Our Eternal Sacrifice

Hebrews 10:1-14

Shadow and Substance

Since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

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.

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), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. [1]

Multiple messages lie buried in the words of our text. I was delayed in preparing the message because I focused for a while on the issue of worship [latreuvw]. Worship, the ritual of serving God, is prominent in the text. I might have contrasted the futility of human effort compared to the receipt of divine grace. That is certainly prominent in the text. However, due to the restrictions placed upon me by the demands of time, I am compelled to focus on the primary message of the text. Christ is central to worship. He has abolished the demands of the Law, setting us free to obey God. This is the primary message presented by the text.

I spoke in a previous message of the sacrifice of Christ our Lord. The reason I am focusing on Christ—His incarnation, His sacrifice, His grace—throughout these summer months is that as a society we have been distracted from these truths. We have unwittingly turned aside from grace to pursue justification through our own efforts. The great tragedy is that we are unaware of our focus on someone other than our Saviour and Lord. We have become enamoured with secondary issues instead of focusing on Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. We have neglected holiness and righteousness and thus we discover that we are powerless before the enemy.

The writer of this letter has come to a critical point in his argument to Jewish believers. He is contrasting past practises with present reality. It is a contrast between shadow and substance. Rite and ritual of the past were but shadows of the substance of all that God has planned for those who are pleasing in His sight.

In the previous chapter of the letter, the author has spoken of the area known as “the Holy Place” that was situated both in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. This He contrasted to the work that Christ has performed in presenting His own blood as a sacrifice because of man’s sin. Christ did not appear as our Great High Priest in the earthly Holy Place, but rather He appeared in Heaven itself where He appeared on our behalf, presenting His own blood because of our sin. Now, the author is compelled by stubborn nature of mankind, to drive this point home. This is where the message begins.

Ritual and Righteousness — The Law possessed only a dim outline of the benefits Christ would bring and did not actually reproduce them. Consequently it was incapable of perfecting the souls of those who offered their regular annual sacrifices. For if it had, surely the sacrifices would have been discontinued—on the grounds that the worshippers, having been really cleansed, would have had no further consciousness of sin. In practise, however, the sacrifices amounted to an annual reminder of sins; for the blood of bulls and goats cannot really remove the guilt of sin.[2]

The writer looks back to what was surely familiar to the first readers—the rituals prescribed by the Law of Moses. Though we no longer practise those particular rituals, I fear that far too many professing Christians have learned to depend upon rituals prescribed by the various communions of Christendom.

Why do we worship? Why did the ancient Hebrews bring an annual sacrifice at Yom Kippur? Why, even in this day of grace, do multiplied thousands of Catholic priests continue to insist that they offer again and again the body of Christ in the Mass? Why, we might well ask, do countless multitudes of professing Christians insist that it is necessary to participate at the Lord’s Table, though their lives fail to reflect the presence of God’s Spirit and they are disobedient to the call of God? Why is this?

Far too often we perform the rituals associated with the Faith because we seek forgiveness instead of participating in the rites because we are forgiven. According to the text, the very fact that the ancient Hebrew worshippers repeatedly presented bulls and goats as sacrifice on the Day of Atonement was evidence that they were contaminated with sin. In similar fashion, the Catholic priests seeks to offer continually the body of Christ because he is conscious of his sinful condition. Just so, far too many professing Christians seek to participate in the rituals of the Faith because they sense their helpless condition. They know they are sinful and they long to be free to come before the Lord.

Frequently, during the years of my ministry before the Lord people have asked if they could participate at the Lord’s Table. Inevitably, when I am asked if an individual may participate, I turn the question to ask why they would wish to participate. What motivates an individual who is not part of the assembly to want to partake of the Lord’s Table? Why would someone who is not under the authority of the assembly want to observe the ordinance? Without exception, when the question has been pressed, the individual seeking to join us at the Lord’s Table has a desire to be cleansed of sin. Inevitably, they see the Meal as a means of making themselves acceptable to the Lord.

