Author: Lamar Austin

After a serious car accident in Venezuela, Carlos Camejo was pronounced dead at the scene.  Officials released the body to the morgue and a routine autopsy was ordered.  But as soon as examiners began the autopsy, they realized something was gravely amiss: the body was bleeding.  They quickly stitched up the wounds to stop the bleeding, which in turn, jarred the man to consciousness.  Camejo said, “I woke up because the pain was unbearable.”  Equally jarred awake was Camejo’s wife, who came to the morgue to identify her husband’s body and instead found him in the hallway—alive.

Enlivened with images from countless forensic television shows, the scene comes vividly to life.  Equally vivid is the scientific principle in the morgue.  Sure, blood is ubiquitous with work in a morgue; but the dead do not bleed.  This is a sign of the living.

Thought and practice in Old Testament times revolved around a similar understanding—namely, the life is in the blood.  For the ancient Hebrew, there was a general understanding that in our blood is the essence of what it means to be alive.  There is life in the blood; there is energy and power.

This notion of blood and its power can also be seen in the language of sacrifice and offering found throughout Near Eastern culture.  Just as it was understood that the force of life exists in the blood, there was a general understanding of the human need for the power of perfect blood, a need in our lives for atoning and cleansing.  The blood of a living sacrifice made this possible temporarily, but God would provide a better way.

When Christianity speaks of Christ as the Lamb of God, it is a description [of the One] whose blood cries out with enough life and power to reach every person, every sorrow, every shortfall, every evil.  He is the Lamb who comes to the slaughter alive and aware, on his own accord, and with his blood covers us with life.  There is life in the blood of Christ, whose entire life is self-giving love; there is power, and he has freely sacrificed all to bring it near.

The Christian story tells of a time when we will bow before the slain Lamb who stands very much alive, though bearing the scars of his own death.  He is not dead and buried, but beckoning a broken world to his wounded side, offering love and life, mercy and power in blood poured out for you.

Some individuals have sought to rid Christianity of blood language, speaking only about Jesus’s love instead.  The blood of Christ, however, is integral to Christian theology.  If we lose the language of blood, we lose the gospel. The hymn “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” by William Cowper captures the role of Christ’s blood beautifully:

There is a fountain filled with blood

drawn from Immanuel’s veins,

and sinners plunged beneath that flood

lose all their guilty stains.

As our author in Hebrews begins the exhortatory part of his letter, he says…

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

In making transition from instruction (1:1-10:18) to exhortation (10:19-13:25), the preacher assumes that the foregoing ten chapters, truly believed, ought to have produced a profound dual confidence: confidence in one’s access to God, and confidence in one’s advocate before God.

“This paragraph is actually a single sentence of continuous admonition, applying the truths developed in the letter and with all this in mind.  The first part (vv. 19–21) is causal (“since”), summing up God’s great gift from 5:1–10:18 with two privileges—first, what Christ has done for us (vv. 19–20, the bold entrance he has effected into the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary); and second, what Christ has become for us (v. 21: “a great priest over the house of God”).  The author informs us what we have in Christ and then what we should do with it. This latter comes to us via commands (vv. 22–25), a string of three hortatory subjunctives (“let us” commands), which enumerate our responsibility.  Interestingly, the three center on the three main blessings—draw near in faith (v. 22), hold firmly onto hope (v. 23), and spur one another to love (vv. 24–25)” (Grant R. Osborne and George H. Guthrie, Hebrews: Verse by Verse, Osborne New Testament Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021), 209.)

Faith, hope and love, of course, are the great triumvirate of 1 Corinthians 13:13 and also were qualities that Paul looked for in all his churches.

“No old covenant worshipper would have been bold enough to try to enter the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.  Even the high priest entered the Holy of Holies only once a year.  The thick veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies was a barrier between people and God.  Only the death of Christ could tear that veil (Mark 15:38) and open the way into the heavenly sanctuary where God dwells” (Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 832).

Now, however, the author of Hebrews gives them three gracious invitations: “Let us draw near…” (v. 22), “let us hold fast…” (v. 23), “and let us consider…” (v. 24).  This threefold invitation is based upon our confidence to “enter the holy places.”  And this confidence rests upon the finished work of Christ.  We enter not through the blood of bulls and goats, but through the blood of Jesus Christ…into the very presence of God.

Our paragraph starts with the word “therefore,” indicating that this exhortation is based upon the realities that our author has established—the Christ is a better high priest offering a better sacrifice in a better tabernacle by a better covenant.  “In view of all that has been accomplished for us by Christ, he says, let us confidently approach God in worship, let us maintain our Christian confession and hope, let us help one another by meeting together regularly for mutual encouragement, because the day which we await will soon be here” (F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 244).

Do you remember what we saw in the last few weeks in vv. 14 and 17? 

“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).

Therefore, draw near to God!

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Heb. 10:17).

Therefore, draw near to God!

As he begins, he assumes matter-of-factly in the opening phrase that his hearers have a proper confidence in their divine access: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh . . .” (vv. 19, 20).  Their confident access comes from the torn curtain of Christ’s crucified body.  The rending of Jesus’ flesh on the cross, which brought his death, perpetrated a simultaneous tearing from top to bottom of the curtain that had barred the way into the Holy of Holies (Matthew 27:51).  Now they walked confidently through the torn curtain of Christ, so to speak, into the presence of the Father.

Charles Spurgeon so eloquently says…

“For believers the veil is not rolled up, but rent.  The veil was not unhooked, and carefully folded up, and put away, so that it might be put in its place at some future time.  Oh, no!  But the divine hand took it and rent it front top to bottom.  It can never be hung up again; that is impossible.  Between those who are in Christ Jesus and the great God, there will never be another separation.”

Paul in Romans 8:38-39 encourages us:

38 For I am sure [that’s that confidence again] that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The inner courts of Herod’s Temple were accessible by 10 gates, through which only Jews could enter.  Inside there were several chambers and a courtyard where sacrifices were made.  At one end was the holy place, with the Holy of Holies separated by the curtain.

Whereas before they could only have surrogate access through the high priest, who slipped behind the curtain once a year for a heart-pounding few minutes, they now had permanent access through the blood and torn body of Christ.

https://nearemmaus.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/herods-temple/

This confidence lay in nothing that we have done—no amount of good deeds, not even a sincere heart—it has everything to do with what Christ has done for us, shedding His own blood.  This nicely complemented the preacher’s earlier encouragement: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (4:16). They had deep confidence in their access to God” R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, vol. 2, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 30.

“Drawing near” has been the concern of the plan of God ever since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden.  How can sinful man recapture the joys of fellowship with God?  The key question, asked in Psalm 15:1 by David was “O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?  Who shall dwell on your holy hill?”  In other words, who can meet with God?  Well, the answer for centuries was through the tabernacle and then through the temple.  But now a “new and living way” has been opened up for us to have fellowship with God. 

Drawing near to God has been the chief concern of the author of Hebrews.  On three other occasions in Hebrews where our author encourages us to draw near.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

There are several other NT texts that affirm the same thing, two of which are:

“For through him [i.e., through Christ] we both [i.e., believing Jews and believing Gentiles] have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph. 2:18).

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18a).

Now, there are many people who are off limits.  The president, for one.  Supreme court justices.  Actors and actresses often have bodyguards, as do professional sports figures.  But listen to this:  the infinitely transcendent, more-important-than-anyone-else, almighty God of this universe, not only is approachable, but makes Himself approachable by the sacrifice of His one-and-only precious Son.

And we can approach Him boldly.

This boldness is a complete contrast to the way the High Priest entered the Holy Place under the Old Covenant.  “He went with fear and trembling, because, if he had neglected the smallest item prescribed by the law, he could expect nothing but death.  Genuine believers can come even to the throne of God with confidence, as they carry into the Divine presence the infinitely meritorious blood of the great atonement; and, being justified through that blood, they have a right to all the blessings of the eternal kingdom.” (Clarke)

The tense of the verb shows that we have this confidence as a continuing blessing.  It never fades or disappears.  We can never forfeit it or lose it.

We can enter God’s presence and fellowship with Him by means of “the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Heb. 10:20).  Christ’s sacrifice provided a new and living way compared with the old, and now dead, way of the Old Covenant.  “The way” in this verse is not Jesus Himself, in the sense of Jesus being the way to salvation (John 14:6).  It is, rather, the way of direct access that Jesus opened for us through His death into God’s presence.

“The way to God is both ‘new’ and ‘living.’ It is ‘new’ because what Jesus has done has created a completely new situation, ‘living’ because that way is indissolubly bound up with the Lord Jesus himself” (Leon Morris, p. 103).

It is wonderful to have this real, anytime and anywhere access to God.  Sam Storms mentions several advantages to enjoying the immediate presence of God, that I want to close with today.

To draw near to God means that we have these privileges and blessings:

Prayer: God wants us to tell him everything; to cry out with our complaints and our needs and our gratitude and our confusion and our hopes for the future.

Fellowship: God wants to walk with us in a relationship of intimacy and openness such that when we sin, we would never think of running from him in fear but to him in faith.

Power: To draw near to God is to be a recipient of his power; to experience the very power that raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to the right hand of the Father (Eph. 1:19ff.).

Protection: When we draw near to God, we enjoy his protection; we avail ourselves of the promise that no weapon formed against us can ultimately cause any harm; to draw near to God is to know and rest assured that “if God is for us, who can be against us?”

Enjoyment: Paul says in Romans 5:11 that because we have been reconciled to God through Jesus, we “rejoice in God.”  To draw near to God is to freely and openly and sincerely rejoice in his goodness and greatness and every other truth about him that we know.

Pleasures: In Psalm 16:11 we are told explicitly why we should seek the presence of God, for there and there alone we find “fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.” 

Hear his voice: We draw near to God when we are open to hearing him speak, first and foremost in and through Scripture but also in those tender communications from his Spirit to our spirit.

Manifest presence: To draw near to God is to experience in an almost tangible way a heightened sense of his presence. Of course, God is always and everywhere present with us but there are times when that presence is manifest or intensified and we are enabled by the Spirit to feel and enjoy and sense it in ways never before known. 

Communion with God: To draw near to God is what the Puritans used to call having “communion” with God; feeling his love, knowing his commitment to our welfare, resting in the peace that he brings.

And the most amazing thing about this privilege is that God is the one who makes this possible.  He wants us to draw near and He wants to bless us with these multiple blessings!

God is the good news of the gospel.  Getting him.  Knowing him.  Seeing him.  Savoring him.  Enjoying him.  Relishing him.  Being satisfied with all that he is for us in Jesus.  Experiencing God himself in his presence and power and majesty and love.  God himself as our faithful friend and constant companion and ever-present lover and Lord is the gospel!Says Piper:

“And all of this is for our joy and for his glory.  He does not need us. If we stay away he is not impoverished.  He does not need us in order to be happy in the fellowship of the Trinity.  But he magnifies his mercy by giving us free access through his Son, in spite of our sin, to the one Reality that can satisfy us completely and forever, namely, himself” (Piper, “Let us Draw Near to God,” March 23, 1997).

We can draw near to God because Jesus voluntarily shed His blood, His life-giving blood, in our behalf.  That, and that alone, provides complete and final forgiveness from sins.

Perhaps you wonder, “Why will the holiness and majestic beauty of God not consume me but rather, as you suggest, thrill me and bring unparalleled pleasure and joy?”  The answer is because the blood of Christ has been shed and we need never, ever again fear the wrath of God!

That confidence has nothing to do with whether we have lived a clean and good life, but whether we have entered the “new and living way.”

We have “confidence to enter the holy places,” that is, the immediate presence of God, because Jesus died and rose again! He opened up for us “the new and living way” through the curtain, that is, “through his flesh” (10:19b).  It is “new” because it was previously unavailable to those living under the Old Covenant.  Only those who are members of the New Covenant experience this privilege.  And it is “living” because it is access through a person who is alive, a person raised from the dead who always lives at the Father’s right hand to make intercession for us.  And it is “living” because it is life that is imparted to those who avail themselves of it.

We ended our last session on Hebrews talking about how the New Covenant takes God’s external law and writes it on our hearts.  That, plus the presence of the Holy Spirit and a new heart, enables us to obey the law wholeheartedly.

Those new covenant provisions are found in Hebrews 10:15-18, a quote from Jeremiah 31:33.

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

It is the provisions of the New Covenant, spelled out in more detail in Ezekiel 36:25-27, that enables us to obey the law out of a sense of delight rather than duty.

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

God graciously gives us a “new heart, and a new spirit,” a “heart of flesh” that is responsive to God.  He puts His “Spirit within [us]” and these provisions “cause [us] to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”  This new, Spirit-driven life within us, enables us to do what we could not do before—obey God from the heart (Rom. 6:17).

Shortly after the armistice of World War I, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse visited the battlefields of Belgium.  In the first year of the war the area around the city of Mons was the scene of the great British retreat.  In the last year of the war it was the scene of the greater enemy retreat.  For miles west of the city the roads were lined with artillery, tanks, trucks, and other materials of war that the enemy had abandoned in their hasty flight.

It was a lovely spring day.  The sun was shining, and not a breath of wind was blowing.  As he walked along, examining the war remains, he noticed leaves were falling from the great trees that arched along the road.  He brushed at a leaf that had fallen against his chest.  As he grasped at it, he pressed it in his fingers, and it disintegrated.  He looked up curiously and saw several other leaves falling from the trees.  Remember, it was spring, not autumn, nor was there enough wind to blow off the leaves.  These leaves had outlived the winds of autumn and the frosts of winter.  Yet they were falling that day, seemingly without cause.

Then Dr. Barnhouse realized why.  The most potent force of all was causing them to fall.  It was spring—the sap was beginning to run, and the buds were beginning to push from within.  From down beneath the dark earth, roots were sending life along trunk, branch, and twig until it expelled every bit of deadness that remained from the previous year. It was, as a great Scottish preacher termed it, “the expulsive power of a new affection.”

This is what happens when God writes his will on our hearts.  The new life within pushes the deadness from our lives.  Our renewed hearts pump fresh blood through us.  The life of Christ in us—the same life that said “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God”—animates us!

The life that is inside—the empowering life of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ—now motivates us to will what Jesus willed, the will of God!

But how did we get to that position?  How is it that the law came to be written within us?  That is the second aspect—the eternal aspect of God’s forgiveness.

First, the sacrifice of Christ made the New Covenant possible.  The Lord said through Jeremiah, more completely quoted in Hebrews 8, that this internal empowering of life could come about For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12)

It is a tremendous feeling to know that our sins have been totally forgiven.  We do not have to continue to feel guilty because of the sins of our past.  This verses say God “will remember [our] sins no more.”  The same is true of any sin I commit either today or tomorrow.  God will not remember it.

Clara Barton, organizer of the American Red Cross was known not to harbor resentments.  She was asked by a friend regarding an incident that had happened earlier to Clara, “Don’t you remember the wrong that was done you?”  Clara answered calmly, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting that!”

