The Sacrifice of All Sacrifices

Hebrews 10:1-18

In Lord’s Day 5 of the Heidelberg, we saw how the mediator had to be a true man. The reason why is because without identification, there can be no representation. Only citizens and second-generation permanent residents - those born to permanent residents - can serve in the Singapore Armed Forces. So the mediator who reconciles God and man must be both God and man. He had to be a man in order to take the punishment for man. He had to be a man in order to be a sacrifice. But he also had to be God to bear the burden and wrath that God would put on man. Now, how do we know this? As question and answer 19 says, “From the holy gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise. Later, he had it proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets, and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. Finally, he had it fulfilled through his only Son.”

This message had always been taught - since the beginning. When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover their nakedness with aprons made of fig leaves, but God covered them with the skins of animals. For that to happen, animals had to be slain; blood had to be spilled, life had to be given to save a life. God continued to teach this truth when he instituted the temple. There were many sacrifices to explain that a substitutionary death was needed to forgive sin and many ceremonial laws on washing to symbolize the cleansing of sin. Today, we want to see how these sacrifices and ceremonies of the law pointed to the ultimate work of Christ. And this has implications to the New Testament church.

There are 3 learning points we can draw from this passage. Firstly, the Old Testament sacrificial system was version 1.0. Secondly, Christ’s sacrifice is the ultimate version. Thirdly, the perfect features of the gospel.

Firstly, the Old Testament sacrificial system was version 1.0. When you compare the first version of a software with the latest version, there’s a big difference in functions. It’s the same with the demo and full version. And so verses 1-4 teach that the Old Testament sacrifices and cleansing rituals were limited. In what ways were they limited? They were only preparatory in nature for a better system. Verse 1 says, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” The author explained that all the ceremonial laws were a shadow. Now, what were these ceremonial laws? There were laws on washing - before you come to the temple to worship God and offer your sacrifices, you must be ceremonially clean. If you touched this or that, if you handled a dead animal - maybe killing or cooking it - then you had to cleanse yourself in a certain ritual. On certain days of the month - on the new moon, you had to do this or that. On the Sabbath day, you had to do this and that. And on the religious festivals, you were required to sacrifice a lamb on Passover, blow the trumpet at Rosh Hashanah. Priests had to be sprinkled with water mixed with the ashes of a heifer.

All of these had specific meanings and significances - but they were preparatory to point to what Christ would do. They were shadows. The original word for shadow speaks about the preliminary sketch made by an artist before he adds the colors. It’s not the final product, or the very image of things. Hence, all of these things were sketches - version 1.0. I’m not a software engineer - so maybe that’s even the wrong term to use. It’s just the prototype, even before the release candidate, even before the beta version - maybe the alpha? In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul also used this term - “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” And he says throughout Colossians, don’t let anyone duped and beguiled you into doing these things again; they’re a shadow - a sketch. Their purpose was only preparatory. They were there to prepare the people for Christ. The sketch doesn’t tell the whole story - but it gives the guiding lines so that whoever looks at it can understand what the real picture will look like. They’ll have a sense. But it’s not the whole picture. It’s incomplete. No one looks at the incomplete sketches of a portrait like the Mona Lisa and marvels. But they can see where the artist is going with it. So while the ceremonial laws taught something and pointed to what Christ would do, these things don’t do what Christ can do. They were preparatory - they were a prototype.

And as the sketch or prototype, they were ineffective for the removal of sin. How do we know they were ineffective? Verse 1 tells us that they can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. They can never remove sin - proof of this is seen in the fact they were offered year by year - and not just that - they had to be offered everyday. They didn’t work. That’s why verse 2 logically says - if they had worked and cleansed the conscience, then they should’ve ceased or stopped being offered - “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” I like how the NLT says it - “If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.” You stop taking medicine if they work; but you continue to take medicine until you’re healed. The sacrifices and cleansing rituals didn’t work. And not only did they not work, they were a reminder that you still had sin! Verse 3 - “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” What a horrible institution! You bring your sacrifices to the temple for sin, but you still need to bring another next time. The High Priest, on the Day of Atonement, would offer a sin offering for the people - for all the sins they had committed in ignorance, but forgot to offer a sacrifice for, the fact that he had to offer it every year on the same day meant that they still had sin. And the reason for that was simple. Verse 4 - “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” In fact, we see clearly in the Bible that there were only sacrifices for sins committed in ignorance. As I have said previously, Numbers 15 says clearly in several places, that if any soul sins through ignorance - meaning not intentionally but by accident - then the priest can offer an atonement for the person who sins ignorantly and it shall be forgiven him. But verses 30-31 say that the soul that sins presumptuously - meaning, a high handed sin - will be cut off from God’s people because he despised the word of God and broke his commandment. This is why no animal’s blood can atone for real sin. They did not work but only were sketches or prototypes or pictures of what Christ would do. That was the only good purpose they served - to point to Christ. And even their inadequacy was good - when people knew their sins were not washed, they turned to God alone for forgiveness. God had determined that Christ alone would be the ultimate sacrifice and cleansing for sin.

