"; in opposition to the dead carcasses of slain beasts, and to the dead and killing letter of the law; Christ gives life to all his people; and all that walk in him, the way, live; and none in this way ever die; it leads to eternal life, and infallibly brings them thither:

which he hath consecrated for us; either God the Father, and so it intends the designation of Christ to be the way to life and happiness, and the qualification of him for it, by preparing a body, an human nature for him, and anointing it with the Holy Spirit, and the instalment of him into his priestly office, called a consecration, Heb 10:28 or else Christ himself, and so designs his compliance with his Father's will, and his devoting of himself to this service; his preparation of himself to be the way, by the shedding of his blood, and by his entrance into heaven, and by giving a clearer discovery of this way in the Gospel, by which life and immortality are brought to light: and this is

done through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; the human nature of Christ, through which the way to heaven is opened, renewed, and consecrated, is compared to the vail of the tabernacle, Exo 26:31 the matter of which that was made, was fine twined linen, which the Jews (y) say was of thread six times doubled; which may denote the holiness of Christ's human nature; the strength, courage, and steadfastness of it, under all its sorrows and sufferings; and the purity and duration of his righteousness; the colours of it were blue, purple, and scarlet, which may signify the sufferings of the human nature; the preciousness of Christ's blood, and the dignity of his person, and his royalty; purple and scarlet being wore by kings: the vail was of cunning work, which may intend the curious workmanship of Christ's human nature, and the graces of the Spirit, with which it is adorned; and it was made with "cherubim", pointing to the ministration of angels, both to Christ, and to his people. The pillars of it may signify the deity of Christ, the support of his human nature, in which it has its personal subsistence; and being of Shittim wood, may denote his eternity: and being covered with gold, his glory: its hooks and sockets may be symbolical of the union of the two natures in him.

(y) Maimon. Cele Hamikdash, c. 8. sect. 14. Jarchi in Exod. xxvi. 1. Kimchi in Sepher Shorash. rad.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

Ver. 19. To enter into the holiest] viz. By our prayers, which pierce heaven and prevail with God.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having therefore, brethren - The apostle, in this verse, enters on the hortatory part of his Epistle, which continues to the end of it. He had gone into an extensive examination of the Jewish and Christian systems; he had compared the Founders of the two - Moses and the Son of God, and shown how far superior the latter was to the former; he had compared the Christian Great High Priest with the Jewish high priest, and shown his superiority; he had compared the sacrifices under the two dispensations, and showed that in all respects the Christian sacrifice was superior to the Jewish - that it was an offering that cleansed from sin; that it was sufficient when once offered without being repeated, while the Jewish offerings were only typical, and were unable to put away sin; and he had shown that the great High Priest of the Christian profession had opened a way to the mercy-seat in heaven, and was himself now seated there; and having shown this, he now exhorts Christians to avail themselves fully of all their advantages, and to enjoy to the widest extent all the privileges now conferred on them. One of the first of these benefits was, that they had now free access to the mercy-seat.

Boldness to enter into the holiest - Margin, “liberty.” The word rendered “boldness” - παῤῥησίαν parrēsian - properly means “boldness of speech,” or freedom where one speaks all that he thinks (notes, Act 4:13); and then it means boldness in general, license, authority, pardon. Here the idea is, that before Christ died and entered into heaven, there was no such access to the throne of grace as man needed. Man had no offering which he could bring that would make him acceptable to God. But now the way was open. Access was free for all, and all might come with the utmost freedom. The word “holiest” here is taken from the holy of holies in the temple (notes on Heb 9:3), and is there applied to heaven, of which that was the emblem. The entrance into the most holy place was forbidden to all but the high priest; but now access to the real “holy of holies” was granted to all in the name of the great High Priest of the Christian profession.

By the blood of Jesus - The blood of Jesus is the means by which this access to heaven is procured. The Jewish high priest entered the holy of holies with the blood of bullocks and of rams (notes, Heb 9:7); but the Saviour offered his own blood, and that became the means by which we may have access to God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Having therefore, brethren, a confidence. Here begins as it were the second part of his epistle, in which the apostle exhorts the Hebrews to the practice of Christian virtues, to a firm hope, and confidence of entering with Christ into the holy of holies; i.e. into heaven. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

At this verse the Spirit applieth and maketh use of the doctrine of the great gospel High Priest, and his one all-sufficient sacrifice, and continueth it through part of Heb 13:1-25. The transition to it is made by the particle ουν, therefore, which refers to the whole of his doctrinal discourse before of the excellency of the gospel High Priest, for his person, as to both his natures, being God-man, and his sacrifice, with its effects. Seeing these things are so,

therefore, brethren; see Heb 3:1,12; inviting them with this endearing term of relation, to receive what his brotherly love imparted to them for their salvation.