Clara Barton willed to forgive and forget.  But God does even better.  He really does forgive and forget—“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

That that is exactly what God does; He chooses to remember it no more.  Do you believe you believe it?  Or do you truly believe it?  Believe it!

Sam Storms explains:

It’s important for us to remember that God does in fact “remember” many things and we should be grateful for it.  Frequently in the OT we are assured that God remembers his people, the promises he has given them, and especially the covenant that he has made with them (see Pss. 74:2; 105:8, 42; 106:45; 111:5).  But when it comes to our sins, well, that’s another matter!

You and I certainly remember our sins and evil deeds, all too often! We can’t shake free from them.  They nag at our hearts and haunt us and torment us and oppress our souls. There is a constant piercing of the conscience.  And the only way to break free from that remembrance is to remind ourselves that God does not remember!

God doesn’t gain knowledge. God doesn’t lose knowledge.  He neither learns nor forgets. He knows all things instantly and eternally, now and forever.  So, when he says he won’t remember our sins he means: “I’ll never bring it up and use it against you.  I’ll never take your sins into consideration when it comes to determining who is granted entrance into my eternal kingdom.  I’ll never appeal to your sins as grounds for condemning you.”

There is obviously a difference between “forgetting” and “choosing not to remember.”  Forgetting is unavoidable.  It happens by nature, not by choice.  You can’t choose to forget.  It just happens.  It doesn’t require any effort to “forget” something.  You get busy, distracted, tired, and things slip from your mind. 

This is not what happens to God. God cannot forget in the literal sense of the term and certainly not in the same way you and I do.  God doesn’t suffer from mental lapses.  His mind is infinitely perfect and powerful.  Rather, God willingly chooses “not to remember.”  Thus, it isn’t so much that the knowledge of our sins and lawless deeds has been erased from God’s mind.  Rather, God promises to us that he will “not remember” our shortcomings and sin.  He will not remind himself of our failures.  And he will not remind us of them.  They play no part in determining or shaping our relationship with him.  He will never throw them in our face or subtly drop hints about the ways we’ve failed. (https://www.samstorms.org/all-articles/post/when-god-chooses-not-to-remember-hebrews-101-18)

Because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God exercised His judgment against my sins against His Son, thereby making it possible for God to forgive me of my sins.  My sin record was wiped clean because Someone else paid for it.  That paved the way for God to give us His Spirit to dwell within His people, who then writes the laws of God upon our hearts (cf. Ezekiel 36:26-27; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians 4:6).

Thus, because Christ did God’s will, doing what God wanted Him to do with the body that had been prepared for Him—living a perfectly obedient life, dying in our place on the cross—now we, having been forgiven, are enabled now to do God’s will, and to do it because we love God and love to obey Him.

Whereas Chapter 8 showed that the forgiveness preceded the internal aspect of the covenant, Chapter 10 shows that the forgiveness continues.  Christ not only makes the New Covenant possible; He also makes it eternal.

Our author further clarifies that not only our sins, but our “lawless deeds” are no longer remembered, showing that everything from sins to lawless deeds do not nullify His covenant towards us.  It is probably his way of saying that no kind of sin causes God to abandon His people once they belong to Him.

Literally, God says here that He will “no, not” remember their sins.  A double negative is poor English, but wonderful Greek!  It emphasizes this in such a way as to say, “there is no possible way that God will remember this or hold it to your account.”  It is impossible.  The sacrificial system stood there as a constant “reminder” of sins for people (Heb. 10:3), but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ causes God to “remember” them no more.  If God has forgotten our sins, then we can put them out of our minds.

Charles Spurgeon reminds us: “The Christ who died on Calvary’s cross, will not have to die again for my new sins, or to offer a fresh atonement for any transgressions that I may yet commit.  No; but, once for all, gathering up the whole mass of his people’s sins into one colossal burden, he took it upon his shoulders, and flung the whole of it into the sepulcher wherein Once he slept, and there it is buried, never to be raised again to bear witness against the redeemed any more for ever.”

Finally, the writer says, “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”  Note the air of finality here—a completed sacrifice and complete forgiveness.  Where there is forgiveness of “sins and lawless deeds,” the summation of all our offenses against a holy God, then there is no longer any need for further offerings for sin because what those offerings pointed to—full and final forgiveness through the Lamb of God—has already been granted by the one offering of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The Old Testament sacrifices, in other words, are rendered worthless and obsolete.  What they pointed forward to has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.  Through the cross, believers under the New Covenant receive God’s total forgiveness!  If you have total forgiveness in Christ, why go back to a system that could never provide that?

This text once again eliminates the unbiblical doctrines of purgatory and penance, because there is no longer any need for sacrificial actions that would merit forgiveness from God.  All of these unbiblical practices detract from the merit of what Christ did on the cross, devaluing His sacrificial death for us.

His death obtained total forgiveness for every believer.  His death perfected us for all time.  His death sanctifies us once for all.  His death completely takes away the guilt of our sins.

To believe in purgatory, a place in the afterlife in which we are “purged” of our impurities and sins, and to practice penance and indulgences is very much like going back to the old Jewish sacrificial system!

The work of Jesus for atonement is finished.  If it is not enough for us, then nothing will be.  “God has set forth Christ for you as guilty sinners to rest on; and if that is not enough for you, what more would you have?  Christ has offered himself, and died and suffered in our stead, and gone into his glory; and, if you cannot depend upon him, what more would you have him do?  Shall he come and die again?  You have rejected him once; you would reject him though he died twice.” (Spurgeon)

I’ve used this illustration before, but imagine a young man who falls in love, but he and his lover are separated by distance for a while.  He, however, has a beautiful photograph of her that he gazes at every day.  Finally, the two of them get married.  He still has the photo, but now he has something much better—her physical presence, a living, breathing, loving person.

But imagine one day, he starts behaving rather strangely.  He stands before his wife clutching that old photo to his chest.  He tells her, “I appreciate you but I’ve really missed your photo, so I’m going back to it.”  He passionately kisses the picture and goes out the door mumbling, “Oh, how I love you, dear photo.  You’re everything to me” (adapted from Kent Hughes, Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul [Crossway], 2:19).  We would rightly conclude that this guys dipstick reads a quart low!

What folly to leave one’s living spouse for her lifeless portrait.  On the one hand, you “possess” a living person of so many inches, of a definite weight, with her own aroma, brimming with thought and action.  But you leave her for her lifeless photograph with its fixed and sealed expression.  What an absurd thought!

The fact that God will remember our sins no more, then, not only enables the New Covenant, it is a vital component of life in the New Covenant.  If we are to live as New Covenant followers of Jesus Christ, trusting, loving and obeying God, then we must grow in our understanding and appreciation of that fact that God forgives all sins all the time forevermore.  It is one of the things that the Holy Spirit, given to us as part of the New Covenant, communicates to our hearts.

Romans 5:5 tells us that one of the benefits of being justified by faith, rather than being justified by our own efforts, is that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

God wants us to enjoy Him and enjoy doing His will, and He provides everything we need in order to do that.  Joy is what the Old Covenant, working from the outside in, could never motivate.  But the Holy Spirit now lives inside us, showing us God’s full and forever forgiveness, God’s amazing grace towards us and God’s lavish love towards us, showing us God as He truly is, showing us His laws to be what they truly are (for our good, for our flourishing), leading us away from resentment into joyful gratitude.

If He truly is this kind of God, then doing His will becomes not a chore but a true delight.  His will can be trusted and enjoyed as we live in it.  If we know Him well, we will want to obey Him.  And if we know Him well, we will trust Him more.

An 85-year-old woman, looking back on her life, wished that it had been different.  In her words, it is evident that she longed for a New Covenant kind of life.  She wrote, in a note titled, “If I had my life to live over again”: “I’d like to make more mistakes next time.  I’d relax.  I would limber up.  I would be sillier than I’ve been this trip.  I would take fewer things seriously.  I would take more chances.  I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.  I would eat more ice cream and less beans.  I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.  You see, I’m one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day.  Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them.  In fact, I’d try to have nothing else.  Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.  I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute.  If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter.”

Because Christ did God’s will, culminating in the offering of His body on the cross as an effective and complete sacrifice for our sins, we ourselves may do God’s will, and enjoy doing it.  As the truth of God’s love for us settles in our hearts, communicated to us by the Holy Spirit, we too, like David, like Jesus, come to God, eagerly and willingly, and say, “Behold, I have come to do your will O God…”

“In the words, No more offering for sin, we reach the conclusion of the doctrinal part of this great epistle to the Hebrews.” (Philip Newell) What follows after is mainly exhortation.

The long section on the high priestly ministry of Jesus ends here (7:1—10:18).  Priestly ministry was such an important part of old Israelite worship that the writer has given it lengthy attention.   The writer showed that Jesus is a superior priest compared with the Levitical priests and that His priesthood supersedes (has replaced) the Levitical priesthood.  He also pointed out that Jesus serves under the New Covenant that is superior to the Old Covenant.  Furthermore, His sacrifice is superior to the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant.  Finally, Jesus’ priesthood brings the believer into full acceptance with God, something that the former priesthood could not do.  It could not make us “perfect.”  Therefore, the readers would be foolish to abandon Christianity to return to Judaism.  Likewise, contemporary believers are also foolish to turn away from Christ and the gospel.

A young boy decided to read a book from the family library while his Christian mother was away.  While reading the book, he came across the phrase “the finished work of Christ.”  It struck him with unusual power. “The finished work of Christ”…If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?”  He knew that answer and fell to his knees to receive the Savior and full forgiveness of sins.  That is how J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship International), was saved.

In our study of the book of Hebrews we’ve been looking at the contrast between Christ’s effective sacrifice of Himself versus the ineffective sacrifice of animals.  If we want to please God; if we want to be perfect, that is having our conscience cleansed; if we want to live without guilt and shame, then we must approach God through Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.

That contrast continues in Hebrews 10:11-14

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

This paragraph offers the answer to the problem posed in verses 1 through 4.  We saw in those verses the complete inadequacy of the sacrifices offered by the priests.  Here we see the complete sufficiency of the sacrifice offered by Christ.  Notice all the contrasts:  many priests versus Christ as our one High Priest; many sacrifices versus the one sacrifice of Christ Himself; repeated offerings versus the one offering for all time; and one you might have missed: notice that (verse 11) “every priest stands daily,” but when Christ has made his single sacrifice he (v. 12), “sat down at the right hand of God.”

The reference to sacrifices in verse 1 was to the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement; here it is to the daily sacrifices.  There is simply no animal sacrifice available or imaginable that would ever suffice to take away sins.  The sacrifices under the Old Covenant could never cure the sin problem, leaving us as a patient who continually needed the medicine, or like a weed that only has its head plucked out, not the root.

The priests “stand” to offer sacrifices day after day, time after time; they never sit down in either the tabernacle or the temple settings.  Significantly, there are no chairs in the tabernacle—no provision whatsoever to sit down.  This shows that their work is never complete.  One can sense the futility in these words.

Jesus, on the other hand, offered only one sacrifice that was effective “for all time” (10:12).  The words “for all time” are the same that are translated “continually” in verse 1, where it was said that the priests offer sacrifices “continually.”  The priests had to offer sacrifices “continually,” but only Christ’s sacrifice has a “continual,” or everlasting, effect.  Our salvation, therefore, is a “done deal.”  Our perfection is accomplished. And in the timelessness of eternity our holiness will go on and on.

In contrast to the priests, who stand, Christ “sat down at the right hand of God,” indicating that his work was done.  It was finished.  It’s not simply that Christ sat, but sat “at the right hand of God,” the throne.  It was a place of high honor and privilege.  As we have seen elsewhere in the book of Hebrews, Christ is the royal priest.  Having now taken his throne as king, the sacrificial phase of his priestly ministry is complete (while His intercessory ministry still continues).  These verses in Hebrews affirm the idea that Christ’s sacrifice was enough.

Hebrews 1:3

After making purification for sins [on the cross], he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Hebrews 8:1

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

And Hebrews 12:2

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Being seated at God’s right hand means at least three things here:  First, is that His work is done.  It is completely finished.  There is nothing left to do for the forgiveness of sins.  He does not “stand daily” to offer sacrifices for sin.  The one sacrifice of His own body was perfectly complete, it was completely and eternally effective.

“For all time” (v. 12) can modify either “offered one sacrifice for sins,” or “sat down at the right hand of God,” or both.  Both stress the finished work of Christ.  English translations favor the first reading.

Second, it means that God is satisfied with His sacrifice.  God honors Christ with the seat at His right hand to show how fully He is satisfied with the debt for sin that was paid by Christ.  This is a great picture to encourage us that our sins are fully dealt with.  F. F. Bruce said, “”A seated priest is the guarantee of a finished work and an accepted sacrifice” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 239).

Third, it means that Christ, together with His Father, is the sovereign ruler over all His enemies.  They have been defeated already and that victory will culminate in the future.  That’s what verse 13 stressed:  He is “waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.”  In other words, everything Christ died to accomplish will be accomplished.  No enemy can hinder His work in the end.  The atonement was utterly complete, the Father was utterly satisfied; and all the enemies will fall utterly before the reigning Christ in heaven.

The author could have ended the quote (again from Psalm 110:1) after the reference to Jesus’ sitting at God’s right hand, but he adds (10:13), “waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.”  This goes back to 9:29, and the second coming of Christ, when He will rule and reign over the whole earth.

He may have done this for two reasons.

First, he didn’t want his readers to grow discouraged because of the cross, as if it represented a defeat for God.  Perhaps their unbelieving Jewish friends were taunting them for their belief in a crucified Messiah.  If Jesus is really Lord, then why do His people suffer persecution and martyrdom?  The author says, “Just wait!  The day is coming when Jesus’ enemies will all become His footstool, just as Psalm 110 predicts.”

Second, the author may be giving a subtle warning to his readers.  If they abandoned the faith and went back to Judaism, they would be placing themselves on the losing side in history.  They would be making themselves enemies of Jesus, and that’s not where you want to be, because Jesus’ enemies are headed for certain defeat and judgment. (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-28-total-forgiveness-hebrews-101-18)

While the priests kept “performing” their duties, Christ “waits.”  He is waiting “for his enemies to be made his footstool.”  Those enemies are Satan, his demons and all who oppose the reign of Jesus Christ.  One day every knee will bow.

Everything that now hinders our progress towards fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives will one day be eliminated.  There will be no obstacles to our perfection.

Everything that God wills, everything that Christ died for, will be accomplished.  His priestly offering makes God’s royal conquest possible.

Beginning with the word “for,” verse 14 explains why no further offering for sin is necessary.  It is because Christ’s offering for sin was completely effective.  By Christ’s singular offering “he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”  The word “offering” here refers to the death of Christ (cf. v. 10).

