The Final Sacrifice

Introduction

Is a Christian allowed to do whatever they want? While the answer may sound obvious; no one can do whatever they want, I’m actually going to say that the answer is “yes”. A Christian not only can but must do what they really want. But before you accuse me of preaching some false gospel of abusing grace that allows you to sin all day with no consequences, please let me explain and by the end I think you will understand what I mean and have a deeper appreciation of the power of the Gospel in the lives of believers. The truth is, any so-called Gospel that gives you the freedom to sin not only misunderstands the gospel and grace, but also the very concept of freedom. Sin is not freedom, and those who sin are not free. But those who believe in a sacrifice for sins that destroys all the power it ever had are free to live how they want, and what they want is to walk closer to Christ.

What the Law Could Not Accomplish

Our text today is essentially a conclusion for the theological argument which the author has been making throughout this letter. As he is speaking to Jewish converts to Christianity who are considering a return to the synagogue and the old covenant, the author has balanced two main messages in his letter so far. One is based on similarities between the old and new covenant and the other is based differences between the two.

The differences, he tells us, are not simply qualitative. What I mean is that the new covenant is not like a new phone or car; a newer model with better features but ultimately performs the same function. I have a Google Pixel 7 with a cracked screen. Despite the existance of a Pixel 11, my phone still works and does what I need a phone to do. The new covenant is not like this. It was not simply an updated version that performs the same function, it is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises and so the old covenant is truly outdated. As we’ve seen, and will see more today, the purpose of the old covenant was always to lead to the new. Now that the new has come, the old is passing away having been fulfilled.

However, what the two covenants have in common is the consequences for abandoning them. To abandon God’s covenant is to abandon God in faithlessness and, much like the Israelites who died in the wilderness because of their unbelief, those who enter the new covenant and then fall away will never enter God’s promised, eternal rest.

In chapter 9 the author compared the blood of animals, which were effective for temporary and external washing but ineffective at cleansing a person’s conscience and inward nature. The need for a new covenant with a perfect high priest in heaven with his own perfect blood as a sacrifice becomes clear. Our text today begins by summarizing this conclusion by stateting that the Law, which means the entire old covenant, was a shadows of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities. The rituals of the old covenant were important as they expressed faith in the future realities in Christ, but they were not the realities themselves. Because this is the case, the old covenant could never accomplish what we need to have a relationship with God. That is what verse 1 here means when it says that it could “never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perrfect those who draw near.” The old covenant sacrifices were simply unable to accomplish forgiveness of sins, as we clearly see in verse 4.

So, what did the old covenant sacrifices accomplish? According to the author, it did not secure forgiveness of sins. If you’ve been following this series for the last couple of months, you may be tired of hearing it by now, but the repetition of sacrifices for atonement proved that they were not actually accomplishing reconciliation with God. Atonement is not just meant to atone for certain sins and hold you over until you sin some more and need atonement again, it is meant to reconcile you to God. If the relationship is not mended so that sinners can dwell with God permenantly and freely, than the atonement has not perfectly fulfilled its purpose.

Since the old covenant could not truly cleanse someone from their sins in a permenant and inward way, the old covenant not only fails to perfectly deal with sin, but actually does the opposite. How can this be? In verse 2, the author asks a rhetorical question which we could paraphrase to say, “if the old covenant sacrifices were able to make the worshipper perfectly pure, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered?” The implicit answer is yes. Why? Because the worshipper would have no longer had any consciousness, or awareness, of sins. Why would he or she have no awareness of sins?

An analogy might help. Imagine two people are sick. One person has some treatable but serious bacterial infection and the other person has kidney failure. The person with the infection goes to the hospital, takes antibiotics, recovers, and after some recovery goes home. The person with kidney failure goes to the hospital once a week for dialysis; so a machine can do the work that their kidneys are no longer able to accomplish. The difference between the treatment available for the two sick people is that one person is given a permenant solution, a cure, to their illness and the other is given a temporary solution which they need to come back and recieve week after week.

How these two people experience their illness is vastly different. The first goes home, moves on with life, and eventually their illness becomes a distant memoury. The second is reminded of their illness every week.

This is similar to the difference between the old and new covenants when it comes to awareness of sins. Someone in the old covenant returns, again and again, to the temple to undergo cleansing through the sacrifice. Rather than cleansing the person’s conscience, this only burdens it further because you know that, no matter how hard you try to follow God’s law, you will be back here again next year. You can never feel free from sin, you can never feel free to enter God’s presence, you are not cured because your treatement is ongoing and repetitive.

