The Superior Cleansing
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever felt dirty?
Story about the sewer pipe… the sewer gutter in Nakwi...
but the kind of dirty we are talking about is not physical… it is spiritual…
With Chapter 10, we are coming to the climax of the author’s argument that Christ is superior in all ways to all that the Jewish believers had under the Old Covenant system of Judaism.
While they were being tempted to return to Judaism, likely due to family and community pressures, what Christ supplies is not only superior to the Old Covenant system, it is the only way for worshippers to be restored to a right relationship with God! The Old system could not accomplish that!
The first few verses of chapter 10 summarize the arguments of chapters 8 and 9, that as a priest superior to those who served in the tabernacle and then the temple, Christ made a sacrifice that was superior in that it actually could take away sin!
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
As we talked about last week, the sacrifices of the OT were for what kind of sins? Unintentional. Therefore, they could be forgiven for those sins, but even those sins were only covered over until the time of the true sacrifice to come, the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, Jesus. Thus they were reminders of sins.
But for intentional sins, there was no sacrifice. The sacrifices they did only reminded them of their sins that were not covered. They needed a better, a superior Sacrifice—the sacrifice of Jesus.
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”
First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.
Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
This goes back to what we spoke of a few weeks ago. The Old Covenant, which included the inferior sacrifices, had to be set aside for the New Covenant—a superior covenant that truly put us into a relationship with God where we could love Him as we ought, because he writes his laws on our hearts! He gives us new hearts and minds, and forgives our sins—all our sins—because of the superior sacrifice of Christ.
But now we are getting to the point chapter 10, the superior cleansing. Notice this last verse, Hebrews 10:10 “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Made Holy
Made Holy
By that will… God’s will. Not our own.
once for all - an adverb that is connected to the verb
made holy - perfect tense, done in the past with ongoing effect
a more literal translation… We are once for all time (never needing it to be done again) the made holy in the past with ongoing effects through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ ones.
Once for all
Once for all
Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Made perfect forever...
Made perfect forever...
Being made holy
Being made holy
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Draw near… Sprinkled and Washed
Draw near… Sprinkled and Washed
Guilt and Shame are dealt with, so that we can approach God sincerely, wholeheartedly, fully assured that we are Holy and acceptable.
Guilt - our sin
shame - association with
Shame is something we wear showing our association with something that is abhorrent, making us abhorrent.
Genesis 2:25“Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
Adam and Eve clothed with the skin of an animal…
A covering for their sin, but the shame…
Clean and Unclean...
Anyone touching a dead thing is unclean…
Lepers
“Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’
As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.
Priestly line - Leviticus 21:17–23 ““Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’ ””
“Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.
Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor.
Exodus 29:1 ““This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect.”
The Cure for Guilt and Shame
The Cure for Guilt and Shame
Made Holy
Made Holy
Sprinkled and Washed
Sprinkled and Washed
Clothed with Christ!
Clothed with Christ!