Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews

“Above when He said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt-offerings, and [offering] for sin, You would not, neither had pleasure [therein], which are offered by the Law, then said He, Lo! I come to do Your will, O God. He takes away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. And every Priest stands daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this [man] after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.”

1. In what has gone before he had shown that the sacrifices were unavailing for perfect purification, and were a type, and greatly defective. Since then there was this objection to his argument, If they are types, how is it that, after the truth has come, they have not ceased, nor given place, but are still performed? He here accordingly labors at this very point, showing that they are no longer performed, even as a figure, for God does not accept them. And this again he shows not from the New [Testament], but from the prophets, bringing forward from times of old the strongest testimony, that it [the old system] comes to an end, and ceases, and that they do all in vain, “alway resisting the Holy Ghost.”

And he shows over and above that they cease not now [only], but at the very coming of the Messiah, nay rather, even before His coming: and how it was that Christ did not abolish them at the last, but they were abolished first, and then He came; first they were made to cease, and then He appeared. That they might not say, Even without this sacrifice, and by means of those, we could have been well pleasing unto God, He waited for these sacrifices to be convicted [of weakness], and then He appeared; for (He says) “sacrifice and offering You would not.” Hereby He took all away; and having spoken generally, He says also particularly, “In burnt-offerings and [sacrifice] for sin You had no pleasure.” But “the offering” was everything except the sacrifice. “Then said I, Lo! I come.” Of whom was this spoken? Of none other than the Christ.

Here he does not blame those who offer, showing that it is not because of their wickednesses that He does not accept them, as He says elsewhere, but because the thing itself has been convicted for the future and shown to have no strength, nor any suitableness to the times. What then has this to do with the “sacrifices” being offered “oftentimes”? Not only from their being “oftentimes” [offered] (he means) is it manifest that they are weak, and that they effected nothing; but also from God's not accepting them, as being unprofitable and useless. And in another place it is said, “If You had desired sacrifice I would have given it.” Therefore by this also he makes it plain that He does not desire it. Therefore sacrifices are not God's will, but the abolition of sacrifices. Wherefore they sacrifice contrary to His will.

What is “To do Your will”? To give up Myself, He means: This is the will of God. “By which Will we are sanctified.” Or he even means something still further, that the sacrifices do not make men clean, but the Will of God. Therefore to offer sacrifice is not the will of God.

2. And why do you wonder that it is not the will of God now, when it was not His will even from the beginning? For “who,” says He, “has required this at your hands?”

How then did He Himself enjoin it? In condescension. For as Paul says, “I would that all men were even as I myself”, in respect of continence, and again says, “I will that the younger women marry, bear children”; and lays down two wills, yet the two are not his own, although he commands; but the one indeed is his own, and therefore he lays it down without reasons; while the other is not his own, though he wishes it, and therefore it is added with a reason. For having previously accused them, because “they had waxed wanton against Christ”, he then says, “I will that the younger women marry, bear children.” So in this place also it was not His leading will that the sacrifices should be offered. For, as He says, “I wish not the death of the sinner, as that he should turn unto [Me] and live”: and in another place He says that He not only wished, but even desired this: and yet these are contrary to each other: for intense wishing is desire. How then dost Thou “not wish”? How dost Thou in another place “desire,” which is a sign of vehement wishing? So is it in this case also.

“By the which will we are sanctified,” he says. How sanctified? “by the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

3. “And every priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice.” (To stand therefore is a sign of ministering; accordingly to sit, is a sign of being ministered unto.)