Belonging by the Blood
Today’s passage, Hebrews 10, verses 19–25, tell us three things that we as Christians should do: let us draw near – verse 22, let us hold fast – verse 23, and let us consider others – verse 24.
We just heard those verses. We can see ‘em plainly here in the text: verses 22, 23, & 24 give us a pretty straightforward 1-2-3 of what we as Christians should do. Which means this passage is an easy passage to preach.
In fact, true story: I have preached this passage before: when I was 20-years-old, in a small church service, in the country of Slovenia, with a translator, and I don’t think I knew a thing about preaching — I just figured that this passage was clear enough that as long as I said what the text says, I’d be okay.
And I’ll be honest with you, that’s all I’m trying to do today — I wanna say what the text says — but because the passage is so straightforward, I’m gonna try to explain what’s going on here by reversing the order of the argument. I think this will help us to let the passage sink in for us.
The writer of Hebrews is making a logical argument, and as readers, our goal is to understand his argument. We want to know what he means:
He starts in verses 19–21 and says, clearly, therefore, since, let us do 1-2-3 (in verses 22–25). That’s the order of the text. But what I’d like to do is to start with what we should do (the 1-2-3), and then end on: we do these things because of verses 19–21.
So it’s the same logic, just restated (and I think this will help it sink in).
And right away, notice that each of these verses — 22, 23, and 24 — start the same way: let us, let us, let us. These verbs are for the whole church, including the writer, and they’re aspirational. (This is in the original grammar.) We want to do these things. That’s the mood here. There’s a team, community spirit of “C’mon y’all! Let’s go! This is how we wanna live!”
1) Verse 22: C’mon y’all, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
“Draw near” is the main verb and it means what it says: Come close. Approach. Move towards. And it’s been a few months since we’ve been in Hebrews, so you may not remember this, but we’ve heard this language before:
Hebrews 4:16,
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace…”
Hebrews 7:19,
“(for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.”
Hebrews 7:25,
“Consequently, he [Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
This same idea of drawing near is repeated here in Chapter 10. It’s a major theme in Hebrews. We are called to draw near to God, and that’s something we always do. Once we are in Christ, we are forever, increasingly moving further up and further in.
And the Book of Leviticus is our blue-print for this. As the people of God, remember, we live in an Edenic movement! We are moving life-ward. And we move in this direction, closer to God, “with [verse 22] a true heart in full assurance of faith.”
Does anybody in here have one of those hearts? How do we know if we have a “true heart in full assurance of faith”?
Our New Covenant Reality
Well, the question is: have you experienced God’s promise of the new covenant? Because that’s what this is referring to, Ezekiel 36:26, God promises:
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.”
This is what the writer is thinking about. And he’s thinking the same thing when he says in verse 22:
“with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
The writer of Hebrews has the new covenant in mind, which he just explained to us in Chapter 8, and most likely he’s thinking about Ezekiel 36 in particular. In the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, right before God promises to give members of the new covenant a new heart, God says, Ezekiel 36:25, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean.” So the repeated rituals of man cleansing himself are over. God has done that now. He has washed us with pure water.
Basically, the call in verse 22, is: C’mon, y’all, let us draw near to God with the promises of the new covenant as our reality, which means our hearts are made new and true and clean.
That’s the first thing Christians should do. Here’s the second:
2) Verse 23: C’mon, y’all, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.
The verb “to hold fast” is another theme in the Book of Hebrews. We’ve also heard this one before, back in Chapter 4, verse 14, “Let us hold fast our confession.” Here in Chapter 10 it’s the “confession of our hope,” but it’s the same idea. Confession or hope or confession of our hope — the writer is talking about what we look forward to as Christians. This is our future. It’s what God has promised to do, which is what we embrace now.
One good example of this is the way the apostle Paul talks about hope in Romans Chapter 8. In the Romans 8 — the Great Eight — Paul describes the future glory of all creation. He says that all creation, this entire world, will be set free from its bondage to decay, and that we ourselves, in Christ, will receive the final and complete redemption of our bodies. He is talking about the final resurrection when our mortal bodies will put on immortality — no more disease or cancer or headaches or men’s retreat basketball aches and pains. Our bodies will be fully redeemed — and Paul says, Romans 8:24, “For in this hope we were saved.”
