"So Great a Salvation. So Perfect a Sacrifice"
Hebrews 10:1-25
The Rev’d Quintin Morrow
Preached at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Fort Worth
March 17, 2002
In the waning decades of the first century before the of birth Christ a Roman poet and dramatist named Quintus Horatius Flaccus wrote to give the young playwrights of his day some much needed advice. Plays in Horace’s day were convoluted and confusing affairs, with several complicated and sometimes contradictory plots, themes and characters. It was customary, in the last act of the play, when it was impossible to reconcile all of the tangled characters, plots and circumstances, for Horace¡¦s con-temporaries to simply write in the appearance of one or more of the gods--Apollo, Zeus, Mars--to magically wrap up all the loose ends before the final curtain fell. Horace himself thought this a rather predictable and anti-climactic practice. His advice to young playwrights was this:
Do not put a god on stage, unless the problem is one that deserves a god to solve it.
Hebrews chapter 10 describes just that: How the one, true and living God intervened--stepped on stage--to solve the problems of sin and judgment that only He could solve.
The author of Hebrews is writing this letter--which in structure and argument more closely resembles a sermon than a letter--to a local church of second generation Jewish Christians wavering in their commitment to Christ and contemplating aban- doning the Christian faith and returning to Judaism. The tone of the book is one of persuasion and admonition; and the theme of the Hebrews is the superiority of the person, offices and work of Jesus Christ--His superiority over the Mosaic Law, the Levitical priesthood, angels, temples, old covenant sacrifices, and sin.
Like any good letter seeking to persuade, or, like any good sermon, for that matter, Hebrews builds a logical, sequential argument in which each successive point is built upon the one before. In Hebrews chapters 8 and 9 the author demonstrates that Jesus Christ’s eternal high priesthood is superior to and in fact supercedes the Aaronic high priesthood of the Old Testament, and that the New Covenant initiated in His blood on the cross is superior to the Old Covenant initiated at Mt. Sinai with the blood of bulls and goats.
Chapter 10 of Hebrews builds on the arguments of its preceding chapters and demonstrates that Jesus Christ’s once-for-all, substitutionary death upon the cross was the perfect payment for the sins of the whole world; therefore, the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament--being imperfect--have been rendered obsolete. The author rests his case in the last 7 verses of our passage, Hebrews 10:1-25, with an appeal for members of the New Covenant to enjoy and exercise the privileges, as well as live up to the responsibilities, of what Christ’s death has won for us.
Chapter 10 begins, first of all, with a declaration of the utter insufficiency of the Old Testament sacrificial system to permanently rectify the breach in the relationship between God and man caused by human sin. In verses 1 through 9 the author of Hebrews describes the inadequacy of the animal sacrifices of the Levitcal system, with evidence from the sacrificial system itself and Scripture, and he holds up the prospect of a better sacrifice; that sacrifice was the voluntary death of Jesus Christ that atoned once-for-all for the sins of the world.
You must know that the Old Testament sacrificial system was instituted by God. It was grace. It provided the means for God’s people, in holy covenant with Him, to span the breach caused by sin. An animal, representing the worshipper, who had violated the law of God, would be brought to the Tabernacle or Temple, sacrificed and consumed by fire. Thus, the sin-debt was paid vicariously by the death of a substitute, and the worshipper was restored to his rightful place of privilege as heir of covenant membership. But this system of ritual animal sacrifice was never meant to be permanent, and it never was able to remedy the real problem: a human heart corrupted by sin. Listen:
1For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. 2Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. 3But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. 4For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins (Heb. 10:1-4).
Bibles scholars tell us that on Yom Kippur, the Old Testament Day of Atonement, in excess of 100,000 animals were likely slaughtered in the Temple precincts. The blood would be collected by the priests and splashed against the base of the altar. The carcass of the sheep or bull or goat would be cleaned, carved up and burnt on the altar. The blood of so many animals would run in streams through specially-built gutters flowing outside of the city of Jerusalem and empty into a brook called Kidron, and turn it crimson. Imagine the sights, the smells, and the sounds of that day. The Temple became a slaughterhouse. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to permanently fix our sin problem and restore us to intimate relationship with our creator.
