Hebrews 10:19 - Meaning and Application

Here the apostle lays out the honors and privileges of the gospel life. Believers should know what Christ has won for them, so they may enjoy the comfort and give him the glory. The first privilege is boldness to enter the holiest, that is, free access to God. They have light to guide them, freedom of heart and speech to follow that light, a right to this privilege, help to use it well, and confidence that they will be welcomed.

They may enter God’s gracious presence in his holy Word, his ordinances, his providences, and his covenant. In that way, they enjoy fellowship with God and receive what he gives them, until they are ready to enter his glorious presence in heaven. Another privilege is that they have a great high priest, Jesus, over the house of God. He rules over the church on earth and over the church in heaven. God is willing to dwell with people on earth and have them dwell with him in heaven, but fallen people cannot live with God without a high priest, the Mediator, the one who brings reconciliation here and final enjoyment of God hereafter.

The apostle then shows how Christians come into these privileges. In general, it is by the blood of Jesus, meaning the worth of his sacrifice offered to God as an atoning sacrifice, a payment that turns away sin’s guilt. He has bought, for all who believe, free access to God in the means of grace now and in the kingdom of glory later. When this blood is sprinkled on the conscience, it drives away slavish fear and gives the believer confidence of safety and welcome in God’s presence.

He then explains this way of access more fully. First, it is the only way. The first path to the tree of life has long been shut. Second, it is a new way, standing against both the covenant of works, which treats obedience as the path to life, and the older Old Testament system. It is the final way ever opened to human beings, and those who refuse it shut themselves out forever. It is a way that will always work.

Third, it is a living way. To try to come to God by the covenant of works would mean death, but through this way we may come to God and live. It is opened by a living Savior, who was dead and is now alive. It is also a way that gives life and a living hope to all who enter it. Fourth, it is a way Christ has opened for us through the veil, that is, through his flesh. The veil in the tabernacle and temple pointed to Christ’s body. When he died, the temple veil was torn, and that happened at the time of the evening sacrifice. It gave the people a startling view into the holy of holies, a view they had never had before. Our way to heaven is through a crucified Savior, and his death is our path to life.

Because these privileges are so great, the Hebrews are bound to certain duties. First, they must draw near to God, and they must do it in the right way. Since such a way back to God is open, it would be great ingratitude, and contempt for God and Christ, to stay far away. They must draw near by conversion and by taking hold of his covenant. They must draw near in holy living, like Enoch, who walked with God. They must draw near in humble worship, bowing before his footstool. They must also draw near in trusting dependence and careful obedience to God’s leading, always seeking closer fellowship with him until they dwell in his presence. Yet they must be sure their approach is made rightly.

They must come with a true heart, with no allowed deceit or hypocrisy. God searches hearts, and he wants truth deep inside. Sincerity is the gospel’s perfection, though it is not the righteousness that justifies, that is, the righteousness that puts us right with God. They must come in full assurance of faith, with trust fully persuaded that when they come to God through Christ they will be heard and accepted. They should put away every sinful doubt. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and the stronger our faith, the more glory we give him.

They must come with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, by believing application of Christ’s blood to the soul. In this way they may be cleansed from guilt, from corruption, from sinful fear and torment, from unwillingness toward God and duty, from ignorance, error, superstition, and every other trouble sin brings on the conscience. They must also come with bodies washed with pure water, meaning either baptism, by which we are marked out as Christ’s disciples and members of his spiritual body, or the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, who reforms our outward life as well as our inward state. He cleanses us from the filth of the flesh as well as the spirit. The priests under the law had to wash before they entered the Lord’s presence to offer sacrifice. So there must be careful preparation when we draw near to God.

The apostle also urges believers to hold fast the profession of their faith. They are to cling to all the truths and ways of the gospel, to grip them firmly, and to keep that grip against temptation and opposition. Spiritual enemies will try to tear faith, hope, holiness, and comfort out of our hands, but we must hold our religion as our greatest treasure. We must do this without wavering, without doubt, without arguing ourselves out of obedience, and without lingering over temptation to turn away from Christ. Once these great matters are settled between God and our souls, we must remain steady and unmovable.

