The section (10: 19 - 12: 25) begins with exhortations in view of what Christ hast

done, "Let us draw near", "Let us hold fast". It ends with fuller exhortations in view of

what Christ has done, "Let us lay aside", "Let us run". Christ's sufferings and death

have, in the first case, consecrated for us a way into the holiest, and in the second, the

race and the crown. In the first He is seen as Expiator, in the second as Exemplar. He is

first Priest, then Perfecter.

The remainder of the structure is an alteration between faith and the better thing.

There are four descriptions of this better thing which we must consider:--

It is evident from the context of the first passage that the better substance is something

in the nature of a reward. This is implied in the list of sufferings given in Heb. 10: 32-34,

and expressly stated in the sequel: "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath

great recompense of reward" (10: 35), a feature that is repeated in 11: 26, and in a similar

The second passage sets before us something which the patriarchs had in view that

enabled them to be content to become strangers and pilgrims on the earth: "Now they

desire a better country, that is an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called

their God; for He hath prepared for them a city" (11: 16). This city is the "city of the

living God, the heavenly Jerusalem", of Heb. 12: 22, closely associated with the spirits

of just men made perfect, and the portion, not of sons merely, but of firstborn, which we

shall see as we read that chapter.

There is nothing said in the O.T. about this heavenly country and city so far as

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are concerned, yet they had it in view, and when Scripture

says: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them

afar off and embraced them" (xi.13), it is but saying what in other language is expressed

in the two remaining occurrences, namely, resurrection and future entry. "These all died

in faith" implies "resurrection". "Having seen them afar off" implies "having foreseen

some better thing".

The better resurrection is something distinct. Because of it and its excellence some

endured torture and refused deliverance. Now it was the hope of the whole twelve tribes

that there should be a resurrection (Acts 26: 7, 8) quite apart from torture or endurance,

quite apart from "giving up" and acting like Abraham or Moses. We are here facing a

parallel with the "out resurrection" of Phil. 3: (which are not the hope but the prize of

our calling, of our "high calling") and closely involved with "perfecting", "perdition"

and heavenly citizenship of Phil. 3: 12, 19 and 20;  "end" being the same word as

"perdition" in Heb. 10: 39, and "conversation" being literally "citizenship". The long

waiting, the far-off promises, the dying without receiving, are all explained by the fact

that God had planned that all these overcomers should enter their reward together. Abel