Hebrews 10:17

Verse 11 describes the daily work of the priests under the law, first in the tabernacle and later in the temple at Jerusalem. The word for priest, hiereús, means the Levitical priests here, and “every priest” takes in all of them, one generation after another. Each one “standeth daily ministering”, and the verb hístēmi is the plain word for standing. They stood because their work was always unfinished. Every day brought more sacrifices: the daily burnt offering, a lamb in the morning and another in the evening (Exodus 29:38–42), known as the tamid, along with sin offerings, guilt offerings and peace offerings for the people’s many sins and defilements.

The verse presses the same point from several sides. “Daily” is katá hēméran, day by day, “oftentimes” is pollákis, many times, and each time the priests offered “the same sacrifices”. A sacrifice that had truly dealt with sin would have needed offering only once, so the repetition itself showed what these sacrifices lacked. The writer has already said that the law was a shadow of the good things to come and was unable to make the worshippers perfect (Hebrews 10:1), that the blood of animals is unable to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), and that the sacrifices brought sins back to mind year by year (Hebrews 10:3).

The verse ends on its plainest words: these sacrifices “can never take away sins.” The verb periairéō means to remove all around, as a veil is taken off or an anchor cast off, and figuratively to expiate. Joined to dýnamai, “can”, and oudépote, “never at all”, it says that the sacrifices were unable at any time to do this. They gave a real ceremonial cleansing and covered sin for a season. The cleansing of the conscience and the final removal of guilt before God waited for a better sacrifice. Paul speaks of the law as weakened by the flesh (Romans 8:3), and Hebrews itself speaks of the weakness of the former commandment, for “the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:18–19).

So the verse prepares for the contrast that follows. The priests stand, and in the next verse Christ sits down.

“But this man” turns from the many priests to the one. The connective dé, “but”, marks the contrast, and “this man” is Jesus Christ. The verb behind “had offered” is prosphérō, which is also the verb behind “offering” in verse 11, so the priests and Christ are both said to offer. What comes after the offering is where they part.

Christ “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever.” “One” is mía, the ordinary numeral, and “sacrifice” is thysía (from thýō, to sacrifice), the same word as the priests’ “sacrifices” in verse 11. It can mean the act of sacrifice or the victim offered, and here it is Christ’s offering of himself on the cross. Set beside the many sacrifices of verse 11, the one sacrifice shows its sufficiency: it was offered once, and it was enough. Hebrews says this in other places too. Christ offered up himself once for all (Hebrews 7:27), and his single appearance and single sacrifice make any further sacrifice unnecessary (Hebrews 9:26–28). Earlier in this chapter he came to do God’s will, setting aside the first covenant to establish the second (Hebrews 10:9), and by that will we are sanctified through the offering of his body once for all (Hebrews 10:10). He is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) and the sin offering God sent his Son to be (Romans 8:3).

“For ever” is eis with diēnekḗs, a word meaning “carried through”, used as an adverb for what continues without a break. The same phrase comes back in verse 14. The sacrifice keeps its full effect, so this one offering is all that will ever be needed.

“Sat down” is kathízō, to sit down or to seat. The meaning of the posture comes from its place in the passage. The priests of verse 11 stand because their work goes on, and Christ sits because his offering is complete. In Scripture a king or a judge sat to rule and to give judgment, and a man sat when his task was done. So the seated Christ is the priest whose work is finished and the king who reigns.

“On the right hand of God” is en (“on”), dexiós (“right hand”) and theós (“God”). Dexiós means right or the right hand, and in a setting like this one the right hand of a king is the place of honour and power. The words come from Psalm 110:1: “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Hebrews opened with the same picture of the exalted Son (Hebrews 1:3), and the apostles return to it often. God set Christ at his own right hand as Lord over all (Ephesians 1:20–22), angels, authorities and powers are subject to him there (1 Peter 3:22), and believers set their hearts on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1). His seat there shows that the Father has accepted his sacrifice. And because our High Priest is seated in power, we can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).

“From henceforth” is loipón, an adverb meaning “for the rest” or “from now on”, and it marks the whole time since Christ sat down. “Expecting” is ekdéchomai, to wait for or look for. He waits from the throne for what God promised in Psalm 110:1, “until I make thine enemies thy footstool,” and since the Father is the one who makes it so, the outcome is sure.

“Enemies” is echthrós, from a word meaning to hate: those who are hostile, adversaries. Here it takes in every power that sets itself against God and his Christ, spiritual powers and human rebellion alike, and at the last death itself. Paul writes that Christ must reign until all his enemies are under his feet, and that the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:25–26).

“Be made” is títhēmi, to place or set, and “footstool” is hypopódion, something under the feet, built from hypó, “under”, and poús, “foot”. A footstool can be ordinary furniture, and here it is a figure of rule and subjection. The kings of that day showed a full victory by setting a foot on a defeated enemy and by carving such scenes on their monuments, and the psalm uses that picture for the Messiah’s triumph. Peter quoted the same psalm at Pentecost to proclaim the exalted Jesus as the Messiah who reigns (Acts 2:33–36).

Verse 14 gives the reason (gár, “for”) that Christ can sit. “By one offering” uses mía again, now with prosphorá, a noun formed from prosphérō that means a presentation, an offering or sacrifice. The many offerings of the law were unable to make anyone perfect, and this one offering has done it.

