Christ's Sacrifice Once and For All

Introduction

How many of you were ever sent to “timeout” when you were growing up? Perhaps you were acting out and your mom put you in timeout in your room. Maybe you made a serious mistake and your dad told you to go to your room. Whenever a child makes a mistake, a situation like this can unfold. Do you remember the feeling in your stomach whenever you knew that you were in trouble and you were waiting for your parents to come up to your room and discipline you? I remember this feeling well and it makes you sick. One boy knew that he was in big trouble whenever he had been caught cheating on a test at school and the teacher called his parents to inform them of the situation. The boy had broken his parents’ rule and stayed up past his bed time in order to play a new video game until 3am. Because of his excitement for this game, he had forgotten to study and because he stayed up so late, he was too sleepy to study in the morning. As a result, the boy was not prepared for his math test and he tried to copy some answers off of a girl beside him. The boy was punished by his teacher by receiving an F on his test but he was also punished at home by his parents. Which punishment do you think was worse? Of course the punishment at home by his parents. Why is this the case? Because there are some things that a teacher cannot do, regardless of what the student does, because parents can discipline in a way that teachers cannot. Parents can send their children into time out, yes, but they can also bring about more severe punishment if necessary.

This student was guilty before his teacher and his parents. He had broken rules established by both. Can you think of a time when you got caught breaking a rule? Perhaps it was a rule by a parent. Maybe it was a rule made by your boss. Maybe a rule established by the law enforcement called a speed limit - y’all have never broken the speed limit, have you? We are all guilty of breaking rules. Regardless of the rule that is broken, whether it is a white lie or stealing something, not only are we guilty of breaking an earthly rule but we are also guilty of sinning against God. See, sinning against God is our biggest problem as humans! The worst part of this problem is that we cannot solve it ourselves. You can’t just go to timeout or write an apology letter to God and everything go back to normal. Why? Because of the person you have wronged. You haven’t just wronged a teacher, parent or boss, you and I have wronged a holy God.

What we will look at this morning is that even though we have all sinned against God, there is good news because of what Jesus has done for us. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 shares, He did what we could not do as He paid the penalty that we owed in full in His sacrifice on the cross. If you are a Christian this morning, rejoice in what Jesus has done for you and continue to grow to be like Him. If you are not a Christian this morning, understand what the Bible says about your condition. You are not in a good place, you are facing the very wrath of God. The good news is that you have access to a mediator and representative in Jesus Christ - what must you do to have Him represent you? You must repent of your sins and place your trust and faith in Him and Him alone. Look to the cross! Let’s read out of Hebrews 10 this morning.

Hebrews 10:1–18 CSB

1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said: You did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. 7 Then I said, “See— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, God.” 8 After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), 9 he then says, See, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. 11 Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Our Greatest Problem (1-4)

Whenever we think of problems that we face, we often think of day to day issues. As a poor college student one problem that I often faced was having enough money to be able to go on late night Taco Bell runs and going to see movies with my friends. In college these were very legitimate problems! As we get older, though, our problems begin to change as well. Instead of Taco Bell runs we start having other issues such as paying bills and wondering where the money will come from. Finances are a significant “problem” for many people. We face other problems as well whether it be relational issues, time constraints, health situations and other things as well. To quote CS Lewis, “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin.” Time can solve a lot of problems, but nothing we do can help us from our greatest problem which is our sin before a holy God.

The Bible is clear that sin is our greatest problem and we see people try and address this problem in a variety of ways, don’t we? Some Christians try to address their sin by doing good deeds. Some attempt to make up for past mistakes by doing good deeds in hopes that they will balance out the bad with their good. Other people try to address their sin by rationalizing it. You’ve never heard anyone do this, have you? Someone is in sin and instead of acknowledging it as such they defend their sinful actions/thoughts. Others, as you see in the book of Hebrews and throughout the Old Testament, made sacrifices for their sins. Still others completely deny the existence of sin and their own sinful actions. As Spurgeon put it, “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.”

