And every priest stands daily ministering, and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Israel's worship never stopped: the same altar, the same animals, the same priest back at his post the next morning. The writer points to that routine and to what it never achieved. The priest is always standing, and the sins are still there.
The argument turns on a piece of missing furniture. Israel's tent of worship held everything needed for work and nothing to sit on.
Under the law, the priest stood. In the tabernacle there was a table, a lampstand, an altar; but there was no seat. The priest kept standing, because his work was never finished — always doing, never done. How like that is much of the work today, where there is no rest for the soul. Provision is made for doing, but never for knowing that a work is done forever.
The word "daily" is not praise for the system. It marks a covering that lasted one day.
Under the law, the priest of Israel offered up the daily sacrifice, and the blood of it was good for the day on which it was shed. It neither covered past sins nor future sins. Fresh sins called for fresh blood. There was no lasting value in the blood that was shed. God required constant sacrifices, and the sins of the people required constant offerings. Daily sins had to be met by the sacrifice of that day; but the conscience of the one coming to God was never at rest.
The repetition itself is the evidence. If the offering came round again, it had not settled the matter the first time.
Suppose they could have cleansed the conscience, giving the offerer complete relief about the whole question of sin. Then they would have stopped being offered. We never go on doing what is already done. In fact their effect ran in exactly the opposite direction. They did not clear sins from the conscience for good. Instead, by set ceremony, they brought sins to mind again at least once every year.
Were the priests careless? Each phrase of the verse rules that out and points the blame elsewhere.
Every day the priest stood at his post at the altar, ministering there. He only repeated the same service the next day, or at the next occasion for which that sacrifice was commanded. But all of it was useless when it came to taking away sins. Daily offering — then there was no lack of devoted service at the altar. The same sacrifices — then they did not fail through any neglect of the ritual. So where did they fail? The failure was built into them. For the blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sins.
The verse describes something still going on. The temple service was running on the day these words were written.
The Apostle spoke of a powerlessness that belonged to the very day he wrote — one that neither time nor repetition could remove. Still, the daily sacrifices were being offered up. If the case rested for eternity on those sacrifices, it was hopeless. How completely and decisively the sinner is driven to the one perfect sacrifice of Christ! It is that, or nothing.
The standing priest means most when set beside the One who sat down.
In the Old Testament order of things every priest stands, and never sits down. He never sat down, because his work of sacrifice was never done. Day after day he was ministering and offering, often the same sacrifices, bulls and goats — we read of it in the book of Leviticus. Those sacrifices can never, never take away sins. There is a difference of only one letter between the work of a priest of Aaron's line and such a high priest as ours. It is the difference between "never" and "ever." He sits forever because the work He does is done forever.
The verse still speaks to any system that puts a man back at an altar with a sacrifice to repeat.
The priest under the Levitical system could never sit down, for the obvious reason that his work was never done. There is remarkable force and meaning in the way the inspired writer puts this. "Every priest" — "stands daily" — "offering repeatedly" — "the same sacrifices" — "which can never take away sins." No human language could set out more vividly the dreary monotony and complete uselessness of the Levitical ceremony. How strange that the Christian world, with such a passage of holy Scripture in front of it, has set up a human priesthood with its daily sacrifice!
- Standing. The tent of worship had no chair. The priest never sat, because his work was never done.
- Daily. The blood covered only the day it was shed. Fresh sins called for fresh blood, so the conscience never came to rest.
- Repeated. The offering came round again, and that repetition was the verdict. We do not keep doing what is already done.
- Powerless. The priests were devoted and the ritual was kept. The weakness lay in the sacrifices themselves.
- Seated. One letter separates the two priesthoods. The old could never take away sins. The new sat down forever, because His work is finished.
But *he*, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down in perpetuity at [the] right hand of God,
Hebrews 10:12 sets one figure against another: the priest who never stops working, and the Man who has sat down. Everything turns on that seat: what it says about His work, where it puts Him, and what it settles for us.
One commentator starts with the furniture of the old sanctuary, and with what is missing from it:
Under the law, the priest stood. There was in the tabernacle a table, a lampstand, an altar; but there was no seat. The priest stood all the time, because his work was never finished — always doing, never done. Much of the work we see today is like that: the soul gets no rest. There is provision for doing, but never for knowing that a work is done for ever. In contrast with that, our Lord, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down. We know He is at work for us — praying for His people's needs, and all that. But as for the sacrifice, He has offered it — it is finished. What could add to the value of that sacrifice? He offered one sacrifice for sins; there it stands alone in its grandeur, and nothing can add to it.
The ESV joins the words "for all time" to the offering. Older translations read "for ever," and join it to the sitting instead. One commentator says the placement matters:
"After He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down." Remove the comma, if it is in your Bible. It does not say He offered a sacrifice for ever, because that would suggest an offering that never ends. It says that when He had offered it once, then He for ever sat down. His seat is eternal, as far as His work goes.
The word does more than stretch into eternity. It also rules out any break, and one writer links our conscience to the unbroken seat of Christ:
"By one offering He has perfected for ever those who are sanctified." That phrase "for ever" means more than eternally; it means without a break. It carries permanence before God, with no interruption. It is not the word that speaks of eternity, though of course it is that too; but it is permanently perfect before God. Christ is always sitting at the right hand of God — "always" here is the same word — and so our conscience is for ever perfect. Scripture uses it in Hebrews 10:12 to show He has nothing more to do.
If the offering is perfect, so is what it produces:
The offering made to God on the cross was such that God can say of those who come to Him, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." And the One who made that offering for us pleases God so much that He is now sitting at God's right hand. As for the sacrifice, He has "sat down in perpetuity": there is no repeating it. And as for those He made that perfect offering for, Scripture says, "By one offering He has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified." The sacrifice is perfect, and so is the result. The worshippers, once purged, can stand before a holy God with no more conscience of sins. In this way they honour the work of Christ, and show their faith in what God says about it.
One writer puts the consequence plainly:
"For ever perfected." No man who understands this can talk of fresh applications of the blood of Christ, or of repeated or continued sacrifices for sins. This takes away the whole system of repetitions and fresh applications. This one sacrifice stands alone, and for ever perfects.
He is not saying we never fail. A believer "may be conscious of sin and failure, and there will surely be repentance and confession." But the question of conscience is settled.
Hebrews mentions this seat more than once, and each mention gives its own reason for it:
In Hebrews 1:3 the Son has set Himself down "at the right hand of the Majesty on high" because of who He is as Son of God. He did this after having "by Himself" made purification for sins. In Hebrews 10:12 the Lord Jesus again sets Himself down "at the right hand of God." This time it is because of the greatness of His finished work, in that He "offered one sacrifice for sins." That sacrifice never needs repeating, because its effect is infinite and eternal.
- One — one sacrifice for sins, offered once; it stands alone, and nothing can add to it.
- Seated — the tabernacle had no chair, because that work was never done; Christ sat down because His was.
- For ever — one writer ties the phrase to the sitting rather than the offering; it means without a break as much as without end.
- Perfected — while He stays seated, the believer's conscience stays perfect before God.
- Finished — no repeats, no fresh applications of the blood; that whole system is gone.