So, rather than cleansing someone’s conscience from sin, the law does the opposite; it confirms the person is a sinner and reminds them of it constantly. By its very nature, the law cannot cleanse the conscience but rather it serves as a constant reminder that you are a sinner who is unclean and unworthy of entering God’s presence.

Verse 3 says that “in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.” Rather than putting sin behind you, it brings it up repeatedly. This is the opposit of what forgiveness does. Forgiveness lets go of sin, it puts the wrongdoing behind so that reconciliation can take place. If the sacrifice that makes forgiveness possible needs to be repeated, then reconciliation never actually takes place. The sacrifice then becomes a reminder of sin rather than the solution to it. That is why “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Although they had some external, ritualistic effect under the old covenant, they could not reconcile humanity to God.

Not Sacrifices, but a Body

This moves us to verse 5 with that word therefore which should always have you looking for how the previous verse or verses connects to what you are reading now. Because of the insufficiency of animal sacrifices to bring about forgiveness, our perfect new covenant high priest must have something better to offer; something effective, permenant, and perfect. A final sacrifice.

But the author of Hebrews never bases his argument purely on his reasoning; he always goes back to the OT to prove that what he is saying was always there. The NT is not just tagged on to the Old; if it is true that the new covenant fulfills the old covenant, then we should be able to see evidence of that throughout the OT.

The author quotes Psalm 40:6-8 and, if you turn there in your Bible, you may see a bit of a problem. In the Hebrew text that was passed down to us, the Psalm says “but ears you have opened for me” but the author of Hebrews is quoting the LXX, the Greek translation of the OT commonly used by those who didn’t read Hebrew to Aramaic. It reads “but a body you have prepared for me” and that is what the author of Hebrews quotes. Thankfully, this difference does not actually change the meaning of the text at all. Again, the author is probably writing to the Jewish/Christian community in Rome and they probably used the LXX translation a lot, which is why the author uses it.

Either way, the point of this text is clear. In Psalm 40, the author is recognizing that the burnt offering under the old covenant are not good enough to know and be reconciled to God. Instead, God desires trust, faithfulness, and obedience to his instructions. Sacrifices are of no value if you are not following God in your heart. Whether we read “ears you have opened” or “a body you have given” the message remains that God has given us our faculties, our bodies and our ears, to use in the service of God. Ears emphasize listening attitude, a body emphasizes obedience. Both ideas are in the text, so the meaning is preserved.

The point is that Jesus did not come to offer the same animal sacrifices that the sinful priests of the old covenant offered. The Psalmist point that God does not delight in sacrifices without a pure heart and active obedience. This is why the the old covenant was not able to reconcile people to God. A couple of weeks ago I said that the sacrifices being offered over and over again is like saying sorry over and over again; the fact that it has to be repeated proves that forgiveness is not being experienced.

Now, if someone is saying sorry repeatedly and the relationship is not being reconciled, it means one of two things: First, it could means that the person they are apologizing to refuzes to forgive them. This is not the case with God, who eagerly desires to forgive sinners. The other option is that the person saying sorry is not really sorry; they have not ceased the activity that is harming their relationship and so reconciliation is impossible.

When it comes to sinners, we fit into the second category. Paul says that the instructions of God actually awakens sin in us. Just as the sacrifices don’t bring forgiveness, but only remembrance of out guilt, God’s instructions don’t bring obedience but rather rebelliousness because of our sinful nature. That rebellious attitude towards God’s instructions proves that we have hearts and consciences that are affected by the impurity of sin and this is what needs to be cleansed.

When Jesus came, he lived a life of purity. Not only outward purity, but purity in his heart and nature. He came, not to offer an animal that was without blemish on the outside, but a human life that was pure and holy on the inside. He offered exactly what God is looking for in his people, and by his sacrifice is able to purchase and apply an inward cleansing to God’s people.

