The Ultimate Fulfillment: Christ, the Perfect Sacrifice

Introduction

We continue right where we left off last week. Jesus is the perfect mediator of the new better covenant that brings about better promises. His death redeems us from all sin, once and for all. And we are called into that covenant by God’s choosing and not by merit. After all, if we could have achieved peace with God on our own merit, another covenant, a change in priesthood, or better yet the death of the Son of glory would not have been necessary. But now, under this new covenant, we receive an inheritance we did not earn, that is, eternal life with God.

Now the author begins to explain that the law and the sacrificial system point to Jesus and that we can be confident of our forgiveness because Jesus’ sacrifice, unlike the sacrifice of animals is absolutely perfect. We will examine how the author unpacks this theological reality in three movements:

I. Christ Is the Mediator of a Better Covenant (9:15-22)

II. Christ’s Sacrifice is Once for All (vv. 23-28)

III. Christ’s Sacrifice Perfects the Believer (10:1-18)

I. Christ Is the Mediator of a Better Covenant (9:15-22)

The author continues his argument that Christ’s ministry is superior and surpasses that of the old covenant. He does this in verse 15 identifying Jesus as the mediator of this covenant standing between God and humanity to establish this covenant which did not come cheap. It required a death and not just any death. It required a death of sufficient value to truly redeem. His death is so immeasurably valued that it’s merits are even retroactive covering all of the sins committed under the old covenant. And it also reaches forward by covering all of our sins yet to be committed because we were not born yet. Do you see why this is better?

In vs 16-17 the author offers a legal analogy: in order for a will or a testament to take effect, the one who made it has to die. That is why the parable of the Prodigal Son was so shocking because the unscrupulous son was asking for his inheritance or what the father had willed to him before his father’s death, in essence saying “I which you dead.” At any rate, the death of Christ had to happen in order for the new covenant to be enacted. No different than the first covenant which also required death.

Hebrews 9:18–19 LSB

18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

Hebrews 9:22 LSB

22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

God has always made it clear that sin demands death:

Genesis 2:17 LSB

17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

And although Adam did not die immediately, the process of aging unto death started. And an animal was sacrificed on his behalf to atone for his sin.

Genesis 3:21 LSB

21 Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

Animals first lost their lives when man sinned:

“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)

Blood is not just a symbol—it represents life poured out in judgment. Under the old covenant, the blood of bulls and goats could symbolize atonement,

Leviticus 17:11 LSB

11 ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.’

But the author argues that it could not completely accomplish that. (Heb. 10:4). That’s why the new covenant needed a better sacrifice and a better mediator. Jesus did not bring His offering to an earthly tabernacle made by hands—He offered Himself before the throne of God. He mediates a covenant that actually redeems.

Think of an old warranty plan on a used car. It covers the basics, but not the real issues. And once you hit a certain mileage, you’re on your own. The new covenant is like a full lifetime warranty on a brand-new vehicle—no fine print, no expiration. And Jesus Himself is the one who purchased the coverage with His own blood.

In a nutshell, Christ is the better mediator, his sacrifice is once for all. And now, the author begins to build the case that repeated rituals are not only unnecessary—but insufficient compared to Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice.

II. Christ’s Sacrifice Is Once for All (vv. 23-28)

The author, in these verses continues to harp on the fact that the earthly tabernacle and its rituals were merely shadows, copies of the real thing:

Hebrews 9:23 LSB

23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

The these refer to the blood of animals. But the real tabernacle in the heavenlies required something better, that is the spotless Lamb of God

Christ was appointed as High Priest of the NC to represent sinful people in heaven itself, that is, in the actual presence of God, not in a symbolic presence of God:

Acts 7:48–50 LSB

48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is the footstool of My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My rest? 50 ‘Was it not My hand which made all these things?’

The actual presence required an actual sacrifice not the representation of one. And because this sacrifice, His sacrifice was THE sacrifice, once was sufficient to accomplish all that needed to be accomplished. The old priesthood in the old covenant could not accomplish that. They were simply paying the sin debt with credit cards, enough to keep the creditors at bay for a season. But the ultimate bill was still due. Every year the priest made the minimum payment of the debt which continued to accrued interest. You get the analogy right. Had Jesus come in the form of the old priesthood:

Hebrews 9:26 LSB

26 … He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Consider the implication of this verse: Jesus’s coming is the climax of history—the “consummation of the ages.” That means everything prior was leading up to this point, and everything after is shaped by it. He came to “put away sin,” not just symbolically but actually. It is no accident that history is divided en BC and AD right at the point of His coming.

But then the author adds this complementary notion:

Hebrews 9:26–27 LSB

26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

The same way we die once and then the judgement, Christ died once and satisfied the judgment and so when he returns, there will be no talk of sin for those who are in Him

1 Peter 3:18 LSB

18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Titus 2:13 LSB

13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Application:

The old sacrificial system could never stop. It had to be repeated year after year because it never truly cleansed the conscience or perfected the worshiper. Jesus, by contrast, brought the entire system to fulfillment with His once-for-all sacrifice. No more goats. No more bulls. No more sprinkling. The work is finished.

