Verse 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.

Verse 5

2 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".

Verse 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.

Verse 11

3 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.

Verse 13

4 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.

Verse 15

5 [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.

Verse 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?

Verse 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.

Verse 19

6 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 22

7 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 28

9 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?

Verse 30

10 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.

Verse 32

11 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 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.

Verse 38

12 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.