That’s the second point. Christ’s sacrifice is the ultimate version. This was the sacrifice God wanted to use to atone for sin. For 1500 years, they had sacrificed an inferior sacrifice. Which was good - to point people to Christ. We see this inferiority of version 1.0 in the Old Testament itself. Verses 5-7 are a quote of the Greek version of Psalm 40:5-7. It was God’s design that sacrifices couldn’t save. That’s why Christ had to come. Somewhere in eternity past, Christ said, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” God had no pleasure in the sacrifices. Why? Because he’d rather have obedience. He wanted Adam to obey. Adam wouldn’t obey. God wanted Israel to obey. Israel wouldn’t obey. God wanted his people to obey from the heart and not because of all these laws. But the people would not. So God prepared a human body for Christ to have, so that he would come to do God’s will - to obey from the heart - and to offer up his human body as a sacrifice for the sins of the people.

Now, this sacrifice was better than the other sacrifices. It was not a eureka moment for God when he saw the ineffectiveness of the temple sacrifices. In fact, sending Christ was God’s idea from eternity past; in fact, it was Christ’s idea too - “a body thou has prepared for me.” It’s a body thou has prepared. Christ’s willing sacrifice is ultimate. God would be pleased with this sacrifice because he prepared it. God intended it from the beginning - he said to the serpent at Eden - the seed of the woman will bruise your head even though you will bruise his heel. In Isaiah, he prophesied that a virgin will conceive and bear a son. And when Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said she’d conceive Christ by the Holy Spirit. This was the design of the Trinity. It was also effective because it was the sacrifice of God. The sacrifice of this body would be the only one that gives God pleasure. Nothing else would can save. This is why question and answer 17 says that he must be true God so that he could bear the burden of God’s wrath. And it was effective because Christ was willing. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” God desired obedience. Christ gave that obedience. It’s as if Christ said - “Behold, here I am - I will do your will. I will obey, and by my sacrifice, you will be pleased!”

When animals were sacrificed, their minds and wills were not involved - or perhaps they knew and resisted. But where the animals couldn’t consent, Christ came willingly. He fully consented, designed, and submitted himself. It wasn’t just obedience, but willing obedience. Jesus made sure God got what he wanted. As a child at the temple, Jesus said to Mary - don’t you know that I must be at my Father’s business. He said many times in his ministry that his food was to do the father’s will. Sometimes it wasn’t his time and Jesus said - it’s not yet my time. But when it was, he told the disciples - the hour of my betrayal is at hand. And when Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest, Jesus asked him - why shouldn’t I drink the cup that God has given me? You see, in him dying, as verse 9 says, he established the second covenant. Verse 9 - “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” Jesus came to establish the second, or better, or ultimate covenant. This was God’s will.

And the results are amazing. Thirdly, we see the perfect features of the gospel. It was second, it was better, it was ultimate. Version 1.0 was not. But what are the features of this covenant that were better? Because of Christ, we are cleansed and forgiven. Verse 10 - “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Verse 14 - “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Animal sacrifices that pointed to Christ were only meant for sins committed in ignorance. They only cleansed the outward. Like a ritual, the blood was sprinkled on the altar and the water mixed with ashes sprinkled on the people. Hebrews 9:13 says, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:” But Christ’s sacrifice cleanses the inside - the conscience. Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” It made them clean within.

But not only is there forgiveness and cleansing, there’s a changing of the heart. We’re filled and subdued. Verse 15 says, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.” The Holy Spirit ministers to us and he convinces us that we are God’s children - that we are forgiven. That we are loved. How do you know that you are a believer? The Holy Spirit witnesses to you and convinces you. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” The reason why sacrifice was needed in the first place is because of sin. Adam was given so much, but he disobeyed God. Jesus came to obey God, and his life was taken from him - so that our hearts can be changed. That people in covenant with him will be willing to obey God. Verses 16-17 - “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” And when this was achieved, there needed to be no more sacrifices. Verse 18 - “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” We have been subdued. After Christ offered himself a sacrifice, he resurrected and ascended into heaven. There, he sits on God’s right hand, and as verse 13 says, “From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” He waits for his enemies to be subdued. If we fail to repent and trust Jesus, we remain his enemies. But Christ has defeated us; our hearts; he has subdued us by love; we are seated with him in heavenly places. But those who refuse to receive his sacrifice, they will one day be made his footstool and subdued not by his love, but by his wrath.

As question and answer 19 says, “From the holy gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise. Later, he had it proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets, and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. Finally, he had it fulfilled through his only Son.”

Dear friends and loved ones, what are the applications here? To those who have yet to believe in Christ and receive his sacrifice for your sins, you must know that either you are seated with him as his people, or you will feel his feet on your neck. Either you are subdued in your heart to serve him willingly, receiving his salvation of your souls; or you can still try to work for your salvation - and after your life time of striving, your works will still be insufficient, and he will subdue you because of your stubborn heart. But may you receive his sacrifice and say together with him, “Lo, I come to do Thy will O God.” And may this, loved ones, be the expression of our own hearts - having been saved that our submission to him would be genuine and hearty. And may it therefore be a continual reminder to us that nothing else makes us clean; no other sacrifice or work or tradition makes us clean. Your much service, your doctrinal precision, your keeping of the Sabbath, your ritual of daily devotion, and even prayer before your meals - none of these things make you right before God. But remember, if you have truly been made right, your heart has been subdued and made willing.