“Made perfect” he writes this time, using one of his favorite words.  In 2:10, 5:9, 10:14, 11:40, 12:23 he uses the verb.  In 6:1, 7:11, 12:2 it is the noun and in 9:11 the adjective, always with the thought of completeness in mind.

Now, this is exactly the opposite of what the old covenant could accomplish.  The old covenant could never make anyone perfect, but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ perfects “for all time those who are being sanctified.”  God’s goal is for us to become like Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29) and His sacrifice makes this possible.  In fact, it makes it inevitable.

The verb tenses here are quite intriguing.  Christ “has perfected” us, in the past, but in Hebrews 6:1 our writer had said “let us…go on to maturity,” literally, “to perfection,” placing perfection in a yet-to-be-determined future.  And, in this verse (10:14) we are also “being sanctified” (present tense), although Hebrews 6:10 said we “have been sanctified,” in the past.

This verse is bringing together two vital truths:

First, positionally and in God’s eyes we are already truly perfect!  We are completely, totally and finally forgiven of all our sins and God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to us so that He now sees us as saints with no condemnation (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 8:1).  We are perfected now in the sense of verse 17 as God says, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

But second, the practice of believers on a day-to-day basis is that we are “being sanctified” on a constant, ongoing basis.  We are growing in holiness every day.  God has “granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), everything we need for life and godliness.  This aspect of sanctification is performed through the New Covenant provision of verse 16, “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds…”

Something more is achieved by Christ’s death than the removal of guilt.  We have been sanctified.  And the verb is in the perfect tense.  It is actually done.  Our sanctification is perfectly accomplished by Christ for all time.  (Raymond Brown, The Bible Speaks Today:  Hebrews, 178)

Our positional standing before God as saints, fully sanctified, is granted instantly the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ.  The practical outworking of our sanctification is worked out over a lifetime of faith and obedience.

This verse means that you can have the assurance that you now stand perfected and completed in the eyes of your heavenly Father, not because you are perfect now, but precisely you are not perfect now but are “being sanctified,” “being made holy” before God.

Bob George has written, in his book Classic Christianity: “Relentlessly the New Testament hammers home the message that Jesus Christ offered Himself as one sacrifice for all time.  When will we believe it?  In contrast to the Old Covenant priests who are pictured as “standing” and making continual sacrifices, Christ is shown as having sat down.  Why is He seated?  Because “It is finished” (John 19:30).  The writer of Hebrews reaches the climax of his argument in 10:14, “Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”  Jesus Christ has done it all! (Bob George, Classic Christianity, pp. 65-66).

Does that sound too bold?  Is that kind of thinking out of bounds?

Bob George continues, “Notice that it doesn’t say we act perfect; this is talking about identity.  But the Bible says that through Jesus Christ we have been made totally acceptable in the eyes of a holy God!” (Classic Christianity, p. 66)

Hebrews 10:14 tells us that we have been made perfect forever.  There is nothing left to do.  Anything short of this kind of faith is not faith in the gospel.  When we believe that we have to do something to make ourselves acceptable to God, we are believing in an anti-gospel.  It is not “good news” because we can never be certain we have done enough good to outweigh the bad we’ve done.

But if Christ has offered up one sacrifice for sins for all time, if He has sat down because there’s no more work to be done, then that means we can take a seat as well and rest in the work that He has done in our behalf.

We don’t have to be like the priests, offering up ultimately ineffective sacrifices day after day, year after year.

• We can stop trying to kill off sinful parts of ourselves in the hope that God might be satisfied.
• We can stop trying to sacrifice ourselves.
• We can stop trying to pull ourselves together and discipline ourselves to do the right thing.
• We can stop punishing ourselves and stop trying harder and harder again and again and stop asking God to help us in our effort to be adequate before him.
• We can rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  Like our high priest, we can sit down and rest from our working to satisfy God, reflecting on the amazing grace of Jesus Christ in doing all the work for us.

When this happens, something amazing happens:  We will actually start doing the will of God from the heart.  And that is where the New Covenant comes in!  The rest of chapter 10 focuses once again (see Hebrews 8) on the New Covenant and its provisions.

As Christians under the New Covenant, a common question is: What place does the law have in my life?  Certainly we already know that the law does not save us, only Christ’s sacrificial death does that.  But what about as a guide for our daily lives?

Andrew Farley, in his book The Naked Gospel, says, “So if the Scriptures say that the law has no place in the life of the believer, the most logical question is this: If the law isn’t our moral guide, then what is?  As Christians, we have an inborn desire for our behavior to turn out right.  In fact, the desire to please God is what drives some to embrace the error of law-based living” (Andrew Farley, The Naked Gospel, p. 90).

He goes on to say, “Fortunately, God hasn’t taken us out from under the law and left us with nothing.  When we believe, the Holy Spirit lives in us.  The Spirit produces fruit through us as we depend on him.  But it’s important to recognize the ‘system’ that the Holy Spirit uses in place of the law.  He operates through a radically different system, namely, one called grace” (Andrew Farley, The Naked Gospel, p. 90).

Verses 15-18 re-introduce us to the New Covenant provisions:

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”

This is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:33.  But notice that the Holy Spirit “bears witness” in the present, through the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote in the past.  This tells us that not only did the Holy Spirit inspire Jeremiah to write these words in the first place, but also that the Holy Spirit is currently speaking to them (and us) through the words of Jeremiah.  The Scriptures, though they were written long ago, still speak to us today.  We still need the ministry of the Holy Spirit to illumine the Scriptures to our hearts.

The Spirit here speaks of the New Covenant.  The writer dealt with this in Hebrews 8, there quoting Jeremiah more fully.  Here he is summarizing and putting into in a chronologically order to illustrate the two aspects of the New Covenant.

The first aspect is the internalizing of God’s law.  In the Old Covenant.  The Lord “put” His laws in the temple and “wrote” them on tablets of stone.  In the New Covenant he puts them “on their hearts…and on their minds.”  These words “heart” and “mind” refer to the inner person.  When the Lord gave His laws to Israel, He did so in an external way designed to penetrate the hearts of the people.  But the people’s hearts were hard and they rejected the Lord and His laws.  Their “obedience” turned out not to be obedience at all, but rather compulsive, perfunctory adherence void of any trust or love.

The New Covenant, brought about by Christ, changes all that.  Mostly, it changes human hearts, giving them a new, softened hearts; something the Old Covenant could not do.  Now our hearts can love and trust God and that love and trust enables us to obey God so that we can perform His will wholeheartedly.

The author may have cited this part of the New Covenant promise to preempt any criticism from a Jewish reader to the effect that setting aside the Law (10:9) would lead to lawless living.  “Not so!  God’s people are marked by an obedience from the heart.”

Our pleasure and our duty, though opposite before,

Since we have seen His beauty, are joined to part no more

To see the Law by Christ fulfilled, and hear His pardon voice,

Transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice.                 — John Newton

Last week we were looking at Hebrews 10, verses 5-10, examining Christ’s intention to become flesh and enter this world with a body made for sacrifice.  All of this would show more magnificently what would satisfy God’s desires and complete His will.

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'” 8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The word “will,” which is the Greek word thelema, is found in verses 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10.  It is obviously a key concept in these verses.  What is God’s will?

Verse 5 tells us that God does not desire, or will, and that is more animal sacrifices and offerings.  Twice, in verses 6 and 8, we find in quoting Psalm 40, that God takes “no pleasure” in these sacrifices.  Christ, however, came “to do” God’s will (vv. 6, 9).  He substituted the passive sacrifice of the animals with a voluntary and obedient sacrifice of Himself.

Verses 5-10 makes three points.

First, the cross was the direct will of God.

The cross was no accident or an unforeseen tragedy that took Jesus or the Father by surprise.  It was not a temporary setback that God figured out how to turn for good.  Rather, the cross was God’s predetermined plan, before the beginning of time, to deal finally and fully with our sin.

The Son of God determined to come into this world as a man with a human body subject to death, would live a completely obedient life in that body, and then would die as the sacrifice that the justice of God demands as payment for sins.

We know that it was God’s will for Jesus Christ to die upon the cross, first of all, because of the many prophecies concerning the cross, so much so that Jesus Himself predicted His own death on the cross (Mark 10:33-34).

The Old Testament confirms this in a passage that will seem very strange to our ears.  In Isaiah 53:6, 10 we read, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” and then in verse 10 we read, “it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief…”

It was God’s will to crush His Son on the cross.  “Amazing pity, grace unknown and love beyond degree.”

There is a great mystery here that we must submit our thinking to: even though God ordained the cross, down to the minute details (e.g., casting lots for Jesus’ clothing), He is not in any way responsible for the sin of those who crucified Jesus.

As Acts 4:27-28 puts it: “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

These verses establish both man’s voluntary decision to crucify the “holy servant Jesus” and God’s sovereign plan, so that they did “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

Not only did God plan it, but his “hand” made it happen.  As John Piper explains, “The hand of God ordinarily stands for God’s exerted power—not power in the abstract, but earthly, effective exertions of power.  The point of combining it with ‘plan’ is to stay that it is not just a theoretical plan; it is a plan that will be executed by God’s own hand” (Spectacular Sins, p. 104).

By coming into this world specifically to go to the cross, Jesus not only provided sacrifice for sins that we need.  He also provided a supreme example of resolute obedience to the complete will of God (something these Hebrew readers and we ourselves need today).  As Luke 9:51 points out, Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” and He didn’t allow anything to deter Him.  As Jesus prayed in the garden, “not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42).  We cannot imagine how difficult it was for the sinless Son of God, utter purity, to be made sin for us.  We know the pain of a foreign object piercing into our bodies, but that is miniscule compared to the intense pain of sin being laid upon the perfectly holy body of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus delighted to do God’s will.  He didn’t grudgingly give up His life, but voluntarily laid it down.  In fact, He joyfully sacrificed Himself for our good, as Hebrews 12:2 reminds us.  Kent Hughes reminds us, “Our Lord did not obey the Father grudgingly or under duress but with joy!  Later, in 12:2, the writer tells us that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him.”  The angels sang at the Incarnation (Luke 2:13ff.) because they were reflecting and expressing Christ’s joy.  He had come to die, and that could logically have produced an angelic dirge.  But the angels gave out an anthem instead, because of the anthem of Christ’s heart—“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’”  There is “in Deity Itself the joy of obedience: obedience which is a particular means of joy and the only means of that particular joy.”  Jesus willed to be subordinate to God!

But His determined obedience to do God’s will, no matter how difficult it may be, teaches us to commit ourselves to obey His will, whatever the cost we may have to pay.  You don’t decide to obey God at the moment of temptation.  It has to be a rational commitment that you make before you find yourself facing temptation.  Jesus, before He entered this world as a baby, made this decision to have a body and to be perfectly obedient to His heavenly Father.

But even more important than the example of Christ in how we might fight against sin and disobedience is the fact that His obedience can now be credited to our account.  As 1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ “became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

Christ’s perfect obedience is what satisfied God’s wrath against our sin as Christ bore it on the cross and now credits that obedience/righteousness to our accounts, thus making us positionally “perfect.”

Second, we see that Christ’s obedience to God’s will at the cross set aside the Old Testament sacrifices once and for all.  Verse 9 says, “He does away with the first in order to establish the second.”

Folks, you cannot mingle the two!  You cannot combine our obedience to Christ’s obedience and get something better.  That is what Paul warned the Galatians about and what our author is warning his readers about.  Christ plus anything is not something better, but something that doesn’t work at all!

It is so important that we hear and believe and rest upon the reality that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Our author in Hebrews 8:13 said that the old was “obsolete” and “soon to disappear.”  Hebrews 7:18-19 reads, “For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.”

The New Covenant is that better hope.  Christ is the “end of the law” (Romans 10:4) and we no longer draw near to God on the basis of rules and performance.

Aren’t you glad?

When the psalm states that God did not desire or take pleasure in sacrifices (Heb. 10:5-6), it reflects a frequent theme even in the Old Testament, that God never really desired sacrifices for their own sake.  Rather, the sacrifices should always have reflected a repentant heart (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Psalm 51:16-17; Isaiah 1:11-13; 66:3-4; Jere. 7:21-23; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8).  God is displeased when people go through the outward motions of worship, then and now, when their hearts are still harboring sins that they are unwilling to forsake.

In modern terms, you can go to church and partake of communion, but if you are still living in disobedience to God or if you are covering some sin in your heart, God is not pleased with your worship.

In vv. 5, 6 and 8 he mentions four types of offerings, representing the entire breadth of the sacrificial system, effectively saying “no matter what you offer, it is never enough.  It does not automatically please God.”

But the author’s main point is not to get his readers to make sure that they offer animal sacrifices with a good heart, but rather to see that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has replaced the Old Testament sacrificial system.

Christ, by His sacrifice, totally pleased God.  That righteousness is credited to the account of those who believe in Jesus Christ so that God counts them righteous (2 Cor. 5:21) and considers them “saints.”  And, it makes it then possible for these believers to do God’s will, because that righteous Christ is now living in us and by faith He can live His righteous life through ours (Gal. 2:20).

Thirdly, we see in vv. 5-10 that by Christ’s complete obedience to God’s will at the cross, we receive perfect standing before God once and for all.  Perfect obedience is what is required, but we could never give it.  Jesus Christ did live a life of perfect obedience and offered that life in payment for our sins.  That perfect righteousness is credited to our account.

That is the point of Hebrews 10:10.  The author of Hebrews uses “have been sanctified” to refer to “inward cleansing from sin” and “being made fit for the presence of God, so that…[we] can offer Him acceptable worship” (F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 236).  “Have been sanctified” is the Greek perfect tense, signifying a past action that has continuing results.  In other words, through the offering of Christ’s perfect obedience on the cross, and our confidence in that, His perfect obedience, His entire dedication (sanctification) has been credited to our account AND it now has the effect of sanctifying our thoughts, attitudes, motives, words and actions in our day-to-day interactions.

By way of contrast with the often-repeated Old Testament sacrifices, the one and only offering of Christ on the cross conveys to believers perfect standing before God for all time.  It can never change.  This refers to our position before God, not to our daily practice.  As we will see in 10:14, even though we are perfect in our standing before God, we are still progressing in our growth towards holiness which befits His glory.

However, this is truly how God sees us now.  He sees us “in Christ” and clothed with the righteousness of Christ.  He sees us as “saints” even though we do not always act saintly.  Therefore, it is important that we see ourselves this way.  It is vital that we base our sanctification on our justification and not vice versa.  In other words, we must believe our new standing before God and on the basis of that strive for holiness.

The author especially wants us to see that the Old Testament sacrifices could not completely remove guilt and make us holy (10:1-4), and that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross removed the sacrificial system and provides for our perfect standing before God (10:5-10).

Paradoxically, God does want a sacrifice after all, but only one—the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  That is the only sacrifice that pleases God.