The reason is plain: he who promised is faithful. God has made great and precious promises to believers, and he is true to his word. There is no falsehood or fickleness in him, and there should be none in us. His faithfulness should move us to be faithful. We must trust his promises to us more than our promises to him, and we must ask him to give the grace we need.

The apostle also gives means for keeping us from turning away and for helping us remain faithful and persevere. He mentions several, beginning with this: we should think about one another, in order to stir up love and good works.

Christians should care deeply about one another. They ought to think about each other’s needs, weaknesses, and temptations, and do so with love, not with an accusing spirit. The goal is to stir one another up to love and good works, to love God and Christ more, to love holiness more, and to serve each other in body and soul. A good example is often the strongest and most effective way to encourage love and good deeds.

They should also not give up meeting together, as Hebrews 10:25 says. Christ wants his disciples to gather, sometimes in smaller meetings for conversation and prayer, and also in public for worship and the hearing of the gospel. In the apostles’ day, and in every age, Christian meetings are needed for worship and for building one another up. Some even then were starting to neglect those gatherings, and that was one step toward turning away from the faith. The fellowship of believers is a great help and blessing, because it strengthens their hearts and hands.

Believers should also exhort one another. That means they should remind themselves and each other of duty, warn one another about the sin and danger of drifting from God, and watch over one another with holy concern. They should gently bring to mind their failures and corruptions, and keep one another alert with a godly seriousness. Done with the true spirit of the gospel, this is the best kind of friendship, warm and faithful.

They should also pay attention to the coming times of trial and let that push them toward greater diligence: “all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Christians ought to notice the signs of the times that God has foretold. A terrible day was approaching for the Jewish nation, when their city would be destroyed and the people would be rejected for rejecting Christ. That would bring scattering and many temptations to the chosen remnant, so the apostle urges them to meet more faithfully and encourage one another more fully, so they would be ready. There is also a trying day coming for every person, the day of death, and we should watch for its approach and let that make us more careful and steady in duty.

After speaking of these helps to keep believers firm, the apostle goes on at the end of the chapter to press perseverance and warn against falling away, using very serious reasons, in Hebrews 10:26-27 and following. He begins with the nature of apostasy, which is sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, sinning against truth that has been clearly shown. This verse has troubled some sincere believers, who feared that every willful sin after conviction is the unforgivable sin. That is an error. The sin described here is a full and final turning away from Christ, when people with a fixed will reject Christ, the only Savior, resist the Spirit, the only one who makes people holy, and reject the gospel, the only way of salvation and words of eternal life. They do this after knowing, owning, and professing the Christian faith, and they continue stubbornly and with malice. This is the great sin, like the presumptuous sin described in Numbers 15:30-31, for which the law said such people were to be cut off.

The apostle also points to the awful judgment that follows such apostasy. For such people, there is no longer any sacrifice left for sin, no other Christ who can come to save them. They have rejected the last refuge and remedy. Under the law, some sins had no sacrifices appointed, yet a truly repentant sinner could still look ahead to Christ and be saved from eternal ruin. But under the gospel, those who refuse Christ and will not be saved by him have no other place to turn.

For them there is only a fearful expectation of judgment, Hebrews 10:27. Some think this means the destruction of the Jewish church and nation, and it does include that, but it also means the final destruction that awaits all stubborn apostates at death and judgment. Then the Judge will show fiery anger against them, and that fire will destroy the enemies of God. They will be handed over to devouring fire and everlasting burning. Sometimes, even while still alive, God gives serious sinners a taste of this through their own consciences, so they live in dread, expecting punishment and feeling they can neither bear it nor escape it.

The apostle then compares this with the punishment under Moses’ law for those who despised that law, meaning those who sinned presumptuously and scorned God’s authority, warnings, and power. When such people were proved guilty by two or three witnesses, they were put to death, and they died without mercy, though only with a temporal death. Wise rulers should protect the honor of their government and laws by punishing deliberate offenders, but they must do so only when the evidence is solid. That was God’s rule in Moses’ law, and the apostle uses it to show how much worse the judgment must be for those who turn away from Christ. Their own consciences can judge how far greater their punishment will be by the greatness of their sin.

They have trampled the Son of God underfoot. To trample an ordinary person is outrageous; to do that to a person of honor is unbearable. But to treat the Son of God this way is the highest insult. It is to trample on his person by denying that he is the Messiah, to trample on his authority and weaken his kingdom, and to trample on his people, treating them like refuse and as though they had no right to live in the world. What punishment could be too great for such people?

