10:1 For 1 the law having a shadow of good things to a come,
[and] not the very image of the things, can never with
those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
(1) He prevents a private objection. Why then were those
sacrifices offered? The apostle answers, first concerning
the yearly sacrifice which was the solemnest of all, in
which (he says) there was made every year a remembrance
again of all former sins. Therefore that sacrifice had no
power to sanctify: for to what purpose should those sins
which are purged be repeated again, and why should new sins
come to be repeated every year, if those sacrifices
abolished sin?
(a) Of things which are everlasting, which were promised to
the fathers, and exhibited in Christ.
10:52 Wherefore when he b cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a c body
hast thou prepared me:
(2) A conclusion following those things that went before, and
encompassing also the other sacrifices. Seeing that the
sacrifices of the law could not do it, therefore Christ
speaking of himself as of our High Priest manifested in the
flesh, witnesses plainly that God rests not in the
sacrifices, but in the obedience of his Son our High
Priest, in whose obedience he offered up himself once to
his Father for us.
(b) The Son of God is said to come into the world, when he
was made man.
(c) It is word for word in the Hebrew text, "You have
pierced my ears through" that is, "you have made me
obedient and willing to hear".
10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the d first, that he may establish the second.
(d) That is, the sacrifices, to establish the second, that
is, the will of God.
10:113 And every priest standeth e daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins:
(3) A conclusion, with the other part of the comparison: The
Levitical high priest repeats the same sacrifices daily in
his sanctuary: upon which it follows that neither those
sacrifices, nor those offerings, nor those high priests
could take away sins. But Christ having offered one
sacrifice once for the sins of all men, and having
sanctified his own for ever, sits at the right hand of the
Father, having all power in his hands.
(e) At the altar.
10:134 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool.
(4) He prevents a private objection, that is, that yet
nonetheless we are subject to sin and death, to which the
apostle answers, that the full effect of Christ's power
has not yet shown itself, but shall eventually appear when
he will at once put to flight all his enemies, with whom we
still struggle.
10:155 [Whereof] the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for
after that he had said before,
(5) Although there remains in us relics of sin, yet the work of
our sanctification which is to be perfected, hangs on the
same sacrifice which never shall be repeated: and that the
apostle proves by referring again to the testimony of
Jeremiah, thus: Sin is taken away by the new testament,
seeing the Lord says that it shall come to pass, that
according to the form of it, he will no more remember our
sins: Therefore we need now no purging sacrifice to take
away that which is already taken away, but we must rather
take pains, that we may now through faith be partakers of
that sacrifice.
10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember f no more.
(f) Why then, where is the fire of purgatory, and that
popish distinction of the fault, and the punishment?
10:18 Now where remission of these [is, there is] no more
offering for g sin.
(g) He said well, for sin: for there remains another
offering, that is, of thanksgiving.
10:196 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus,
(6) The sum of the former treatise: We are not shut out from
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, does the High
Priest shut us out by setting the veil against us, but
through the veil, which is his flesh, he has brought us
into heaven itself, so that we have now truly an High Priest
who is over the house of God.
10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is to say, his h flesh;
(h) So Christ's flesh shows us the Godhead as if it were
under a veil, For otherwise we could not stand the
brightness of it.
10:227 Let us draw near with a i true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our k hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with l pure
water.
(7) A most grave exhortation, in which he shows how the
sacrifice of Christ may be applied to us: that is, by faith
which also he describes by the consequence, that is, by
sanctification of the Spirit, which causes us to hope in
God, and to procure by all means possible one another's
salvation, through the love that is in us one towards
another.
(i) With no double and counterfeit heart, but with such a
heart as is truly and indeed given to God.
(k) This is it which the Lord says, Be ye holy, for I am
holy.
(l) With the grace of the Holy Spirit.
10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: 8 and
so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
(8) Having mentioned the last coming of Christ, he stirs up the
godly to the meditation of a holy life, and cites the
faithless fallers from God to the fearful judgment seat of
the Judge, because they wickedly rejected him in whom only
salvation consists.
10:26 For if we sin m wilfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins,
(m) Without any cause or occasion, or show of occasion.
10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the n adversaries.
(n) For it is another matter to sin through the frailty of
man's nature, and another thing to proclaim war on God
as on an enemy.
10:289 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses:
(9) If the breach of the law of Moses was punished by death,
how much more worthy of death is it to fall away from
Christ?
10:3010 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [belongeth]
unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The
Lord shall o judge his people.
(10) The reason of all these things is, because God is a
revenger of those who despise him: otherwise he could not
rightly govern his Church. Now there is nothing more
horrible then the wrath of the living God.
(o) Rule or govern.
10:3211 But call to remembrance the former days, in which,
after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of
afflictions;
(11) As he terrified the fallers away from God, so does he now
comfort them that are constant and stand firm, setting
before them the success of their former fights, so
stirring them up to a sure hope of a full and ready
victory.
10:33 Partly, whilst ye were made a p gazingstock both by
reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became
q companions of them that were so used.
(p) You were brought forth to be shamed.
(q) In taking their miseries, to be your miseries.
10:34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully
the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye
have in heaven a better and an enduring r substance.
(r) Goods and riches.
10:37 For yet a s little while, and he that shall come will
come, and will not tarry.
(s) He will come within this very little while.
10:3812 Now the just shall live by faith: but if [any man]
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
(12) He commends the excellency of a sure faith by the effect,
because it is the only way to life, which sentence he sets
forth and amplifies by contrast.