I hope that you can see that God can be trusted.  God says, “I want your body.”  We may wonder, “Can I trust God with my body?”  God is good and wants us to trust His good will for us.  He wants us to will His will and His will for Christ was for Him to offer up His body for us.

If we are ever going to move toward offering our bodies to God, we have to see God as trustworthy.  But what He did for us in Christ reveals His heart for us—doing everything necessary for us to be pleasing to Him.  In these last two verses, we see that the will of the Father and the will of the Son are both “for us.”

We can see the heart of Christ in His words to His Father.  He assessed our condition.  He realized that the animal sacrifices would not take away our sins.  But He wanted us.  So, He spoke to His Father, and the writer of Hebrews take us back in time to that scene and gives us front row access so that we may see and heart what it was really like, what Christ really thinks of us and what He proposed to do—the sacrifice He made—for our sakes.  Let’s make sure we hear these words accurately, and let them penetrate our hearts.

We couldn’t do God’s will, so Jesus determined to do it for us.  Animal sacrifices ultimately couldn’t do the job, so Jesus took on a human body so that He could sacrifice Himself for us.  So, when we hear the words, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,” we know that Jesus uttered those words in response to our utterly helpless condition and determined to do whatever it took to bring us to God.

In Romans 5:6 Paul reminds us of our powerlessness to change our condition. He says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”  We couldn’t make ourselves righteous.

Romans 8:3-4 emphasizes this: “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

We could not, through the law, fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.  But God has done what we, in cooperation with the law, could never do.  And He did that “by sending his own Son.”  Jesus Christ took on a body in order to do this, “the likeness of sinful flesh” and died “for sin” thereby “he condemned sin in the flesh” so that that “righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us…”

This sanctification that Christ provides, came through the “once for all” sacrifice of His body.  “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (v. 10).  Jesus’ sacrifice “once for all” is emphatic, and the writer wants us to see that its results are equally final, for the phrase “we have been sanctified” refers to an enduring, continuous state (perfect tense).  Our salvation is a completed thing—a “done deal.”

“It is finished” (Jn 19:30).  Does the divine law require for our acceptance perfect submission to the will of the Lord?  He has rendered it.  Does it ask complete obedience to its precepts?  He has presented the same.  Does the fulfilled will of the Lord call for abject suffering, a sweat of blood, pangs unknown, and death itself?  Christ has presented it all, whatever that “all” may be.  Just as, when God created, His word effected all His will, so when God redeemed His blessed and incarnate Word has done all His will.  In every point, as God looked on each day’s work and said “It is good,” so, as He looks upon each part of the work of His dear Son, He can say of it, “It is good.”  The Father joins in the verdict of His Son that it is finished; all the will of God for the sanctification of His people is accomplished.  (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 276)

In that sense, our sanctification is a “done deal.”  Nothing else is needed.

This argues against both the idea that one can lose their salvation—it is a done deal—and the Catholic idea of the continued sacrifice of the body of Christ in the Mass.  F. F. Bruce says, “The heavenly high priest has indeed a continual ministry to discharge on His people’s behalf at the Father’s right hand; but that is the ministry of intercession on the basis of the sacrifice presented and accepted once and for all, it is not the constant or repeated offering of His sacrifice.  This last misconception has no doubt been fostered in the Western Church by a defective Vulgate rendering which springs from a well-known inadequacy of the Latin verb.”

What concerns the author most is the law’s inability to “make perfect those who draw near to worship” God (v. 1).  The “perfection” he has in mind does not involve a “lack of flaws” but, rather, a state of right relationship with God, in which the worshipers are once and for all cleansed from sin and delivered from a nagging sense of guilt.  The fact that the old covenant system could not deliver in this regard, as demonstrated by offerings made year after year, shows the need for a better system.  (George H. Guthrie, The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, 326-7)

In another sense, our sanctification is an ongoing process.  It is the process of beholding Jesus through the Word, believing that He can live His righteous life through us, and becoming more and more like Him in our daily behavior.

But it is vital that we build our progressive sanctification on the foundation of our positional sanctification, otherwise we will be fooled into thinking that our salvation is based upon our efforts, or our efforts plus faith in Christ.  Definitive, or positional sanctification is given to us the moment we believe and will not be taken away.  Progressive sanctification is the day-to-day application of that position to our daily decisions and interactions.

How is it possible to have a clean conscience, to no longer struggle with guilt?  Israel sacrificed animals in an effort to clear their conscience, but the author of Hebrews shows that this did not really do the job.  Instead, it merely reminded them, year by year, that they were sinners.

Hebrews 10:1-4 states:

1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The author of Hebrews points out that the law “has but a shadow of the good things to come” and therefore it “can never…make perfect those who draw near” through yearly sacrifices.  Instead, they remain conscious of their sins because the sacrifices remind them of their sins every year.

“All they are is a reminder of sin.  So far from purifying a man, they remind him that he is not purified and that his sins still stand between him and God” (William Barclay)

Verse 4 categorically states, “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”  Something else had to happen for sins to be taken away.  That solution for sin and a guilty conscience was presented in Hebrews 9:26, “he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

If you want your sins taken away, it only happens because Jesus Christ sacrificed himself on a Roman cross and satisfied the wrath of God that demanded a payment for our sins.

Animal blood has no permanent ability to take away sins.  God designed the system of animal sacrifices to point ahead to His ultimate provision through the sacrifice of His own Son.  Animal sacrifices could “cover”(kophar, from which we get the concept of “atonement”) sins; but could not “take away sins” in a final sense.  What is “impossible” under the Old Covenant is now possible through Jesus Christ.

As eternal God, the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ has infinite value.  As a human being, His sacrifice can atone for human sin in a way that the blood of animals never could.

Leon Morris says this word “‘Take away’ (aphaireo) is used of a literal taking off, as in Peter’s cutting off the ear of the high priest’s slave (Luke 22:50), or metaphorically as of the removal of reproach (Luke 1:25).  It signifies the complete removal of sin so that it is no longer a factor in the situation.  That is what is needed and that is what the sacrifices could not provide” (p. 96)

Just as ineffectual as the animal sacrifices Israel offered are the sacrifices we make to try to appease God.  We don’t kill animals, but we may try to kill off the sinful parts of ourselves in hopes that God may be satisfied.  We try to carry it out by ourselves, on ourselves.  We try to pull ourselves together and discipline ourselves to do the right thing, and when we don’t, we just try harder, or we ask God to help us—all in an effort to be adequate before God.  But we’re never even satisfied with ourselves, so like the priests of old, we try again and again.

The Rev. Arthur Dimmsdale, the tragic figure in Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, offered up such self-sacrifices to assuage his guilt.  Hounded by guilt for committing adultery, “He kept vigils, likewise, night after night, sometimes in utter darkness; and sometimes viewing his own face in a looking-glass, by the most powerful light which he could throw upon it.  He thus typified the constant introspection, wherewith he tortured, but could not, purify himself.”

It is interesting that the word “reminded” (10:3) is the same Greek word used in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, where Jesus says, “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24).  While we are instructed to examine ourselves and confess our sins before taking the elements, the gospel transforms our remembrance from one of guilt to one of grace (Philip Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews [Erdmans], p. 394).  The Lord’s Supper reminds us that the penalty we deserve for our sins was put completely on Jesus Christ.  His death accomplished what the blood of animal sacrifices never could accomplish, namely, it took away all of our sin and guilt!

A. W. Pink asks…

“Why did God appoint unto Israel sacrifices so ineffectual? … First of all, they served to keep in the minds of Israel the fact that God is ineffably [too great to be described in words] holy and will not tolerate evil. They were constantly reminded that the wages of sin is death. They were taught thereby that a constant acknowledgment of their sins was imperative if communion with the Lord was to be maintained. In the second place, by means of these types and shadows God was pointing out to them the direction from which true salvation must come, namely, in a sinless Victim enduring in their stead the righteous penalty which their sins called for. Thereby God instructed them to look forward in faith to the time when the Redeemer should appear, and the great Sacrifice be offered for the sins of His people. Third, there was an efficacy in the O. T. sacrifices to remove temporal judgment, to give ceremonial ablution [cleansing], and to maintain external fellowship with Jehovah. They who despised the sacrifices were ‘cut off’ or excommunicated; but those who offered them maintained their place in the congregation of the Lord” (p. 531)

The old covenant simply could not “make perfect those who draw near” (v. 1). It was good, as far as it went. But it was frustratingly inadequate.

Therefore, God did for us what we could not do for ourselves.  He sent His Son Jesus Christ to live a perfectly obedient life and then stand in our place on the cross, taking the punishment for our sins and satisfying God’s wrath against our sins.

Now, in verses 5-10, we are introduced to a conversation which took place between God the Father and Jesus the Son before Jesus came into the world.

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'” 8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

In summary, these verses are telling us that Christ’s bodily obedience and sacrifice are now established in place of animal sacrifices.  This is what sanctifies us.

It is God who provided the appropriate sacrifice and not man.  This is a quotation from Psalm 40:6-8 in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and it is applied to Jesus Christ in His incarnation.

In Psalm 40 David is speaking to God, so here we have God’s Son, the greater David, in recognition of the problem with humanity, lying helpless in their guilt, speaking to the Father upon His entry into the world.  These then, are intimate words, spoken between God the Son and God the Father, and the writer of Hebrews lets us listen in.

What a high place this gives Scripture!  Our pre-incarnate Savior quoted Psalm 40 as being prophetic of his thoughts at his human birth. 

Note the parallel statements and how Christ took on a body to do God’s will (v. 9) and “by that [same] will” something wonderful happened to us—“We have been sanctified [set apart, dedicated to God] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The emphasis here is not upon our obedience (or disobedience) but upon the complete obedience of Jesus Christ, from before the incarnation (by which Christ came into the world) to his death (v. 10).

Beginning with the word “consequently,” the writer explains how Christ understood the inadequacy of the sacrificial system, recognized what needed to be done and decided to do it.

He realized that God was not “pleased” with the animal sacrifices (v. 8), but was pleased with his bodily sacrifice for sins.  Why?  Because he delighted to do God’s will.

So here Christ announces his conclusions and intentions, “when he comes into the world,” which implies his pre-existence before his life on earth.  1 Peter 1:20 speaks of this, saying that His sacrifice was determined before the creation of the world, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world…”  The Apostle John concurs, explaining about unbelievers in the tribulation in Revelation 13:8 that “everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”

The phrase “a body have you prepared for me” is not found in the original quotation.  Psalm 40:6 in Hebrew reads, “you have given me an open ear.”  Our author is quoting from the Septuagint.  Apparently, the Greek translators rendered an interpretive paraphrase of the Hebrew text, using a part (the ear) and expanding it into the whole (the body).

While some would believe that this refers to the practice in Exodus 21:1-6 that describes the actions of a master whose servant did not want to be set free, but rather continued to willingly serve his master.  The master bored a hole through the earlobe of the servant, which was a sign that the servant preferred to remain with his master.  The idea is that our Lord was like a willing servant.

The problem with that explanation is that only one ear was bored, while the verse (Psalm 40:6) speaks of both ears.  Furthermore, the verb used in Exodus 21 means “to pierce,” while the verb in Psalm 40:6 means “to dig.”  The picture is rather that of God’s opening the ears of His servant so that He would be obedient to the cross (Isaiah 50:5ff).

The Septuagint rendering puts the emphasis on God’s preparing a body for Jesus so that He would offer the suitable sacrifice for our sins, thus supplanting the Old Testament sacrifices.  Neither the sacrifices nor the law could accomplish the redemption that was needed.  And thus God sent His Son.

Paul says it like this in Romans 8:3

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Upon His flesh God condemned sin.  Jesus paid for our sins on the cross!

This need for a body also reminds us that all that we have to offer to God is our bodies (Romans 12:1), so that Jesus can now live out His perfect obedience through us.

Whatever the explanation may be, Christ said in essence, “My Father, the Old Testament sacrifices have proven unsatisfactory, so you have prepared a body for me, that I might become a pleasing sacrifice.”  (The author reiterates this idea in verse 8, noting that the Father was not pleased with the old sacrifices although they were “offered according to the law.”)  The fact was, though God had instituted blood animal sacrifices (Exodus 24), he had never been pleased with them and did not see them as ends.  He had established them as object lessons to instruct his people about the sinfulness of their hearts, his hatred of sin, the fact that sin leads to death, the need of an atonement, and his delight in those whose hearts were clean and obedient and faithful.  But there was nothing appealing to him in the sight of a dying animal.  God had no pleasure in the moans and death-throes of lambs or bulls.  What he did find pleasure in was those who offered a sacrifice with a contrite, obedient heart. (Kent Hughes, Hebrews, Volume 2, p. 23)

Not only was Jesus given a body in which to show His obedience to the Father, but His will was aligned with that of the Father.  Having verbalized what the Father wanted—Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death—our Lord now states his joyous resolve: “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book’” (v. 7).

Our Lord did not obey the Father grudgingly or under duress but with joy!  Later, in 12:2, the writer tells us that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him.”  The angels sang at the Incarnation (Luke 2:13ff.) because they were reflecting and expressing Christ’s joy.  He had come to die, and that could logically have produced an angelic dirge.  But the angels gave out an anthem instead, because of the anthem of Christ’s heart—“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’”  There is “in Deity Itself the joy of obedience: obedience which is a particular means of joy and the only means of that particular joy.”  Jesus willed to be subordinate to God!

It is true that this was not an easy choice.  He struggled in the garden.  But His own will was absorbed in the divine will.  It was His pleasure to say, “Not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42).  It was His meat and His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work.  Although He was Lord and God, He became a lowly servant for our sakes.  Although high as the highest, He stooped low as the lowest.  The King of kings was the servant of servants that He might save His people.  He took upon Himself the form of a servant, and girded Himself, and stood obediently at His Father’s call.  (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 272)

“To do thy will, O God is the aim of the perfect man. It has only partially been fulfilled by even the most pious of men, except by Jesus. What was seen as the most desirable aim by the psalmist, becomes an expression of fact on the lips of Jesus” (George Guthrie)

The point of these passages is not that God hated sacrifices, but that He does not want ONLY sacrifices and that He does not want them FOREVER.  They were designed, by their very nature, to be temporary and to be anticipatory of that which would come later.  He takes pleasure in the One who came to do His Father’s will (10:7).  The Son came to do the will of the Father and to accomplish that which would ultimately give pleasure to the Father.  Do you remember what took place at the baptism of Jesus?  A voice was heard from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well‑pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

The writer of Hebrews makes clear that there was nothing wrong with the sacrifices, for they were “offered according to the law” (10:8).

The writer of the book carefully cites the prophecy from Psalm 40 and then he goes back through it to pick out the part he wants to underscore.  The portion he wants to emphasize is that the coming of the Messiah as a replacement to the Old Testament sacrifices was a part of the will of God.  Now that Christ has come, the Old Testament sacrifices are no longer needed.