Listen: our hope is not in what Jesus gets us now. Paul says in another place, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). So we don’t hope in Jesus for present-day perks. This is the problem of Mr. By-Ends in Pilgrim’s Progress. Jesus never meant to be your ticket to win friends and influence people. Jesus died to save all of you for all time. He died to save your life and your afterlife and that’s our hope. C’mon y’all, let’s hold fast to our hope without wavering.
Why We Can Hold Fast
And here’s the reason why: “for he who promised is faithful.”
We can hold fast to the hope of our future because the promiser of our future is faithful — which means he always does what he says. And in fact, all the blessings of our life in Christ now started as promises in the past. Get this: Our present blessings were once the future of past promises, and if God was faithful to fulfill those promises, he will be faithful to fulfill promises still here today. He’s not done yet.
This is really important. Because sometimes we can doubt this. Let’s be honest.
Is Jesus really coming back? — because from our perspective, in how we think about time —which is different than how God thinks — but to us it’s been a while. We think 1,993 years is forever.
And what happens is we think: it is taking God so long to fulfill his promise I don’t think he will.
And the writer of Hebrews would say: “Of course he will. ‘See Old Testament’.”
The apostle Paul actually tells us that one of the purposes of the Old Testament is to give us instruction and examples and encouragement for our hope — Hebrews 11 (see Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11). We just have to look at the Book. He who promised is faithful. If he’s done it before, he’ll do it again. C’mon y’all, let’s hold fast the confession of our hope.
3) Verse 24: C’mon, y’all, let us consider one another, to spur us on.
Now most English translations say this a few different ways: The English Standard Version says “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” The New American Standard says stimulate. Other translations use words like motivate or provoke or to spur on. They’re all getting at the same idea, but the word that we need to really consider is the word “consider.” That’s the main verb here. In the original, it’s “Let us consider one another, to spur on, stir up, etc. …”
And this idea of “consider” doesn’t mean to put it off and get to it later. “Dad, can I have your credit card and go to the mall all day Saturday with some friends of a friend you don’t know?” … “I’ll consider it.”
That’s not what it means here. This word means “to think about something carefully.” It means to direct the mind towards something with concern. Really mull this over. The word is actually used one other time in Hebrews, in Hebrews 3:1, which goes:
“Holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.”
So first, in Chapter 3, the writer tells us to consider, to think carefully about Jesus; and now here in Chapter 10 he tells us to think carefully about one another. Focus on this. Focus on one another to spur on one another to love and good works.
Our Words for One Another
And now this has all kinds of relevance for what it means to be a church community. Notice in verse 25 that in order for these Christians to consider one another to spur on one another they have to get together. Imagine that! The writer spells this out: he says don’t neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but meet together, “encouraging one another.”
Now this is interesting, because that word for “encouraging” could also be translated “exhorting.” In fact, it’s the same word the writer uses in Chapter 13, verse 33, when he says that he’s written to them a “word of exhortation.” In that verse, he’s talking about a sermon. (We mentioned this at the start this year. Most scholars agree that the Book of Hebrews is most likely an actual sermon from the early church. You could read the whole thing in 45-minutes).
So there is “exhorting one another,” which we’re all called to do everyday, but especially when we meet together (see Hebrews 3:13). And there’s a “word of exhortation” that refers to a sermon. And both of these happen when the church gathers — which means: one of the most important actions that take place on Sunday mornings is the words that we speak to one another. There is this formal word of exhortation/encouragement, but then there are the hundreds of words we say before and after this time, and those words are a big reason why we do this. It’s mutual encouragement.
Foreshadowing a Greater Gathering
And the writer says, we should gather and encourage one another all the more as, verse 25, “you see the Day drawing near.”
He’s talking about the Day when Jesus returns, and we might think: How’d he get there? How’d he go from talking about Sunday church services to talking about Jesus’s return?
Well, there’s a connection: It’s that when the church gathers for worship and mutual encouragement — what we’re doing now — this gathering is actually anticipating the final gathering of God’s people in the New Jerusalem.
