Over the course of this study we have been demonstrating the
superiority of Christ to a whole host of things: angels, Moses, priests, etc. Not
only that, but what Jesus has done, according to Hebrews, have proven superior
to what was accomplished in the Old Testament under an old set of promises.
Collectively we might say that Jesus Christ and what He has finished is the
best thing since sliced bread. However, to make even this comment more accurate,
we should say that Jesus is the best thing since anything. This realization is
the very thing that the preacher of Hebrews continues to drill into his
audience so that they might fall into temptation, revert back to a more
regressive way of living, or leave the faith entirely.
Inasmuch as I commit myself to preaching the text of God’s
Word as it appears, I cannot help but believe these same truths have been
drilled into our congregation and for the same reasons. As Christianity falls
more and more out of favor in our world and copious temptations raise their
alluring heads, we must remind ourselves often of how impressive Christ is.
Today’s message does just that as it looks at three spectacles in Hebrews
10:1-10 that collectively establish the superiority of Jesus sacrifice. My
prayer today is that this reminder helps you fall in even more love with Jesus,
and the salvation He has made available.
THE BLOOD OF BULLS
AND GOATS-10:1-4
So far we have learned over the last several weeks that
Jesus is capable of a superior ministry (compared to the Old Testament priests)
and has ushered in a New Covenant (to replace the old). However, these marks of
Jesus’ superiority are largely connected to the sacrifice that He offered
which, similar to what has been stated before, was also superior to what came
before it. This juxtaposition between what once was and what now is begins in
verse 1 of chapter 10 when the preacher says, “For the Law, since it has only a
shadow of the good things to come and not the every form of things, can never,
by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect
those who draw near,…”
When verse 1 calls the law a shadow of the good things to
come, I cannot help but think of when I finally got my first car. Though, I had
been able to drive toy cars and ride bikes to get where I wanted to go, a “real”
mode of transportation was offered when I turned 16, a superior way to get
where I wanted to go. I can remember my parents telling me when I was young, “one
day, you’ll have a real car, when the time is right.” When I turned 16, that
time had finally come! The toy cars and inferior modes of transportation when I
was young were “shadows” of the highly anticipated reality I would soon
experience. The same is true of the Law and Christ. The Law was the
place-holder and pointer of Jesus who came in and established an entirely new
program. However, with Christ, it wasn’t about a quicker or better form of
transportation, it was about a superior mode of transformation.
In the Old Testament, people knew they needed to be
transformed so that they could have a relationship with their God. God required
as much when he said in Leviticus, “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate
yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make
yourselves unclean…” (Lev. 11:44). However, they had no vehicle (pardon the pun)
to get them there. Remember, as the second part of verse 1 says, the old
system, “can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by
year, make perfect those who draw near…”. In other words, the sacrifices
prescribed in the Old Testament Law were not able to transform the people into
what the Law demanded.
One of the illustrations I often offer to those on the
in-patient psychiatric unit when I talk about setting reasonable goals involves
my complete lack of athletic ability. I mention to the patients that when I was
a second grade boy, I wanted more than anything to be a professional basketball
player—a Spur! To this end, I requested a basketball hoop from my parents, enrolled
in a little-league basketball team for a couple of seasons, and practiced my
heart out on our family driveway.
However, no matter how much I practiced and
no matter how much my parents supported me (I imagine to their own
embarrassment at times), I soon learned that nothing I could do could make up
for the complete lack of athletic ability I possess. NO amount of practice,
coaching, or parental support could get me to reach my lofty goal of basketball
stardom. The same kind of realization must have sunk in with the Old Testament
Jews. There they were with the goal of holiness written out for them in the Law
and the sacrificial system they had to master to perfection, and yet, in spite
of perpetual sacrifices offered, they could never hope to reach the lofty goal
of perfection before God.
In fact, the preacher’s insistence on the perpetual nature
of the sacrifices demonstrates is ineffectiveness and ultimate inadequacy.
“Otherwise, would they
not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been
cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?” (10:2). To be sure,
if the Old Testament system of sacrifices was effective, it would “have
cleansed” those who followed it, thereby removing their guilt and allowing them
to enter a right relationship with God. The word for “have cleansed” means to
make clean, purify, or heal. Elements of all three of these words could be involved
in this context which deals with the potential consequences of offering
sacrifices. However, as intimated in the verse, none of these outcomes took
place following the offering of Old Testament sacrifices. The sacrifices of the
Old Testament only temporarily cleaned those who offered them, purifying them
only for a season, and could only heal the broken relationship with God
temporarily.
Not only that, but part of what is longed for in the pursuit
of holiness is the removal of guilt. The Jews of the Old Testament and
believers today do not just want their sins removed, they want the stain of guilt
washed clean. This again was something that the Old Testament system was
incapable of doing, “but in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins, year
by year,…” (10:3).
What better way to remind people of their culpability before
God than requiring to sacrifice innocent animals, the prettiest ones at that,
year after year? This required time, preparation, travel, for some it required
money, and (the worst in my opinion) it required a mess. Normally, we try to
spend time, prepare for, travel to, spend money on, etc. things we enjoy.
However, the yearly imposition of the bloody sacrifice reminded the Old
Testament saints of their sin and subsequent guilt.
Though millions of sacrifices were offered, none could do
what was desired—none could make those who offered them holy, “for it is
impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins,…” (10:4).
Because of this, “sin remained a separator, a perennial, detrimental force
disallowing a permanently right relationship between God and his people” (Guthrie,
327).
