Hebrews 10:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having said that sacrifices are no longer offered, he confirmed this both from Scripture and apart from Scripture. He also presented the prophetic saying: "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin, which are offered according to the law, Thou didst not desire, nor hadst pleasure in them." Now he says that God has already forgiven sins.

He again assures us of this by the testimony of Scripture: "The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us," he says, "for after He had said: This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put My laws into their hearts, and write them on their minds, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of sins, there is no longer any offering for them."

Thus God forgave sins when He gave the new covenant. He gave this covenant because of the sacrifice of Christ. If He forgave sins through this one sacrifice, then there is no longer need for another.

For it is said: “This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them in their minds, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more” (Jer 31:33-34). Do you see? God Himself testifies that He has granted the cleansing of sins. He granted it when He gave the New Covenant. And He gave and confirmed the New Covenant by the death of His Son, as was shown earlier (Heb 8).

The prophet Jeremiah testifies to this sanctification of sins in the New Covenant, saying thus: “I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them in their minds, and their sins... and their iniquities I will remember no more” (Jer 31:33-34).

Then the Apostle, intending to bring this comparison to an end, again recalls the prophecy of Jeremiah. He does not state the Prophet’s name, but gives us to understand the Spirit who spoke through him. “The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying beforehand”: “This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts, and on their minds I will write them”; “and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more” (cf. Jer 31:33-34). Then he wonderfully adds: Verse 18. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is no need for an offering for them.

“For after He had said before: This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord.” This is after the Holy Spirit had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. All this was explained above, where the words “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,” and what follows, were interpreted (Heb 8:8). “I will put My laws upon their hearts, and on their minds I will write them.” This too was explained there in the order of the Apostle’s words. Then he says:

What conclusion does the Apostle draw from Jeremiah’s prophecy about the coming of the New Covenant, with the forgetting of human sins and iniquity? That where there is forgiveness of sins, no offering for them is needed. In other words, with the shedding of Christ’s Blood of the New Covenant, the Old Covenant, with its shadowy priesthood and powerless sacrifices, had to cease. Note. With the nineteenth verse of the chapter under examination, the moral part of Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews begins. From this verse to the end of the chapter, the Apostle exhorts them to steadfastness in faith.

Even in the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit, foretelling the New Covenant, testified that the people of this covenant would have their sins completely forgiven. Therefore, the Apostle concludes, the Old Covenant itself foretold the abolition of sacrifices, accomplished through Christ.