Boldness to enter into the holiest; freedom granted us of God for this motion, and confidence and freeness of Spirit in ourselves to move, so as not only to look into the holy of holiest, but of spiritual and real access for supplication and conversation, while we are personally upon earth; and others are denied such an entrance and approach to him on his throne of grace there, while they have their petitions received, Eph 3:12, and thence their persons blessed, Heb 4:16.

By the blood of Jesus: and this only vouchsafed them by the blood of Jesus, which atoned him, who sits on the throne, for us, and made it accessible to us. How much greater is this gospel privilege than that under the law! Aaron alone, and not the Israelites, could enter into the holy of holiest, and that but once a year, and then with the blood of beasts sacrificed for himself and them; whereas every penitent believing sinner can now by faith in Christ’s blood and prayer, enter into the holiest of all in heaven, and there converse with God every day, while sin hath made him inaccessible to others.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 19-21. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter (literally, for the entrance) into the holiest (literally, the holies, i.e. the holy place, as ta agia is translated in Heb_9:25, but meaning, there as here, the holy of holies) by the blood of Jesus, which (entrance) he consecrated (or, dedicated, as the same verb egkainizw is translated, Heb_9:18, with reference to the Mosaic tabernacle) for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great Priest (ierea megan , not arcierea , high priest; but a priest of higher order than any earthly priest; cf. Heb_5:14, arcierea megan) over the house of God. The epithet prosfaton ("new") applied to the "way" dedicated for us by Christ, though meaning originally, according to its etymology, "newly slain," is commonly used to express "recent" only. And so here. It is a new way in relation to the old one of the high priest through the veil a way untrodden by man till opened and dedicated by "the great Priest." The epithet zwsa ("living") applied to the way distinguishes it, as a spiritual mode of approach, from the old one. "Opponitur exanimo. Per prosopopoeiam vita adscribitur viae, ex ipsa vita Christi, qui est Via ". (Bengel; see Joh_14:6) But what is the meaning of the veil (katapetasma , the word always used of the veil in the tabernacle or temple) being said to be "his flesh"? The idea cannot be simply that he passed through the human nature assumed at his incarnation to the heavenly throne; for the intended counterpart to the high priest"s passing through the veil must have been after the completed sacrifice. It is rather that, at the moment of death, when, after saying, "It is finished," he "gave up the ghost," the human flesh (which had through all the ages been as a veil hiding the unseen" from man, and behind which Christ himself had tabernacled" during his human life) was, as it were, rent asunder and the new way opened. And that this was so was signified by the rending in twain of the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom, mentioned by St. Matthew, (Mat_26:51) at the very moment of the death upon the cross. This incident may have suggested to the writer the expression used. Quum primum Christus per momentum mortis transierat, praesto fuit mera virtus et vita. Thv sarko , carnem suam, quae item scissa est, ut velum" (Bengel). "The house of God" in ver. 21 is a resumption of the thought of Heb_3:1-7, where Christ was shown to be greater than Moses, as being the SON over the house of God, having (be it observed) been called arcierea in ver. 1. (For the comprehensive meaning of the expression, not limited either to the Mosaic dispensation or the visible Church, see what was said under Heb_3:4) On the now firmly grounded doctrinal bases of

(1) open access through Christ to the mercy-seat,

(2) his ever-availing intercession, are built the exhortations

(1) to confidence,

(2) to persistence in faith and corresponding conduct.

Vers. 19-25. The great admonition.

Having completed his elaborate argument, and concluded the doctrinal part of the treatise, the author warmly exhorts the Hebrews to maintain their Christian steadfastness. The appeal contained in these verses collects into a focus of intense light and heat the main teaching of this weighty book. The paragraph before us may be regarded as the center of gravity of the Epistle. It is also the key-note of the impressive representations and the loving counsels which occupy the remaining pages.

I THE BELIEVER"S PRIVILEGES. (Vers. 19-21.) The word therefore" introduces a brief summary of what precedes in the long section devoted to the priesthood of Christ. (Heb 4:14-10:18) The grand substantive blessing of the gospel is that of access to God; and this has been secured in connection with:

1. An accepted Sacrifice. (Ver. 19.) Heb_10:1-18 treats of this. Jesus has gone into heaven with his own blood, and- has been allowed to sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat. His blood has expiated the sins which debarred men from standing in the Divine presence. Washed in it, the penitent sinner may draw near to God with confidence.

2. An opened sanctuary. (Vers. 19, 20.) Heb 9 discusses this branch of the subject. Christians are admitted into a far nobler holy of holies than that from which ancient Israel were excluded. "A new and living way" to the Father has been opened up by Jesus; and it shall always be "new," because, in fact, the "living" Savior is himself the Way. The breaking of his body upon the cross was like the rending of "the veil," for it opened up the mercy-seat to man.

