HEBREWS 10 — ONCE FOR ALL, AND THE CALL TO PERSEVERE

Chapter 10 is the climax of the doctrinal argument of Hebrews and the pivot to the practical exhortations that dominate the rest of the book. The first eighteen verses summarize the argument that the sacrifice of Christ has accomplished what the old sacrifices could not, and they bring together the main themes of chapters 7–9: the inadequacy of the Levitical system, the perfection of Christ's offering, the permanence of His work, and the fulfillment of the new covenant promise of forgiveness. Verses 19–25 are a hinge: they begin with "therefore" and draw out the practical consequences in three exhortations, to draw near, to hold fast, and to encourage one another. Verses 26–31 contain the fourth and most solemn of the warnings, the passage on willful sin. Verses 32–39 recall the readers' past faithfulness and call them to endure in faith. The chapter holds together the assurance of salvation, the call to perseverance, and the warning against apostasy, and it needs to be read as a whole. It contains key verses about the believer's access to God, the importance of the gathered church, and the nature of faith, and it prepares for the great chapter on faith that follows.

The author's argument about the inadequacy of animal sacrifice is reinforced by historical facts. The Jewish sacrificial system continued until AD 70, when the Romans destroyed the temple, and since that time no sacrifices have been offered. Rabbinic Judaism developed the idea that prayer, repentance, and charity could take the place of sacrifice, which shows that the need for atonement was felt, and that the system as it stood could not continue. Christians have always pointed out that the destruction of the temple coincided with the end of the old covenant's means of atonement, and that Christ's sacrifice had already provided what the temple could not. The reference to the community's earlier suffering, with public reproach, imprisonment, and the plundering of property, is consistent with what is known of the early church. The Roman historian Suetonius records that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome around AD 49 because of disturbances over "Chrestus," which may reflect conflict among Jews over Christ, and that may be the background to the persecution that the readers of Hebrews had endured. The practice of regular assembly is also attested by the earliest outside sources. Pliny, around AD 112, reports that Christians met on a fixed day before dawn, and that they sang a hymn to Christ and bound themselves to moral commitments. The statement in Hebrews that some had made a habit of not meeting shows that the early church had the same difficulties as the church today, and that the pressure to withdraw was real.