THE OFFERINGS ARE COMPLETED – Hebrews 10:1-18
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 23, 2015 under PM Bible Study |
PM Home Bible Study Group; September 23, 2015
Hebrews 10:1-18
Theme: The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is a one-time offering that satisfies the need for the Old Covenant sacrifices for sin.
All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated.
The theme of this epistle has been the sufficiency of Jesus as our complete offering for sin; and the practical result of it is to accept fully the invitation we find in Hebrews 10:22 with respect to God; “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Everything that the Levitical priesthood and offerings of the Old Covenant only partially did in making us holy before God is now completely perfected in Christ; and we are free in Him to enter into full, confident fellowship with God.
That’s wonderful news. But the Jewish believers to whom the writer penned this letter needed to be assured of it. And not only they, but we today from among the Gentiles who approach God through faith in Jesus need to be assured of it too. Without that full assurance, we may be tempted to hold back because of our own short-fallenness before God, or because we feel that we have not yet “done enough” to “earn” such a right. The full enjoyment of our salvation in Jesus truly depends on our believing the proposition that is set before us in the verses that precede that great invitation—that the need that was dealt with in the Old Covenant offerings is now completely met in Christ; and that the offerings are no longer needed because their purpose is completed in His one offering on our behalf.
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It’s hard to imagine better news that is given to us in this passage. To appreciate it, we must carefully follow the divinely inspired writer’s flow of thought. So, note first how he shows us that . . .
I. THE OLD COVENANT SACRIFICES COULD NOT PERFECT THOSE WHO OFFERED THEM (vv. 1-4).
A. After having asserted the perfect nature of the single sacrifice of Jesus for us (see 9:27-28), he begins in Chapter 10 by saying, “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect” (v. 1). An artist might perk up at these words, because they are put in her or his kind of language. The word for “shadow” in this context (skia) speaks of a faint outline of something. When an artist creates and image, she or he begins with a faint under-drawing—something in chalk or pencil sketched on the canvas that simply suggests the basic form of the finished project. Such an artist would never want that under-drawing to be put on display as if it were the finished product. It only ‘hints’ at what that finished project will be. But the word for “image” (eikōn) speaks of the “image” or “form” of a thing. It would be the finished piece of art that the artist is intending to produce. And that’s what the Old Covenant offerings and sacrifices were. They were not the very “image” of the good things to come in the New Covenant; but they weren’t exactly unrelated to that image either. They were, if you will, the “under-drawing”—the faint sketch—of what that final product would be. The offerings pointed to the one great offering of Christ. They were a constant reminder of it, because they were offered year by year. But the offering of them could not actually make those who approached God perfect; because that would only be accomplished by Christ.
B. That those offerings are only the “shadow” of what Christ would accomplish—and that they themselves could not perfect the offerer before God—is seen in what the writer says next; “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins” (v. 2). If those Old Covenant offerings were actually able to perfect the one offering them, then there would be no further need for them to be offered again. “But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year” (v. 3). Every annual Day of Atonement would have been a declaration that sins remained; and the anticipation of that day would constantly stir up a guilty conscience before a holy God. And this is because of what the writer then says; “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (v. 4). The blood of such things was never intended to take away sins; but rather it was to simply serve as the “shadow” of that one great offering that would indeed take sins away and perfect those who trusted in it; “for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” (Hebrews 7:19).
C. We might ask what purposed was served by those Old Covenant offerings? Though it speak in a different context, a passage from the apostle Paul might help us to see that those Old Testament offerings were a part of God’s great “schooling” that drove us to Jesus. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:19-25;
What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:19-25).
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So then; it was never the purpose of those Old Covenant offerings to make us perfect. They were simply the “shadow” that pointed us toward the “image” of good things to come through Christ. The writer then tells us how . . .
II. JESUS CAME TO TAKE AWAY THE FIRST COVENANT AND ESTABLISH THE SECOND (vv. 5-10).
A. He points back to Psalm 40:6-8—a psalm the words of which he attributes to Christ Himself—and writes;
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God’” (Hebrews 10:5-7).