The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and Hebrews 10:1 tells us that the law is but a shadow and cannot perfect believers. If the law is a shadow, what does this tell us? That there must be a substance that makes the shadow. If the shadow cannot perfect believers, we must pray that the substance actually can forgive us of our sin because we cannot achieve God’s standard on our own.

The preacher of Hebrews notes that the sacrificial system required the people to make sacrifices each and every year. The work was never over! There are some situations that time helps us. If you are able to work and work and work then you’re going to be able to get a lot of things done. Time is an asset to us in many ways. With that said, there are somethings that not even time will help us with. Let’s suppose you earn $15 per hour at your job. How many hours do you think you’d have to work in order to make a million dollars? You’d have to work 66,667 hours! If you work 40 hours a week this would require you to work 1,666 weeks or roughly 32 years of work to earn $1 million. Let’s do this again to see how long it would take you to earn $1 billion! If you earn 15/hour this would require you to work 66 million hours. If you work 40 hours a week, this would require you to work 1.6 million weeks. This comes out to 32 thousand years of working 40 hour weeks earning minimum wage to make a billion dollars. Do you see how futile even time is in this regard?

The same principle exists with sacrifices. It doesn’t matter how many hours we have in our lifetime, it is impossible for us to sacrifice enough or do enough good works in order for us to earn our way just as there simply isn’t enough time for us to work earning minimum wage in order to become a billionaire.

Each time the Day of Atonement came about there was a reminder of the people’s sin. You come to the temple and you’re reminded that you’re a sinner. You have fallen short. You are not good enough. You didn’t do your job. As verse 4 says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. This reminder of sins remained year in and year out. You see, sin truly is the greatest problem facing humanity. It always has been and it always will be.

Sin is serious - church - thankfully the preacher of Hebrews continues with some good news.

The Greatest News (5-9)

We all like good news! Lindsey telling me that she was pregnant back in December of 2019 was good news! Gabriel being born on August 28 of 2020 was good news. After some complications with his birth and delivery and 60+ seconds of chaos in the Labor and Delivery room, hearing the nurse say that I could cut the cord and hold my little boy was good news! For a child some of the greatest words they can hear are, “It’s Christmas morning!” For a teenager some of the greatest words they can hear are, “You can go over to your friends’ house.” For adults some of the greatest news you can receive come during tax season when sometimes you find out that you’re receiving a tax refund check! Think of some good news that you’ve received recently. In these times of good and in these times where we receive needed answers, we have to remember that we have a much greater and urgent need… We need saving from our sin.

We love receiving good news and in Scripture we see the greatest news of all! Jesus Christ came, lived and died! The savior of the world has come to do God’s will and take our place on the cross. This is is the Gospel as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

The preacher of Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 in Hebrews 10:5-9 and we see that God does not take pleasure in offerings and sacrifices! How can this be? In the Old Testament God called the people to make these sacrifices and we see here that God takes no pleasure in them. Let’s unpack this a little bit. What does God want? Our obedience! What does the law show us? How disobedient we are! The law says “do” and we see time and time again that we fall short of the mark. Sacrifices are only needed whenever there is disobedience. Obviously sacrifices and offerings were not what God takes pleasure in. Rather, all the way back in Psalm 40, we see what Christ has done. What do we see from the very get go in verse 5? We see that Christ came, physically, in bodily form at His incarnation! Why was this the case and what did Jesus do while on the earth? We see that the Father prepared a body for Christ and asked Him to be the sacrifice rather than sacrificing other things. What was required of Jesus? Perfect obedience.

