Sermon Central
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Saved By The Sacrifice
Contributed by Stephen E. Trail on Apr 2, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: The importance of unlimited atonement in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
Saved by His Sacrifice
Introduction: The writer of Hebrews was well acquainted with the Jewish system of laws and especially how the sacrificial system lay the groundwork for our understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The Law set forth in type and shadow the pattern for things to come. Also, from the very beginning God’s design there has been for a sacrifice to be the answer to man’s sin. When Adam and Eve sinned animals had to die to provide a covering for their nakedness. Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by Jehovah because it involved the sacrifice from his flock. The sacrifice of Isaac by his father involved the death of a ram that God provided. This pattern is followed throughout the OT in the Levitical system of sacrifices which is what the writer of Hebrews is referring to. The crowning glory of the sacrificial pattern is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. This morning with God’s help I want to look at three words in verse 10 of our text, “…once for all…”
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
I. The Singularity of the Sacrifice – “once”
SYMBOL OF ATONEMENT
"The cross is a fitting symbol of the atonement, for it represents the intersecting of two attributes or facets of God’s nature. Here it is that the love of God meets the holiness of God. The holiness requires payment of the penalty, and the love provides that payment."
Milliard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academics: 1998) 835.
a. millions vs one
b. no pardon – returning again and again
c. purifying the conscience – remembrance year after year
When we think of the atonement we are apt to think only of what man gains. We must remember what it cost God and what it costs Him now when men refuse His love.
Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
II. The Substitution in the Sacrifice – “for”
A preposition is a word—and almost always a very small, very common word—that shows direction (to in "a letter to you"), location (at in "at the door"), or time (by in "by noon"), or that introduces an object (of in "a basket of apples"). Prepositions are typically followed by an object, which can be a noun (noon), a noun phrase (the door), or a pronoun (you). Merriam Webster Dictionary
Let me read a quote from Thomas Schreiner
DEFINITION
The penal substitutionary view of the atonement holds that the most fundamental event of the atonement is that Jesus Christ took the full punishment that we deserved for our sins as a substitute in our place, and that all other benefits or results of the atonement find their anchor in this truth.
SUMMARY
All people are in need of a substitute since all are guilty of sinning against the holy God. All sin deserves punishment because all sin is personal rebellion against God himself. While animal sacrifices took on the guilt of God’s people in the OT, these sacrifices could never fully atone for the sins of man. For that, Jesus Christ came and died in the place of his people (substitution), taking upon himself the full punishment that they deserved (penal). While there are other theories of the atonement, which point to other valid aspects of what happened in Christ’s death, the penal-substitutionary element of the crucifixion secures all other benefits that come to God’s people through the death of their representative.