Note how he describes Christ as not being of this world, but as being the one who “came into the world”. He was born into humanity as one of us, but as the Son of God who took on human flesh—born without the agency of man; born without the taint of the sin of Adam. And note that it was in a “body” that God prepared for Him. In Psalm 40:6, it uses the phrase, “My ears You have opened”; and the quote of the writer of Hebrews as “a body You have prepared for Me” is perhaps best understood as an interpretive paraphrase. It’s a figure of speech that the commentator F.F. Bruce described in this way: ”the hollowing out of the ears is part of the total work of fashioning a human body” (The Epistle to The Hebrews, NICTNT, p. 232). What a description of the incarnation! And what a wonder that we’re told that this is the testimony of Jesus Himself!
B. The writer explains the implications of this quote by saying, “Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second” (vv. 8-9). In other words, the offerings of the Old Covenant were not God’s ultimate desire. He did not intend that people would forever have to offer the blood of bulls and goats for their sins. He only meant for those things to be the “shadow” of the reality that Christ would bring about. And it was that one great offering of Christ on the cross under the New Covenant—in the body that God prepared for Him—that was the will of God all along.
C. And it was that one great sacrifice that has completely done the job for us. As the writer says; “By that will [that is, by the will of God expressed in the New Covenant realities through Christ] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (v. 10). To be “sanctified” here means “made holy”—truly set apart unto God for acceptance into His presence forever.
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What a difference this is! The Old Covenant offerings needed to be repeated during their time; and by this fact, they demonstrated that they could not do the job of making the worshiper righteous! But as the writer goes on to show us . . .
III. BY JESUS’ ONE OFFERING, WE ARE PERFECTED BEFORE GOD FOREVER (vv. 11-14).
A. He writes; “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (v. 11). Previously, he described how this was done by the priests once a year on the Day of Atonement (v. 1). But now, he points out to the reader how even the everyday offerings—and the daily ministering of the priests—served as a continual reminder of the imperfection of those Old Covenant offerings. Note the fact that the priest had to continually “stand”. There was no “sitting down” in the Old Covenant priestly service—as if the work had been completed. God did not ordain “chairs” as part of the furnishing of the earthly tabernacle. You might hear an Old Testament Levitical priest sigh each time he saw a sinner come to the tabernacle; and say, “A priest’s work is never done—!” And he would be right; because in that old system, perfection before God could never happen. The offerings and sacrifices could never take away sins.
B. And it’s then that he speaks of Christ and says; “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (vv. 12-14). Note that unlike the priesthood of old, Jesus “sat”. In Hebrews 1:3, we’re told that “when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” And Hebrews 12:2 encourages us to be “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” To sit at the right hand of God means that God Himself is satisfied with our Savior’s work. Note also that we’re told that He sat in anticipation of His enemies being made His footstool. This is taken from the beginning of Psalm 110—which speaks of Jesus’ messianic reign (see also Hebrews 1:13). His offering for our sin leads to His victory over all; just as is told to us in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28;
Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
This may be the writer’s way of anticipating the strong exhortation he later gives against continuing to sin in the light of such an offering, or against drawing back from Christ unto the destruction of the soul (see Hebrews 10:26-39). By this one sacrifice Jesus truly has perfect forever (in an eternal sense) “all those who are being sanctified” (in a present sense). But there is no other offering. Therefore, we must embrace the once-for-all sacrifice Jesus has made for us. To go back to the Old Covenant offerings would be to rebel against God and to put one’s self under the threat of judgment for sin!
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And we can safely give ourselves fully to Christ; because after showing us the perfection of the one sacrifice of Jesus for us, the writer shows us that . . .
IV. THE RESULT IS THAT OUR SINS ARE REMEMBERED AGAINST US NO MORE (vv. 15-18).
A. The writer again quotes from the Old Testament—this time from Jeremiah 31:31-34, from which he had quoted before (see Hebrews 8:7-12). But this time, he attributes these words to the Holy Spirit; saying, “But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more’” (vv, 15-17). What a glorious promise! Our sins are remembered against us no more—meaning that they are not counted against us. When the Father looks upon us, He sees the righteousness of His Son. He never counts our sins against us again.
B. This means then that the offerings are over! As the writer asserts, “Now where there is remission of these [that is, the forgiveness of sins], there is no longer an offering for sin” (v. 18). To continue to offer for them is not only an insult to the sufficiency of Christ, it is also utterly unnecessary.
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Praise God for a complete salvation! We can now accept the invitation:
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22).