3. A glorious Intercessor. (Ver. 21.) Heb 7 treats of the might and majesty of this "great Priest." Through the merit of Christ"s blood the believer takes his place immediately in front of the throne; and then, through the mediation of the Savior, who stands by his side, he is graciously maintained in this position. Holiness on the bead, Light and perfections on the breast, Harmonious bells below, raising the dead To lead them unto life and rest: Thus are true Aarons drest. Christ is my only Head, My alone only Heart and Breast, My only Music, striking me ev"n dead; That to the old man I may rest. And lie in him new drest. (George Herbert.)

II THE DUTIES WHICH REST UPON THOSE PRIVILEGES. (Vers. 22-25.) These are three in number, each being introduced with the words," Let us." They deal with our conduct towards God, towards the world, and towards the Church. Observance of them calls into exercise respectively the three great graces of the Pauline theology, the duties being those of faith toward God, hope exhibited before the world, and lore to our fellow-believers.

1. The duty of Divine worship. (Ver. 22.) Worship is the movement of the soul towards God. To draw near" includes every form which it is possible for acceptable religious service to assume. The apostle, taking for granted that his readers appreciate the inestimable value of communion with God, indicates briefly the qualifications and features of acceptable worship.

(1) Sincerity. "With a true heart." Our devotion must not be feigned. We must not be hypocrites, or formalists, or sacramentarians. We "must worship in spirit and in truth.

(2) Confidence. "In fullness of faith." Our faith in the way of access must be entire and absolute. The apostle does not speak here of assurance of one"s own personal salvation. What he insists upon is, that true faith cannot admit of any doubt as to its object that object being the atonement of Christ, and his priestly work within the opened sanctuary of heaven.

(3) A pacified conscience. "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." When the Aaronical priests were installed their garments were sprinkled with blood, in token of their acceptance as ministers of the sanctuary; so the blood of Christ, while it satisfies Divine justice, satisfies also the conscience to which it is applied, delivers the soul from the sting of sin, and qualifies for the service of God.

(4) A purified heart. "And our body washed with pure water." A brazen vessel, called the laver, which was used for the ablutions of the priests, stood in the outer court between the altar and the door of the tabernacle. So, hard by the entrance of life, stands the baptismal font; and the beginning of the Christian career is for the soul to be washed in the laver of regeneration. It is the "pure in heart" who "shall see God.

1. The duty of public confession. (Ver. 23.) It is not enough that we cherish deep religious convictions, and that we maintain a constant commerce with God in acts of secret prayer. We must acknowledge our Christian hope before men with our lips and by our lives, and in the observance of the public ordinances of grace. We must not he ashamed to manifest profound spiritual earnestness, even in the presence of a persecuting world. To confess our hope will strengthen it. To refuse to acknowledge Christ is to deny him. And our confession ought to be a consistent "Yea." We are unfaithful if we allow it to sway to and fro, even although it should expose us to obloquy and danger. Seeing that our hope is grounded upon the sure promises of our Father God, why should not our acknowledgment of the truth he always explicit and consistent?

2. The duty of Christian fellowship. (Vers. 24, 25.) Brotherly love should prevail among believers as brethren in Christ. Especially should those who are connected with the same congregation cherish a kindly and affectionate interest in one another Our Church-membership is not maintained merely for one"s own personal edification. We should "consider one another" in the spirit of brotherly love, and so that we may be mutually helpful to each other in the Divine life. We are to take kindly thought of each other"s excellences and defects, needs and dangers, trials and temptations, and to minister aid to one another accordingly. And in so far as we realize the bonds of love and sympathy which unite us to our Christian brethren, will we prize such opportunities of intercourse with them as the meetings of the Church afford. One great purpose of our "assembling of ourselves together" is to provide occasions for Christian conference and mutual exhortation. It was peculiarly necessary just now that the Hebrew believers should incite one another "unto love and good works," for "the day" of the destruction of Jerusalem and the final collapse of the Levitical system was fast drawing nigh." That event is now past, but another and more tremendous "day of the Lord" is still to come. We ought as Christians to "consider" and "exhort" one another in view of "that great and notable day" on which Christ shall come to be our Judge, and to describe with his scepter the eternal boundaries of being and destiny.

Vers. 19-22. The Christian"s access to the Holy place.

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into," etc. Here the sacred writer enters upon the last great division of the Epistle. Having closed the argumentative portion, he opens the hortatory and admonitory part of his work. Our text is an exhortation to avail ourselves of the great privilege of access to the presence of God through the blood of Jesus. We have

I A DECLARATION or CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE.

