"continually" in the sense of "repeatedly" year by year. This rendering has only to be

used in the other passages to demonstrate its unsuitability. "Christ abideth a Priest

repeatedly" is opposed to both sense and truth. "One sacrifice for sins repeatedly" has no

meaning. We have been misled here in 10: 1 by the twofold meaning of an English word,

and this is not by any means an isolated case. Let us translate eis to dienekes, "unto

perpetuity", which phrase is less cumbersome than the more literal rendering given

above. The next verse exposes the fatal failure of every sacrifice offered under the law.

This feature has been enlarged upon in 9: 12-14, where the "blood of bulls and goats

and the ashes of an heifer" are seen in their typical "purifying of the flesh", and the blood

of Christ Who offered Himself without spot to God is seen as the great antitype purging

the conscience from dead works that those thus cleansed may serve the living God.

Likewise in the same chapter the apostle, speaking of the gifts, sacrifices, meats, drinks

and divers baptisms, says they were imposed until the time of reformation and could

never make those who did the service "perfect as pertaining to the conscience". Further

in 10: 22, when the controversy is over, the apostle exhorts his readers to:--

Had the sacrifice once perfected the offerer as pertaining to the conscience, no further

offering would have been necessary or tolerated. The law was a shadow, it purified the

flesh, and its repeated offerings testify to its insufficiency. Further, the very repetition is

a continual remembrance of sin, whereas when the new covenant is in force God says,

"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more".

The final setting aside of the sacrifices of the law is made in verse 4:--

The argument now rests upon the very nature of things. Nothing more can be said.

Can a shadow save us? Will a ceremonial, an external cleansing, satisfy us? Can the

blood of an animal make reconciliation for a man? The answer is No, and that Scripture

has already anticipated this answer in the fortieth Psalm.

In brushing aside the last remaining hope of Israel under the law, and in shutting down

any future argument by the word "impossible", the apostle was but reaching forward to

the glorious fact that "what the law could not do, God did by sending His Son in the

likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8: 3). The quotation from Psa. 40: is prefaced by the

words, "Wherefore when He cometh into the world". This can only refer to His first

coming in the flesh. He is yet to be brought into the world again, when all the angels of

God shall worship Him (Heb. 1: 6). We are permitted (let us remember what holy ground

is here) to learn the words that the Son of God breathed when the moment came for His