They have also counted the blood of the covenant, by which Christ was sanctified, as something common and unclean. That is, they have treated the blood of Christ, which purchased and sealed the covenant, as if it had no holy worth. The words may also refer to the apostate himself, who had been sanctified, that is, baptized and outwardly brought into the new covenant, and admitted to the Lord’s Supper. There is a kind of sanctification that a person may share in and still fall away from. People may receive outward marks of religion, common gifts and graces, a profession of faith, a form of godliness, a life of religious duties, and certain privileges, and yet finally fall away.

People who once seemed to value the blood of Christ highly may later treat it as something unclean, no better than the blood of a criminal. Yet that blood was the ransom of the world, and every drop of it is of infinite worth.

They have also shown contempt for the Spirit of grace, that is, the Holy Spirit, who is kindly given to people and who produces grace wherever he works. This Spirit should be watched carefully and obeyed, yet they have grieved him, resisted him, quenched him, and even insulted him. That is the highest form of evil, and it leaves the sinner in a desperate place, because he refuses to let the gospel salvation be applied to him.

The writer then leaves the matter to the conscience of every reader. He appeals to common reason and fairness, asking whether such serious sins should not receive a fitting punishment, a harsher punishment than death without mercy. But what could be harsher than death without mercy? The answer is this, to die under the mercy and grace they have rejected. It is dreadful when not only God’s justice, but also his abused grace and mercy, call for punishment.

This warning is strengthened by what Scripture says about God’s righteous anger, his holy judgment against sin. God has said, “Vengeance is mine,” from Psalm 94:1. The terrors of the Lord are known both from revelation and from reason. His avenging justice is a glorious, though terrible, part of who he is. It belongs to him, and he will carry it out on those who despise his grace. He will take revenge for himself, for his Son, for his Spirit, and for his covenant, against those who turn away from him.

The other quotation is from Deuteronomy 32:36, “The Lord will judge his people.” He will examine and test his visible church, and he will uncover those who only claim to belong to him. He will separate the precious from the worthless and punish the sinners in Zion with great severity. So anyone who knows the God who said, “Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay,” must agree with the apostle’s conclusion in Hebrews 10:31: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Those who know the joy that comes from God’s favor can also judge the power and terror of his avenging wrath. The eternal misery of unrepentant sinners and apostates is this, they will fall into the hands of the living God. Their punishment will come from God himself. He will take them into the hand of his justice and deal with them personally, and their greatest misery will be the direct weight of divine wrath on their souls.

When God punishes through human agents, the instrument lessens the force of the blow. But when he punishes with his own hand, the suffering is complete and infinite. This is what they will receive from God’s hand. They will lie down in sorrow. Their ruin will come from his glorious and powerful presence. When they make their bitter bed in hell, they will find that God is there, and his presence will be their deepest terror and torment. And because he is the living God, he lives forever and will punish forever.

The apostle then urges them to keep going by reminding them of their earlier sufferings for Christ: “Call to mind the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions” (Hebrews 10:32). In the early days of the gospel, fierce persecution broke out against Christians, and the believing Hebrews had shared in it. He wants them to remember when they suffered, right after they were illuminated, that is, after God gave them spiritual light, brought them to life in their souls, and took them into his favor and covenant. Then earth and hell joined forces against them. A person in a natural state is in darkness, and as long as he stays there, Satan and the world do not trouble him much. But a state of grace is a state of light, so the powers of darkness violently oppose it. Those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution.

He also wants them to remember what they suffered. They endured a great fight of afflictions, many different troubles joining together against them. They were afflicted in their own persons, made public spectacles before the world, angels, and men (1 Corinthians 4:9). They were also hurt in their names and reputations, through many insults (Hebrews 10:33). Christians should care about their good name, especially because the honor of religion is involved, and that makes reproach a serious burden. They were also afflicted in their property, through the taking of their goods, fines, and losses.

