Will we trust Christ; or insult the Spirit of grace?
The writer of Hebrews further warned, “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10: 26-29)
Under the Old Covenant the Jews were required to offer animal sacrifices for their sins. The writer of Hebrews is trying to show the Jews that the Old Covenant has been fulfilled by Christ. After the death of Christ, there was no longer any requirement for animal sacrifices. The ordinances of the Old Covenant were only ‘types’ or patterns of the reality that would be brought about through Christ.
The writer of Hebrews wrote “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9: 11-12) Jesus was the last and complete sacrifice of the Old Covenant. There was no more need for the sacrifice of goats and calves.
We further learn from these verses, “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9: 13-14) We also learn, “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” (Hebrews 10: 1) The sacrifices of the Old Covenant only ‘covered’ the people’s sins; they did not completely remove them.
Over 600 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Jeremiah wrote about the New Covenant, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31: 31-34)
C.I. Scofield wrote about the New Covenant, “the New Covenant rests upon the sacrifice of Christ and secures the eternal blessedness, under the Abrahamic Covenant, of all who believe. It is absolutely unconditional and, since no responsibility is by it committed to man, it is final and irreversible.”
The writer of Hebrews in the above verses was warning the Jews about having been told the truth about Jesus, and not coming all the way to a saving faith in Him. It would be for them, to trust in what Jesus did for them in His atoning death, or face judgment for their sins. They could choose to be clothed in the ‘righteousness of Christ,’ or remain clothed in their own works and their own righteousness which would not ever be enough. In a sense, if they rejected Jesus, they would be ‘trampling’ the Son of God under their feet. They would also be regarding the blood of the New Covenant (Christ’s blood), a common thing, not respecting Jesus’ sacrifice for what it truly was.
It is the same for us today. Either we trust in our own righteousness and good works to please God; or we trust in what Jesus has done for us. God came and gave His life for us. Will we trust Him and His goodness and surrender our wills and our lives to Him?