These Old Testament sacrifices--and indeed the whole sacrificial system--were inadequate and insufficient. Why? From the evidence of the Old Testament sacrifices themselves: Firstly, because they were temporary. God built into this sacrificial structure planned obsolescence. It was an interim measure from the beginning. Secondly, because these animal sacrifices had to be repeated daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. If they were a permanent fix they would only have had to be done once, and then they would not be necessary anymore. But repetition proves inadequacy. And thirdly, because the point of these sacrifices was not to be a permanent solution but to remind the Israelites that the wages of sin is death; that God graciously accepts a substitute for human sin; and that one day an everlasting, once-for-all sacrifice of God’s only Son would be absolutely adequate and completely sufficient for the forgiveness of human sin. John the Baptizer cried out on the banks of the Jordan, when he saw Jesus Christ, in the words of the Agnus Dei, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!" The next bit of evidence for the insufficiency of the Old Testament sacrificial system comes from Scripture. Hebrews 10:5-9 is a quote and an explanation taken from Psalm 40. The point here is that God didn’t delight in empty sacrifices devoid of faith and repentance on the part of the sinner. Nor did He delight in animal sacrifices, where the victim was non-consenting. But Jesus came willingly, and offered Himself to death for you and me willingly. Here, in Hebrews 10, it is, "Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God." In John 10 it is,
"11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, 15as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father" (Jn. 10:11, 14, 15, 17-18).
The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. These sacrifices were inadequate and insufficient. But God--praise God--Xprovided a better sacrifice in the death of His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the second contention, verses 10-18, in this seamless and flawless argument for God’s love and grace, and our response of joy, worship, endurance and obedience to Him.
Verse 10: 10And by that will--Christ’s voluntary offering of Himself for our sins--we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.11And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when Christ„T had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,¡K. 14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Heb. 10:10-12, 14).
Why is Jesus Christ’s sacrifice superior to the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, and why did it supercede them? Because His sacrifice was pre-eminent and permanent.
Christ’s sacrifice is superior and supercedes and invalidates all other sacrifices for sin because it was once-for-all. Remember: Repetition denotes insufficiency. To keep doing something over and over and over again means that it must need to continue being done over.
This is where we have a profound disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Church holds that the Mass--the Lord’s Supper--is a repetition of Jesus’ sacrifice and its celebration actually takes away sin. Listen to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church:
[The Mass] "not only represents the Passion and death of Christ but contains it--The Mass is the sacrifice of the Cross."
"Truly, really and substantially present upon the altar under the appearance of bread and wine, Christ...offers Himself, the infinite Victim, to His Father through the ministry of His priests. This is indeed a sacrifice...in which Christ, God and man, offers to His Father an infinite...propitiation and satisfaction superabundantly sufficient for the sins of all mankind..."
Further, in session 22, canon 3 of the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church anathematizes all those who deny that the Mass is a real sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that it truly affects the forgiveness of sin, and that it is beneficial for the living and the dead.
The 16th century Protestant Reformers, appealing to Scripture alone as their sole authority, screamed in protest against this false doctrine. This doctrine of the Mass means God the Father is perpetually angry at human sin, and Jesus Christ is a perpetual victim. What does Scripture say?
9For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God (Rom. 6:9-10); 24For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; 26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:24-26); 11And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when Christ„T had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.(Heb. 10:11,12,14).
And what was our Lord’s cry from the cross? "It is finished."
No, the Lord’s Supper is a memorial meal of the onetime sacrifice of Jesus Christ that took my and your sin and guilt. The only sacrificing going on there is ours: Sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. I don’t know how many more adjectives Thomas Cranmer could’ve used to affirm and proclaim the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In his Order for Holy Communion said:
"All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world"(BCP, pg. 80).
The Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin once for all on the cross of Calvary. And God has accepted this one sacrifice for sin--eternally sufficient, completely saving those to the uttermost them that trust in it--and only this one. How do we know? The resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the proof that this once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus was acceptable. Therefore, all other sacrifices that preceded this one are fulfilled and now obsolete and unnecessary. And all others that purport to follow it denigrate it and must be abjured.
Christ’s sacrifice is better and all-sufficient because in its pre-eminence it is a finished work of redemption instead of futile works of redemption, offered over and over and over again.
But it is also superior because it is permanent. In verses 15-18 of chapter 10, the author of Hebrews quotes the promise of a future, new covenant to the people of Israel in Jeremiah chapter 31. And he says, as Jesus Himself said at the institution of the Lord’s Supper on the night before He suffered, that this New Covenant was inaugurated in Christ’s blood; that this sacrifice completely and forever does what the sacrifices of the Old Covenant could never do, namely, cleanse the conscience and soul of sin and establish the members of this New Covenant in righteousness; and therefore concludes, verse 18, "Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin."