The old system, the Old Covenant, is no longer in place.  Now that Christ has come a new era has dawned.  Now, forgiveness comes through Jesus Christ and His offering of His own body on the cross.

When Jesus came in fulfillment of God’s will, he did away with the “first” system in which sacrifices were offered repeatedly, and in its place established a “second” and superior way to atone for sin: namely, the blood that Jesus himself shed on the cross.  The “first” is thus a reference to the Old Covenant of Moses and the “second” is a reference to the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.

The author introduces the results of Christ’s willingness to do God’s will by saying, “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (v. 10). Jesus’ sacrifice “once for all” is emphatic, and the writer wants us to see that its results are equally final, for the phrase “we have been sanctified” refers to an enduring, continuous state (perfect tense). Our salvation is a completed thing—a “done deal.”

Our sanctification – our being set apart to God – is founded on the will of Jesus, not our own will.  It is founded on the offering of Jesus, not on our own offering or sacrifices for God.

It is important for us to understand what the author of Hebrews means by being “made perfect” and “sanctification.”  In both cases he is not referring to our present lifestyle, that we live perfectly and saintly; rather he is referring to our position in Christ.  Because we put our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit baptized us into Christ and God sees us now dressed in His Son’s righteousness.

“Indeed it can be said that sanctification in Hebrews is almost equivalent to justification in Romans, both referring to our position, not to our condition.  But there is this vital difference of standpoint: that justification deals with position in relation to God as Judge, while sanctification deals with position in relation to our fellowship with God and our approach to Him in fellowship” (W. H. Griffith Thomas, Hebrews: A Devotional Commentary, p. 125. Cf. Dods, 4:344; Hodges, “Hebrews,” p. 804)

Next week we will examine some more of the results of God’s perfecting work through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes detective novels, was a practical joker.  One time, he sent a telegram to twelve famous people in London whom he knew.  It read: “Flee at once.  All is discovered.”  Although all twelve were upright citizens, they all quickly left the country.

That story may be fictitious, but it certainly illustrates the fact that a guilty conscience is a common thing.  Even in the church many are uncertain about their standing before God because of our past sins.  These ghosts from the past stay out of sight for a while, but then they arise up seemingly out of nowhere to haunt us.  We are fearful that the truth may leak out.

But even more seriously than whether they are caught by men, they wonder if God has truly forgiven them.  They’re not sure how it will go when they stand before Him someday.  Will God punish them in this life or in eternity for the sins they have done?  Such people need the assurance that our text today hammers home:

Through Christ’s total obedience to God’s will throughout His life and at the cross, new covenant believers receive what those under the Law could not receive: full and final forgiveness and a heart now inclined to obedience.

Our author is clearly using repetition here to drive home this point, for this passage just re-emphasizes truths that he has already taught us.  If the original readers were to go back to Judaism, with its sacrificial system, they would forfeit the tremendous benefits that Jesus Christ has secured for them.  His death on the cross fulfilled everything that the old system pointed toward.

This section concludes the main argument of the Book of Hebrews. It “expresses the very heart” of the book (Donald Hagner, Encountering the Book of Hebrews [Baker], p. 128).

A teenage boy, whose mother was away on a visit, found himself with time on his hands.  He decided to read a book from the family library.  His mother was a devout Christian, so the boy knew there would be a sermon at the beginning and an application at the end of the book, but there would also be some interesting stories in between.

While reading the book, he came across the phrase “the finished work of Christ.”  It struck him with unusual power, “the finished work of Christ.”

“Why does the author use this expression?” he asked himself.  “Why not say the atoning or propitiatory work of Christ?”  (You see, he knew all the biblical terms.  He just did not yet know the Savior!)  Then the words “It is finished” flashed into his mind, and he realized afresh that the work of salvation was accomplished.

“If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?”  He knew the answer and fell to his knees to receive the Savior and full forgiveness of sins.  That is how J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission (now OMF, [Overseas Missionary Fellowship] International) was saved. (Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 831).

The tenth chapter of Hebrews emphasizes the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in contrast with the imperfect sacrifices that were offered under the old covenant.  In this chapter the writer presented three benefits that demonstrate why the sacrifice of Christ is better than all the old covenant sacrifices.

First, Christ’s sacrifices perfectly and finally take away sin.  In Christ, every believer can have a clean conscience and has free access into God’s presence because Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice of himself provides perfect standing with God.

10:1 The sacrifices of the law “can never…make perfect those who draw near.”

10:2 Those sacrifices could not cleanse worshippers and take away their guilty feelings.

10:3 Those sacrifices, rather, provided an annual reminder of their sins.

Verse 4 says “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

10:10 By God’s will through the cross “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  That’s the good news!

10:12 Christ “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.”

10:14  “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

10:17 God promises to remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.

10:18 “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”  When sins are forgiven once and for all, sacrifices are no longer needed.

All of this adds up to news that sounds too good to be true, and yet it is!  In Christ, we receive a complete, final, once-for-all pardon for all of our sins—past, present and future!

This extended portion of chapter 10 falls into four sections:

In 10:1-4, the author shows how the sacrifices of the Law could not completely remove the guilt of sin.

In 10:5-10, he shows that Christ’s obedience to God’s will at the cross set aside the Old Testament sacrifices and provided for us a perfect standing before God.

As I understand it, 10:11-18 consists of an illustration and a quotation that both serve to drive home the same point.

In 10:11-14, the author illustrates the totality of our forgiveness by contrasting the unfinished, repetitive ministry of the Old Testament priests with the finished, all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ.  This section parallels the first (10:1-4) by contrasting the unfinished, repetitive ministry of the Old Testament priests with the finished, all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ.  The section parallels the first (10:1-4) by contrasting the sufficiency of Christ’s offering with the insufficiency of Old Covenant offerings.

Then, in 10:15-18, our author cites again the Old Testament prophecy of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34) to show that the total forgiveness that it promises means that the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ is totally sufficient and final.  This section parallels the second (10:5-10) by showing how Christ’s obedience now becomes our obedience—as He obeyed, we now have a desire to obey.

So let’s begin Hebrews 10.

1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Here we see a need for a better sacrifice.  Why?  Because the Old Covenant sacrifices, as often and many as there were, could not “take away sins” (v. 4).

First, we see in vv. 1-2 that our author argues that the Law was only the shadow of good things to come, and not the very form of things.  For this reason, the repeated sacrifices could not make perfect those who draw near.  Otherwise, they would have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had a consciousness of sin.

1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Verse 1 begins with the word “for” to show that our author if offering a further explanation of the inadequacy of the sacrificial system contained within the Mosaic Law.  The law is a “shadow” of “good things to come.”  Earlier, in chapter 8, verse 5, we learned that the earthly tabernacle was a “shadow” of the true tabernacle in heaven.

Paul, in Colossians 2:17, talking about the religious festivals and the Sabbath, says something similar.  “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

Notice that both passages indicate that things, “good things” are coming which replace the Old Covenant sacrifices.  Those former things are “shadows” pointing to greater “realities.”  Notice the contrast between “shadow” and “realities.”  You cannot depend upon shadows, they are temporary and constantly moving.  Being a “shadow” and not a “reality,” the sacrificial system is inadequate when it comes to dealing with human sin.

I may have used this illustration before, but imagine that before I married my wife, I carried with me an 8 x 10 photograph to remember her by.  All during our dating and engagement, I could carry that around, look at it and adore her.

Then, we got married and I had her actual presence with me much of the time.  Suddenly I had gone from the possession of a one-dimensional portrait to the possession of the real thing, who smiled, talked, laughed and loved—a real, three-dimensional wife—a living being.

But imagine that one day I appear before my wife holding the black-and-white photograph, and I say, “My dear, I’ve missed your picture, and I’m going back to it.  I really am attached to the silhouette and the monochrome shading and the matte finish.”  Then I passionately kiss the glass protecting the photograph, clutch it to my chest, and exit mumbling my devotion to the picture—“I love you, O photograph of my wife. You’re everything to me.”

Now that would be weird!  But it illustrates how absurd it would be for those who had considered pursuing the living Jesus Christ, to go back to the shadow world of Old Covenant sacrifices.

Philip Newell gives another illustration to show how much more valuable the reality, or the true form (eikon in Greek) is to the shadow.  He says…

“For example, you need a load of wood: you go to the wood man, and he takes you to a large oak tree in the far corner of the lot.  Pointing to the long shadow it casts, he offers to sell you this shadow.  Will you take it?  Now, if God says that in the Law there was a shadow, not even the very image of the things – and of course, not the things themselves, why will you hold to the shadow?”

The law is a shadow, not the “true form.”  “An image, or eikon, like a good statue or a photograph, reveals features and facts accurately.  This a shadow cannot do… Now The Law had only shadows.” (Newell)

Leon Morris says…

“The ‘shadow’ [Gr. skia] then is the preliminary outline that an artist may make before he gets to his colors, and the eikon [lit. image, “form”] is the finished portrait. The author is saying that the law is no more than a preliminary sketch. It shows the shape of things to come, but the solid reality is not there.”

In addition, these sacrifices are “continually offered every year,” pointing to the yearly sacrifices of the Day of Atonement, showing the ineffectiveness of the sacrificial system under the Old Covenant in being able to “make perfect those who draw near,” in other words, to remove their guilty conscience.  “To make perfect” refers to our standing in God’s sight.  In includes total cleansing from sin, so that we have a completely clean conscience.  If our consciences remain aware of sins that have not been confessed or forgiven, we will naturally hesitate to draw near to God.

Verses 2-4 shows that Old Testament believers never enjoyed the extent of freedom from sin’s guilt that Christians do.

2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The ineffectiveness of the Old Testament sacrifices is seen in that they cannot “take away sins” but rather serve as a constant “reminder of sins every year.”  If they had been effective, they we would “no longer have any consciousness of sin.”  This last statement does not mean that we somehow become blissfully unaware of our sins, but that they are not objectively taken away—they remain on our record.

The sacrifices were endless.  A sacrifice was offered every day.  Day after day, week after week, year after year.  Another year.  And another dead lamb, its hot blood staining the altar and the sacrificial knife.  Year by year and lamb by lamb.  A never-ended parade.  Each lamb that was ever slain bore mute and bloody testimony that the blood of lambs can do nothing with regard to cleansing sins.

The fact that they must be continually offered proves that they are inadequate.  If they were effective, our author argues, they could have ceased, because worshipers would no longer have felt guilty for their sins; they would no longer have guilty consciences.

So why did they continue to offer them?  As it was under the sacrificial system at the temple in Jerusalem, the writer says, guilty consciences persist, so the sacrifices continue to be offered.  And in connection with the offering of sacrifices, there is a “reminder of sins every year” or an annual reminder on the Day of Atonement.  These sacrifices were a reminder of, not a remission from, sins.

The fact that sacrifices for sins are offered, and offered on an ongoing basis, brings to mind not only sin but the uneasy feeling that these sacrifices may not be enough.  After all, if they were enough, how come they have to be repeated?

These animal sacrifices continually reminded the Jews that they were sinners, and were deserving of judgment from God.  This should have prepared them for their need for a Savior, primed their hearts to receive a sacrifice that did calm their guilty conscience.

Of course, the author of Hebrews was not the first to understand that animal blood would not atone for sins. Scriptural writers had been alert to this for hundreds of years. David’s repentant words head the list: “You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:16, 17).  Consider also Samuel’s words to King Saul: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).  And Isaiah said:

11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations– I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.” (Isaiah 1:11-13)

Later Isaiah expressed God’s displeasure at offerings when one’s heart is not right:

3 “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; 4 I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.” (Isaiah 63:3-4)

Similarly, Jeremiah inveighed against sacrifices presented without an obedient heart:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.’” (Jeremiah 7:21–23)

God said through Hosea, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). And Amos shared God’s thoughts about wrong-hearted sacrifices:

21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:21-24)

What the prophets understood, our author is reinforcing.  “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

How seriously and sincerely do you anticipate the return of Jesus Christ?  Does it occupy your thinking, especially since we see our culture turn into a cesspool of immorality, indecency, inhumanity and idolatry?  Or do you ever think about it?  And what difference does it make if you do think about it?

You may not be a scholar of end times events.  You may not care who the Antichrist is or will be.  But do you long for Jesus’ coming?

Paul, at the end of his life, wrote to Timothy and said:

Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8).

Do you “love his appearing”; do you long for it?  Is it something you want to happen soon?  I can remember in Bible college several us of not wanting Christ to return until after we had gotten married!  Maybe there are some things you would like to do before that day.  But I hope that you will tune your heart to wanting Christ to return.

Is your heart oriented in eager expectation of seeing your blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, face to face?  Are you eager for your faith to become sight, and to enjoy daily intimacy with God through Christ?  Do you wake up in the morning and think, “This could be the day”?

Here is our passage in Hebrews, chapter 9, verses 27 and 28:

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Notice the structure of this sentence: “Inasmuch as it is appointed unto men . . . so Christ also. . . .”  Notice the comparison, “as it is [with men], so Christ also…”  The comparison is made between something we do, we die and later come into judgment, and something Christ does– He died and later come to save from judgment. 

Christ’s experience of dying and appearing “a second time” has a definite and decisive impact on our lives.  His experience of dying and returning utterly transforms our experience of dying and coming into judgment.

“His death and our death are not parallel.  His utterly transforms ours.  Our arrival at the judgment and his arrival at the judgment are not parallel.  His rescues us.  In other words, the parallel between our life and Christ’s life is designed to show how utterly dependent on him we are at every point of our lives, and how great he is.  He is the strong saving one and we are the weak and desperate ones” (John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-christ-will-do-at-the-second-coming).

These two verses encourage us to think about the two biggest issues of our lives: death and coming judgment.  The reality is, we will be held accountable for how we lived our lives.  But it does more.  It shows how Christ has gone before us in death and judgment and transformed it into eternal life for us!

Let’s look at the first statement:   “And just as it is appointed for man to die once…”  Each one of us has an appointment with death that we cannot escape.  W. Somerset Maugham rather humorously captures this in “The Appointment in Samarra.” In this short story, death is speaking.

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

Now, obviously we would not make an appointment with death.  That would be absurd.  No one wants to make an appointment with death.  So who makes it?  God does, of course.

When Adam and Eve sinned, human death entered the world.  And God appointed the curse of death for every one of their ancestors.  Romans 5:12 gives us the background.  It says, “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  God had warned this is what would happen, starting with Adam and Eve, and every single one of their offspring.  Genesis 5 contains the constant refrain, “and he died.”

And our death is not simply by natural processes, but it is an appointment by God.  God appointed the day of my birth and the day of my death.

Psalm 139:16 puts it like this: “And in thy book [O God] they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”  A certain number of days are ordained for me by God.  God sets this appointment, not Satan and not my enemy and not cancer and not me.  God not only set the appointment, but He makes sure we keep that appointment.

