Hebrews 10:18

Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

This is the final, irrevocable verdict. Remission of sins having been provided through Christ, by means of one final and complete offering, already accomplished, all the Jewish offerings simply do not legally exist any more. They are not. "There is no more offering for sin," as required by the old law. It has forever been changed and repealed.

Lenski was struck with the cosmic sweep and power of such words as "remission" and "redemption." Here are some of his words,

The remission of sins means, literally, "the sending away" of sins. (This means) to send away the sins of a sinner as far as the east is from the west. (Psalms 103:12), as a cloud is blotted out and vanishes (Isaiah 44:22), to the bottom of the sea (Micah 7:19), thus blotting out the sins even from memory.[23]

When God sends away "these," namely our sins and violations of his law, so that even his memory does not recall them, they are gone indeed. But the Spirit testifies that God actually does this.[24]

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

The importance of understanding the final and complete nature of the heavenly offering of the blood of Christ for human sins is so great, and any denial of such a sublime truth, even though unintentional, is of such terrible consequence to mankind that we are led to inquire here as to the validity of the commonly held view that Christ's blood is DAILY sacrificed in such a thing as the mass. One cannot help viewing with alarm the inattention to such a thing as this by so many able and learned commentators on the New Testament, especially in this century. The writers sought in vain among modern scholars for a firm word on this subject; and not until Robertson's mild question, "One wonders how priests who claim that `the mass' is the sacrifice of Christ's body repeated explain this verse!"[25] does one even find it mentioned. The older commentators were more diligent to set forth the truth; and, in order to emulate their worthy example, we here register the words of the inimitable James Macknight on this subject as they were quoted in the words of Adam Clarke's great commentary.

If (says Dr. Macknight) after remission is granted to the sinner, there is no need of any more sacrifice for sins; and if Christ, by offering himself once has perfected forever the sanctified (Hebrews 10:14), the sacrifice of the mass, as it is called, about which the Roman clergy employ themselves so incessantly; and to which the papists trust for the pardon of their sins, has no foundation in Scripture. Nay, it is evident impiety, as it proceeds upon the supposition that the offering of the body of Christ "once" is not sufficient to procure the pardon of sin, but must be frequently repeated. If they reply that their mass is only the representation and commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ, they give up the cause and renounce an article of their faith, established by the Council of Trent, which in session 22canons 1,3, declared "the sacrifice of the mass to be true and propitiatory sacrifice for sin." I say, give up the cause; for the representation and commemoration of a sacrifice is not a sacrifice. Further, it cannot be affirmed that the body of Christ is offered in the mass, unless it can be said that, as often as it is offered, "Christ has suffered death"; for the apostle says expressly (Hebrews 9:25,26) that if Christ offered himself often, "He must have suffered since the foundation of the world."[26]

To this paragraph, Adam Clarke appended the challenge: "Let him disprove this who can!"

Here in Hebrews we view the end of the most elaborate and impressive argument ever directed to human intelligence extolling the glorious superiority of Christ and his redeeming mission for mankind. Without doubt the author was guided by the Holy Spirit, since unaided human mind could never have discovered it. Like Lenski, we feel the burning words of this message and marvel at their power. Some of the words, especially, are charged with unbelievable emotion and eloquence for all who fully understand them. Throughout the New Testament, those words which certify man's salvation - how beautiful they are, how rich with the tenderness of God, how far beyond all mortal merit. Wonderful indeed are the words that teach people of the love of Christ; and, in the long and terrible night of this world's darkness and despair, how grandly do those words go marching in the gloom of human sin and transgression, RANSOMED; REDEEMED; PROPITIATED; BOUGHT WITH A PRICE; SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS!

The remainder of Hebrews is given over principally to exhortation and this concludes the great burden of theological discussion, though not all of it; and the words of Westcott are a fitting summation of this section. He said,

The prophetic words show that under the new covenant no place is left for the Levitical sacrifices. The Christian can therefore dispense with them without any loss. To be forced to give up their shadowy consolation is to be led to realize more practically the work of Christ. This is the last, the decisive word of the argument.[27]

And, to go a little further, indeed the whole way, as intended by the author of Hebrews, it is not merely the "Levitical sacrifices" to be dispensed with, but the entire system. Christ took away the first that he might establish the second; and what is not in the second simply is not.

[23] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 311.

[24] Ibid., p. 341.

[25] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures of the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1932), p. 409.

[26] Adam Clarke, op. cit., p. 755.

[27] Brooke Foss Westcott, op. cit., p. 317.