Hebrews 10:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The Jews who read this letter needed to understand the position they were now in. They needed to see the very special work that God had done in their lifetimes. This was the time of momentous change which the prophets had spoken of, when God would make a new covenant with his people. They must be prepared for profound changes to the things that they had been given by God before, and which they had become most familiar with. These changes should have been welcomed by them as the long-awaited fulfilment of God’s promises, the true sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That was indeed the attitude of those who were hoping for the coming of the Messiah (John 1:45-46), and even the nations who were still in darkness and gave no thought to the living God, are pictured prophetically as setting their desire on him (Haggai 2:7) because of the change that God is about to work in the elect Gentiles.The focus here is on the words of Christ and the decisive change that he makes to the manner of worship when he comes into the world. It was his coming that required the ceremonial law to be put away. When for some reason a husband is separate from his wife for a time, he may carry a photograph of her to remind himself of her, but when they are reunited he does not continue to stare at the photograph and ignore his wife who is now present with him. The coming of Christ changed everything. What had been put in place to pledge and expound his future work was no longer required once he was present in the world. The reality could explain itself far better than the picture. The picture left certain things unexplained, so that to fall in love with the shadow and value it above the real image would be a sign of confusion. Christ has taken away the first, as only he has authority to do. How wisely God has done all things, and what better way could there be of taking away the old, than for the one who fulfilled all that came before to establish himself in its place.