What is God interested in today from His people? Obedience. Many people talk about how they prayed the prayer and they’re fine. Mom and Dad are Christians so they’re a Christian too because salvation is through osmosis, or something like that. What do we see throughout the book of Hebrews and throughout the entirety of the Bible? We see that we are accountable and responsible to repent, to obey God’s Word, and to live for Him. As James says, Faith without works is dead. The opposite is also true. Works without faith are meaningless. We must have both - we must have faith in God and God commands us to obey Him. The greatest news in Psalm 40 and in Hebrews 10 is that Jesus Christ has come to do the will of the Father and in doing so He fulfills the old covenant and brings about the new covenant. Jesus, the 2nd person of the Trinity, came to the earth and humbled Himself by putting on human flesh and did what we could not do - this is good news that gets even better!

The Greatest Sacrifice (10)

Not only did Christ put on flesh, though, we see in verse 10 that Christ offered Himself as our sacrifice once for all. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we have assurance of our salvation! The preacher of Hebrews says that Christians have been sanctified through this process. Jesus offered Himself as our substitute and as a result, if you are in Christ then you are sanctified. Perhaps you’ve heard of sanctification, perhaps you haven’t. Sanctification is crucial for us to understand. We speak of salvation in 3 tenses: past, present and future. We have been saved - justified. We are being saved - sanctification. We will be saved - glorification. We’ll talk more about this in Hebrews 10:14, but in verse 10 we see that we presently are undergoing sanctification.

Sanctification simply means that we grow to be more like Christ. We don’t do this by sacrificing animals or by doing acts to get people to look at us. What are some ways that we experience sanctification today?

By reading Scripture

Through prayer

By applying God’s Word to our lives

Encouraging one another

Holding one another accountable

This is a definitive declaration in verse 10 - we have been sanctified. We are saved! But we also know that this process is progressive. We won’t figure it out overnight and that’s alright! We all have room to grow in our spiritual walk. We have to have humility and be moldable as we go about this process. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we have a daily responsibility before us to share that love and truth with others and to follow what Scripture says.

Our Greatest Hope (11-18)

So we see that Jesus sacrifices Himself and this is great news, but where is our hope right now? I don’t know about you, but there are times where this life can get us feeling in the dumps and we feel like nothing will ever work out. We feel tired. We feel exhausted. We feel depressed. We feel like the enemy is about to win the day. Friends, whenever you begin to feel these things, look no further than the cross! Why? Because of what these final few verses note. The priests of old had work to do non-stop. There was always something to be done in order for the sacrificial system to continue. Therefore the priests had work to do and their work could not take away sins. They offered the same sacrifices over and over, generation after generation and no one could be saved as a result. Do you see how this is ineffective? There must be something better! Yet, you and I both know people who try to save themselves by doing the same thing over and over. They try to save themselves with knowledge or nice works. Do you know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Some people in our world are just a little bit insane because they’re doing the same thing that humans have been doing for thousands of years - trying to save themselves - but they’re expecting it to work because there is something special about them. Church, you’re not that special. You cannot take away your own sins. Yet, Jesus Christ offers to do that for you! Look at verse 12, Christ is the priest who is not standing and at work, He is seated because His sacrifice requires no further work. He intercedes for us, certainly, but His work of atonement for our sins is completed - it’s finished!

Not only does Jesus sit down at the right hand of the Father, but we see the preacher quote from Psalm 110 and in verse 13 as a reference to Christ’s second coming. If you look back to Hebrews 9:28, you see that Christ’s second coming will be a time of judgment and a time of salvation. Whenever Jesus returns, He will come to judge and this is wonderful news for those of us who are in Christ, but if you’re not in Christ this is not a hopeful message but rather one of incoming doom! If we’re being honest, we see a straightforward truth in Scripture. If you are in Christ, you are saved. But if you are not, you are lost and an enemy of God - this is the worst possible place to be in in the entire universe! If you are not in Christ today, I beg of you, look at these verses and look at what Christ has done for sinners like you and I as Romans 5:8 shares.

