Fully Forgiven In Christ

February 19th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 10:15-18 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,” He then says, 17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

The key point in the context of chapters 8-10 is the new covenant. The Hebrews author quoted it from Jeremiah 31:31-34 in full in 8:8-12, but here he only quotes a portion of it, singling out what he felt was most important with regard to the point he was making. In 8:8 the quotation was introduced with “he says,” leaving readers to (rightly) assume that the speaker is God. Yet here, the author is a bit more precise, attributing this prophecy to the Holy Spirit, as he did with both Psalm 95 (3:7) and the Day of Atonement regulations (9:8). In other words, to the Hebrews author, the Holy Spirit is God; and the Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture (cf. 2 Pet. 1:20-21). Quoting from the Holy Spirit in 10:15, the author clarifies “says the Lord” in v. 16.

The point here of repeating Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant was to emphasize the nature of the “perfection” and “holiness” (v. 10) attained by Christ’s unique sacrifice on the cross. R.T. France says, “The final solution for the problem of human sin, which had eluded the sacrificial system under which the old covenant operated, is in the inward transformation of God’s people and in a cleansing from sin that leaves them not merely ‘outwardly clean’ (9:13) but inwardly restored to fellowship with God by having their sins not only forgiven but also forgotten, and thus finally ‘taken away’ ” (v. 11).

Verse 18 sums up the author’s entire argument: Since Jesus Christ has accomplished what the Levitical sacrifices were unable to do, and has thus ushered in the new covenant in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, there is nothing man can do in and of himself to appease God in order to have his sins forgiven; there is “no longer any offering for sin.”

The fact that Jeremiah was a stalwart prophet in Israel, that his words were recorded and recited by Jews as holy Scripture, means that one could not receive Jeremiah’s prophecies while at the same time reject Jesus as the Messiah, or Christ. After all, Jeremiah recorded God’s own words about a future new covenant (31:31-34; cf. Ezek. 36:22ff.). This covenant was a promise from God where He pledged that His laws would be branded on the hearts of believers and where forgiveness would be complete. Therefore, receiving Jeremiah while rejecting Jesus of Nazareth would entail a rejection of the Holy Spirit (v. 15), the Author of holy Scripture.

Note in v. 15 that the Holy Spirit testifies “to us”—to believers—that the new covenant will put the law of God in the hearts and minds (10:16) of believers, indicating an internal revolution with effects that endure for eternity. The sins of believers will be forgiven and forgotten (v. 17).

Christians living under the new covenant therefore have God’s Law written on their hearts. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, affirming the inauguration of the new covenant in their people, telling them, “…being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor. 3:3). Such a transformation of the heart allowed the Apostle Peter to write: “[Christ’s] divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

In context, the Hebrews author was reminding his audience, specifically those who had begun to backslide into their old religion of Judaism, seeking to observe the Law and its sacrifices, that they were backsliding from the superior new covenant of Christ to the inferior old covenant of Law. This backsliding would be fatal to their souls, however, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Yet in Christ, they are fully forgiven.