He plans it and he brings it to pass.  You recall how Job said when his children were killed by the collapse of their home, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).  So the Lord makes the appointment. And the Lord sees to it that death and we keep the appointment.

Far from being fatalistic, this shows that our whole life is governed by the all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving God, no matter what it may look like to us.  God maps out and guides every single day of our lives with loving care.

You recall how Jesus spoke to the apostle Peter in John 21:9 that the day was coming (the appointment was made) when he would be crucified like Jesus.

And a few minutes later Jesus spoke to Peter about the apostle John and said, “If I want him to remain [alive] until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (John 21:22).  In other words, Christ himself decides when and how his servants will die.  “If I want him to remain, he will remain. If I want to take him, I will take him. You are all in my hands” (see Revelation 6:11).  So Henry Martyn, the young missionary to Persia, was right to say, “If [Christ] has work for me to do, I cannot die.” (Journal and Letters, 460).

You can be confident that you will not die until you fulfill God’s purpose for your life.  Satan doesn’t make that ultimate choice, neither does some disease or accident, but Jesus Christ.

But there’s something else to learn from this statement, “it is appointed for man to die once.”  Along with the significance of the word “appointed,” there is the significance of the word “once.”

It may not have been upon the mind of our writer, but this rules out reincarnation.  We will not live, then die, then live, then die, then live, then die over and over again.  The point of our writer using the word “once” highlights the finality of death.  It is over.  Your life in this world is done.  We die once.

Now all of this should have a profound effect on us.  Samuel Johnson said, in 1777, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”  Moses put it like this in Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Jesus knew that his days were numbered and encouraged his disciples, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4).

If you want to be wise and make something significant of your life, you will realize that you will not live forever and you need to get busy and get involved in God’s work now.

Now, it is true that some will not die.  Some in Bible history did not die. Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) were taken up and did not die at all.  They never died once.  Those at the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4 will be “caught up” with those who had died to meet the Lord in the air (4:16-17).

Some died twice.  Several people in the Bible were raised from the dead (1 Kings 17:22, 2 Kings 13:20-21, Matthew 9:25, John 11:43-44, Acts 20:9-11).  Yet the general principle is still true.  We are born, we live, and we die.  And not accidentally, but according to the plan of God.

And it is the next phrase that gives understanding our death its greatest urgency and importance.  Hebrews 9:27 says,“It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”

Death is not the end of our existence.  We are not just material beings who cease to exist or just decompose when we die.  We have souls that continue to live and will eventually come into judgment.  The theory of evolution, of course, wants to deny this.  They propose that life consists only of the material body and deaths ends it all.  They do not believe in immortality or life after death.

They don’t want to face the terrifying thought that one day they will appear before the tribunal of God and have to give account of how they lived their lives—whether they loved God with all their hearts, believed in Jesus His Son and lived in obedience to His laws.

This verse is affirming that we have but one life to live and only one opportunity to believe in Christ and experience salvation.  We also know that there is no second chance to be saved after physical death because our author says that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (v. 27).  He doesn’t say that after death comes yet another opportunity to be saved. 

But the Bible says, “after this comes judgment.”  After we die, we will face judgment.  “And it is the most terrifying prospect in the universe, that we might be met after death with a holy and angry and omnipotent God holding us accountable for whether we trusted him and worshipped him and followed his ways in this life.  That is a fearful prospect” (John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-christ-will-do-at-the-second-coming).

Hebrews does not leave us in the dark about what this means.  In Hebrews 10:27 it says, “A certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” awaits us.  And three verses later it says, “We know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’  And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people’” (verse 30).  So when our text says that we have an appointment with death and after death with judgment, it means that it will be terrifying and a furious fire and a great act of divine vengeance even on those who claim to be part of God’s people, but are only external Christians.

These are very sobering realities.  The writer makes the comparison between our experience and Christ’s. “It is appointed to us to die once and after that comes judgment.”

But what about Christ?  ’ “So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him.”

We both die.  We both appear somewhere after death.  Those are the similarities of experience.  But the contrast is great.

We die because we sinned (Romans 6:23).  Christ died because of our sins.  He made an offering “once to bear the sins of many.”  When Christ died he bore sins. He took sins not his own. He suffered for sins that others had done.  Look back for a moment at verse 26 (from last week). The last line says, “He has been manifested at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”  So verse 28 says that “he bore the sins of many,” and verse 26 says that the effect of this is that “he put away sin.”

In reality, the greatest problem of your life and mine is not death and judgment, but sin.  It is because of sin that we die and because of sin that we will be judged.  If something could be done about our sin, it would make a huge difference.  And fortunately something has been  done about it.  Jesus “bore the sins of many,” He died for our sins.  He paid the penalty so that we would not have to.  He died the death that I should have died.  I should have paid for my own sins.  But out of God’s rich mercy He provided a sacrifice in our place, Jesus Christ His Son.

So I do die, or probably will.  But my death is no longer a punishment for sin.  My sin has been “put away” by the death of Christ.  We still die because of the effects of the curse brought on by sin, but death is not a curse for us.

The death of God’s children is not wrath against them.  Paul cries out in 1 Corinthians 15:55–57,

O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, the sting is taken away because the death of Christ satisfied the law’s demand and set us free from condemnation.  Death becomes an entrance into salvation not condemnation, for those who have believed in Jesus Christ.

That is what the final phrase means. “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin.”  Again, there are two wonderful truths here.

First, is that the first coming of Christ, His life of total obedience and His substitutionary sacrifice was completely sufficient, doing everything necessary to erase our indebtedness.  The penalty has been completely paid. The guilt of sin has been fully removed.

He came the first time to deal with sin, but when he returns, it will be “without reference to sin.”  That much of the end-time salvation is past and done. “Once for all at the end of the ages” this great salvation happened.  It cannot be improved on.

But there is more.  This is the second great truth.  We had to face the issue of death, and so Christ faced death and bore the guilt and punishment of it for us.  Now, we must face judgment, and so Christ comes a second time for us, this time not to deal with sin, but to save us from judgment.  That’s what it means in verse 28 when it says, “He shall appear a second time for salvation.”  This is not an addition to the salvation that the death of Christ purchased; it is an application of the salvation that Christ purchased.  This is what Christ bought in his death.

Christ came the first time and died to bear our sin and free us from condemnation, providing for us the asbestos shield he gives us to protect us in the “fury of fire which will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27; see 2 Thessalonians 1:7 and 1 Thessalonians 1:10).  Paul referred to this in Romans 5:9-10.

9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Now, to whom is He coming to save from judgment?  To the “many” who “eagerly await him.”  In other words, to believers who love Him and look forward to His coming.

“This eager expectation (says John Piper) for Christ is simply a sign that we love him and believe in him authentically.  There is a phony faith that wants only to escape from hell, but has no desire for Christ.  That does not save.  And it does not produce an eager expectation for Christ to come.  It would rather that Christ not come for as long as possible so that it can have as much of this world as possible.  But the faith that really holds on to Christ as treasure and hope and joy is the faith that makes us long for Christ to come, and that is the faith that saves” (John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-christ-will-do-at-the-second-coming)

Instead of judgment, Christ will come to save us and to bring us into glory.  This is the final phase of God’s saving work through Christ: justification, which saves us from the penalty of sin; sanctification, which saves us from the power of sin; and glorification, which saves us from the presence of sin.

The work that Christ did when He came the first time finally and fully settled the issue of guilt and condemnation because of sin through the death of Jesus Christ as our substitute.  We should look forward to the return of Christ, longing to be finally free even from the presence of sin, abundantly glad that we will not enter into judgment.

Let’s join Paul in loving His appearing and eagerly wanting His return.  Look forward to seeing your Savior face to face.

Thank you for joining me again in our study of the epistle to the Hebrews.  Remember that the audience primarily consisted of people from a Jewish background who had grown up under the Mosaic law and all its rituals.  Some of these had come to faith in Christ, but due to persecution and lack of grounding in deeper gospel doctrine, they were in danger of falling away. 

The author of Hebrews has been spelling out the superiority of Jesus Christ.  He is superior to angels, who mediated the Old Covenant; superior to Aaron, the first high priest.  He is a superior sacrifice made in a superior tabernacle, the heavenly tabernacle.  Thus, He is the mediator of a new covenant, a better covenant than the old covenant, because it could cleanse consciences and make people “perfect,” that is they could be completely and eternally forgiven of these sins.  Christ’s sacrifice for our sins was perfect and complete.  All the laws, rituals and animal sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed toward Jesus.  When we accept him as Savior, our sins are forgiven for all time.

Having demonstrated the importance of blood/death in inaugurating the old covenant, the writer now describes the surpassing effect of Christ’s sacrifice in establishing the new covenant.

23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

The premise that we saw in verses 16-17 is that all covenants (wills) require a death.  This was illustrated in verses 18-22 in the case of Moses who sprinkled the people and the tabernacle and nearly everything in blood.  Now we come to a resulting principle.  It is that the New Covenant required the shedding of blood. 

That is how verse 22 ended, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

He begins by stating that the better sacrifice of Christ brings more comprehensive purity: “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these” (v. 23).  Whereas animal blood adequately cleansed the prototypes on earth (“the copies of the heavenly things”) under the Old Covenant, a better sacrifice was necessary in order to cleanse the realities in heaven (cf. 8:5; 9:24).

But what are “the heavenly things” (v. 23b)?  The “heavenly things” may refer to the consciences of men and women, or to us who believe in Christ.  

Peter says the same thing:  You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 2:5).  To be this “spiritual house,” it is necessary to be cleansed through “sprinkling by his blood” (1 Pt 1:2), “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (v. 19).  The blood of Christ makes us acceptable to God and makes our presence and praise more acceptable than that of the angels!  No angel can call God his Father.  To address God as “Abba, Father” is the believer’s privilege alone.  No angel was ever purchased by the blood of God’s Son either, but we were!  (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, 238)

It seems more likely, however, that they refer to the things connected with the heavenly tabernacle (God’s dwelling-place).  There is a heavenly tabernacle that the earthly tabernacle is patterned after.

Even the heavenly tabernacle had suffered defilement by human sin—a defilement now removed by the application of Christ’s blood.  The cleansing of the heavenly tabernacle, and by implication the cosmos, paves the way for the union of heaven and earth on the basis of Christ’s blood.  Or, as Paul summarizes, through Christ God has reconciled “to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20).

Fausset says of this problem: “Man’s sin had introduced an element of disorder into the relations of God and his holy angels in respect to man. The purification removes this element of disorder and changes God’s wrath against man in heaven (designed to be the place of God’s revealing his grace to men and angels) into a smile of reconciliation.”  

The Levitical high priest of Israel had to enter into the Holy of Holies once each year, year after year after year, with “the blood of calves and goats” (v. 19) to make atonement for the sins of the people. 

Now, in vv. 24-26 our author introduces two negative and two corresponding positives. It tells us what Christ did NOT do versus what He DID do.

1. When we speak of Christ making a sacrifice for sins, we are not to understand that he entered into a tabernacle or a temple in the same way that the high priest did. The place of His sacrifice was not in the earthly realm but in the heavenly realm.

2. Neither are we to understand that the sacrifice of Jesus would have to be repeated on a regular basis. His offering was once and for all. This is the basic problem with the Roman Catholic view of the Eucharist. They view it as the regular unbloody sacrifice of Christ. But His sacrifice was once and for all. It needs never to be repeated.

Notice that the death of Christ is said to have taken place at the consummation of the ages. There was something completing about the death of Christ. It has brought us into the realm of the last days. The past ages have been consummated in Him.

So, in verse 24 we see that Jesus’ blood grants us a better representation before the Father: “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (v. 24).  Once he ascended to the Father’s right hand (“entered…into heaven…”), He immediately began to intercede for us.  As the God-Man, he is uniquely suited to represent us before God.

Jesus’ sacrifice was made upon earth, but it is His continual intercession in our behalf in the presence of God that makes His representation superior.

“At His ascension Christ was formally installed as High Priest and began His present high priestly work.  In the heavenly tabernacle today He represents His people (i.e., He secures their acceptance with God); obtains free access for them into God’s presence; intercedes in prayer for them and grants them help; mediates their prayers to God and God’s strength to them; anticipates His return to earth to reign; and, at the end of the present session, will bless His people by bringing them deliverance into the kingdom. (David J. MacLeod, “The Present Work of Christ in Hebrews,” Bibliotheca Sacra 148:590 (April-June 1991):200)

As such, he is our constant attorney.  As our writer earlier said, “. . . since he always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25).  To this Paul agrees: “Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).  If anyone could condemn us for not living a righteous, God-honoring life, it would be Jesus Christ.  But instead of condemning us, He “is interceding for us.”

And there is the testimony of the Apostle John as well: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

When we’ve confessed our sins, we can believe that God has forgiven us (1 John 1:9).  But Satan is an accuser and he stands before the tribunal of God pointing out our sins and condemning us for them.  But Jesus Christ is our advocate there before the throne of God.  He does not get us off on a technicality or some sleight of hand maneuver, but points to his wounds and says, “Yes, he has sinned, but I paid for those sins.”

Charles Wesley wrote a great hymn (one of many), which has been modernized by Indelible Grace, called Arise, My Soul, Arise.  Is your soul downcast?  Are you burdened under the weight of a guilty conscience?  Listen to these words:

1 Arise, my soul, arise,
shake off your guilty fears;
the bleeding Sacrifice
in my behalf appears.
Before the throne my Surety stands,
before the throne my Surety stands;
my name is written on his hands,
my name is written on his hands.

2 He ever lives above,
for me to intercede,
his all-redeeming love,
his precious blood to plead.
His blood atoned for ev’ry race,
his blood atoned for ev’ry race,
and sprinkles now the throne of grace,
and sprinkles now the throne of grace.

3 Five bleeding wounds he bears,
received on Calvary;
they pour effectual prayers,
they strongly plead for me.
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“nor let that ransomed sinner die,
nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

4 My God is reconciled;
his pard’ning voice I hear.
He owns me for his child,
I can no longer fear.
with confidence I now draw nigh,
with confidence I now draw nigh,
and “Father, Abba, Father!” cry,
and “Father, Abba, Father!” cry.

A further evidence of the superiority of Jesus’ shed blood is its efficacy.  We see this in vv. 25-28.

Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many . . . (vv. 25–28a)

Christ’s sacrifice was “once for all” and needed no repeating.  Verse 25 emphasizes that Christ did not “offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own” and then reinforces that by saying, “for them he would have had to supper repeatedly since the foundation of the world.”  As long as man has sinned, Christ would have had to be repeatedly offered up.

But His sacrifice is NOT LIKE the Old Testament sacrifices.  Those sacrifices had temporary efficacy.  Christ offered himself “once for all,” not repeatedly.  His sacrifice was superior in its nature—the voluntary sacrifice of the perfect God-Man.