They also suffered by sharing in the suffering of their fellow believers. The Christian spirit is sympathetic, not selfish. It makes one Christian’s pain feel like our own, and moves us to pity, visit, help, and defend them. Christians are one body, guided by one Spirit, working in one common cause, and they belong to the God who is troubled in all the troubles of his people. If one part of the body suffers, the rest suffer with it. The apostle especially remembers how they had shared in his own trouble: “You had compassion on me in my bonds” (Hebrews 10:34). We should thankfully remember the kindness Christian friends have shown us in our own afflictions.

He also notes how they endured. God had strongly supported them in those earlier trials. They bore suffering patiently, and more than that, they accepted it joyfully from God as an honor, counting it a favor to suffer shame for the name of Christ. God can strengthen his suffering people with all power in the inner person, so that they endure with patience and long-suffering, and even with joyfulness (Colossians 1:11).

What helped them bear up was this, they knew within themselves that they had in heaven a better and more lasting possession. The happiness of believers in heaven is real substance, something of true weight and value. Everything here on earth is only a shadow. It is better than anything they can have or lose here, and it lasts forever. Their enemies can never take it away, as they took their earthly goods. This future hope will more than repay all they lose and suffer now. In heaven they will have a better life, a better estate, better freedom, better company, better hearts, better work, everything better.

Christians should know this for themselves and feel it within their own hearts. The Spirit of God bears witness with their spirits, and that settled assurance helps them stand up under any struggle or suffering they face in this world.

The writer then urges them to keep going because of the reward that waits for all faithful Christians (Hebrews 10:35). He tells them, “Do not throw away your confidence,” meaning their holy courage and boldness. They had already suffered much for their faith, and they had borne those sufferings well, so they must hold fast to that same confession.

He strengthens that call by reminding them that holy confidence brings a very great reward. It brings present blessings too, such as inward peace, joy, and much of God’s presence and power resting on them. And it will bring an even greater reward in the life to come. Patience is also needed in our present life (Hebrews 10:36). “You have need of patience,” he says, because after doing God’s will, they must wait to receive the promise, that is, the promised reward.

Most of the saints’ happiness is still a promise. They must first do the will of God, and then they must wait for God’s time to fulfill what he has promised. They need patience to live until God calls them home. It is a test of Christian patience to be content to keep living after the work is done, and to wait for the reward until God is ready to give it. We must be God’s waiting servants when we can no longer be his working servants. Those who have already shown much patience must keep showing it until death.

To help them wait, he reminds them that Christ’s coming is near, both to deliver and to reward them (Hebrews 10:37). “In a very little while,” he says, “the one who is coming will come and will not delay.” Christ will soon come to them at death, end all their sufferings, and give them the crown of life. He will also soon come in judgment, end the sufferings of the whole church, all his mystical body, and give them a full and glorious reward in a public way. There is an appointed time for both, and he will not delay beyond that time (Habakkuk 2:3). The Christian’s present struggle may be sharp, but it will soon be over.

He also urges perseverance by showing that it is the mark of true believers and the path to happiness, while turning back is the shame and ruin of those who do it (Hebrews 10:38, Hebrews 10:39). “The righteous will live by faith,” means that in the hardest times, honest believers can keep living by trusting God’s promises. Faith gives them life and strength. They can rely on God, live on him, and wait for his time. And as faith sustains their spiritual life now, it will be crowned with eternal life later.

Turning away from God is the mark of those in whom God takes no pleasure, and it brings his serious displeasure. God never was pleased with empty profession and outward religion from people who do not continue in faith. He saw the hypocrisy in their hearts all along, and he is greatly offended when their outward religion ends in open rebellion against him.

The apostle closes with a hopeful word about himself and these Hebrews. He trusts that they will not lose the character and happiness of the righteous, and fall into the shame and misery of the wicked (Hebrews 10:39). In effect, he says, “I hope we are not among those who draw back. I hope you and I, who have already faced great trials and have been upheld by God’s grace, will not be left to ourselves and turn away to destruction. Instead, may God keep us by his mighty power through faith for salvation.”

People who profess faith may go a long way, and still turn back in the end. To draw back from God is to move toward destruction, because the farther we move from him, the closer we get to ruin. But those who have remained faithful through great trials in the past have good reason to hope that the same grace will still be enough to help them live by faith until they receive the end of their faith and patience, the salvation of their souls. If we live by faith and die in faith, our souls will be safe forever.