NO PLEASURE
Hebrews 10:1-18
In Christian service, there is no greater motive for serving God than doing those things which would be pleasing to Him and that would also bring pleasure to Him. We are told in this chapter that the Lord found no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices. We must understand that it was God who ordained the legal system when He gave the law to Moses. We also must understand that there is nothing wrong with the law. The offerings that were given which pertained to the law were not capable of satisfying the holy demands of God; these weak sacrifices could only put off the wrath of God for a little while. In an absolute and also in a relative sense, the Lord could not find pleasure in the offering of the “burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin” (Vv. 6, 7). When the offerings are compared to the offering of His Son, they proved to be entirely inadequate. When these burnt offerings and sacrifices are seen by the Lord they absolutely do not measure up, thus He finds no pleasure in them.
One might ask, if these offerings were not suitable to forever put off the wrath and the anger of God then why did He ordain the legal system to begin with? Galatians 3:19-25 answers this concern when it tells us that the law “was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” (V. 24). We also are instructed that the law was “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” (V.19). This verse shows us that the offerings served a very temporary purpose until the “seed should come” and that seed was the Lord Jesus Christ.
We will examine: I. God’s Displeasure Revealed as It Concerned the Old Offering (Vv. 1-8); II. God’s Pleasure Recognized as It Concerns the New Offering.
I. GOD’S DISPLEASURE REVEALED AS IT CONCERNED THE OLD OFFERING (Vv. 1-8)
From time to time, I will pull out a certain old video which was made over twenty years ago. When I do, it brings me joy to watch and hear my parents, who are deceased, once again speak. The image is of them and the voice is theirs, but it is only a shadow of what was… The “law having a shadow of good things to come” is only a shadow of Him who is. In regards to my parent’s shadow, if I could, I would trade the shadow for them. The shadow follows them. In regards to Him, I will not trade Him for the shadow. In His case the shadow came first. The law is that shadow. With Him being the substance which the shadow represented, we now have a better offering.
A. The Offerings Were Insufficient to Satisfy God’s Requirements. (Vv.1-3)
The offerings that were prescribed by the law had to be offered over and over again. There was an insufficiency that marked these offerings as they were identified with the sin cursed earth. Each of the offerings left a “remembrance again made of sins every year.” The offerings were made on the Day of Atonement to put off the wrath of God until Christ Jesus could come and forever put off God’s anger. God’s anger is a Holy anger that demonstrated God’s disposition to both the sin and the sinner. He certainly is angry with sin and His anger extends to the sinner, but thanks unto God, for also so does His mercy. There is mercy and peace for the time of need. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:4, 5).
Everything which lies underneath the curse will be insufficient in meeting God’s Holy requirements. God’s standard is way above man’s and any offering that he is capable of offering apart from that of faith and obedience will only be a “Cain-like” offering in which God will have no respect (Genesis 4:5). The entire creation is underneath the sin curse and thus is so affected that nothing eternally satisfying can be extracted as an offering from it. Though the offering made according to the law was inefficient and insufficient in and of itself, the Lord honored it, because when it was being offered, the person offering it demonstrated a faithful obedience to the Lord. They were exercising a faith that was anticipating the better offering of Christ, Himself. They in doing so may not have understood all of the theology that was involved, but they obeyed anyway while making their offerings unto the Lord. The Lord was not saying that the offering was sufficient at this time only the exercising of faith was sufficient in anticipation of the offering that was perfect.
B. The Offerings Were Inferior in Supplying God’s Requirements. (Vv.4-8)
Verse number four says, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” We immediately understand that His blood is superior to animal blood. His blood is superior to all blood. Animal sacrifice under the Old Covenant could only cover sin. The Hebrew word for atonement is kophar, which literally means “to cover.” But animal sacrifice could never take away sins. Only Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice of the New Covenant, takes sins away.
The sacrifices of the old economy had a prophetic significance. They were offered not only to protect, but also to project an object lesson pertaining to the greater offering of Jesus. The greater offering was in every way superior to the lesser offering. Thank God that He is the altogether lovely One. This is demonstrated in the fact that God found pleasure in Him. He was pleased with His Son as indicated at both the baptism of Jesus and also the transfiguration of Jesus. Notice these Scriptures. “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). This voice came at the baptism of Jesus and it was the voice of the Father declaring that His Son pleased Him. Then the same occurrence of the voice took place at the transfiguration giving the same declaration: “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17:5). These are two major public events that let something take place that had never happened before, when the Lord publically placed His acceptance and satisfaction on His Son.