The writer of Hebrews is saying,
Church, keep gathering together, encouraging one another, especially as we get closer to heaven every day when there we gather with the universal church across all time and place. Our gathering here is a little foreshadowing of that gathering then.
I think he’s also saying: If you don’t like getting together with other Christians now … we need more practice. C’mon y’all, let us consider one another, to spur us on to love and good works.
Faith, Hope, and Love
And there you go, those are the three things these verses tell us to do. As Christians, we are called to: draw near, hold fast, consider one another. And you might be wondering, is there any design to these callings? Are these three callings related at all?
This is fascinating to me. (I didn’t know this when I was 20, among other things) Listen to these callings again:
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope.
Let us consider one another, to spur us on to love.
Did you hear it? These three verses echo the “cardinal graces” of the Christian life: faith, hope, and love.
Remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Well, guess what? From verse 25 and onward, the rest of this book is the application of considering one another to spur us on to love.
Hebrews 10:19–25 is a hinge passage in the Book of Hebrews. It marks the ending of one section and sets up the beginning of a new one, and this new section is all about exhortation. It’s the church’s application of love for one another.
The Theological Heart of the Book
The reason we had heard some of this language before in Hebrews — the draw near and hold fast and Jesus as our high priest — we’ve heard it before because Chapter 10:19–21 is basically repeating Chapter 4:14–16, because those two passages, 4 and 10, are two bookends to one major section. And that major section, from 5 through 10:18, is the central theological argument of this entire book. And what is that? What is the main point that the central theological argument of Hebrews is making?
Well, that’s actually what Hebrews 10:19–21 summarizes for us.
Remember we reversed the order. We started with verses 22–25, with what we should do, but it’s verses 19–21 that tells us why we should do these things. Verses 19–21 give us the because — and “the because” is a three-verse summary of the theological heart of the Book of Hebrews. These verses pull together all the main themes from Chapter 5 through Chapter 10. Listen to these three verses, and see if you can pick them up. Hebrews 10, verse 19:
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God… [now here’s the 1-2-3 of what we do — let us, let us, let us.]”
It all comes back to the central theme here that Jesus Christ, by his high priestly sacrifice and current ministry, gives us access into the presence of God.
Notice there are two things that we have in verses 19 and 21:
Verse 19: We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.
Verse 21: We have a great priest.
These are the two things that have been explained to us more than anything else in Chapters 5–10: the sacrificial death of Jesus and the high priestly ministry of Jesus.
And these are not separate things, but they’re two aspects of the same thing. And I hope that if there’s only one lasting change in us from the Book of Hebrews — I hope it’s that we always think about the death of Jesus with him as our high priest. That’s verse 21 here.
Jesus, Our Great Priest
“We have a great priest over the house of God.”
This is not something that Jesus “can do.” It’s not a side-gig. This is his office.
Jesus is our great high priest. And so everything he does, he does as our high priest. And that means, as Chapters 5 and 7 tell us, Jesus knows what it’s like to be you. He can sympathize with you and your weakness and all the things that make life in this world hard. He knows it and he’s going to save you anyway, all the way.
Jesus plays for keeps, and his promise to save you, to bring you home, to finish what he started — that promise is as indestructible as his life.
Because Jesus is our high priest, as long as Jesus is alive, we will be saved completely. Everything that has to do with our salvation is now bound up in the realness and aliveness of Jesus. He is who he is right now, and he will be that tomorrow and the next day and the next and forever. He’s not going anywhere; he’s not changing; he doesn’t quit. And that is why we will see him one day. We have a great priest.
By the Blood of Jesus
And he made a great sacrifice. That’s what the writer is talking about in verses 19 and 20. You can see that he mentions blood in verse 19. Y’all see that in verse 19?
He says in verse 19, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus…” He’s talking about the sacrifice of Jesus, and he expands what he means in the next sentence in verse 20. He says, “by the blood of Jesus” and he implies: When I say by blood of Jesus, I mean “by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.”
Here he’s telling us what the blood of Jesus accomplished. And it’s levitical. We can’t really understand any of this without the Old Testament Book of Leviticus. So let’s think back to Leviticus and temple (or think back to Hebrews Chapter 9 because the writer explains the temple to us there).