Subdued Under His Feet

So, the contrast between the priest who offers an imperfect sacrifice repeatedly vs. the sacrifice of the Son of God in his own blood offered once is concluded by his sitting down “at the right hand of God” the Father in verses 11-12. Now, as the new federal head of humanity, he gains the right to rule over creation as the leader of God’s image bearers until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

In the ancient world, it was not uncommon for a victorious king to be pictured sitting on his throne with his feet on a pile of his subdued enemies. It symbolized his complete sovereignty and rule over all those who, at one point, had opposed him. These enemies are spiritual forces, fallen angels, false deities, and the forces they wield. The greatest of their tools is death, and in his resurrection he give death it’s killing blow. 1 Cor 15:26

1 Corinthians 15:26 ESV

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1 Corinthians 15:55 ESV

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Why does the author use such war-like language all of a sudden? He did this back in chapter 2 as well as reminds us that there are spiritual forces that use all of their power to keep humanity from being reconciled with God. Hebrews 2:14-15 says that the devil has the power death through the fear of death. This fear, we could say, comes from a guilty conscience that knows it deserves destruction. The devil is an accuser, Satan, and his accusations hit home because we are guilty and deserve death.

But when we have been cleansed permenantly and inwardly, there is nothing left to accuse. Verse 14 says that Christ has perfected those he saves with one sacrifice for all time. Perfected means that sin is finished and done with, and so the enemies of Christ have no weapons left to stop God from accomplishing his plans with his elect among humanity.

Forgiveness and Freedom

Verses 15-18 again reference the OT, attributing it to the authorship of the Holy Spirit. As he did for Psalm 95 and Psalm 110, the author of Hebrews quotes a passage before and after explaining it. In this case, he quotes again parts of Jeremiah 31:31-34. This quote focuses on the two aspects of the new covenant that are substantially different from the old.

The first, we have already explored quite thoroughly. The old covenant was unable to change the heart and conscience of the person. When God promised a new covenant, he promised to put his laws, his instructions, in their hearts and write them on their minds. In other words, those in the new covenant would have desires that allign with God’s instructions and so be able and willing to walk in God’s ways with all their hearts.

The second is that their sins would be forgiven and remembered by God no more. This implies, according to verse 18, that there would no longer be ongoing offerings for sin since forgiveness based on a perfect sacrifice removes all need for further offerings.

What we’ve seen is that these two ideas are necessarily related. Any covenant with God that is able to change the heart is one that will include forgiveness, and any covenant that includes forgiveness must also include a change of heart. Repeated sacrifices could never cleanse the heart of sinful desires or the recognition of guilt and shame in ourselves, and so forgiveness could never be accomplished that way. Christ came to cleanse us, inside and out, so that we may experience a new heart with new desires and so that we may experience true forgiveness and reconciliation with God. This was accomplished through a single offering for sins that need not be repeated because we don’t need a reminder of our sinfulness anymore, since that sinfulness has already been dealt with.

Conclusion

So, coming back to how I started this sermon with the controversial statement that a Christian may do anything they want.

What is a Christian? Biblically, it is someone in covenant with God through faith in Jesus Christ. What kind of faith? Not just faith that he exists, nor even faith that he is the Son of God, but faith that he saves us from sin. That salvation includes saving us from sinful desires and pursuits. A Christian may seccumb to moments of temptation on occasion, but their desire to is be saved from those very sins. That is why they believe in Jesus.

So, the reason a Christian may do whatever they truly want is because they truly want to follow Christ. They are changed in their hearts to desire God and his ways. True faith doesn’t just look for salvation from the guilt of sin, it desires salvation from sin. The reason a Christian can, and must, do what they really want is because what a true Christian really wants is to follow Christ. His instructions are written on their hearts. When someone, under the pretense of “free grace” lives in sin they prove that there is no true faith in them. There is no forgiveness where there is no change of heart. While the process of overcoming sin in our hearts is lifelong and there are stumblings and failings along the way, no one can have any assurance of salvation until they come to Christ with the true, Spirit-driven desire to be free from sin in every way. Free to serve God. Free to live in the Spirit. Free to approach God with a clear conscience. This is what a Christian wants in their heart of hearts, and that is what you must do.

So today, as the Scriptures command us to make our calling and election sure, search your heart. The nature of your faith determines whether it is genuine or not. How do you view sin in your life? Do you look to Jesus and long for freedom from sin in all it is, not just its consequences? Do you long for a pure heart that is free to approach God for help against temptation? Do you believe that you have that freedom in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ? What do you really long for in your heart of hearts?

Some long for an excuse to sin, a coverup or a license because “God will forgive me”. Such people have no forgiveness from God, because forgiveness comes only through a covenant that cleanses the heart from such evil intensions.

But others long for freedom from sin. They look to Christ, the shame and guilt are washed away and they enter the presence of God for help again and again for help to experience more freedom from sin, knowing they will one day enter in perfection and glory. These are justified; their sins are forgiven; no further offering is necessary.

Which of these are you?