Have you ever been in a contract dispute? Maybe charges got put on your account that you feel aren’t yours or aren’t fair. I had a situation recently with an agreement that I signed an extension on - and the other party and I discussed the changes and then I signed the document I received. Little did I know that there was a huge hidden fee that wasn’t disclosed in the negotiations. Ouch! It’d have been nice if I had that contract wired into my brain so I would have known of that clause before I signed the contract!
That’s the way it is with trying to please God. He gave us His Law and said to obey it. We go on thinking we’re doing pretty well and then Whamo! We get hit with a sin we committed and suddenly we owe God again. So we get back on our knees and beg God’s forgiveness and get up and dust ourselves off and promise to try harder next time.
The problem with that way of thinking is that it creates a yoyo approach to our relationship with God. One day we’re close - then we sin and we’re far away - etc. The Hebrews needed some reminding of that yoyo approach - because that’s the way their old system of animal sacrifices worked. Instead God wants them to fully take hold of a new way - a way of hard-wiring His Law in our hearts, and counting on someone else’s obedience to please God always on our behalf.
You can’t have it both ways though - you can’t rely on yourself to be pleasing to God and rely on your relationship with Jesus. It’s one or the other - and that’s the gist of chapter 10. It’s broken up into a series of 7 paragraphs - which I’ll sum up with 7 statements about our relationship to God.
1. Animal sacrifice cannot take away sin, it only reminds us of it
2. Its obedience, not sacrifice that wins God’s approval
3. Jesus made one offering for all time
4. Obedience hard-wired into the believer
5. Don’t feel guilty - but draw near by His faithfulness
6. If you spurn His salvation, He will spurn you
7. Look to the reward coming, not the hardship now
Verses 1 - 4 Animal sacrifices cannot take away sin, they only remind us of it.
1 For 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 that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Do you ever test out a new computer program? Sometimes software companies will let you use a trial version while you decide whether to buy. These trial versions sometimes have partial functionality, and sometimes have these little reminder screens come up that tell you "please register." I had a trial program once that every time the little message stayed on the screen longer and longer until I was so bugged by it that I paid the fee just to get rid of the message!
In a way, trying to please God through our own efforts - or through the Jewish sacrificial system was like using a trial version of God’s salvation software. The animal sacrifices couldn’t really be "saved" - the program wasn’t fully functional. In fact, every time they used it, it was like a reminder screen saying "you haven’t paid for your sins." But the Jews really focused on those sacrifices - and the Hebrews were thinking it was really a pretty good way to go - because it is tangible - just like our external obedience as a way to please God is tangible. But God had something better in mind - but something far more difficult:
Verses 5 - 10 It’s obedience, not sacrifice that wins God’s approval
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, ’Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’"
8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The quote is from Psalm 40:6-8. The Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) differs from the Hebrew in Psalm 40 which actually said "ears you have dug for me" or "an open ear you have prepared for me."
But despite the translation differences - the point here is that God never takes pleasure in us sacrificing for him. What He takes pleasure in is obedience.
Exodus 19:5 if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine ESV
Obedience was always what God wanted. Sacrifices came about because we can’t obey God. They point the way to Jesus and remind us that we are still in need of a sacrifice. The problem today is that many Christians still think their efforts at being "good" count. They don’t. You can’t please God. You can’t obey God. Only Jesus can do that.
Verses 11 - 14 One offering for all time
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Look at this - "by a single offering he has perfected for all time." The word "perfect" in Greek means "to complete." Jesus completes what is lacking in us - and not just once but "for all time." Stop trying to make yourself perfect. Stop striving. Now of course I don’t mean purposefully go out and sin - obviously not. But the opposite - making up or reading a list of commands also will not work. It’s not external - it’s internal.
Verses 15 - 18a Obedience hard-wired into the believer
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
This comes from Jeremiah 31 (verses 33-34). We also saw this in chapter 8. In Christ you have undergone a heart transplant. This new heart has software built into it that obeys God and pleases God - it’s like buying a computer with a bunch of very useful software pre-bundled. Amazing! As for our sin? God has forgiven and God has forgotten.
Micah 7:19 You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ESV
So what should our response be? How often do you castigate yourselves for a sin already confessed? Stop it!
