And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. – Hebrews 10:11
You will observe, dear brethren, that the words used in the text are these, “Can never take away sin.” The word is, “Can never strip off sin.” As if our sins were like filthy garments—the vestures of our disgrace—these could not be taken from us by the daily ministering of priests. There was no power in their sacrifices to remove the polluted coverings. Yet the priests were very diligent, for “every priest standeth” in the posture of activity, and they were persevering too, for “every priest standeth daily.” They were obedient too, for they did not offer sacrifices according to their own devices, but, as the text saith, “the same sacrifices”—that is to say, such as were ordained of God. The priests were both diligent, constant, and obedient, and the principle of the truth was in their offerings—viz., the doctrine of substitution; yet sin still remained upon the consciences of the offerers, and none of them were made perfect.
If the sacrifices which were presented reverently and perpetually, according to God’s own command, and were presented by men about whose priesthood there could be no manner of question—for they had received it indisputably of the Lord—if these offerings were of no service to the taking away of sin, it is clear enough that the offerings of so-called priests in these modern times cannot have any efficacy. Here is a priesthood, certainly appointed of God, offering victims ordained by divine order, and yet their service does not put away sin. How much less, then, can it be wise to trust in doubtful priests, who present sacrifices unwarranted by the word of God. Their descent cannot be proved, their title their pretensions of one sect are ridiculed by another, they are all alike deceivers; have done with them (If Jerusalem has no sacrifice in all her flocks, what use can it be to look to Rome? If Aaron’s seed cannot put away sin, to what end shall we look to the shavelings of Antichrist?) and rest alone in Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.
