Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 10:2

"Else would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins." — Hebrews 10:2 (ASV)

For then would they not have ceased to be offered? A marginal note says, "Or they would have." The meaning is the same. The idea is that the very fact they were repeated showed there was some deficiency in them regarding cleansing the soul from sin.

If they had answered all the purposes of a sacrifice in putting away guilt, there would have been no need to repeat them in this manner. In this respect, they were like medicine. If medicine given to a patient heals him, there is no need to repeat it. But if it is repeated often, it shows there was some deficiency in it; and if taken periodically throughout a person's life, and the disease still remained, it would show that it was not sufficient to bring about his cure.

So it was with the offerings made by the Jews. They were offered every year, and indeed every day, and still the disease of sin remained. The conscience was not satisfied, and the guilty felt it was necessary that the sacrifice should be repeated again and again.

Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. That is, if their sacrifices had been effective enough to remove their past sins and to obtain forgiveness, they would have had no more trouble of conscience because of them. They would not have felt it was necessary to make these sacrifices over and over again in order to find peace.

When a person has full evidence that an atonement has been made which will meet all the demands of the law, and which secures the remission of sin, he feels that it is enough. It is all that the case demands, and his conscience may have peace. But when he does not feel this, or does not have evidence that all his sins are forgiven, those sins will come to mind, and he will be alarmed.

He may be punished for them after all. Therefore, it follows that if a person wants peace, he should have good evidence that his sins are forgiven through the blood of the atonement. No temporary expedient, no attempt to cover them up, and no effort to forget them will achieve the goal.

They must be blotted out if he is to have peace—and that can only be through a perfect sacrifice. By the use of the word translated as "conscience" here, it is not meant that the one who was pardoned would have no consciousness that he was a sinner, or that he would forget it. Instead, it means he would have no trouble of conscience; he would have no fear of future wrath.

The pardon of sin does not cause it to cease to be remembered. The one who is forgiven may have a deeper conviction of its evil than he ever had before. But he will not be troubled or distressed by it as if it were to expose him to the wrath of God.

The remembrance of it will humble him; it will serve to elevate his understanding of God's mercy and the glory of the atonement, but it will no longer overwhelm his mind with the dread of hell. This effect, the apostle says, was not produced in the minds of those who offered sacrifices every year. The very fact that they did so showed that the conscience was not at peace.