“He hath perfected” is teleióō, to complete, accomplish, bring to its end. The verb is in the perfect tense, which speaks of a finished act whose result remains. Christ has brought his people to completion before God, fully cleansed and fully accepted, and “for ever” (eis diēnekḗs again) says that the result lasts. He did it when he “entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,” and his blood cleanses the conscience (Hebrews 9:11–14), so that he became “the author of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:9). Paul says that we are complete in him (Colossians 2:10) and that those who are in Christ Jesus are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1), and Peter writes that Christ suffered once for sins (1 Peter 3:18).

“Them that are sanctified” is a form of hagiázō, to make holy, to consecrate or hallow. It is a present passive participle, which can also be rendered “those who are being sanctified.” God has set these people apart for himself through faith in Christ, and the holiness still being worked out in their lives rests on the perfection the one offering has already given them. The verse holds the finished work and the growing life together, with the finished work first.

“Whereof” renders the small connective dé, which joins this verse to the argument just made, and “also” adds a further witness to it: “the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.” Hágios means holy, sacred and pure, and pneûma means breath or wind and, figuratively, a spirit. Together they name the Spirit of God. The verb martyréō is to be a witness, to testify or give evidence, as a witness does before a court. The Spirit testifies as a person, and he testifies “to us”, to the writer and his readers together.

“For after that he had said before” gives the ground of the witness. Gár, “for”, introduces the reason, and proeréō means to say beforehand or foretell. What the Spirit said beforehand are the words of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34), which fill verses 16 and 17. So the Spirit bears witness through Scripture, and the new covenant Christ brought is the one God promised centuries earlier as part of his settled plan. Scripture also speaks of the Spirit bearing witness within believers that they are God’s children (Romans 8:16), of the Spirit who bears witness because he is truth (1 John 5:6), and of the Spirit as a witness with the apostles to the exalted Christ (Acts 5:32). The Son offered the sacrifice, and the Spirit bears witness to what he has done, so that Father, Son and Spirit are at work together in our salvation.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord.” “Covenant” is diathḗkē, a disposition or arrangement, and so a covenant or a will. “I will make” is diatíthemai, the verb it comes from, which means to arrange or dispose by compact or bequest. God sets the terms himself, and every promise is in his own voice: “I will make”, “I will put”, “will I write”. “After those days” looks to the new time Jeremiah foresaw, the time Jesus opened when he gave the cup as the new testament in his blood (Luke 22:20). Christ is the mediator of this better covenant (Hebrews 8:6).

Under the first covenant the law was written on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18). It set a true standard and showed people their sin (Romans 7:7–13), and the power to obey it had to come from God. Here he promises to give it. He will put his laws “into their hearts” and write them “in their minds”. The heart, kardía, is the inner person, the seat of thought and feeling, desire and will. The mind, diánoia, is deep thought, the faculty of understanding and its use. Together they take in the whole inner life, so that God’s people understand his will and want it from within, and obedience comes out of a renewed heart.

Ezekiel carries the same promise of a new heart and God’s own Spirit within his people, enabling them to walk in his ways (Ezekiel 36:26–27). Paul calls believers a letter of Christ, written by the Spirit on the heart (2 Corinthians 3:3), and says that the righteousness the law requires is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Christ’s blood, which cleanses the conscience, opened the way for the Spirit to dwell in believers and write God’s laws within them.

The last words of the Spirit’s witness carry the weight of the argument: “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews has given this promise once before, when it first quoted Jeremiah (Hebrews 8:12), and here it brings it back to prove what verse 14 said.

“Sins” is hamartía, the usual word for sin, the same word behind “sins” in verses 11 and 12 and “sin” in verse 18. “Iniquities” is anomía, illegality, the breaking of law, and more broadly wickedness. Together the two words cover every wrong against God that stands between him and his people.

“Will I remember no more” joins mnáomai, to bear in mind or recall, and by implication to reward or punish, with ou mḗ, a double negative that strengthens the denial, and éti, “any longer”. The force is “I will by no means remember them any longer.” Under the law the sacrifices brought sins to remembrance every year, and under the new covenant God declares the end of that remembrance. Isaiah heard the same from the LORD, who blots out the transgressions of his people (Isaiah 43:25).

“Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” “Now” is dé again, bringing in the conclusion, and “these” are the sins and iniquities of verse 17. “Remission” is áphesis, freedom, and figuratively pardon, forgiveness or release. “No more” is oukéti, “no longer”. “Offering” is prosphorá, the same word as “by one offering” in verse 14. The argument is complete: Christ’s one offering has brought remission, and where sins are forgiven like that, the purpose of every offering for sin has been fulfilled. The debt is paid and the guilt is gone.

With this verse the writer closes the long argument about Christ’s priesthood that runs from chapter 7. Paul gives the same truth in his own words: “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God” (Romans 6:10). God has forgiven us all trespasses, “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:13–14). John writes that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), and that Christ is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). He is the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The writer turns at once to what follows for us: we have confidence to enter the holiest by his blood (Hebrews 10:19–22).

The first readers of Hebrews were Jewish Christians under heavy pressure, perhaps persecution, and tempted to return to the familiar worship they had known. For centuries the temple and its daily and yearly sacrifices had been the centre of that worship and their tangible way of dealing with sin, so the words “there is no more offering for sin” were startling. They meant that what the sacrifices pointed to had come, and that to go back to them would be to go back to shadows.

These verses give us a High Priest who has sat down. Everything the old priests did standing, day after day, he finished in one offering, and God has accepted it and seated him at his right hand. Our acceptance rests on that finished work and on God’s own word, “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” The same God writes his laws in our hearts, so the holiness he asks of us grows out of the welcome he has already given. Where guilt over an old sin still lingers, verse 18 answers it: the offering for that sin was made, once, by Christ. And the King who sits at God’s right hand waits, sure of the day when every enemy, death included, lies under his feet.