A BODY PREPARED FOR
THE WILL OF GOD-10:5-7
Something had to give, something had to do away with all of
this bloodshed, something had to pave a way for people to relate meaningfully
to their Creator. Thankfully Christ enters the world, “therefore, when He comes
into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifices and offering You have not desired,….in
whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for Sin You have taken no pleasure” (10:5a
& 6). Quoting a prophecy from Psalm 40:7-9, the preacher is referencing
Christ who had sense incarnated Himself by becoming a man born into the World. Christ
understood how God felt about the sacrifices offered (that these were not originally
nor ultimately a part of His plan and that He did not particularly enjoy
receiving them) and as a result determined to do something about it.
The first thing that Christ did was take on the body that
God had prepared for Him, “but a body You have prepared for Me…” (10:5b). The
body referred to here is Christ’s fleshly body used while on the earth.
John 1:14-“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among
us,…”
Philippian 2:6-7-“who, although He existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men.”
Step one for Jesus in ridding the world of a largely
unsatisfactory sacrificial system was taking on flesh, veiling His glory in
human form, in what can only be described as one of the greatest of all
miracles. What makes this even more incomprehensible is that the glorious Word of
God not only became a man, but a humble man at that!
Isaiah 53:2-“grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
and like a root our of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that
we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”
The second thing that Christ purposed to do was the will of
God, “then I said, ‘behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is
written of Me) to do Your will, O God’…” (10:7). Not only was Christ a humble
man, He was a faithful man—faithful to the will of the One who sent Him.
Faithful to the cause of bringing men and women into a right relationship with
God. His body, humble and faithful, would serve as the vehicle by which all
other sacrifice became unnecessary.
THE TRUE SACRIFICE
ONCE FOR ALL-10:8-10
What the preacher is trying to emphasize about the Psalm 40
reference is two-fold: God’s dissatisfaction with the old covenant sacrificial
system and the willingness of Christ to do something about it. In verse 8-9 the
preacher begins to reveal the last spectacle—the true sacrifice once for all—by
reiterating what he has just referenced, “after saying above, ‘sacrifices and
offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired,
nor have You taken pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law)…”
(10:8). In this reiteration, the preacher explains that the sacrifices of the
old system were unsatisfactory even though God had prescribed them in the law (and
this is not a totally new revelation).
1 Sam. 15:22-“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”
Psalm 50:8-9-“I do not reprove you for your
sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are continually before Me. I shall take no
young bull out of your house not male goats out of your folds.”
Psalm 51:16-“For you do not delight in sacrifice,
otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.”
Hosea 6:6-“For I delight in loyalty rather than
sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Thankfully, God purposed to end His dissatisfaction by equipping
Christ with a humble and fleshly body to come into the world to do His will, “then
He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your
will…” (10:9). This before—after, old—new, dissatisfaction—satisfaction motif
sets in motion the argument that is about to be made.
In a nutshell the argument is crystallized in the second
part of verse 9, “He takes away the first in order to establish the second” (10:9b).
This week we had to replace Henry’s car seat with a new and
bigger one. We needed to do this because Henry no longer fit in his old seat and
our growing dissatisfaction with it had reached critical mass. Brianna could
not take the small and ill-equipped car seat any longer. Therefore, we took
away the old one in order to make space for a new one.
This is what God did with the sacrificial system. After
having his fill of blood sacrifices and having been dissatisfied with the
system for some time, God took the old system away to make room for a new one. No
longer would sacrifices have to be offered, no longer would blood have to be
shed, no longer would guilt perpetually stain the consciousness of God’s
people. Praise the Lord!
What has replaced the myriad of Old Testament sacrifices? The
answer is a once and for all sacrifice—“By this will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10). In
order to fully appreciate this verse, we must remind ourselves of what was
desired that the Old Testament sacrifices could never provide—holiness, righteousness,
and therefore, salvation. These goals are all wrapped up in the word
sanctification here in verse 10. While the sacrifices of old were incapable of
making people right with God, the sacrifice of Jesus is. The word “sanctification”
means to be set apart and it calls to mind the ongoing salvation experienced by
those who have already placed their faith in Jesus.
Jesus’ sacrifice alone and completely paved the way for believers
to finally attain a right relationship with God (once for all). No more sacrifices
are required, no more blood has to be shed. The solitary sacrifice of Christ
has completely satisfied God, thereby removing the sin and guilt of those who
accept it. Therefore, we can add Jesus’ sacrifice to list of reasons why He is
superior to that which came before Him.
So What?
The spectacles that we have beheld in this passage have
pointed to a glorious truth: because Christ offered himself as a faithful and
humble sacrifice, we no longer have to depend on the blood of bulls and goats. What
makes this so great is that now believers are given a way to truly relate to
God free of guilt. This is something that the sacrifices of the Old Testament
could never accomplish. Therefore, the application of this message depends on
where you stand. Have you accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Do you
believe in His coming to earth and offering Himself? Do you know that He is the
only way to relate properly to a very real God free from guilt and punishment?
If not, my prayer is that you come to recognize Jesus’ superior ministry (Hebrews
8), His superior promises (Hebrews 9), and His superior sacrifice (Hebrews 10)
that alone can save.
However, perhaps you have embraced what only Christ can
provide. Are you living a life of freedom and boldness, or has your flesh or
the schemes of the enemy robbed you of your joy by throwing your past or
present in your face? Those who are in Christ are to live as those who know
that “Jesus Paid it All!” Amen! Because of this, we have peace with God, no
reason to fear. When Satan throws your sin in your face and tries to paralyze
you in guilt and fear, claim Jesus’ sacrifice again and remember where you
stand—in relationship with God the Father, where Satan has no claim and evil
has no rights. Praise be to God the Father and Jesus Christ whose sacrifice has
covered all my sin!
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