A better sacrifice! Part 1
Chapters 9 & 10 of Hebrews give us a unique window on Calvary contrasting the death of Jesus on the cross with the OT sacrifices. Uniquely, as Andrew Murray put it:
The cross is Christ’s highest glory. The glory which He received from the Father was entirely owing to his having humbled himself to the death of the cross. "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him!"
Today I want us to begin to look at some of the glorious truths about Christ’s sacrifice that these two chapters teach us. But there is so much more to understand in these chapters, so please study them prayerfully for yourself. Make their truths your own. We need to understand them because they are central to the Gospel and are, sadly, under fresh attack today.
A Sacrifice
When we use the word sacrifice today we generally mean giving up something to gain something later. So parents make sacrifices for their children – for example they may give up a new car or holiday to pay for something that the child needs. In the Bible, however, it means giving something to God. In most cases an animal was given to God and this usually involved killing the animal. This all seems very strange and bloodthirsty to us today, but the basic idea was common to virtually all historical cultures throughout history.
The first sacrifice we read of in the Bible was that offered by Abel, though there is a hint of an earlier sacrifice when, after the fall, God clothed Adam and Eve with clothes made from animal skins – Gen 3:21. In some way God obviously told Adam and Eve that the death of a substitute was needed to cover their sin and they taught this to their children. (DV we’ll come back to this in chapters 11 and 12.) These animal sacrifices were intended to show the Israelites that God took their sin seriously and that dealing with it was costly. They also pictured the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God at Calvary.
A necessary sacrifice
Many theologians think that all of this emphasis on blood and sacrifice is an anomaly from an earlier, bloodthirsty age. Here are two quotes that I came across:
The mission and purpose of Jesus’ life and ministry, was, first, to model for humankind the fullness of mercy and forgiveness that God offers to us sinners and, second, to model for us the perfection of love that God is and that those who accept God’s forgiveness are invited, by God’s grace, to become. Thus it is not Jesus’ death that can save us but his life!
I don’t think we need a theory of atonement at all; I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff.”
The cover story for a 2004, issue of Time magazine was “Why Did Jesus Have to Die?” Sadly but not surprisingly, the article gave no clear answer. According to it, the Bible does not hold the answer as to why Jesus died. They looked at various views of the atonement found through church history, passing quickly over the “theory” of substitutionary atonement, which the article claimed, was invented by Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1098.
One response said: Such nonsense paraded as biblical scholarship! Indeed, “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4). Why did Jesus die? The Bible answers that with five simple words: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3)! Christ was “made sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus explained very clearly why He came: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10). The proud Bible “scholars” quoted by Time magazine do not want to acknowledge that they are sinners of such terrible calibre that they cannot be saved apart from the death and blood of the very Son of God or that God is so holy that He would require such a death by His Son. [CHURCH NEWS NOTES, April 04]
That’s spot on! These trendy theologians just don’t understand God’s character, particularly his holiness. There was no other way for God to reconcile His infinite holiness and infinite love. God’s judgement on sinners is quite clear: Eze 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. Or as Paul put it in Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death. And, of course Ro 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means that, naturally, we are all under God’s death sentence.
However sorry you may be for your sins it makes no difference. You can’t go back and undo them. You can’t repay the debt that you owe to God because of your sin. The forgiveness of our sins is not decided by the intensity of our sorrow, but by God’s willingness and ability to forgive. And He can only be both holy and forgiving, ie true to His character, if someone else takes the punishment that we deserve.
Those who deny the atonement – that Jesus died in our place, bearing the punishment that we deserved for breaking God’s law, so that we might be forgiven – are really saying that the Father needlessly condemned His beloved Son to the horrors of Calvary and that Jesus endured a pointless death. What nonsense to suggest that they know better than God!
They focus on Jesus as our example, and truly He provides a wonderful example. But my greatest need is not for an example – I can’t live up to Christ’s perfect standard – I need a sacrifice and a Saviour to deal with my past failure and to give me power to face the future.
God made it clear in the OT that the blood of a sacrifice had to be shed for there to be forgiveness
Le 17:11 `For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’
Jesus confirmed this when He instituted the Lord’s Supper: Mt 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
And Hebrews restates it 9:22 according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. 23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Why then do people still think they know better?
Dead works
v14 describes all that we may try to do to earn God’s favour as dead works. We looked at this term ages ago when we studied ch 6. V 1 says Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God
There we saw that even our good deeds are works that come from hearts that are dead to God (unsaved people) and also lead to death – eternal separation from God in hell. That is why God calls them dead works. So what does God want us to do with these dead works? It is very simple, He commands us to repent from dead works. This means we have to turn away from all attempts to save ourselves, away from reliance on these dead works instead of the work that Jesus did when dying on Calvary’s cross. When we turn away from these dead works we can turn to God and the way that He has prepared.