1. What the privilege is in itself. It is twofold.

(1) The right of approach unto the presence of God. We may "enter into the holy place." There is a reference here to the entrance of the high priest into the holy of holies under the Mosaic economy. The holy place in the text is the Divine sanctuary, "the place of God"s essential presence." We have the privilege of access into his presence. We have this at present in prayer. Even now in prayer, and spiritually, we may "reach the inmost recesses of the Divine sanctuary, the very heart of God." And we may do this without the intervention of" any human priesthood, or the presentation of any material sacrifice. Hereafter we may enter into his presence in person. Already our Lord is there. And he prayed for his disciples, "Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me." Admission into the manifested presence of God is the exalted privilege awaiting every true Christian in the future. "We shall see him even as he is." "I will behold thy face in righteousness," etc. "In thy presence is fullness of joy," etc.

(2) Confidence in approaching the presence of God. We have "boldness to enter into the holy place." This boldness is not rashness, or irreverence, or unreverence. It is rather a holy freedom of access to God because of our assurance that we shall be graciously received by him. See this in the exercise of prayer. We may freely express our wants and wishes to our heavenly Father; for, being our Father, he will not resent our filial confidence, but will welcome us the more because of it.

2. How the privilege has been obtained for us. "By the blood of Jesus." It is by the sacrifice of Christ that we have the right of access to the presence of God. And it is by the infinite love of God manifested in that sacrifice that we have confidence in availing ourselves of this right. In a word, this great privilege has been obtained for us through the mediation of our Lord and Savior. This is here represented as a way: "By the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way," etc. The description is instructive.

(1) The characteristics of the way. It is a new way; i.e. newly made, recent, or newly opened. Truly and beautifully Stier says, "No believer under the Old Testament dared or could, though under a dispensation of preparatory grace, approach God so freely and openly, so fearlessly and joyfully, so closely and intimately, as we now, who come to the Father by the blood of Jesus, his Son." It is a living way. "The way into the sanctuary of the Old Testament was simply a lifeless pavement trodden by the high priest, and by him alone; the way opened by Jesus Christ is one that really leads and carries all who enter it into the heavenly rest, being, in fact, the reconciliation of mankind with God, once and for ever effected by him through his ascension to the Father living way," because one with the living person and abiding work of Jesus Christ" (Delitzsch). "Jesus saith, I am the Way," etc. (cf. Joh_14:1-6)

(2) The inauguration of this way. "Which he dedicated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." There is a comparison between the flesh of our Savior and the veil which separated the most holy from the holy place. "While he was with us here below," says Delitzsch, "the weak, limit-bound, and mortal flesh, which he had assumed for our sakes, hung like a curtain between him and the Divine sanctuary into which he would enter; and in order to such entrance, this curtain had to be withdrawn by death, even as the high priest had to draw aside the temple veil in order to make his entry to the holy of holies." In his death our Lord put off the weak, mortal flesh; and at his death "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom," laying open the holy of holies. Dying, our Lord laid aside those conditions of body which could not be taken into heaven itself, and removed the barriers which kept us from God. (cf. 1Co_1:21, 1Co_1:22)

(3) The encouragement to tread this way. "And having a great Priest over the house of God." The description is suggestive. "A great Priest." One who is both Priest and King; "a royal Priest and priestly King." He is "over the house of God," i.e. the Church; the one great communion of saints both in heaven and upon earth; the Church triumphant above and the Church militant below. Here is encouragement to tread the new and living way. Our great Priest has trod the way before us. He has entered the heavenly sanctuary, and abides in the glorious and blessed Presence. He is there on our behalf; as our Representative, as our Forerunner, and as an attraction to draw his people thither also.

II AN EXHORTATION TO AVAIL OURSELVES OF THIS PRIVILEGE, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," etc. Consider how we are to avail ourselves of this privilege.

1. With perfect sincerity. "With a tree heart." A heart free from hypocrisy and from self-deception. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

2. With assured confidence. "In full assurance of faith." Not questioning our right of access, or the certainty of our gracious acceptance, through Christ. Not with divided confidence, but "in fullness of faith" in Christ. The full undivided faith is required, as Ebrard says, "not a faith such as the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews had, who to the questions, "Is Jesus the Messiah? Is he the Son of God?" replied in the affirmative indeed with head and mouth, but yet were not satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ, but thought it necessary still to lean on the crutches of the Levitical sacrifices, and on these crutches would limp into heaven." We fear that there is much of this divided faith at present, or at least a great lack of "fullness of faith" in the Savior. The faith of some is divided between the Christ and the Church, or some human priesthood; others, between the Christ and the sanctions of reason or philosophy; and others, between the Christ and what they conceive to be their own personal merits. If we would draw near to God acceptably, we must do so in full assurance of faith" in our great Priest as the only and all-sufficient Mediator.

