Hebrews 10:1-25-- Confidence to Enter

Scripture: Hebrews 10:1-25 (especially verses 19 to 25)

In some sense, the first 9 chapters of Hebrews have all been leading up to this literary moment. The author is about to take a turn in chapter 11, so chapter 10 is the crescendo of all the arguments we've seen so far about Jesus' priesthood, covenant, and ministry being far better than the things of old.

Reading those arguments, beautiful though they may be, you might wonder a fair question-- 'So what? What's the point? How does this affect me?' (Okay, three fair questions.) In chapter 10, you get your answer.


The impact this all has on our everyday lives stems from truths the author explains in v. 1-14. Jesus' sacrifice is permanent, and thus it gives us access to the Father and confidence in our relationship to Him. And this, as we see in v. 19-25, means a lot.

In the old system, repetitive sacrifices were made because sin just kept happening and forgiveness was needed over and over again. This kept a person in a continual pattern of guilt; and that was sort of the point ("those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sin"). Far from things like 'freedom' and 'confidence', people's relationships with God were marked by endless cycles and inability to change.

And it wasn't just the 'old system' that's like this, right?! When we stray from the gospel and try to maintain other types of relationships to God, don't we find the same results? It's so easy for me, for instance, to try to drift into a system in which I try to please God with good decisions or ministry activities, and if I mess up, then I work extra hard to get back into His good graces.

Guess what? There's nothing there but an endless cycle, a continual pattern of guilt.

And this is the beauty of Hebrews 10:19-25-- we have been broken out of that cycle. The author here gives us the practical implications of Jesus' system being better than ours:

Because we have confidence in Jesus' sacrifice and priesthood (rather than our own religious efforts) [v. 19-21], we are free to do three things:

• draw near to God (with a sincere heart and full assurance)
• hold unswervingly to our hope (because of God's faithfulness)
• encourage each other to love and good deeds 

These three things are really hard to do when you're in a cycle of guilt and 'trying harder'. (They're even harder when there's no sacrifice or religion and our sin prevents all three.) But we have a perfect High Priest who has made a permanent sacrifice. 

"And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary."