The Perfect Offering

The Perfect Offering

Text: Hebrews 10:5-10 Key Verse: John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

I. The Search for the Perfect Gift

Illustration: Have you ever found yourself searching for the perfect gift during the Christmas season? Perhaps you wandered store aisles or scrolled through endless online options, hoping to find something meaningful, something that says "I care." Yet, no matter what you find, it often feels like it’s just not enough.

This quest for the perfect gift mirrors humanity’s search for reconciliation with God. For centuries, under the Old Covenant, sacrifices were offered repeatedly, but they could never truly take away sin. They were insufficient. What we needed was not just any gift, but the perfect offering. Hebrews 10:5-10 reveals the fulfillment of this longing in Jesus Christ, whose coming we celebrate during Advent.

II. The Insufficiency of the Old Covenant (v. 5-6)

Hebrews 10:5–6 (ESV)

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

The Law spells out that when a person committed sin, there has to be an atonement. Shedding of blood, if the person did not die for there sin, then they were to take an offering, usually a lamb perfect and without blemish. Take it to the priest, who would pray over it, kill it and pouring out its blood on the altar. Repeatedly through scripture it is repeated “God desires mercy not sacrifice.” Here in Hebrews it outs it this way that God is not desiring the death of animals just to cover sin as it says here in Hebrews10:4

Hebrews 10:4 ESV

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Instead it says a body you have prepared for me. We know that this body that we live in is a vessel that is bound for destruction, death and ultimately the grave. Yet while we are in this body we are called to the service of the Lord, for he has given a better body His body and blood shed and broken for us on the cross. To this as well we are then in the body, the one true Church as we confess in our creed and I have to clarify it is not just this church the body here, but all true believers across time and distance. This is where we are called.

We see then in our own lives, we often attempt to "sacrifice" things to earn God's favor—good works, religious rituals, or moral efforts. But none of these can truly reconcile us to God.

III. The Obedience of Christ (v. 7-9)

Hebrews 10:7–8 (ESV)

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.’ ” 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),

Hebrews 10:9 ESV

then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

This is where we need to pay attention in this advent season, when we look at what Jesus came to do here on earth. Then not only what did he do, but what is he coming back to do?

Quoting Psalm 40:6-8, the author reveals that Jesus came with a mission: to do the will of God. Unlike the sacrifices of animals, which were offered out of obligation, Jesus’ obedience was perfect and voluntary. His coming fulfilled God’s redemptive plan. By dying the death we deserved he was able to deal with sin a way that the mere blood of animals could never do. With Jesus atoning sacrifice Jesus dealt the final blow to sin and hell.

Jesus declared in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” His life was marked by submission to the Father’s will, culminating in His death on the cross. Philippians 2:8 says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The finality of the cross we see, it is clear, yet we still struggle for faith is still necessary, belief is still the key to grace, for the devil is still at large trying to deceive trying to draw us away, trying to twist God’s truth, and so we still find it a struggle in this mortal body knowing we are saved by grace through faith and yet we still sin. Romans 7 reminds of this truth

Romans 7:14–15 ESV

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Romans 7:16–17 ESV

Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Romans 7:18–20 ESV

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Romans 7:21–23 ESV

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Romans 7:24–25 ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Jesus dealt the final blow to sin and yet is coming back for the finality of it all. Hebrews 9:28

Hebrews 9:28 ESV

so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

IV. The Perfect Offering (v. 10)

Hebrews 10:10 ESV

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Here is where we have the tough teaching of sanctification, and it is simply what we just read from Romans 7 it is that struggle that we deal with in this mortal body, this sinful body that is dying away, while inwardly we are being sanctified. As the gospel changes us, as we struggle to deal with sin, as we confess our sins, and most of all as we learn to trust God more and more for our every need, we are being poured out and becoming more like him. Again we see though it is not even something we do, but God continually working in the gospel of Jesus through his death, burial and resurrection we are reminded daily of the cost it took to deal with our sin. That is should have been us hanging there on the cross, but it wasn’t it was Jesus. A body prepared for you and offering once for all.

VI. The Gift We Couldn’t Give

This advent season as we come towards the coming of Jesus, as this small a baby in a manager we know that it is more than just looking back to this event but also a looking forward to his ultimate return. He came the first time in the humblest of conditions, born in a manger to a virgin, where angels heralded his birth to the shepherds keeping there flocks, where a star guided the wisemen and in thee joy of a son being born it was overshadowed by the cross. Today now the cross stands as the victory won, a body given for you, his blood shed for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins. You have found the perfect gift and it has been given to you in faith.

Come take and eat, take and drink for in it is found eternal life, and when Jesus returns, when every knee bows we will see our redemption drawing near and know that eternity is near as the day when we first believed. Amen