Let me clarify—the death of Jesus Christ on the cross paid for our sins once for all.  In that act he “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”  The continuing intercession He is committed to in heaven in no way means that this work of forgiveness was incomplete.  He does not offer Himself over and over again, but simply points to His wounds as indication to the accuser and to us that we have been fully and forever forgiven.

“Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly” denies the Roman Catholic idea that the Eucharist repeats the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is NOT still on the cross, repeatedly paying for our sins.  Our sins are completely forgiven by our faith in the death He died centuries ago.  The Scriptures make it plain, “nor was it to offer himself repeatedly…”  Christ’s sacrifice was so monumental and efficacious that it could only be once-for-all. His blood is totally sufficient.

In a rural village lived a doctor who was noted both for his professional skill and his devotion to Christ.  After his death, his books were examined.  Several entries had written across them in red ink: “Forgiven—too poor to pay.”  Unfortunately, his wife was of a different disposition. Insisting that these debts be settled, she filed a suit before the proper court.  When the case was being heard, the judge asked her, “Is this your husband’s handwriting in red?”  She replied that it was.  “Then,” said the judge, “not a court in the land can touch those whom he has forgiven.”

Jesus writes in bold crimson letters across our lives, “Forgiven!”  “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:33, 34).

Imperfect sacrifices must be repeated continually but a perfect sacrifice can be made once for all time, and genuinely “put away sin” (not just cover sin, as with sacrifice under the Old Covenant).  The message is clear: “He has appeared… to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”  Repetition is the proof of imperfection:  what needs doing only once is finished, is perfect, is forever.  (Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All, 323)

This explains why the torments of hell are eternal.  There is only one perfect sacrifice for sin—the voluntary sacrificial death of the perfectly obedient God-man.  Nothing else comes close.  Thus, for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, they will be unable to make that perfect payment and will be obligated to pay over and over and over again, just like the Jews had to offer sacrifices over and over and over again.  A soul could be released from hell the moment its debt of sin was completely paid – which is another way of saying never.

What does it mean that the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ “put away sin” (9:26)?  First, it means that by enduring the penalty for sin that each of us deserved he has forever satisfied the justice and wrath of God against us.  Sin therefore no longer poses a barrier to our relationship with God.  That’s not because we don’t continue to fail and to commit sins throughout the course of life.  Of course we do. But the guilt those sins incurred and the penalty those sins demanded have been forever absorbed in Jesus and thus forever and finally “put away.”

There is “therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1).  When Jesus said, “It is finished,” that Greek word tetelesthai could carry the idea of “paid in full,” as it often did in business transactions.  What Jesus did on the cross paid our debt in full.  There is nothing left to pay!

Here is how Charles Spurgeon put it:

“Beloved, it is a thought which ought to make our hearts leap within us, that through Jesus’ blood there is not a spot left upon any believer, not a wrinkle nor any such thing.  Oh precious blood, removing the hell-stains of abundant iniquity, and permitting me to stand accepted in the beloved, notwithstanding all the many ways in which I have rebelled against my God” (“The Precious Blood of Christ,” 37).

Second, he has “put away” sin in the sense that his death and resurrection have supplied us with the power by which we can win the daily experiential battle with sin’s power.  Yes, I know you sin.  I sure do.  But we now have available to us through the Holy Spirit the indwelling power to say No to sin.  We have the righteous life of Christ living in and through us (Gal. 2:20).  That’s the glory of what Christ achieved.  He not only endured the penalty of sin, He also broke its power.  Now that the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers each believer we have the strength and energy to resist its allure and to say No to its appeal.

Third, by the sacrifice of his own precious blood on the cross he “put away” sin by laying the foundation for its total eradication when he returns to this earth.  That is what we will look at next week where he says in v. 28 that when Christ’s returns to this earth at the Second Coming it won’t be “to deal with sin.”  He’s already done that.  His return will mean the banishment of sin from our experience altogether.  

Our author points to this perfect sacrifice as the “end of the ages” in that the cross and resurrection inaugurated this age of grace.  The uniqueness, permanence and one-time nature of Christ’s suffering is in complete agreement with Daniel’s prophecy (9:24-27) regarding the end-days.  In fact, the offering of Christ was finished in the mind and heart of God before the creation of the world as we see in Revelation 13:8.  It is amazing but the solution to the sin problem of humankind was designed before sin ever came into being.

Israel’s religion under the Old Covenant was a bloody religion.  It required animal sacrifices to take away the sins that had been committed by the people.  We Christians sing a song about a fountain “filled with blood” and when we plunge ourselves beneath it we “lose all our guilty stains.” The Old Testament sacrificial system, which is a type for Christ’s own sacrifice of Himself, was a gory affair indeed!  During the thousand-plus years of the old covenant, there were more than a million animal sacrifices!  So, considering that each bull’s sacrifice spilled a gallon or two of blood, and each goat a quart, the old covenant truly rested on a sea of blood.  During the Passover, for example, a trough was constructed from the temple down into the Kidron Valley for the disposal of blood—a sacrificial plumbing system!

Steaming blood provided the sign—even the smell—of the old covenant.

Sin brings death . . . sin brings death . . . sin brings death.  But the shedding of blood does not only demonstrate the holy wrath of God against our sins, but also and equally a display of his kindness and grace and mercy to hell-deserving sinners.  Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the words of the apostle Paul to the elders in the church at Ephesus.  He says this to them in Acts 20:28,

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

Sam Storms notes these two things. 

First, the shedding of “blood” was the means by which God “obtained” us or redeemed us or purchased us as his own possession.  In other words, the pouring out of “blood” was the way in which God’s eternal love for his people was expressed.  Paul is telling the elders in Ephesus that they should love the church and care for her precisely because God does.  And God’s love was manifest most vividly and concretely in the shedding of blood. 

He says much the same thing in Ephesians 5:25 – “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” When he says that Christ “gave himself up” for the Church it means that he yielded up his life and poured out his blood in death to redeem her.  The blood of Christ is both the requirement of God’s justice and the expression of God’s love.  Neither one of those should be allowed to cancel out the other.

Second, and even more important, is that this translation in Acts 20:28 is inaccurate. God does not have “blood.” God is spirit.  A more accurate rendering of this passage is that God the Father obtained or redeemed the church with the blood of “his own,” the latter being a reference to the Son, Jesus Christ.  The words “his own” are actually terms of endearment, an expression designed to highlight the intimacy that exists between the Father and Son.  It wasn’t an angel that God sent to die or one of the four living creatures from the book of Revelation.  It was none else but his own dear, cherished, highly loved, and precious Son.

As our passage today says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”  Thus we read in Hebrews 9:15-22:

15 Therefore he [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

We ended up last week talking about how necessary it was for Christ’s own blood sacrifice to be shed in our behalf—because this was the only way to gain a clear conscience.  All three members of the Godhead are involved in purifying our guilty conscience.

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

Christ, through the Holy Spirit, “offered Himself without blemish to God.”  Our hope lay not in the sacrifices of animals, but in the New Covenant offering of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the mediator of that new covenant, and his death even “redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant,” the Mosaic Covenant.  Every sacrifice made in faith under the Old Covenant was an IOU paid in full at the cross.

The believing worshiper of the old covenant came with a definite awareness, first, that sin requires death—second, that such a sacrifice required a spirit of repentance—third, that he was pleading the mercy of God—and, fourth, in some cases, that a great sin-bearer was coming (cf. Psalm 22; Isaiah 53).  They looked forward to the promised Lamb of God.

The Old Covenant sacrificial system was flawed in that, by design, it could only deal with sins of ignorance (9:7) and could never completely clear one’s conscience (9:9).  But then came Jesus with the new covenant in his own blood—a superior blood sacrifice that completely atoned for sins (9:12) and completely cleared the conscience (9:14). 

Jesus was no uncomprehending, unwilling animal, but rather a perfect God-man who consciously set his will to atone for our sins.  He is therefore a superior Savior and priest.  He is the superior mediator of the New Covenant.

A Mediator stands between two parties, attempting reconciliation.  Jesus Christ came from heaven to try to bridge the gap between a holy and righteous God and sin-loving humanity.  As the Father’s mediator, it is Christ’s job to bridge the vast gulf and obtain entrance for us into God’s holy presence.

Now Christ doesn’t mediate in the sense of bringing about a compromise between God and man, but in the sense of enacting a New Covenant by which man comes to God on God’s terms—through Jesus Christ.

Kent Hughes points out, “His sacrifice is the medium of arbitration, because his shed blood is both retroactive and proactive in bringing forgiveness for sins.  Our text is specific about the retroactive power of his blood: “a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (v. 15b).  Significantly, the annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement (which prefigured Christ’s ultimate sacrifice) was also retroactive, atoning for the sins of ignorance committed over the past year (9:7).  But Christ’s death was surpassingly retroactive, reaching all the way back to the Garden of Eden.  Paul expounds the same truth in Romans: “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.  This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed” (Romans 3:25 NASB).  Because of this, we understand that believers were saved under the old covenant through their obedient faith in God—demonstrated by their sacrifices as they humbly acknowledged that sin required death and as they placed their souls under the mercy of God.  Their sacrifices were not a means of salvation, but they were evidence of believing, faithful hearts.  To these, Christ’s blood extended its retroactive power.

Those of us who are new covenant believers are beneficiaries of the proactive power of Christ’s death, for he has paid for our sins.  When he gave us the grace to believe, he activated his saving power in our lives—paying for our sins past, present, and future. (Kent Hughes, Hebrews, Volume 1, pp. 234-235).

As the writer further develops his argument, he does something that our English text cannot show.  The word “covenant” (diatheke), which he uses twice in verse 15, is also used twice in verses 16, 17, where it is translated “will” (“covenant” and “will” are the same Greek word).  But the reason for the two different translations is that the word is used religiously in verse 15 (hence “covenant”) and legally in verses 16, 17 (meaning “will”).

Here are those verses again:

15 Therefore he [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

We are familiar with wills.  Wills are written while someone is still alive, but only comes into force after the death of the one who made the will, the testator.  No matter what riches may be stated in the will, they are not distributed until the death of the testator.

The writer’s point is that Christ’s death activated his incredibly rich will—a fact alluded to by Paul in 2 Corinthians: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).  Think of the benefits we enjoy because of Christ’s death: forgiveness of sins, a guilt-free conscience, peace, deep peace (shalom —wholeness, health), purpose, a rich, eternal inheritance and ultimately eternal life in Heaven with God!  All this is impossible apart from his death.  It is all activated by his death!  The death of Jesus was necessary for our participation in these benefits.

Believers under the Old Covenant enjoyed mainly physical, temporal benefits but we enjoy an “eternal inheritance” through Jesus Christ as our Mediator.  And it all is based upon His death.

Spurgeon said: “If there be a question about whether a man is alive or not, you cannot administer to his estate, but when you have certain evidence that the testator has died then the will stands.  So is it with the blessed gospel: if Jesus did not die, then the gospel is null and void.”  Of course, His resurrection is essential to the gospel promises as well.

Jesus has become both testator and mediator of the new covenant—dual functions impossible for any being except one who rose from the dead.  Jesus died, leaving the greatest inheritance ever.  But he also lives now in order to mediate his will.

The Old Covenant went into effect when the Levitical priests shed the blood of animal substitutes and sprinkled that blood on all the covenant beneficiaries.  The beneficiaries were the Israelites (Exod. 24:6-8) and the tabernacle (cf. Exod. 40:9-15).  The New Covenant went into effect similarly when Jesus Christ shed His blood and God applied it to its beneficiaries (Christians) spiritually (cf. Matt. 26:28).

Beginning with v. 18 and extending down through v. 23, our author explains that during the time of the first or old covenant that God established with Moses and Israel, everything had to be cleansed with blood.  The noun “blood” is used six times in verses 18–22. The book of the law was sprinkled with blood, the people themselves were sprinkled with blood, the tabernacle and all the furniture and its many accessories were sprinkled with blood as a way of teaching them and us that you cannot approach God and worship God and enter a relationship with God until such time as the penalty for human sin has been paid and the justice of God has been satisfied.  It reminded them to take sin seriously.  It reminded them that sin causes death.

Exodus 24 gives the full account of this.  The Ten Commandments had already been delivered (Exodus 19, 20), and then the Book of the Covenant was read (Exodus 20:18—23:33), to which the people responded with one voice, “‘All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.’ And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD” (Exodus 24:3, 4).  The next few verses complete the picture:

And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.  And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.  And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”  And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:5–8)

The inauguration of the covenant was at once a glorious and bloody affair.  So was the subsequent beginning of tabernacle worship some time later: “And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship” (v. 21).  On its inauguration day, the gorgeous tabernacle as well as its tapestries, golden appointments, and priestly vestments all dripped with blood.

Notice how he sums this up in v. 22 – “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,” and the reason for that is because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Now, why does our author say “almost everything is purified with blood…”?

Well, one reason is that a concession was made for the poor Israelite who simply didn’t have enough money to purchase a lamb or goat.  He was allowed to bring a portion of flour or wheat as his sin offering in place of an animal or blood sacrifice.

Also some pollutions were cleansed by water rather than by blood (Exod. 29:4; 30:20; 40:12; Lev. 1:9, 13; 6:28; 8:6, 21; 14:8-9; 15:5-8, 10-13, 16-18, 21-22, 27; 16:4, 24, 26, 28; 17:15; 22:6; Num. 8:7; 19:7-9, 12-13, 17-19).

But the principle remains—“without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  This saying was proverbial in Biblical culture (TB Yoma A and TB Zebahim 6a)⁵—and was based on Leviticus 17:11—“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”  Sin must bring the forfeiting of life.  Sin demands death.  The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)

The old covenant sailed on a sea of blood, for two vast reasons.  First, to emphasize the seriousness of sin.  The Bible takes sin seriously, more than any other religious scripture.  Sin alienates one from God.  Sin is rooted in the hearts of humanity.  Sin cannot be vindicated by any self-help program.  Sin leads to death—and it will not be denied.  The second reason is the costliness of forgiveness.  Death is the payment.  The Israelites saw this principle most clearly on the Day of Atonement, but every animal sacrifice reminded them of it.  This is expressed in the New Covenant as well:  A life is demanded in payment for sin.  It will either be Christ’s life or ours!

Liberal theologians hate the idea of Christ’s blood paying for our sins.  They have called such views “slaughterhouse religion.”  They ridicule Christians who believe in a God who would be petty enough to be angry over our sins, and pagan enough to be appeased by blood.

The playwright, George Bernard Shaw, bitterly attacked the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, saying, “It is saturated with the ancient—and to me quite infernal—superstition of atonement by blood sacrifice, which I believe Christianity must completely get rid of, if it is to survive among thoughtful people” (cited in “Our Daily Bread,” 8/79).

Some progressive Christians have called Christ’s death on the cross “cosmic child abuse.”  Progressive Christians are embarrassed by the idea of a bloody cross, indicating God’s wrath against His Son, the sin-bearer.