Verses 18b - 25 Don’t feel guilty - but draw near by His faithfulness
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Jesus flesh was the curtain that separated the heavenly holy place from the Holy of Holies. Until His flesh was torn on the cross, we could not go through. But if we travel through His flesh - His blood - we can enter God’s presence - forgiven, washed, sins taken away forever, perfected for all time.
Come to God then with confidence, not guilt - with joy, not sorrow. Maybe it was that guilt that caused some to simply stop - stop serving, and stop worshipping. Do you know those who have been burned by the church or laden down with guilt and so they can’t face other believers? It happens - and it’s a shame.
When believers are separated they can be attacked with guilt from the accuser of the brethren - Lucifer. But when we come together it shouldn’t be to make each other feel bad, but to celebrate the good that Jesus has done for us and is doing in us.
And this is ever so much truer as the day of the Lord’s return draws near. The Lord wants to find His people in active relationship with Him and with each other. His Law can be summed up in four words: Love God, love others. The more active we are with other members of our family, the more we can encourage each other to stick with it.
But instead - if after hearing the gospel, someone decides to spurn the whole idea - then God will have nothing to do with you.
Verses 26 - 31 If you spurn His salvation, He will spurn you
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
At the foot of Mt Sinai the Israelites trembled with fear when the Lord spoke to them. They were warned that to even touch the base of the mountain where God was on the summit was a death sentence. God is dangerous and no one can survive in His presence if they are not holy.
If like the Hebrews were contemplating - you have knowledge of the truth and ignore it thinking something better will come along then all you have to look forward to is God’s eternal judgment. You are culpable and responsible for that knowledge.
Now there are three possibilities for how we treat verses 26-31. Either it says that once saved, a person can lose his salvation if he turns away from God. Or it’s saying that if you have not made a full commitment to God through Jesus and want to get a second opinion - turning away means turning away from salvation. Or it may simply be hypothetical - the real point is that the Hebrews lacked confidence in Christ - and so the author is highlighting to them that if they lack confidence in salvation through Jesus then they can be confident in the judgment of God against those who reject His Son.
And then he reminds them of their own attitude early in their experience with the church:
Verses 32 - 39 Look to the reward coming, not the hardship now
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
"Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. ESV
So the author may be saying to them - your faith really is genuine - and I can prove it by how you reacted to persecution early on. You endured a hard struggle before - the struggle was worth it then and it’s worth it now because of what awaits you - a reward. You aren’t of those who are repelled from giving their lives to Jesus - you are real believers! He knew it - they just were not convinced.
Do you have times of doubting your own salvation? Maybe you don’t feel worthy - maybe you look around at the trials you’ve gone through and wonder if it was really worth it.
It is. Turn to Revelation 7:15. This describes a group of people who will undergo difficulty the likes of which none of us have seen - being put to death for their faith in Jesus Christ. And God’s promises to them are also to us:
Revelation 7:15-17 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." ESV
Not only will God wipe away the effects of the bad, He will give us crowns, and rest, and joy, and healing food.
Conclusions
Do you relive past sins? God doesn’t.
Verse 1 tells us that repeated sacrifices never make us perfect - and never achieve the obedience that God really wanted anyway. Our problem is that we are more harsh on ourselves than God is. It is natural for us to want to be punished for sin. We want to do penance. We want God to take out the whip. Don’t get me wrong - we deserve the full extent of God’s judgment for our sins - and that judgment is more severe than you can ever imagine. But since Jesus bore that judgment for you - you are free - free from sin, and free from guilt. Have short accounts with God - when you blow it, and you will, repent, confess, and rejoice! Then be open to God’s discipline as He hones His character in you and transforms you into His image.
God’s Law has been hard-wired into you - but do you access that program?
I have this thing that every once in a while pops up on my computer "Unused icons on your desktop." The computer wants to remove some stuff I don’t use very much. Is God’s Word an unused icon on the desktop of your heart? Don’t ignore that message when God pops it into your brain - meditate this week on how He has changed your character - and if you can’t find any ways - then perhaps you need to spend more time with Him and His Word - or perhaps re-think your commitment. Have you really given your heart to Him?
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