The temple was the center of Jewish life, and in the temple, there were two sections, the Holy Place and then the Most Holy Place. That was the place where the direct, terrifying, awesome presence of God dwelled. And what separated that Most Holy Place from the rest was a curtain. It was so holy behind the curtain, in the Most Holy Place, that nobody could go there.
Nobody could be that close to God — except for only the high priest, who went there only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. He was the only one who could go behind the curtain.
But now, by his blood, by his death, Jesus has opened that curtain. When Jesus died, the curtain died. That’s the point here. The curtain has been done away with. It’s no more.
And that’s what is loaded into this phrase, verse 19, in the very first verse: “we have confidence to enter the holy places.” (Now the ESV translates that as “holy places” but the Greek word is just “the holies.” The NIV translates this “the Most Holy Place” and that’s right. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is talking about.)
By the blood of Jesus, by his sacrificial death that got rid of the curtain, “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place.”
And that’s a simple sentence … but this is actually one of the most radical truths in the whole Bible. This truth would have absolutely shocked a Jewish believer.
And a lot of it has to do with that word “confidence.” This is a great word in the New Testament. It has a range of meanings. It’s already been used in Hebrews 4:16, but we need to be sure we get the meaning here in 10:19.
I asked the kids at dinner this past week, “What does the word ‘confidence’ mean?” And right away, one of the boys said, “It means to believe in yourself.” And I said, Yeah, that’s what we typically think, but that is not what the meaning is in Hebrew 10:19.
In Hebrews 10:19, when the writer says “we have confidence” another way to translate that is to say “we have access.” Confidence here is objective, not subjective. It’s fact, not feeling. The writer doesn’t say “We feel confident.” He says, “We have confidence.” We possess this. So scholars have said we could translate this as “we have freedom” or access or freedom of access or authorization. I like the word authorization. Because that nails the idea. The writer says we have authorization to the Most Holy Place.
He means we have authorization to be in the direct and awesome presence of God. Which is not in an earthly physical temple anymore. That was only a shadow. The real temple is the heavenly temple. Heaven is where God is, and we have access there, to him.
We Have Authorization
So I’ve got this friend (who I won’t name), and one of things I love about hanging out with him is that he knows all the best spots. He always knows the coolest restaurants and the places to go. And this one time we were hanging out in a city (which I also won’t name), and sure enough, he says, “I know a place.”
There was a new rooftop restaurant that just opened and it was supposed to have the best views of the city, all that — but the only thing was that it was connected to a hotel and the only people who have access to this rooftop are hotel guests.
But he’s like: It’s fine, follow me. So I do, and somehow, we wind up on an elevator crowded with hotel guests, and we’re just riding this thing crossing our fingers that somebody with a hotel key is going to the rooftop. Sure enough we get there. Doors open. And it’s amazing. Incredible spot. Best views. And we spend a couple hours hanging out, but I can’t say I was having a great time because I kept thinking “I’m not supposed to be here.” My conscience is about as tender as ketchup. I felt like an imposter. I was there, but I didn’t belong there.
Christian, you should never feel that way about the presence of God. You can go there — we can enter God’s presence, and one day, physically, we will enter God’s presence, direct and awesome, we will be with him, because we have authorization. We have access. We belong behind the curtain.
But why? How? How do we have that right? How do we have the authorization to be close to God in his direct and awesome presence that nobody like us could ever experience before? How is that so?
The blood.
Our high priest who lives forever and even right now, he has applied the blood for us, and the blood he has applied is his own. He has gone before us. And everywhere Jesus can go, we can go. And he waves the key of his sacrificial death: They belong here. They’re with me.
We have … we have … we have authorization to be with God. …
That’s the theological heart of this book.
Therefore, let us, let us, let us … faith, hope, and love.
That’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we remember the death of Jesus for us.
That Nothing can for sin atone: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That Naught of good that I have done: nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace! This is all my righteousness!
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
If the blood of Jesus is your hope and peace and righteousness this morning, if you trust in Jesus, we invite you to eat and drink with us.