Author Steve Chalke has written:

“The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed.  Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith.  Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement: ‘God is love.’  If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil” (Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus, [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003], pp. 182-183).

But according to Hebrews and throughout the Bible a sacrifice is required to pay for our sins.  And Jesus willingly gave up His life in order to pay the penalty for the sins of humanity.

The recipients of this letter to the Hebrews were in danger of going back to the Old Testament sacrifices, something they were familiar with.  Today people want to move away from the sacrifice of Christ to something nicer and softer, a God of love who merely winks at sin, or doesn’t consider it important at all.  Let’s not move away from Jesus Christ, but appreciate and put our full trust in what He did on the cross for us.  He willingly offered His life as a satisfaction to pay the penalty of our sins and satisfy God’s wrath against our sins so that we can enjoy ultimate joy and gladness in God’s presence throughout eternity.

We are looking in Hebrews 9 at the contrast our author makes between the earthly tabernacle and its regulations for approaching God, versus the heavenly tabernacle and its approach to God through Jesus Christ.  In verses 1-5, our author pointed out the disadvantage of the earthly tabernacle, made with human hands and earthly materials.  It was made of materials that would deteriorate over time and it was limited to a single geographical location.

The old system was inadequate for two addition encompassing reasons—its limited access and its limited efficacy.  Looking at Hebrews 9:6-10:

6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Just how restricted the access was is seen in the experience of the official, hereditary priesthood as verse 6 describes it: “These preparations having thus been made [i.e., the two rooms of the tabernacle], the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties.”  If they were fortunate, they got into the outer room once in their priestly lives—for a week.  The Israelite layperson’s access was even less—the front of the courtyard, and that’s all! If one was fortunate enough to attain to high priest (and in later years “fortunate” meant “politicized”), one could have access for a few blessed (and tense!) minutes at best.  On the Day of Atonement, when the high priest took his censer in to first burn incense in God’s presence, it was prescribed that he must not stay too long “lest he put Israel in terror.”  The people waited with bated breath, so that when he came out from the Presence alive, there went up a sigh of relief “like a gust of wind.” The writer is explicit here:

But into the second [room] only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing. (vv. 7, 8)

Notice, that only the high priest could enter into the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year.  His point is crystal-clear: throughout the ages of the old covenant, there was no direct access to God, period, for the majority of the people.

The high priest had to “take blood” because the purpose for going into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement was to procure forgiveness of sins, not for fellowship.  The atoning blood was first for his own sins and then the sins of the people.  Access into the Holiest of All was thus severely restricted. Even when someone could enter, it wasn’t for real fellowship with God.

But as inadequate as the access to God under the old system was, it was exceeded by its limited efficacy. The blood sacrifice that the high priest offered only covered sins of ignorance: “But into the second [room] only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people” (v. 7).  

This verse mentions the “unintentional sins of the people.”  Sins of ignorance were the specific focus of the Day of Atonement.  It was assumed that known sins would be taken care of through the regular sin offerings and daily sacrifices.  In this respect, Jesus’ work is far greater than the work done on the Day of Atonement. Jesus’ work on the cross is sufficient to atone for both the sins we do in ignorance and sins that we commit intentionally.  This passage does show us that even sins done in ignorance, or unintentionally, do matter and still need forgiveness.

There was no provision in the old covenant’s sacrificial system for forgiveness of premeditated sins!  Premeditated, willful sins were called sins of the “high hand,” and for such there was no remedy.  Numbers 15:30, 31 is unequivocal: “But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people.  Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

The premeditated sinner was in a huge dilemma!  Consider, for example, King David after his premeditated sin with Bathsheba and the cold-blooded murder of Uriah. The system simply did not provide a remedy. This is what Psalm 51 is all about.  David knew he was a sinner and confessed it: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:3–5).  And he knew there was no sacrifice he could bring: “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering” (Psalm 51:16).  What could he do?  Only one thing—come to God with a contrite heart and throw himself on God’s mercy: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).  This is how David was forgiven and was saved.  Thus, we see that the spiritually informed in the Old Testament came to understand that their only hope was a repentant heart and God’s grace.  Ultimately salvation rested on the blood of Christ.

The spiritual limitations of the old system went even deeper, because since only sins of ignorance were forgiven (even on the Day of Atonement), no one could have a completely clear conscience: “. . . (which is symbolic for the present age).  According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation” (vv. 9, 10).  This does not mean all Old Testament believers were afflicted with inflamed consciences.  If they were faithful in utilizing the old sacrificial system, they were forgiven for their sins of ignorance—which was no small thing.  Moreover, some people had fewer premeditated sins to their credit than others, and less real guilt.  But, nevertheless, a clear conscience in the absolute sense of the word was beyond their reach.  The author’s bottom line is that these gifts and sacrifices could not “cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (9:9).  The old system was deficient. It was external and superficial.

All that such offerings and sacrifices could do was to cleanse the person outwardly so that they could join in with the rest of God’s people in worship and prayer. These offerings and sacrifices only cleansed their bodies, removing ceremonial defilement and qualifying them for life in the community of God’s people. 

But their consciences were never fully and finally and forever cleansed of the defiling power of guilt that was the result of sin. 

So the limitations of the old covenant were profound— limited access and limited efficacy.  Average Joes were several ecclesiastical layers removed from access to God’s presence—and their consciences never rested easy.

The Old Covenant system of worship did not meet the deepest need of God’s people, namely, intimate personal relationship with God.  Its rites and ceremonies extended mainly to external matters—until God would provide a better system at a time of reformation (v. 10).

Here in v. 9 he also says that this way of relating to God through animal sacrifices in an earthly tabernacle was symbolic of the present time, by which he means the Old Covenant age.  His point is that he himself is living in a time of transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.  With the coming of Christ the old way of relating to God has been replaced.  We have entered into what he calls in v. 10 “the time of reformation.”  The person and work of Jesus Christ have supplanted and replaced the entire ritual sacrificial system of the Old Covenant.

The whole point of this book of Hebrews is to say that the coming of Christ, the Son of God, into the world is the ending of “the present time” of the old, strange, foreign way of relating to God, and the beginning of “the reformation” where Christ himself replaces the high priest and the temple and the blood of the animals and the food and drink rituals.  That’s the point of the book of Hebrews.

Our author sees himself in the time of transition from old to new.  The old system of relating to God through ritual and sacrifice and priest and tabernacle “is becoming obsolete and is ready to disappear.  And the new order, the “reformation” has been inaugurated in Christ and is replacing the old.  Very soon the temple in Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed and the entire priestly, sacrificial system would be finished, to this day.

So, what did the tabernacle and its furniture and the activities that took place within the courtyard mean?  What did it symbolize?  Here are three things.

First, the exquisite construction of the tabernacle and the aesthetic perfection of its furnishings and the intricate design sewn into the embroidered material, together with the veil and the gold and the variety of colors throughout were all designed to serve as a visual sermon declaring the beauty of God.  Everything in the tabernacle and later in the Temple pointed to the glory and grandeur and splendor of God.

But it was especially to his holiness that all this pointed.  The necessity for continual washings and cleansing of everyone and everything that entered the tabernacle was a constant reminder that God’s holiness is of such a nature that only the perfect and pure are acceptable to him.

Second, the tabernacle and everything in it was a daily reminder not just of God’s holiness but of man’s sinfulness.  Everything there shouted out loud: Stay away!  Do not draw near!  If you come near to God, you die!  That is why access to God’s presence was restricted to only one man, the High Priest, on one day of the year, and only then if he brought to the altar a sacrifice of blood both for himself and the people.

Third, and certainly most important of all, the tabernacle and everything in it pointed to the coming of the person and work of Jesus Christ.  May I remind you that when John the apostle described the incarnation of the Son of God, the entrance into human flesh and into the life of this world of the Second Person of the Trinity, he said in John 1:14 – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  And the word translated “dwelt” is more literally, “tabernacled” (if I may be allowed to turn a noun into a verb)!  The mercy and grace and forgiveness and glory and beauty that the tabernacle embodied has now come to us fully and finally in the person of Jesus!

The Old Covenant sanctuary was inferior for five reasons: (1) It was an earthly sanctuary (v. 1), (2) it was a type of something greater (its antitype; vv. 2-5), and (3) it was inaccessible to the people (vv. 6-7).  Furthermore, (4) it was only temporary (v. 8), and (5) its ministry was external rather than internal (vv. 9-10).

Although this may seem irrelevant to us today, because we no longer have any use for the sacrificial system.  However, we still have consciences that need to be cleansed.  With all the scientific progress and medical discoveries we still have not figured out how people with guilty consciences can draw near to God.

John Piper writes:

Isn’t it remarkable that when we spend an evening isolated in front of our computer: addicted, as it were, to work or pornography or video games, the issue, at the end of it all, is not the wonders of technology, or science; the issue is: how can I come to God when I feel so dirty, and how can I come to my wife and children with transparent love, when my conscience is so defiled?  (And if you’re not into computers, pick your own sin—TV soaps, romance novels, stock market pages, spirit-numbing music, etc.).

Isn’t it remarkable that the basic problems of life never change.  The circumstances change, but the basic problems don’t change.  We are humans, and we have consciences that witness to our sinfulness with testimonies of real guilt.  And we know that what keeps us away from God is not dirty hands or soiled clothes or distance from an altar or a priest.  What keeps us from God is real sin echoing in a condemning conscience.

Well, fortunately for us, God has solved this problem.  He has placed us in a new time period, a period of reformation.

Watch for the differences between the old “present time” and “the time of reformation” as you read verses 11-14.

But when Christ appeared [that’s the inauguration of the “time of the reformation” and the ending of “the present time”] as a high priest of the good things to come [which have now indeed come through his death and resurrection], He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all [the true tabernacle in heaven], having obtained eternal redemption [not a yearly one].  For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh [that is, ceremonial cleansing, but not real moral, spiritual cleansing], how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

“The argument moves a stage further as the author turns specifically to what Christ has done.  The sacrifices of the old covenant were ineffectual.  But in strong contrast Christ made an offering that secures a redemption valid for all eternity.  In the sacrifices, a good deal pertained to the use of blood.  So in accord with this, the author considers the significance of the blood of animals and that of Christ.” (Leon Morris, p. 85).  The other priests offered blood; Christ offered his own blood.  The means of Jesus’ entry into the “greater and more perfect tabernacle” was superior, first negatively in that it was “not through the blood of goats and calves,” and then positively, “but through His own blood.”

Christ unlimited access to God is emphasized in vv. 11-12.  Jesus did not just slip into the Most Holy Place amidst a protective cloud of incense to breathlessly perform a ritual sprinkling and then exit until next year. Instead, he came having given his own precious blood once and for all, and there he sat down at the right hand of the Father—never more to leave.

These verses reveal two contrasts.  First, over against the earthly and temporary tabernacle of the Old Covenant, one made with human hands, the Lord Jesus Christ ministers on our behalf in the greater and more perfect tabernacle, namely, the immediate and unqualified presence of God.  Second, against the Old Covenant High Priest who had to enter in with a blood sacrifice year after year after year, Jesus offered up the sacrifice of himself “once for all” (v. 12).  Constant throughout the book of Hebrews is this emphasis on the finished work of Jesus Christ.  Unlike the priests who had to offer continual sacrifices for the sins of the people, Jesus offered one sacrifice, which is effectual for all time and throughout eternity.

But there is even more, for the unlimited access is crowned with unlimited efficacy as Christ makes consciences clean.  To make this point, the author reiterates the limited nature of the old system: “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh . . .” (v. 13) Jesus’ sacrifice was superior in that it was perfect, voluntary, rational, and motivated by love.  It “obtained eternal redemption” AND cleansed their conscience.

The limited efficacy of the old covenant could make people ceremonially clean as well as atone for sins of ignorance.  For example, if an Israelite became ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, the remedy was ready.  All he had to do was go to a priest who had in his possession the ashes of a red heifer that had been ritually sacrificed and burned with a mixture of cedar, hyssop, and scarlet wool.  These ashes, mixed in water and ritually sprinkled on the defiled, would bring him external cleansing (cf. Numbers 19:1–13).

Considering that the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer had that much effect, “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (v. 14).  There is deep, glorious forgiveness in the new covenant, and it is available to all.

“How much more” indicates that our author is arguing from the lesser to the greater.  Whatever efficacy towards forgiveness the blood of animals was granted, the blood of Jesus Christ could accomplish “much more.”

Those ceremonial sacrifices provided safety from an immediate display of divine wrath in temporal matters: They were a reminder, as it were, of the covenantal purpose of God to preserve this people in order that the Messiah could come. It kept them pure as a nation, a peculiar people in the flesh.

As was meant for the Old Covenant sacrifices, Jesus “offered himself without blemish to God.”  Only a pure sacrifice is able to “purify our conscience.”  “Dead works” cannot accomplish what the blood of Jesus is able to accomplish for us.

In light of the perfection of the sacrifice and its necessary effectual satisfaction of the offended justice of God, one who rests in Christ and his perfection may have purity of conscience from his fruitless efforts to gain standing by his own works—they are dead and without merit.  Now the believer rests in one whose works were perfect, done in the power of the Holy Spirit, without blemish.  Our service to God—our purpose in creation—is now acceptable to God.  Now, he “work[s] in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.” (13:20)

No matter what sins you have committed, no matter who you are, you can experience deep, eternal forgiveness.

Albert Speer was once interviewed about his last book on ABC’s “Good Morning, America.”  Speer was the Hitler confidant whose technological genius was credited with keeping Nazi factories humming throughout World War II.  In another era he might have been one of the world’s industrial giants.  He was the only one of twenty-four war criminals tried in Nuremburg who admitted his guilt.  Speer spent twenty years in Spandau prison.

The interviewer referred to a passage in one of Speer’s earlier writings: “You have said the guilt can never be forgiven, or shouldn’t be.  Do you still feel that way?”  The look of pathos on Speer’s face was wrenching as he responded, “I served a sentence of twenty years, and I could say, ‘I’m a free man, my conscience has been cleared by serving the whole time as punishment.’  But I can’t do that.  I still carry the burden of what happened to millions of people during Hitler’s lifetime, and I can’t get rid of it.  This new book is part of my atoning, of clearing my conscience.”  The interviewer pressed the point. “You really don’t think you’ll be able to clear it totally?”  Speer shook his head.  “I don’t think it will be possible.”

For thirty-five years Speer had accepted complete responsibility for his crime.  His writings were filled with contrition and warnings to others to avoid his moral sin.  He desperately sought expiation.  All to no avail.

How pitifully sad, for forgiveness was available in the blood of Jesus Christ.  Coming to Christ would truly have been like being born again.  He literally could have had a new conscience—without the slightest sense of lingering guilt.

You can have a clear conscience if you want one, and the offer is for anyone.  If you have not yet come to Christ, the offer stands, as it always has.