Once again, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, Peter restated the fact that the Father was satisfied with His Son as they witnessed from the holy mount the voice of God. “For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.” (II Peter 1:17, 18). These events took place indicating the superiority of the Son of God as being One uniquely set apart from all others in being able to please God.
Verse number five says, “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:” The incarnation of the Son yielded a body that was acceptable to the Father as a superior sacrifice. As the Lamb of God, Jesus walked upon this earth to be watched and observed for all to see. The writers of the Scriptures testify to this. John thus indicated that Christ was observed in I John 1, 2: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)” The Lord Jesus Christ was observed as having been with the Father and then manifested to mankind.
The burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin brought no pleasure to the Lord and thus were inferior according to His lofty and holy requirements. The coming of Christ Jesus was to satisfy the will of the Father: “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” (V.7). When we began to have a proper grasp on why Jesus came then we will have an understanding of the sacerdotal system as God intended it. We will then begin to understand that God is the superior Priest who offered Himself as a superior sacrifice. What other priest could both be the one who offers and the offering itself. By serving as He did as the High Priest, he has put away the need for an earthly priesthood. He has made the better offering that once and for all satisfies God the Father.
Verse number eight restates what we have been saying as we make a comparison of the offerings that were acceptable and those which were not. “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;”
II. GOD’S PLEASURE RECOGNIZED AS IT CONCERNED THE NEW OFFERING. (Vv. 9-18)
The writer of the Book of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, understood that Christ came in obedience to the will of God. Verse number nine says, “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” “He taketh away” seems to be an expression which shows that the Lord is removing the Old Testament means of atonement, which involved the earthly priesthood with its many offerings, and replacing it with His Son Jesus who offers up Himself once and for all. It was only the offering up of the Lord Jesus that would bring satisfaction and pleasure to the Lord.
A. The Sufficiency of the Offering. (Vv. 9-10)
The tenth verse in our Text shows that “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” How wonderful it is to know that God’s offering of His Son was absolutely sufficient in meeting the requirements of the Father. There is nothing that need be or can be offered to increase the sufficiency of the offering. The purity of the offering means that it was in no way defiled. The lambs that were offered, according to the Levitical offerings, had to be without blemish, which pictured the Lamb of God being without blemish. Whereas the lamb could only be without blemish in a purely earthly sense, the Lamb of God was without blemish in an eternal sense. Our sanctification required the once for all offering of the body of Jesus Christ. He laid Himself down as an offering that was sufficient to bring about our sanctification. The word sanctification is a word that is used in conjunction with the word holiness. It speaks of setting apart from that which is vain and unholy. The Lord provided for our sanctification by first setting Himself apart as the sanctified One.
Colossians 1:19-22 helps us to understand this Truth when it says, “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven, And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight;” The word “reconcile” means that enmity can be replaced with friendship. The word reconciliation means to “become friends again”. What a friend we have in Jesus!
In our study we keep noticing the emphasis that is being given to Christ offering His body as a sacrifice. This is no accident that the emphasis is given in this way. All of the Levitical offerings required the bodies of animals. His offering is also an offering of a body, but it is of a different kind of body. It is His very own body that was given to Him by the Virgin Mary so that He could fulfill the requirements of making an acceptable sacrifice. He did this by offering up His body which required His sacrificial death upon the cross. His offering was sufficient in every way. When Christ Jesus offered Himself, he took on the form of a servant…”Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8).
B. The Satisfaction of the Offering. (Vv. 11-18)
Several things had to happen for the Lord to be satisfied with the offering of Christ Jesus on the cross. There had to be an offering that was capable of taking away sins in a satisfactory manner. He was both the Man and the sacrifice that was acceptable and able to do such. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Vv.12-14). When He sat down, He indicated by doing so that His priesthood had met all the requirements that was expected of Him.
This is a very strong verse indicating ones security as a believer. There is nothing further that is required of Christ. We have shown from our Text, the completion of the work and the covenant pertaining to that work. The law will no longer just be words on a stone, but will be engraved, instead on the heart. Within the covenant of Grace, when we enjoy a sensitive heart to the things of God, we find that the law becomes a part of us and we find ourselves performing the law out of a heart of gratitude to the one who offered Himself as a ransom for all. The offering should be an offering of delight rather than an offering of duty.
The Lord goes on to say, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” What a great and what a comforting promise, when we are told that the Lord will remember our sins and iniquities no more. This verse was a favorite to my daddy as long as he lived upon this earth as a saved man. Even up until the time that he was nearly ninety years of age he would talk about this verse and how it spoke of his freedom in Jesus and his forgiveness that he had in the Lord… All who are in Christ Jesus can rest in Him just as my father did, because of the work that Christ performed when He offered up His body upon the cross as a payment for our sins.
