Perhaps you’ve heard someone remark, “If you want something done right you’ve got to do it yourself.” In a sense this is what the author has been discussing over the last number of chapters. He is now winding down his mini-treatise on the priesthood of Christ and its relationship to the Old Testament. And you might say God made this remark, “If you want something done right” as He sent His Son to carry out the task of providing eternal redemption for the human race. Because it was impossible for us to earn our own salvation Jesus came to carry it out. The key idea of this passage is Jesus’ coming was in accordance with the Father’s will to accomplish what the Old Testament sacrifices never could. The author of Hebrews lays out for us in this passage two solid truths to show us just what the sacrifice of Christ accomplished for us.
I. The Old Testament Sacrifices Could Not Complete the Father’s Will
The first truth we need to understand is the Old Testament sacrifices could not complete the Father’s will. The author describes three reasons why this is true. Now each of these three reasons are related to one another.
A. Unable to cleanse the conscience (vv. 1,2)
The first reason the Old Testament sacrifices could not complete the Father’s will is they were unable to cleanse the conscience. We find this in verses 1 & 2. There it says, “For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin?”
Since the Old Covenant had in it only a shadow of Christ’s work and not the work itself it could not accomplish what God intended to do through the work of Christ. Shadows are not able to do anything. They are mere copies or specters of what is real. And the real proof of the ineffectiveness of a human priesthood and its work is seen in the question the author poses. If the sacrifices had been effective, “would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?” Because the sacrifices were continual it showed they had not done their work. If they had been effective the worshippers would have been “once” cleansed. They would no longer have this spot against their conscience. They would have seen no need for another sacrifice. If they had understood their sacrifice as sufficient they would have had no need to come back. They would have recognized there was no longer any barrier between God and themselves and the priests would be out of business. They would have made one sacrifice. After this they might have torn the veil of the temple in two as God had done after the death of Jesus. But this was not the case. They offered sacrifices, as the passage notes, continually. It couldn’t be helped. The people were no closer to having their conscience cleansed because what they participated in was a shadow of the good things to come and not the very object itself.
B. The offering is a reminder of sin (v. 3)
The second reason the Old Testament sacrifices could not complete the Father’s will is the offering is a reminder of sin. We note this in verse 3. “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.” The offering doesn’t present a removal of sin but a reminder. This ongoing ritual speaks of sin not yet covered. It tells of the guilt associated with uncovered sin and cannot complete what the priests are demonstrating by the acts they perform.
Now the reminder of sin and guilt was to cause the worshippers to look for another way to remove the sin that burdened them. They were to find the removal of their burden in “the good things to come” as the author calls it. They were to look to the substance past the shadow. For the shadow could never remove the burden of their sin but the substance could. And if they would look by faith to it they would have the guilt removed. But in the earthly tabernacle and priesthood they could never find it. The ritual only reminded them of their sin but did not give them relief from it. The event of which the author writes reminds me of a ritual I practiced in the church in which I grew up. Each week we would repeat the same words, “Lord, have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy.” This was a reminder to us of the sin that was still on our soul. Every week we cried out to God for mercy. And the next week we would ask again. This did not lead to a removing of our sin but a reminder of it. It brought down upon us the weight of our sin. If it had provided forgiveness we wouldn’t have asked the following week for the Lord to have mercy again. Yes these are the words of the tax collector standing in the temple of whom Jesus spoke in Luke 18. But there are two notable differences between what went on with this man and what takes place in the ritual of simply repeating a phrase like “Lord have mercy.” First, Jesus said, “This man went to his house justified.” He received the removal of his sin. He didn’t come back the following week for another installment. And the reason he could find this removal of his sin is found secondly, in the fact the word translated “mercy” isn’t the regular word we use when we ask for mercy. He used the word sometimes translated “propitiation.” He asked God to turn away His wrath on the basis of an acceptable atoning sacrifice. In other words, he was looking by faith for God to provide someone to turn away God’s wrath from himself to bring about a cleansing. This man had been reminded of his sin but by faith he now saw God’s provision for his sin to be removed. And this brings us to the third related reason the Old Testament sacrifices could not complete the Father’s will.
