Hebrews 10:14

Hebrews 10:14

Christ our Priest.

The Epistle to the Hebrews represents Christ as our High Priest, and His office as a priesthood; as a priesthood in the two great parts of the priestly character, sacrifice and intercession or mediation. And it declares, also, that this is the only priest, and the only priesthood which the gospel acknowledges.

I. Christ, then, by one offering, hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. By one offering, namely, the offering of Himself upon the cross, for the sins of the whole world. By this offering we are perfected, and without it we were lost. Undoubtedly these few words are the very sum and substance of the gospel. Every heart, however constituted, with all our manifold varieties of power and disposition, can yet find in Christ that which will better suit its peculiar nature than anything to be found elsewhere; all of us, if we could truly believe in Christ should assuredly find that our faith had saved us.

II. He has perfected us; that is, the work is complete, if we would but believe it; but till we do believe it, it is in us not completed. It is complete in us when our hearts are softened, and God and Christ and our own sin are fully before us; but as they pass away, so it becomes again undone. It becomes undone, because then we do not believe. Another belief is ruling in our hearts; the belief that we may follow our own ways, and live safely without God. But when we believe in God, the Father of Christ, we shall know and feel what is meant by infinite holiness and infinite love; and by the one offering of our High Priest once offered, we shall feel that we who were dead are made alive that we are now for ever perfected.

T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. iii., p. 78.

References: Hebrews 10:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 232; Clergyman's Magazine,-vol. iv.,p. 224; vol. vi.,p. 153.Hebrews 10:15. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xii., No. 714; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 47. Hebrews 10:17. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1685.Hebrews 10:19. Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 361.Hebrews 10:19; Hebrews 10:20. Bishop Thorold, Church of England Pulpit,vol. i., p. 81; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 144.Hebrews 10:19. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 266; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 463.