3. With purity of heart and life. "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water." There is a reference here to the Levitical purifications. (cf. Exo_29:21 Lev_8:30 Lev_16:4, 24 Heb_9:13, Heb_9:14, Heb_9:21, 22 1Pe_1:2) And in the last clause of the text there is probably a reference to Christian baptism, which is symbolic of spiritual cleansing. (cf. Act_22:16) The idea seems to be that to approach God acceptably we must be morally pure in heart and in action. But "who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" And so we draw near to God at present trusting in the Christ for pardon and for purity. Through him we are justified before God by faith, and have daily cleansing for daily impurities. And hereafter we shall draw near to his blessed presence "having washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," and shall appear before him as members of "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish.

CONCLUSION.

1. How great are our privileges of present access to God in prayer, and hope of future approach to him in person!

2. How solemn are our obligations to avail ourselves of our privileges, and to walk worthily of them! W.J.

Vers. 19-22. Approaching God.

I WHY THE APPROACH IS TO BE MADE. There needed the statement of no reason here; the necessity of approach is assumed. The great thing required was to substitute a new ground and a new mode of approach for a ground and a mode which had become useless, nay, even harmful. The Israelite had always acknowledged that he must approach Deity in some way or other. If God had not appointed a certain way of access in the Levitical ordinances, the Israelite would have taken his own way. Indeed, it is lamentably plain that too much he did take his own way. He had to be turned from the golden calf by the sharpest of chastisements, and many a century elapsed before image-worship and debasing rites lost their hold upon him. Moses and the prophets, say all the representatives of Jehovah under the first covenant, had quite as hard work to turn away their fellow-countrymen from image-worship as the writer of this Epistle afterwards had to turn them away from types to antitypes, from shadow to substance, and from a temporary discipline to its abiding result in the Christ. The approach to God may be looked at as either a need or a duty, and whichever aspect be considered, it is evident that a loving, foreseeing God will provide the way. He provides the right way to the right end. Let us try to imagine him leaving Israel to its own devices when it escaped from Egypt. The people would still have built altars, slain sacrifices, and appointed priests. What God does is to deliver the conscience from the tyranny of every idolatry and bring it under reasonable government and guidance. He frees human religious customs from cruelty, lust, superstition, and makes them typical and instructive. And now we come to the means of a full approach to God in Christ, is it not plain that all this is to supply a corresponding need and give scope for a corresponding duty? Jesus tells us there is a true Vine; so there is a true altar, a true sacrifice, a true Priest. The image-worshipper, whose darkened heart is filled with falsehoods about the nature and the service of God, is yet faithful to what he thinks to be right. Shall we be less faithful, who have opportunities for such service and such blessing.

II THE GROUND OF APPROACH. The spirit of man has to find its entrance into the holy place, and has to give its reason for confidence in expecting admission a reason which every man must apply to his own understanding, so as to make his approach as practical, as persevering, as possible. It is not expected of us, who have no experience of the details of Mosaic sacrificial institutions, to appreciate all the details here. We have not to he won away from sacrifices of beasts and dependence on an earthly priest. But, nevertheless, we must apprehend that the only ground of satisfactory approach to God is in Christ. There is no way to reach harmony with that great Being in whom is light and no darkness at all, and who cannot be tempted with evil, save through Christ. In Christ there is hope for the sinner, something to draw him, something to lift him above useless resolutions and vain struggles. Jesus Christ is the Way. "You have come to Mount Zion," says the writer in Heb 12. To the real Zion, which is part of the city of the living God. But we are brought there that we may be safely and permanently introduced into the true holy of holies, and into that communion with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which gives purity and blessedness.

III THE MODE OF APPROACH. The whole man must be united in a true approach to God. It is now that we have to approach, and there can be no separation between the inward and the outward man. The heart must be right and the body must be right. Mere bodily approach could never have profited at any time, save to the extent that it freed the worshipper from the penalties of complete disobedience. But still bodily approach has its place. With the body we have to serve God; and cleanliness is not only a wholesome and a comfortable thing it is also sacred. People have sometimes been exposed to ridicule by quoting the common saying, "Cleanliness is next to godliness," as being from the Scriptures. They are not so far wrong, for that is what this passage virtually says. Then with a true heart, and a vigorous, prosperous faith bearing us onwards, we shall make a real and secure progress towards possession of the mysteries of godliness. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, the apostle now proceeds to exhortation deduced from what has been treated of chap. v, 4, which he begins by a brief recapitulation. Having therefore liberty to enter,

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

An Admonition to Stand Firm in the Faith, with Patience and Thanksgiving.