C. The blood of animals cannot forgive sin (v. 4)
The third reason is the blood of animals cannot forgive sin. This is what verse 4 contains. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The ritual sacrifices in which animals were offered according to God’s command never accomplished the forgiveness of sin for the worshipper. We discussed this in detail some weeks ago but I will discuss it briefly now. Why did God allow this taking of animal life if it did not accomplish the forgiveness of sin? First, it was a picture that demonstrated the awful consequences of sin. Sin produced death. This is what the worshipper could look forward to if they did not find a suitable sacrifice for their sin. Second it symbolically pictured the transference of sin from the worshipper to the sinless sacrifice. This is the principle of substitution. As they placed their hands upon the animal to symbolically transfer their sin upon him and took the knife and slew the creature they understood this animal did not die for any defect in itself but because of the worshipper’s sin. Finally the animal pointed to another sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice that would take away sin. This is what they should have seen. In this way they could declare with King David in Psalm 32, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” David believed in this coming deliverer. Moses knew of this coming deliverer. Isaiah trusted in this coming deliverer. John the Baptist also believed in this coming deliverer, for when he saw Him he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” So the sacrifices commanded in the Old Testament were never to be an end in themselves. This is why God declared His displeasure in them in the following verses. God was displeased because people trusted in these shadows instead of the very substance of the things. It is sort of like when you buy a $500 toy for your children and they ignore the toy and play with the box. And yet this is so much more than a $500 toy. We are talking about the very substance of life. And yet those under the Old Covenant would not acknowledge it. They tenaciously clung to a system that could not remove sin and refused to embrace the one sacrifice that truly brought freedom and life.
II. Jesus’ Coming Completed the Father’s Will
The second truth the author of Hebrews brings to us is Jesus’ coming completed the Father’s will. There are three aspects in this truth that center around Jesus’ coming or as we have entitled it, Jesus’ incarnation. I usually try to avoid speaking Christianese without defining the word I am using. And because of the import of the word “incarnation” this is what we will do. Let’s define what we mean by incarnation.
A. The significance of Jesus’ incarnation
And we will do this in looking at the first aspect of Jesus’ coming, the significance of Jesus’ incarnation. The word “incarnation” simply means, “The taking on of flesh.” It is the truth that Jesus, though God, became man. He became a human being. And though he discussed this in chapter 2 he expands on its significance here in chapter 10. Verse 5 begins the author’s discussion of it. “He says, “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me;’”
The mystery of the ages has been proclaimed to us that God Himself would come down to us. Many have tried to deny it in various ways. But the Scripture always testifies to the fact Jesus, was God very God, and took on human nature and flesh, without giving up His divinity. He was the God-man who is our only Savior. I think it will be most helpful to see this by reading Scripture that definitively speaks to this matter. And for sake of time I will give the reference and simply read them without waiting for everyone to catch up. If you are fast by all means turn there.
1 John 1:1-2 “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life – and the life was manifested (it appeared), and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.”
John also describes this incarnation of Jesus the Son they could feel and see and hear in his gospel 1:1-3, 14. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being . . . “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Philippians 2:5-8 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped (or to be used for His own advantage), but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
There are those who claim Jesus never took on a physical body because this creation is evil. But the Scripture says otherwise. He was protected from the sin nature of natural man but He still had a body. Others say he was only a man but the Scripture says otherwise. The author of Hebrews, Peter, Paul, John and others clearly attest to Jesus’ divine nature as well.
But in this passage the Scripture says Jesus had a body prepared for Him. He was given a human nature to accomplish His work here on earth.
B. The prediction of Jesus’ incarnation
The second aspect we note is the prediction of Jesus’ incarnation. Verse 7 describes this. “Then I said, ‘Behold I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.’” The author, in quoting from the psalms, seeks to give credence for the coming work of Christ. Messiah’s coming was not something unknown in the Old Testament. There are numerous predictions of Jesus’ coming so when He appeared people would be ready to receive Him.
Jesus was keenly aware of all the prophecy concerning Himself in the Old Testament. John makes this abundantly clear in his gospel as he describes Jesus as fulfilling the Scripture in all points. And down to each detail Jesus fulfilled the Father’s will by completing the predictions about Himself. These weren’t things a person could make up about Himself. They had to be perfectly orchestrated by the hand of one who controlled the universe.
What does the Old Testament say about Him? Why is it Jesus of Nazareth fits the bill? How can we be sure He is the Messiah? Well the Old Testament starts out generally concerning its picture of the Messiah but then works its way with details only one individual could fulfill. Jesus would be born of a woman. That’s not too hard. Most of us would fall into that category. But He would also be born as a descendent of Abraham. This narrows it down significantly but still something someone might be able to pull off. The Scripture also said He would be the Son of King David. He would be born in Bethlehem. He would live in the region of Naphtali & Zebulun in Galilee of the Gentiles. A messenger would go before Him and prepare His way. He would preach the good news and heal. This makes it a little tougher for someone to fulfill doesn’t it? He would complete His sacrificial work exactly 173,880 days from the decree to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. He would be assigned a grave with wicked men and yet He would be placed into the tomb of a rich man. And here is the real kicker He would rise from the dead. Anyone here ever do that?
What’s so important about this that the author feels the need to mention it? If it wasn’t the right person He couldn’t provide the right sacrifice. If Jesus hadn’t been the God-man who was spoken of in the Scripture He could not have come and provided forgiveness. “In the scroll of the book it is written of Me, to do your will, O God.” This is the case the author makes. To prevent impostors from attempting to fake the Messiah’s role (didn’t Jesus say there would be many false christs?) God made it very specific whom the sacrificial lamb would be to take away the sins of the world. And the author wants us to see Jesus is the true lamb. God wanted to make sure we wouldn’t be misled when it came to finding the Messiah.
