10:16
The new covenant is concerned with the Lord putting His laws in our hearts and minds. This is an example of Hebrew parallelism. We tend to think of heart meaning emotions, and sometimes see conflict between heart and mind. In the Bible the heart is the centre of the will and there is no such conflict, heart includes our mind. Notice also the implication that the Law is good, otherwise why would God seek to write it on our hearts? There are those (eg hyper-grace teachers) who seem to have a low view of the Law, such thinking is misguided.
10:17,18
Next we come to forgiveness. Note that the change in our hearts, ie the inner change, the fundamental change in our nature (born again!) is given precedence over forgiveness. The cross is central to the gospel, but it is not the goal. Rather it is the means to achieving the goal. The goal is that we become Christlike, we become the people God wants us to be. The cross is the crucial part of achieving that goal. Through the cross we receive forgiveness, justification, our sins are completely dealt with.
We then come to the crux of the matter. “Sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary”. The cross has done it all.
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