The necessity of holding fast the profession of faith:

v. 19. Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

v. 20. by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh,

v. 21. and having an High Priest over the house of God,

v. 22. let us draw near with a true he art in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

v. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, (for he is faithful that promised,)

v. 24. and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works;

v. 25. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.

On the basis of the entire doctrinal discussion as the author brought it in the first part of his letter, he now offers various admonitions, since it is self-evident with a Christian that sanctification follows justification. The connection with the pictures of the entire preceding section is very skillful: Having, then, brethren, confidence for the entrance into the Most Holy Place in the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, through His flesh, and a High Priest over the house of God. Because Christ Jesus, as the true High Priest, through the one sacrifice of Himself, has perfected us forever, therefore the writer may freely talk to us in this strain. It is the form of address which always makes an impression and usually has the desired result in the case of Christians. Our confident expectation of entering into the most holy place of heaven is not based upon any merit or worthiness in ourselves, but upon the blood, upon the merit of Jesus. For Jesus Himself is the new, the living Way. If we are but united with Him in the intimate fellowship of faith, then our way, with Him, will lead us through the veil of His own flesh into the very presence of the divine glory. For just as the high priest of old pushed aside the veil which barred the way into the Most Holy Place, so Jesus laid aside the mortality of His flesh, the weakness of His earthly life, and opened unto us heaven itself, giving us free access to the Throne of Grace, Mat 27:51; Mar 15:31; Luk 23:45. Nor is that all. Not only did we have, when Jesus was living here on earth, but we have even now, a great High Priest over the sanctuary of heaven; for it is now that Christ is performing that part of His work which assures us of the fact that the mansions above are ready for our occupancy; for He is our Advocate with the Father. And who else would be qualified to plead our cause in the same measure as He to whom we owe our salvation? Knowing this, we have boldness and confidence of faith. We know that the way is prepared for us, and that we may enter into the sanctuary of heaven, into our home above, whenever the Lord calls us.

This being the case: Let us keep approaching with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience, and having our bodies washed with clean water. Using a term which is taken from the Old Testament cult concerning the regular and repeated entering of the priests, their drawing near to the altar to perform the work of their office, the inspired writer urges us, as true priests of the New Testament, to approach to the Lord with the confidence of faith. With a true heart we should come, not with hypocritical sanctimoniousness, but disposed in such a manner as to be really interested with the whole soul in the worship of the Lord, seeking His grace. In full assurance of faith we should draw near, not in absolute certainty, but in firm reliance upon the salvation earned by the blood of Jesus, since the correlate of faith is always the Word of the Gospel with its message of redemption. For that reason faith is not a subjective matter, not a matter of feeling and disposition, but an objective certainty which clings to the promises of the Lord. We should come having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience; being assured that the filth of our hearts has been washed away by the blood of Jesus, we can prepare our hearts for the work of priests to the almighty Lord, Exo 29:4; Exo 30:20; Exo 40:30, even as our bodies are washed with clean water, the cleansing water of Baptism having washed away all our sins, Eph 5:26: Tit 3:5. Thus prepared, we are privileged at all times to approach the heavenly temple and the eternal altar by a new and living way, enter its inner sanctuary by faith, and present ourselves in the presence of God.

This being the situation, it follows: Let us hold fast and unbending the confession of our hope, for faithful is He that promised, and let us consider one another for the purpose of inciting to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling together, as is the custom of some, but admonishing one another, and this the more so, in proportion as you see the day drawing near. ALL Christians may be so firm in their faith and in their hope because this hope has such a firm foundation, one that does not rest upon the uncertain sands of human opinion or protestations of friendship, but upon the faithfulness of our Lord, 1Co 1:9; 1Co 10:13; 1Th 5:24. We are not yet enjoying the fullness of the blessing which He has held out before us, we are not yet experiencing the consummation of our salvation, but God’s promises cannot fail, not one of them will ever fall to the ground. But while we are still walking in the flesh, we must take into account our own and our neighbor’s weakness, and for that reason, in a tactful way, incite and stimulate one another to love and excellent works. See 1Th 5:11. This constant stimulation and emulation cannot take place, of course, where the Christians do not meet together, both for public worship and for other assemblies in which the weal and woe of the work of the Lord is discussed. The writer, therefore, urges the believers not to neglect such meetings. Even in those days, as the writer is obliged to remark, some of the members of the congregations had the bad habit of staying away from such meetings of edification, probably with the plea of pressure of business or from fear of persecution, just as it is today. The nearness of the last day, however, and the remembrance of the account which we shall be obliged to render on that day should make us willing and eager to heed the admonition here given. If people professing the Christian faith neglect churchgoing and attendance at the meetings set aside for mutual encouragement and admonition, they not only give offense to the weak in faith, but are themselves endangering their Christianity, their faith. The change from faith to unbelief often comes on so gradually, so imperceptibly, that the damage is done before the deluded victim is aware of it. Faithfulness in the regular use of the Word and the Sacrament should characterize all true Christians.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The apostle having thus finished the doctrinal part of his discourse, and informed their judgment of the excellency of the evangelical service above the Levitical sacrifices, he comes now, in several weighty and important duties, which appeared to be incumbent upon them; as namely to "draw near to God," to preserve in the Christian profession, to stir up one another to love and good works, to continue in Christian communion, Heb 10:22-25.