To make things even better we get to verse 14 and come across one of the most beautiful verses in all of Scripture. This verse can be a little hard for some to fully grasp. For help, let’s examine the original language that the preacher of Hebrews was using: Greek. In verse 14 we see that Christ has perfected for all time those who are *being* sanctified. Let’s break this down. Does Christ come to bring about a new and improved you? A better you? Your best life now? No. He does something even better! Christ makes you perfect, legally speaking, before God. Does this mean you’re perfect right now? No! If you’re a Christian, you’re slowly being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You’re being sanctified. This is a present verb in the Greek text. This does not mean that your salvation is in question right now, rather it speaks to the present nature of salvation. We’re not in limbo right now. We’re saved and we are being worked on right now. No one has arrived as the perfect Christian, there is always room to grow.

Think of a sculpture in the Renaissance period. These sculptures took months and months of dedicated work on the part of the artist. The artist has an end goal in mind and he purchases the marble necessary for the piece. The marble belongs to the artist. The artist begins to work on this blank piece of marble and chisels away piece after piece until there are some noticeable shapes. As the process goes, the marble is still the same slab as it was when the artist began but it looks radically different than it did months ago. Why? Because the artist was at work to bring about his master plan and was chiseling away the whole time. Do you see where this is going? As Christians, we belong to God! God uses all sorts of things to make us more like Jesus Christ and to conform us to His image. Sometimes, just like a chisel, they are not fun things, but we trust that everything God does is for our ultimate good. As the weeks turn into months and the months turn into years we naturally should look different just as the sculpture looks different than the original slab of marble the artist received. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and He is at work today, friends! Remember that as Christians we are God’s workmanship and that work continues - it might not always be fun, but we trust that God has a plan and that plan is for our ultimate good as Romans 8:28 declares.

The final few verses quote from Jeremiah 31 as you see show up in Hebrews 8. We see that the New Covenant is written upon our hearts rather than on tablets of stone. We are a new creation and we are recipients of God’s amazing grace. Have you experienced God’s grace today? You woke up, didn’t you? You were able to breathe and eat some breakfast, weren’t you? This is God’s grace, church. We are so undeserving but He gives it to all of us. The greatest news of all is that He promises not to remember our sins and lawless deeds anymore. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins, but we see that the blood of Jesus washes us white as snow. His blood is so incredible that there is no longer any offering for sin. Christ, 2000 years ago, accomplished everything necessary for my salvation. Christ, 2000 years ago, accomplished everything necessary for your salvation! There is no further offering needed - Jesus paid it all. Do you know Him? Have you repented of your sins and placed your faith in Him? There is room at the cross for you - regardless of your past!

Conclusion

This passage helps illustrate how in Christ the shadow has been made into substance, the temporary has been made eternal, the imperfect has become perfect, judgment has become mercy and law has become grace. We serve a savior who is currently in heaven interceding on our behalf!

2 pieces of application as we close

Trust in Jesus

John 14:6 declares that there is one way to the Father and it’s only through Jesus Christ. There is no way that we can make it there on our own. The greatest news in the history of the universe is that Jesus Saves Sinners and our call to action is that each one of us must trust in Him as Savior and Lord.

Proclaim the Gospel Truth to Others

What message does our world need right now more than ever? The message that Jesus Saves Sinners. We’re living in a dark, confused, and divided world. Our world doesn’t need more moral platitudes. We don’t need more motivational speeches. We don’t need more self-help conferences. What we need is the truth of Scripture. We need help. We need a miracle. We need a Savior. Hebrews 10:1-18 shares with us that this is exactly who Jesus is as He who knew no sin became sin so that in Him we might inherit the righteousness of God! He came to seek and save the lost.

Because of Jesus and His work on the cross, we have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, and we know that we will be saved from the very presence of sin because we will spend eternity with our great high priest! You might’ve come to church this morning dead in your sins and all alone, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, you can leave here as an adopted child of the King. Do you know King Jesus? Have you responded to His sacrifice in repentance and faith? If not, do business with the King today.