Hebrews 10:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 10:14

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The tremendous effect of Christ’s obedience to the will of the Father by which we are sanctified (verse 10) was achieved by just one offering. Where the multitude of sacrifices offered by the Old Testament priests over many centuries achieved nothing, Christ’s one offering was sufficient to atone for all the sins of all who will ever be saved. It was effective to a degree we cannot take in. What it cost him we will spend eternity discovering. It redeemed from hell a multitude which no man can number, but which he knows perfectly. It redeemed from sins which cause us to be deeply ashamed, which we are reluctant to talk about. It reconciles us to the infinitely holy God and allows us to come into his presence without being destroyed. It redeems some as children, and others who have spent a lifetime sinning against God and hardening their hearts against him. It redeems from every kind of sin, from sins against every one of the commandments, from every evil in every one of the lists of sins in the Bible, bar one: only the sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. It reconciles us without Christ having to take our place in hell and remain there for ever. Although he somehow experienced all the punishment that was due to us in all eternity, his atonement has ended and it does not go on continually forever. It is finished, and he has returned death and hell to enjoy the fruits of his sufferings with his people for ever.Furthermore, his one offering combined all the various offerings of the law. The law separates out the various aspects of the different offerings so that we can understand them better, but his one offering is comprehensive and combines together all their distinctive elements. No act in all history has ever achieved anything like this. It is perfect in its planning, in its execution, and in its effect. Those who trust in him are perfected for ever. Heaven will be a place of learning, but our sanctification will be complete from the start, otherwise we would not be fit to enter that place.

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You will not find this teaching in the Roman Catholic Church. In AD 597 Augustine arrived at Canterbury in Kent with a party of 40, sent by Pope Gregory I. They came chanting in Latin with all the paraphernalia of the Roman Catholic Church, and they came to seize Britain for the Pope. He managed to ‘convert’ Ethelred the king, who thought Augustine had magical power, but there was not true conversion; he undertook to be loyal to the Roman Catholic Church. Ten thousand were ‘converted’ in a day and baptised, but this was just a matter of allegiance, homage. It is a religion of ceremonies – composed and devised by men. Are there not ceremonies in the Bible? Yes, but the Old Testament were not efficacious; the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church are supposed to actually achieve something. Roman Catholicism is a religion of priests – go-betweens. We have one high priest, Christ, and we go direct to God through him. The Roman Catholic Church stands in the way with a system of human mediators. They teach that the Eucharist is a sacrifice in which ‘Christ gives us the very body he offered up on the cross, the very blood which he poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church). At the words of the priest, the bread and wine supposedly ‘become the body and blood of Christ’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church), and consequently all are to show to the sacrament the worship which is due to the true God (Vatican Council II). There is much double speak in the teaching of the Roman Catholic church, but to call the Mass a sacrifice and to teach that Christ has ‘instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood so that he might perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the centuries till his coming’ (Vatican Council II) is to deny that Christ has ‘by one offering perfected them that are sanctified.’

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Hebrews 10:14 Commentary and Bible Study