The first duty exhorted to is to draw near to God, seeing we have boldness, &c. Let us draw near with a true heart.

Note here, 1. The duty exhorted to, and that is, to draw near to God; in general, to worship him; in particular, to pray unto him, and seek remission fo sin and eternal life from him; to come unto God as clothed with glorious majesty, sitting upon a throne of grace, and propitiated by the blood of Christ.

Note, 2. The manner of performing this duty, with a pure heart, and in full assurance of faith: With the heart, or we give him a skin instead of a sacrifice: With sincerity of heart, which is the life and soul of all acceptable worship; and with a full assurance of faith grounded upon the fidelity of God, and the immutability of the promise.

Note, 3. THe qualifications of the person: He that draws near to God must:

1. Have his heart sprinkled from and evil conscience, that is, his soul cleansed by the blood of Christ, and freed from the accusatons of an evil condemning conscience.

2. His body washed with pure water, to wit, the lover of regeneration, which was signified by the legal washings.

Note, 4. The encouragement we have thus to draw near to God; and that is threefold:

1. We have a new and living way unto the holiest by the blood of Jesus; an allusion to the legal dispensation, wherein the high priest had a way to pass through the vail with blood into the holiest, to expiate the people’s sins, and obtain mercy for them: Ours is called a new way, because newly made manifest; and a living way, because it leads to and ends in life eternal; or a living way, in opposition to the typical way of of going into the holiest, which was a dead way to all but the high priest, and to him too if he entered above once a year, and then also if he entered without blood.

Farther, this new and living way is here said to be consecrated through the vail of Christ’s flesh; that is, made passable for penitent sinners, the throne of grace made accessible through the blood of a mediator. When Christ died, the vail of the temple was rent, to signify that our great High Priest was ready to enter the holy place of heaven, to procure eternal redemption for us.

2. Encouragement is boldness, or freedom and liberty to enter into the holiest; a freedom for our prayers to enter heaven whilst we live and a right and liberty for our persons to enter it when we die.

3. The mean whereby we obtain this liberty, By the blood of Jesus. We, that before could not come near him for our sins, may now come near him by faith in the blood of his Son; for that blood satisfied justice, merited divine favour, and made God accessible.

Learn hence, 1. That as sin had mad God inaccessible to sinners, as sinners; so the blood of Christ, that new and living way, has made him accessible to believers.

2. That although, from the first promise of Christ, there was always a way for believers to come to God, yet it was not so manifest, as it was after Christ’s death and ascension, and the gospel’s revelation.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19–22. Having therefore, brethren, boldness. It has now been shown that Christ has, as our high priest, opened the way into the holiest of all, the heavens, for us. Hence we may follow with boldness. We have the assurance of heaven.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Having made it clear that there is only one sacrifice for sin, the writer continues with the picture of the most holy place in the temple, where only the high priest could enter each year with the blood of the sacrifice for sins. He reminds the believers that they now worship God in his presence as if they were standing in the most holy place.

brothers

Here this means all believers in Christ whether male or female. AT: "brothers and sisters" or "fellow believers" (See: Metaphor and When Masculine Words Include Women)

the most holy place

This means the presence of God, not the most holy place in the old tabernacle. (See: Metaphor)

by the blood of Jesus

Here "blood of Jesus" refers to the death of Jesus. (See: Metonymy)

living way

Possible meanings are 1) this new way to God that Jesus has provided results in believers living forever or 2) Jesus is alive, and he is the way believers enter into the presence of God.

through the curtain

The curtain in the earthly temple represents the separation between people and God's true presence. (See: Metaphor)

by means of his flesh

Here "flesh" stands for the body of Jesus, and his body stands for his sacrificial death. AT: "by means of his death" (See: Metonymy)

we have a great priest over the house of God

This must be translated in such a way as to make it clear that Jesus is this "great priest."