Only with the right sacrifice can God be both just, and the justifier of the ungodly – Rom 3:26. Only in Christ’s sacrifice Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other Ps 85:10. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus can we be forgiven and saved.
A Jewish father had only one child, a little girl. He was very fond of her. She was the one the death angel would kill if the blood was not put on the door. Before going to sleep she asked her father if the blood had been sprinkled on the door posts. He said that it had been and she fell asleep. She woke several times, was reassured and fell asleep again. Just before midnight she woke again in great alarm. She insisted that her father carried her outside and showed her the blood. He took her outside, but to his horror he found that there was no blood on the door-posts. He ran to get the blood and quickly sprinkled it on them. Now she was sure that the blood was there she was quite happy and fell asleep. Her father had, amazingly delegated the vital job to a servant!
God has provided the sacrifice to secure your eternal safety, but it is of no value if the blood is not applied. Have you taken Christ’s death as the sacrifice for your sin?
A willing sacrifice
9:14 Christ … offered Himself without spot to God
The next thing that I want you to notice is that Christ offered Himself. No lamb or bull in OT times went willingly to the alter of sacrifice, but Christ did. It was not, as some foolishly suggest, that the Father forced His Son to suffer to appease His wrath. Christ’s death on the cross was a willing sacrifice; He offered himself. In John 10 He said: 17 Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.
As you read the Gospels it is clear that Jesus knew that He would be killed by the Jewish leaders. It didn’t take Him by surprise. After all, He said the Son of Man came to ... give His life a ransom for many – Mt 20:28. A ransom is the price paid to free a prisoner or slave. After Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah promised in the OT, the Son of the living God Mt 16:21, Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Peter didn’t see this as being any part of the role of the promised Messiah. He took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" Mt 16:22 Like many Jews today he didn’t understand what Isaiah 53 and other passages say about the suffering and death of the Messiah. On the other hand Jesus knew that this was exactly why He had come into the world. John 12:27 what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I have come to this hour…. 32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
This is why Jesus saw Satan at work in Peter’s discouragement so He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. Mt 16:23
Although He was a willing sacrifice that doesn’t mean that He found it easy. He knew the horror, spiritual, emotional and physical that lay before Him at Calvary. We see this most clearly in His prayers in Gethsemane. Lk 22: 39 Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, … 41 and He knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." 43 Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. 44 And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
How wonderful that, because of His great love for us, Jesus came to earth as a willing sacrifice and substitute, knowing the horror of what He would have to endure at Calvary. As Heb 12:2 puts it for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.
A Triune Sacrifice
Next notice that the whole Trinity was intimately involved at Calvary
14 Christ ... through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God
Jesus offered Himself by the Spirit to the Father. Jesus offered Himself. He was the subject of the sacrifice – both Priest and sacrifice. Christ ... offered Himself …to God; the Father was the object of the sacrifice. But the Holy Spirit was also involved – Christ ... offered Himself... through the eternal Spirit. Now what does that mean? We can understand the sacrifice and the one to whom it is offered, but how was the Spirit involved?
Jesus took upon Himself the form of a servant, first as a baby, then as a boy and finally as a man. At the start of His ministry the Holy Spirit came upon Him to fill and empower Him in all that He did, beginning at His baptism and then leading Him into the wilderness to face the temptations – Mt 4:1. Jesus lived His life on the earth as a man, though He remained truly God throughout. As a hymn puts it His glory veiled – His deity was hidden and outwardly He seemed just like any other man.
The miracles He performed were not performed using His own innate power, but by that of the Holy Spirit. We see this, for example, in Mt 12:28 where Jesus said that He cast out demons by the Spirit of God. I believe that He did this to show us that we can also achieve great things if we walk in the Spirit, though there is a difference of degree for only Jesus was filled with the Spirit without limit John 3:34.
He, the eternal Son of God, lived as a man in the Power of the Spirit. In the same way the Spirit led Him to the cross where He died as a willing sacrifice. The Spirit gave Him the power to face and overcome the horrors of Calvary and still makes His death effective for our salvation today. In the cross, then, we see the perfect co-operation of the Trinity in the great work of redemption.
When God determined to save men, he did not delegate the work to angels, nor did he permit a man to sink beneath the intolerable burden of a world’s sin; but in the person of his Son, he took home to himself the agony and curse and cost of sin, and by bearing them, wiped them out forever. FB Meyer