When you’re tempted to doubt your salvation, or when you feel unworthy, or when your sin feels too great you will do well to remember this: He doesn’t need to die again. His one death already paid for your worst sin. His blood already covers your past, present, and future.

If Christ’s sacrifice was once for all—and it was—then what does that mean for us now? The final movement of the author’s argument brings the answer: it perfects the believer. That’s where we’ll go next.

III. Christ’s Sacrifice Perfects the Believer (10:1-18)

The author continues to sound like a broken record:

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things…”(10:1)

For the last few weeks we have been hearing the same concept, the law, the old covenant, the rituals, the Sabbaths, they were only a shadow, they were copies, they were symbols, they were not an end unto themselves but they were pointing to someone who would be the consummation of all these things. his teaching is absolutely redundant. Why does he do this? He told us in chapter 5:11-12

“… you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you…” (5:11-12)

The author is frustrated because the readers should be more spiritually mature, yet they need elementary truths repeated to them — especially regarding:

Christ’s superiority to Moses, Aaron, and Melchizedek

The sacrificial system being incomplete and symbolic

The law being a shadow, not the substance.

The law repels, the gospel attracts. The law shows the distance which there is between God and man; the gospel bridges that awful chasm, and brings the sinner across it.

Charles Spurgeon

He doesn’t just repeat these ideas — he presses them from every angle: typology, prophecy, contrast, fulfillment, priesthood, covenant, sanctuary, blood, and rest. It’s the most extensive theological treatment of these themes in the New Testament. But this is the nature of who these people have always been:

Exodus 32:9 LSB

9 And Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

Deuteronomy 9:6 LSB

6 “So you shall know it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Acts 7:51 LSB

51 “You men—stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears—are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

But before you turn up your noses at these people examine yourselves and see that the same tendencies exist right here and right now… forever learning and never understanding, forever receiving yet still not changing.

Some of us are still holding on to things that have absolutely no eternal value. So for their sake and for ours, the author repeats the same things over and over again.,

So, to his readers he says again that the repeated yearly ritual could not provide perfect cleansing for sin. He says:

Hebrews 10:2–4 LSB

2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

In other words, if these old rituals could have provided perfect cleansing, then the sacrifices would have stopped. The worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their guilt would have disappeared.

But instead those sacrifices like the minimum payments on a ridiculous credit card bill are a reminder that you owe that which you cannot pay. Every 30 days I write the biggest check of all my bills, a constant reminder that the house I say I own, I do not own it, the bank does.

It was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin in the same way it is impossible for me to pay off an outrageous balance on a credit card with a 36% APR by making the minimum payments. Imagine trying to do that while still using the card for more purchases every day. The people kept sinning, and the debt kept growing. The sacrifices were like minimum payments—just enough to push the due date further, but never enough to eliminate the debt. The sacrifices could never catch up to the weight of human sinfulness. This is unsustainable, it is illogical. And that’s the point: God never designed the old system to pay off the debt—it was meant to expose the need for a better solution.Christianity is about reasoning, that is why God says in Isaiah 1:18 Come let us reason together.

At any rate, faced with the dilemma of an unplayable debt, the author explains:

Hebrews 10:5–7 LSB

5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But a body You have prepared for Me; 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. 7 “Then I Said, ‘Behold, I have come, In the scroll of the book it is written of Me, To do Your will, O God.’”

The author quotes from Ps 40 and applies the logic. Minimum payments is not what you have desired, but a payment in full. So then Jesus, our High Priest, the King of Glory, the Bright and Morning Star, the Great I Am, the Bread of Life, the Great Shepherd, the Alpha and the Omega, the Radiance of God’s glory says,

“…BEHOLD, I HAVE COME…TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD” (v.7)

And what was that? To make one payment and cancel the debt. You know how we say, “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket?” well, you want to put all of your eggs in this basket because if you do not, you will lose them all.

Not only did he pay your insane credit card debt but he has prevented you from accumulating debt again. Took your credit card, cut it in half and promised to supply for all of your needs according to His riches in heaven, so you have no need to make purchases

The song writer says, “All I have needed Thy hand has provided, great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me” So the author says:

Hebrews 10:14 LSB

14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 10:18 LSB

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Think of someone who has just been declared legally innocent in court—case dismissed, no more hearings. But then imagine them still living like they’re on trial, still trying to prove their innocence, still carrying guilt they no longer owe. That’s how many Christians live. They forget that Christ sat down. There’s no court date ahead—there’s only assurance and peace.

If you truly belong to Him, the only work that is ongoing is the perfection of your character, where your inner disposition is being made to match your spiritual reality, that is, that you have been declared righteous.