May dear people, I warn you that rite and ritual, cant and creed, are incapable of making the individual right with God. Righteousness clearly cannot come through the performance of an act of human will. The mere fact that we attempt to perform religious ceremony, the fact that we attempt to rename the ordinances by calling them sacraments, indicates that we are attempting to do what is impossible—that we believe that it is through our own efforts that we are able to please God.

Looking back, according to our text the rituals associated with the Law were able at best to dimly reveal the glory of God and only dimly could those ceremonial acts suggest His grace. They were meant to ceremonially purify those presenting the sacrifices and those bringing the offerings; they could never take away sins and they could never make the presenter righteous before God. In a similar manner, the rituals familiar within this Holy Faith are not designed to take away sin, but rather they must always serve to remind us that sin has already been taken away through Christ.

The benefits Christ has brought—the forgiveness of sin, peace with God, access to the throne of God, the joy of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the hope of Heaven—these benefits are not obtained through the observance of rituals, but rather these benefits are freely offered as we receive His sacrifice because of our sin. At issue is not some nebulous claim that we are absolved of guilt through rituals, but rather the issue is that we now celebrate the absolution that is provided through Christ. There is a difference!

What, then, was the purpose of the ceremonial aspects of the Law of Moses? Clearly, the prescribed rites pointed to the reality, but they always painfully reminded those participating that they had not yet been purified. They did this by virtue of the fact that they were repeated again and again. Had you asked an Israelite worshipping under the Law if God forgave sin, he would have answered in the affirmative. If you followed up with the question of why he performed the ritual sacrifices, he would have been compelled to confess that it was because of his consciousness of personal sin. He would attest that he longed for peace with God, that he wanted assurance that he could come into the presence of Holy God, and that he longed to know that he had an eternal home with God in His Kingdom. To ensure that he continued in a right relationship to God, he was compelled to continually provide the same offerings.

It is important that we realise that peace with God comes because we are forgiven and no longer under sentence of death. The joy attending access to the throne of God can only be muted if we have no assurance of salvation. The Word of God consistently and loudly trumpets the fact that we are forgiven in Christ and thus we are acceptable in Him.

I do not mean to imply that we will never again feel guilty. Guilt comes when we know that we are wrong. God’s Spirit convicts the Christian so that she or he will set right the wrong that is performed. Then, the child of God will again enter joyfully into the presence of the Saviour. Nevertheless, the Father forgives our sin. Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is not that God forgets our sin, but it is rather that He has dealt thoroughly and effectively with our sin so that we will never again face the consequences.

The author is more concerned, you will note, with the perfection of those who worship. The perfection he has in mind is not a flawless condition, but rather it is the state of a right relationship with God. Had the Old Testament worshippers been once for all cleansed from sin, they would have been delivered from a sense of guilt. The fact that they were required to present the same sacrifices continually was mute, though effective, evidence that they were not yet in a right relationship to God.

George Guthrie has provided insightful comments on this passage. Listen to these words and apply them in your own life. “Most religions involve some form of human ‘doing’ for God—‘sacrificing’ something to win favour with the Almighty. At the heart of Christianity stands the core truth that God has done something for us, through the sacrifice of His Son, that we could never do for ourselves. He has taken our sins out of the way, forgiven us completely, and relates to us, intimately and eternally.”[3]

Permit me to make one further comparison to demonstrate the contrast between shadow and substance, between ritual and righteousness. I am actually a very good cook. I do not often cook. The primary reason is that I am a gourmet and not a real family cook. When Lynda was taking courses to become a CDA, I cooked during the week for our family. The meals were fabulous for about a year and a half, but I nearly broke the budget. Moreover, cooking took me all afternoon.

The way I cooked was to look through a large cookbook we have called “The Encyclopaedia of Cooking.” I would thumb through the pages until I saw a picture of something that was attractive. Regardless of the ingredients required, that was what I cooked that evening. We ate like kings during that entire period—and we lived in poverty. We ate dishes that will never be reproduced in our house.

