Hebrews 10:2-3 - Exposition

For then ( i.e. had it been so able) would they (the sacrifices) not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers, having been once purged, should have had no more conscience of sins? But (on the contrary) in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. The very annual repetition of the same expiatory rites on the Day of Atonement expressed in itself the idea, not of the putting away ( ἀθέτησις , Hebrews 9:26 ) or oblivion, ( Hebrews 10:17 ) of sin, but a recalling to mind of its continual presence. In the following verse the reason of this is found in the nature of the sacrifices themselves; it being impossible for the blood of irrational animals to cleanse moral guilt: it could only avail for the "passing over" ( πάρεσιν , Romans 3:25 ) of sins, as symbolizing an effectual atonement to come in the spiritual sphere of things.