C. The accomplishment of Jesus’ incarnation
The final aspect of Jesus’ coming is the accomplishment of Jesus’ incarnation. What did Jesus achieve in coming and acting as our high priest? There are two items to note in view of verses 9-10.
First in verse 9 we can see Jesus established a new way without mortal priests or ongoing sacrifice. This is what verse 9 describes. “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second.” What we can see is Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross abolished this Old Covenant system. It seems that too many churches have picked up their ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church and how it operates) from the Old Testament. There is no hint that the system established in the Old Covenant was to continue into the New. Here the author shows that this was not to be the case. He says Jesus has established the second covenant. But how was He able to do it. Look. To start, He took away the first covenant. The word used here translated, “takes away” is found 24 times in the New Testament and in all but one occurrence it is used in the sense of “to kill.” What did Jesus do to the Old Covenant system? He put it to death by His death. There is no more need of this antiquated system. And it would be blasphemy to try to resurrect something the Lord had put to death. The church no longer operates under the guise of priests and sacrifices. Jesus is our high priest and has completed His sacrifice and put to death the Old Testament system.
The second item to notice is that Jesus freed us from the penalty and guilt of sin. In verse 10 he says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” When the author says, “by this will” he is speaking of the will of God. It is reflective of the statement Jesus makes in verse 7, “I have come to do your will, O God.” So he says that by the will of God we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.
What does it mean we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of Christ? The word “sanctify” means to make holy. Christ’s sacrifice has made us holy in the sight of God. Those who have placed their trust in Christ have been made saints before God. Because Jesus Christ bore our sin upon His body on the cross He has removed all our sin from us. We appear, in God’s presence, to be completely sanctified. We have been made right in God’s sight and are partakers of Christ’s nature because of His sacrifice.
This is what we might rightly call positional theology. Our position before God is one of complete holiness. Our faith in Christ has made us holy in God’s sight and inheritors of the promise of eternal life. He has declared it to be so and He sees us this way because of the Christ’s sacrifice once for all. There is no more guilt to be borne by us. Jesus carried it to the cross when He died for our sin. There is no more payment necessary (or available) for our sin. It was taken care of.
But if Jesus’ death has freed us from the penalty and guilt of sin why then do we feel guilty when we do wrong? As a believer in Christ, the guilt we feel when we do wrong is not the weight of condemning sin. It is of a different nature. It comes through the work of the Holy Spirit within us. It is a familial (family-like) chastisement that takes place because we are grieving the Holy Spirit of God who lives in us.
And so let us not confuse our positional righteousness (or sanctification) with the practical aspect of daily living as a child in the family of God. Right now God sees every believer as perfect as if they were sitting before Him now in heaven because all their sin was placed upon Jesus. But, on an experiential level, we are not yet there. We sin, and to say we have no sin we call God a liar. So what does this mean for us as believers? We are to live daily in light of the fact Christ has already sanctified us. Because He has made us holy in God’s sight, positionally, on a daily level we are to continue to put off the deeds of our old nature (which was crucified with Christ), renew our minds daily through the Word of God and put on the victorious nature of Christ given to us through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. This is practical, or experiential, or daily righteousness. We are to be righteous in our daily living because God has made us righteous in our position before Him through the work of Christ. We are not trying to become something we aren’t. God has made us perfect in His sight so we are to walk worthy of the truth that our nature has been changed and we have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once for all. And so when we experience the Spirit of God making us “feel” guilty about sin in our lives we are not to seek to avoid it but we must admit we are wrong and turn from it.
And he concludes this section by saying, “We have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. You have heard the author voice this truth several times. Christ’s body was offered once for all. The sacrifice and offering is complete. It is blasphemy to declare it ineffective by making additional offerings. And it is this once for all offering that has freed us from the penalty and guilt of our sin.
So let me ask you, have you been sanctified by the once for all sacrifice of Christ? Have you placed your trust in Him alone for salvation? Has He given you a new heart that loves Him for His gift of eternal life He has provided?
Or are you simply involved with the shadow of Christianity and not the very substance of it? Someone may make appearances in church but are not participating in a relationship with Christ. Outwardly they show signs of “Christianity” but inwardly they have not been changed by the blood of the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Where are you?
And you who have been made right with God by the sacrifice of His Son, how are you trying to live the Christian life? Are you living it by your own strength? Are you still living in the guilt of trying to make yourself pleasing to God? We live in a manner pleasing to God because He has already made us pleasing in His sight not because we are trying to attain His pleasure. His good pleasure has been satisfied by the work of Christ on our behalf and we are to walk in this.