Imagine, if you will, what it would have been had I simply cut out the picture that attracted me and left it on the table each evening. However attractive the picture might have presented the food, it was no substitute for the meal. I do not prefer to read a good cookbook when I am hungry. I prefer to eat a good meal. The cookbook may be enlightening, but it is not very nourishing.

A picture of my wife is not nearly so comforting as being with her and speaking with her while I hold her hand. Pictures of my grandchildren are not nearly so enjoyable as being with them to hear their laughter and to see their happy faces.

Just so, the rituals associated with the Faith may speak of what has transpired in the heavenly realm, but they are not the reality. Our focus must be on Christ and not on the rituals that speak of His love for us. This does not depreciate the ordinances of the Faith, but rather it places them in their proper perspective.

God’s Promise of Provision for Mankind’s Sin — The writer next recites a portion from the 40th Psalm. 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.

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.’”

We are confronted with the fact that the rituals associated with the Mosaic Law were ineffectual in cleansing the conscience of sinful worshippers. Yet, years before the fulfilment God had promised freedom for those who would come to Him through the One Sacrifice He would send into the world. That One speaks in this fortieth Psalm.

What does it mean when the writer has the Messiah saying the God did not desire sacrifices and offerings and that He took no pleasure in burnt offerings and sin offerings? Didn’t God institute the sacrificial system? Indeed, God instituted the entire system of sacrifices. However, the careful reader of the Old Covenant will quickly discern that God demanded obedience before sacrifice. Sacrifice is no substitute for obedience.

Listen to these passages from Jeremiah’s prophecy and from Samuel’s challenge. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you’” [Jeremiah 7:21-23].

Likewise, Samuel is recorded as saying, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams [1 Samuel 15:22].

Before ever God commanded sacrifice, He called the people to obedience! God cannot be bought with gifts! He expects and demands covenant love, righteous behaviour and a contrite heart. In themselves, the sacrifices gave no pleasure to God. This truth is iterated elsewhere in the Old Testament.

“With what shall I come before the Lord,

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

He has told you, O man, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

[Micah 6:6-8]

One final example is David’s penitential Psalm, the 51st Psalm.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

[Psalm 51:16, 17]

Turn your attention once again to the text. The Messiah is quoted as saying that God does not seek sacrifice, and the whole of the Word unites in declaring the lack of suitability of the blood of mere animals as atonement for sin. These animal deaths were unwilling, even unconscious, sacrifices of a lower and quite different nature from what would be required by Holy God to make propitiation. This point has been emphasised in previous messages.

Nevertheless, every animal sacrificed, every bull and goat burned on Jewish altars, drove home one inescapable point—sin is serious. Every dying animal meant a life brought to an end.[4] Unless sin could actually be removed, the sinner must die. To save the sinner from this inevitable fate, a substitute must be found. That substitute must Himself be man. He must be willing to give Himself as a sacrifice. And, as we have seen in previous messages, that sacrifice must Himself be God. The author finds that substitute described as speaking the words of the Psalm quoted in the text.

The Messiah presents Himself to the Father: Behold, I have come. He purposes to fulfil the will of the Father: Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He performs a sacrifice which is foretold in detail: as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book.

Implications of Christ’s Sacrifice — After saying that God has “no pleasure in sacrifice, offering and burnt-offering” (which are made according to the Law), Christ then says, “Lo, I am come to do thy will.” That means that he is dispensing with the old order of sacrifices, and establishing a new order of obedience to the will of God, and in that will we have been made holy by the single unique offering of the body of Jesus Christ.[5]

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[2] J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English (Macmillan Co., New York, NY 1958, 1960)

[3] George H. Guthrie, The NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI 1998) 336

[4] cf. Ray C. Stedman, The IVP New Testament Commentary: Hebrews (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL 1992) 104

[5] Phillips, op. cit.