Hebrews 10:12 Commentary and Bible Study

By contrast Christ – one man, one high priest, as opposed to that countless number of priests that went before him. There had been many, many thousands of them and the priests with all their sacrifices and the high priest with his annual sacrifices all added together could not by those sacrifices take away one sin. The comparison has already been made before, between the nature of their sacrifices and his, the place where they served and where he served, and the effect of their ministry as against his on the worshippers. The emphasis of this verse is on the difference between the multitude of never-ending sacrifices which the Old Testament priests offered, and the one never-to-be-repeated sacrifice of Christ, the only high priest of the new covenant. What they did over and over again without any real change to the spiritual status of men and women, Christ did just once, and sat down at the right hand of God. He sat down to signify that his work was completed, successful, bringing eternal salvation to all those to whom it is applied. He sits at the right hand of God because he knows there is no further offering that he needs to make. One aspect of his high priestly work is done: his work of intercession goes on, but this is an application of his successful sacrifice that went before. The Father too agrees that his sacrifice is sufficient and therefore raised him from the dead, and caused him to ascend into heaven and be seated at his right hand. The members of the Godhead are of one mind in this. The Son of God had resumed his position seated at the right hand of God, but now as the God-man forever. He had to be God, he had to be divine, for otherwise the punishment of human sin for so many billions of saved people would have crushed him. He is the all-powerful God. Nevertheless he had to feel it; don't think it made it easy for him. He had to feel the agony, the torment of hell for us just as we would feel it, but his infinite power enabled him to sustain it. He had to be perfectly holy to qualify to be our sin bearer and our Saviour. Just as in the Old Testament when a lamb was offered up, it had to be perfect and unblemished, so the Son of God had to be perfect. So when he came to earth Satan tempted him and he withstood every temptation in every situation. In the face of all the hostility and the humiliation, all the trials and the difficulties, his reaction was always that of a holy and perfect one. He had to be all knowing, so that as the Son of God he knew for whom he was dying. We learn in Isaiah 53 that he could see of the fruits of the travail of his soul. He consciously bore away our individual sin as well as the sin of all of us, billions gathered out of every age – all those already dead and passed away who had trusted him in times past as well as all those people yet unborn who would trust in him in the future. He knew where he would walk each day, who he would heal; he knew exactly what would happen on Calvary's cross. In every trial he showed his holiness and his trust in the Father. In contrast to Adam who fell to temptation, Christ had to demonstrate perfect trust in the Father on behalf of all his people. He was eternal; his eyes would never be quenched in death until the moment came for him to taste it on our behalf. In all this he was motivated by deep love for his people.