Hebrews 10:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

One may believe with doubt. Even now there are many people who say that there will be a resurrection for some, but not for others. This is not fullness of faith. We must believe as firmly as we do concerning visible things, and even much more firmly. In visible things we can be mistaken, but not there. Here we perceive by sense, but there by the spirit.

"Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience." Here he proves that not only faith is required, but also a virtuous life, and that one should be conscious of nothing evil in oneself. Those who do not conduct themselves wholly in this way are not admitted into the sanctuary. It is holy, and the Holy of Holies. Therefore no unclean person enters here.

They washed the body, but we wash the conscience. Even now we must be washed, but now virtuously. "And our bodies washed with pure water." Here he speaks of the laver of Baptism, which cleanses not the body, but the soul.

What does "let us draw near with a true heart" mean? It means without hypocrisy: "Woe to fearful hearts and weakened hands" (Sir 2:12). Let there be no falsehood among you, he says. Let us not say one thing and think another, for this is falsehood. Let us not be fainthearted, for this is not proper to a true heart. Faintheartedness comes from unbelief.

How shall we attain this? If we have full assurance of faith within us. "Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience." Why did he not say "cleansed," but "sprinkled"? To show the difference between the sprinklings, and that one is from God while the other is from us. To sprinkle and wash the conscience is from God. To draw near sincerely and with full assurance of faith is from us.

Then the Apostle strengthens faith by pointing to the truthfulness of Him Who promised. What does "and our bodies washed with pure water" mean? He is speaking either of water that makes pure, or of water that has no blood.

Here again we see the fittingness of His death in His outstretched hands. This was so that He might draw His ancient people on the one side, and the Gentiles on the other, and unite them together in Himself. He foretold the manner of His death for redemption: "When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to Myself" (Jn 12:32; cf. Is 65:2).

The air is the sphere of the devil, the enemy of our race. Having fallen from heaven, he tries with the other evil spirits, who shared his disobedience and hold souls back from the truth, to hinder the progress of those who follow it. Discussing this, the Apostle says, "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience" (Eph 2:2).

But the Lord came to overthrow the devil, cleanse the air, and open the way for us to the heavens. As the Apostle says, this was "through the veil, that is, His flesh." This had to be accomplished through death. By what other kind of death could it have been accomplished, except by death in the air, that is, on the Cross?

Here again you see how right and natural it was for the Lord to suffer in this way. For being lifted up in this way, He cleansed the air from all the evil influences of the enemy. "I saw Satan falling like lightning" (Lk 10:18), He says. Thus He again opened the way to heaven, saying, "Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors" (Ps 24:7).

For the Word Himself did not need the gates to be opened. He is Lord of all, and none of His works is closed to its Creator. No, this was needed for us, whom He Himself raised up in His own body. The body which He first handed over to death for all then opened the way to the heavens.

Therefore everyone who has put on that garment of humility, in which the Creator Himself was seen when He put on our body, has put on Christ Himself. For in his inner man he too wished to put on that likeness in which Christ was seen by His creation and lived with it. In this likeness He is seen by His fellow servants (cf. Phil 2:7), and with it He adorned Himself instead of a garment of honor and outward glory.

Therefore rational and irrational creation, looking upon any man clothed in this likeness, bows before him as before a master, in honor of its own Master. It saw Him clothed in this same likeness and living in it. For what creature will not stand in reverence when it beholds the humble-minded man?

Yet before the glory of humble-mindedness was revealed to all, this sight, filled with holiness, was despised. Now its majesty has shone before the eyes of the world, and every person honors this likeness wherever it is seen. Through this mediation creation was deemed worthy to receive the vision of its Creator and Maker.

Therefore humble-mindedness is not despised even by the enemies of truth. Even if the one who has acquired it is poorer than every creature, he who has espoused it is adorned by it as with a crown and purple robe.

Those who consider this impossible are heretics. They do not have merely some one particular heresy, but, one may say, all heresies. For this heresy surpasses and darkens all others by its impiety and blasphemy. Whoever speaks this way tears down all the divine Scriptures to their foundation.

It seems to me that such a vain talker says: in vain is the holy Gospel now proclaimed; in vain are the writings of Basil the Great and the rest of our holy fathers read, or even written. For if it is impossible for us to do and keep what God says, and what all the saints say, who first practiced it and then wrote it down and left it for our instruction (1 Cor 10:11), why did they labor to write it then? Why is it still read now in the churches?

Is it not clear that those who say this shut the heaven which Christ the Lord opened for us by His descent to earth? They block the ascent to heaven which the same Christ the Lord opened for us. For when God, Who is over all (Rom 9:5), stands above as though in the gates of heaven, looks down, and is seen by faithful Christians, He cries through the holy Gospel: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mt 11:28). Yet these fighters against God, or rather antichrists, cry out: It is impossible, impossible.

Thus Moses sprinkled all the Israelites with the blood of the covenant, so that by falling upon them in small drops it made each of them a participant in the covenant. According to the Apostle's teaching, the same sprinkling is required in the New Testament, which is established on the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is not enough that this blood be contained in the human nature of the Redeemer as in a single vessel. It is not enough that it was once poured out on Golgotha. It must be communicated and allotted to each of us, to each one of the countless multitude of the Christian people.

This sprinkling with the blood of Christ is accomplished in the mystery of the Eucharist. In it the Body of Christ is broken and the Blood is divided for the multitude of believers, so that each of them may become a partaker of the divine nature.

They will say that the sprinkling must be accomplished through faith in the saving sufferings of Christ. But the Apostle mentions faith separately and does not confuse it with sprinkling: "with full faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean." In addition, the Apostle adds, "and our bodies washed with pure water."

Here he speaks of bodily washing, by which nothing other than Baptism can be understood. The washing of the body cannot be accomplished by faith; it requires perceptible water. Correspondingly, the sprinkling must also be understood as a visible, bodily action through which a portion of the covenant blood is given to each Christian.

This action is called sprinkling by relation to the Old Testament sprinklings (Heb 9:13). Among us there can be no sprinkling in the strict sense, since the precious Blood of Christ must not be scattered and fall upon the ground. It must be received into the being of man.

At the same time, the Apostle notes that Christ opened for us a new way through the veil, that is, through His flesh. This means that Christ, by giving His flesh, that is, His bodily life, over to death, completely blotted out our sins. He tore the veil that closed the heavenly sanctuary from mankind.

The Old Testament high priest did not enter the Holy of Holies through the veil, but moved it aside. So too Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary not through His flesh, but because He handed His flesh over to death. By this He set it aside and deprived all fleshly impulses of their power. Since the same has taken place in us, He thereby opened for us the road to the throne of God.