over the house

"in charge of the house"

the house of God

This speaks about God's people as if they were a literal house. AT: "all the people of God" (See: Metaphor)

let us approach

Here "approach" stands for worshiping God, as a priest would go up to God's altar to sacrifice animals to him. (See: Metonymy)

with true hearts

"with faithful hearts" or "with honest hearts." Here "hearts" stands for the genuine will and motivation of the believers. AT: "with sincerity" or "sincerely" (See: Metonymy)

in the full assurance of faith

"and with a confident faith" or "and trusting completely in Jesus"

having our hearts sprinkled clean

This can be stated in active form. AT: "as if had he made our hearts clean with his blood" (See: Active or Passive)

hearts sprinkled clean

Here "hearts" is a metonym for the conscience, the awareness of right and wrong. Being made clean is a metaphor for being forgiven and being given the status of righteousness. (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)

sprinkled

Sprinkling was a symbolic action done by the priests by which they applied the benefits of the covenant to people and to objects. See how you translated this in Hebrews 9:19. (See: Symbolic Action)

having our bodies washed with pure water

This can be stated in active form. AT: "as if he had washed our bodies in pure water" (See: Active or Passive)

our bodies washed with pure water

If the translator understands this phrase as referring to Christian baptism, then "water" is literal, not figurative. But if water is taken as literal, then "pure" is figurative, standing for the spiritual purity that baptism is said here to accomplish. The "washing" stands for the believer being made acceptable to God. (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)

translationWords

brother

confidence

holy place

blood

Jesus

life

curtain

flesh

priest

house of God

true

heart

faith

clean

evil

conscience

water

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

19–25. AN EXHORTATION TO CHRISTIAN CONFIDENCE AND FELLOWSHIP

19. ἀδελφοί. Heb 3:1; Heb 3:12, Heb 13:22.

παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον κ.τ.λ. “Confidence in the blood of Jesus, for our entrance into the Holiest.” This right of joyful confidence in our access to God through Christ is dwelt upon in Eph 2:18; Eph 3:12.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To enter into the holiest [εις την εισοδον των αγιων] . Lit. for the entering of the holiest. The phrase parrhsia eijv boldness unto, N. T. o. Parrhsia with peri concerning, Joh 16:25; with provwith reference to, 2Co 7:4; 1Jo 3:21; 1Jo 5:14. Eisodov in N. T. habitually of the act of entering.

By the blood [εν τω αιματι] . Lit. "in the blood" : in the power or virtue of.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. ἔχοντες οὖν, ἀδελφοί... Having therefore, brethren...That which was under the Law a privilege of one only, once a year, is now the privilege of all Christians at all times The form of the sentonce is closely parallel to c. iv. 13 ff.

The title ἀδελφοί (compare o. iii. 1 note) is an impressive recognition of the new fellowship established in

Christ. By using it the writer appeals to his readers to consider what thoy have received as Obristians.

παρρησίαν) boldness in spite of the frankest recognition of our sins. Comp. iii. 6 note; iv. 16,

...00 μόνον δὲ τοῦτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ avyκληρονόμους γενέσθαι καὶ τοσαύτης ἀπολαῦσαι ἀγάπης (Chrys.).

els τὴν alo. τ. à.] to use the entrance into the Holy place, Vulg. in tntrottu (-um) sanctorum. Each Christian in virtue of his followship with Obrist is now a high-priest, and is able to come to the very presence of God. The ‘entrance’ expresses primarily the way iteelf, and then also the use of the way. Elsowhero in tho N. T. εἴσοδος is used generally of ‘tho act of entering’: 1 Theas. i. 9; ii. 1; Acts xiii. 24; but in 2 Pet. i. 11 it has rather the sense of ‘the means of entering,’ and the parallel with ὁδός (Ὁ. 20) seems to fix this as the dominant sense here.

Tho use of the phrase ‘ boldness for (to use) the entrance’ instead of the simpler ‘boldinoss to cntor’ (παρρησίαν τοῦ εἰσιέναι) calls up distinotly both the characteristic act of the Highpriest, and the provision mado by Christ. For the gen. τῶν ἁγίων see ©. ix. 8.

For els, describing the end, compare v. 24; Acts ii. 38; Rom. viii. 15; 2 Cor. vii. 9; 2 Pet. ii. 12; and for

ἐν τῷ αἵματι) Vulg. ἐπ sanguine. Tho entrance of Christians into the divine presence is ‘in the blood of Jesus ’—even as the Levitical Highpriest entered into the Holy of holies ‘in blood,’ though it was the blood of dAXorpie—in the power, that is, of the human life of the Lord offered up aad made available for them: His life is

connected with dédy (and not with τοῦ

πολιτείας. But this view, though it has found wider acceptance (6g. Primasius: Sicut per velamen perveniebatur ad interiora, ita per humanitatem pervenitur ad divinitatis cognitionom), is wholly at variance with the imagery of the Epistle, and with the symbolism of tho Old Testament. On the othor hand it witnesses to the truth that Christ's ‘flosh’ is ‘the way.’

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.