What we who have been united to Jesus Christ by faith have became heirs to by this once-for-all, all-sufficient sacrifice for sin by our Lord is positional satisfaction and practical sanctification. Everything we will ever need to be right with God--to stand before Him and live with Him forever--was accomplished by the Cross.
So then what does this all mean? Thirdly, and finally, as the author of Hebrews switches from argumentation to admonition, in verses 19-25, it means believers in Christ have new privileges and responsibilities as members of the New Covenant.
To begin, Christians have some privileges. The first is boldness before the throne of grace, verse 19. "Confidence" is the word used. It means Christians can approach the God of the universe, not timid and afraid of wrath, but with courage and joy, assured of acceptance and a hearing. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," Paul says in Romans 8:1. Like hopeful children entering our Father’s study for conversation, comfort, consolation or companionship, we have been given access to God’s presence. Even the faintest utterance of the word "Help"¨ is heard in heaven. As Paul says in Galatians 4:
4But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 7So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir (Gal. 4:4-7).
The second privilege we have is representation before the throne. We have a "great priest," to use the language of verse 21. In the Old Covenant the priest was the mediator, or intermediary, between God and man. But Jesus is that now. Paul reminds us in I Tim. 2:5 "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." This priest is our advocate before the throne, rebutting the accusations of Satan against us and pleading his blood on our behalf. We ought to make it the foundation of our Christian walk, therefore, to be much in the presence of this advocate-in prayer, in the Word, in worship, in confession, in petition, in thanksgiving and in love and good works.
This segues nicely into the conclusion: a shift from the privileges of the recipients of this New Covenant, to the responsibilities we must live. There are four in the final four verses of our passage--verses 22, 23, 24, and 25--and all begin with the phrase "Let us."
Let us draw near to God is first. We can do that because of the positional satisfaction Christ has won for us on the cross. "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.2Through him we have obtained access„T to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God," Paul says in Romans 5:1-2. Having the President’s ear and never going in to see him would be foolish. We have access to the King of kings and Lord of lords. And we are to "draw near."
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess comes next. Hope in Scripture is not an attitude of the mere possibility of something, but the confident expectation and anticipation of its realization. Being justified by faith now means being certain of God’s acquittal at the Last Day. Not because of what we’ve done, but because of what Christ has done. Hope does not disappoint Scripture says. Christian hope is trusting in and knowing and anticipating a reality, despite its delay or seeming non-existence, just because God has said it was so. It’s looking back and seeing that God always does what He says, when He says, and that God never fails in His promises in the slightest detail. And the admonition for hope here is endurance. To keep on keeping on, despite appearances, travail or disappoint. To not quit Christ, to not give up, give out or give in.
Let us spur one another on to love and good works comes third. This is simply an appeal to the spiritual unity we possess as believers, and an admonition to use that unity for the kingdom. We are supposed to be edifying one another; that is, building each other up. Someone has cynically observed that Christianity is one of the few armies that shoot its own wounded. Don’t do that. Encourage one another. Talk about the Lord and spiritual things, not just football and auto mechanics. Be a positive infection in the church, moving others along in spiritual maturity.
And lastly, let us not forsake the regular assembling of the local church. Thomas missed seeing the first resurrection appearances of the Savior because he didn’t attending the meetings. Don’t be a Thomas. You can’t be a Lone Ranger Christian. There aren’t any. When you miss church there is a double loss: You miss us and we miss you. Besides, the regular worship of God is your obligation--you owe Him that--and your joyful privilege as ransomed believers. Not only that, but your desire to hear the word and be with other believers, according to Scripture, are sure and certain signs that your conversion is genuine.
Elsewhere the Book of Hebrews asks if we shall escape judgment if we neglect so great a salvation, accomplished in the once-for-all, eternal, all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. The question expects a negative answer. There isn’t any more. If you neglect or spurn this one, you shall not escape. You must repent and believe.
As believers we must cling to this Christ and His cross. A sacrifice so deep, so high, so wide, so all-sufficient must require our life and our all. No part-time, Sunday-only Christianity will do. Paul says it this way:
"I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (Rom. 12:1).
God, in His infinite goodness, mercy and love, brought a god--the God--on the stage, because our problem was one that only God could solve. And He solved it everlastingly and fully in the cross, because of His love for you and me.
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suff’ring and shame; And I love that old cross where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners was slain.
AMEN.
*I am indebted to David Zimmerman’s helpful expository outline of Hebrews 10, found also on this site.
