The Living Sacrifice
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 3 November 2024
The Apostle Paul in cultured Corinth was determined, he said, to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Here, we preach Christ crucified, the only hope of men. And that’s the theme of Hebrews 10:1-18. For this is the record from the theological standpoint, of the death of Christ. This is the depth of what His death meant, in all of its richness.
Now, the theme of Hebrews is the absolute sufficiency and superiority of Christ over all of the features and people connected with the Old Testament, that he is writing to the Hebrews. We assume the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, and so we say that it was written by the Holy Spirit, for it was. He is presenting to Jewish people the fact that they can put all of their trust in Jesus Christ.
They don’t need, even if they’re saved Jews, to hang onto the temple services, to the priesthood, to the rituals, to all of the circumstances of Judaism. And he’s also speaking to the unsaved Jew who is intellectually convinced and stands on the edge of salvation and saying, “Come on, you can put your trust in Christ, you can come from Judaism to Christianity, it will be sufficient.”
Now, as we come to Hebrews 10, He comes to the fact that Jesus’ sacrifice is better. Not only is He a better priest, not only did He secure and become the surety and the mediator of a better covenant, but He made a better sacrifice. The death of Christ became that great and final sacrifice that accomplishes for eternity what an eternity of the other sacrifices couldn’t accomplish for time.
Now, we saw in Hebrews 9 the need for a sacrifice. In Hebrews 10, we find the character of the sacrifice. Where there’s a will, there has to be a death to make the will valid. And forgiveness demanded blood in verse 22, “All things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission.” And verse 28 says, “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many believers.”
In Hebrews 10, we find the characteristics of the death of Christ, which supply all that was lacking in the old sacrifices. Some of the things in Hebrews 10 are repeats of what was in Hebrews 9 and just expanded here. Let’s look in the first six verses at the ineffectiveness of animal sacrifices. All day long the Jewish priests were engaged in bloody sacrifices, thousands upon thousands of them.
It is said at some Passover times there would be as many as 300,000 lambs slain within a week. At this time the Brook Kedron could be running with the blood of all the lambs that were being slain. And so there were sacrifices and more sacrifices. But they were ineffective. All of them had failed because they were unable to satisfy the total of God’s holy demands.
Let me give you the reasons they failed. Number one, they couldn’t bring access to God. Even the priest at his best on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, could not take the people inside the veil. The veil always remained. They couldn’t bring access to God. Verse 1, “Since the law (of the Old Testament) 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. “ And the word “perfect” means in the book of Hebrews access to God. Hebrews 7:19 says, “For the law perfected nothing, but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” Notice that in verse 1 it says the law was only a shadow and not the very image.
It was a shadow of good things to come. Now, what are they? Well, that speaks of the privileges and blessings that came through the sacrifice of Christ. And the law pictured those things. For example, when John first saw Jesus in John 1:29, he looked at Him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” Christ was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament pictures.
Colossians 2:17 says, all of the feasts and rituals, “are a shadow of things to come, but the body, or the substance, is Christ.” Access to God, security and power were really not there in the Old Testament, but they were pictured there. Shadow is probably the best translation because shadow is a form without any substance. It portrayed something that was real but itself was not that real thing.
And the Jews have also forsaken the sacrifices. They not only do not accept the final sacrifice of Christ, but they fail to continue the sacrifices of the Old Testament. They are standing in limbo between two systems and going through a ritualistic, symbolic representation of the Old Testament. The end is that mankind might come into a full relationship with God only through Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament did at least show them that their salvation was coming and that there was a form and a reality that they needed to look forward to. And it kept reminding them that God is holy and doesn’t like sin. They were constantly being reminded that the wages of sin is death because death was going on all day long throughout their history as animals were being slaughtered.
And the Old Testament animal sacrifices did not remove sin, but they just covered it. There was a removal of temporal judgment, and there was an external fellowship with God that was maintained. And the Old Testament said that anybody who despised the sacrifices was cut off. When a person reaches total sensitivity to sin is when that person turns his life over to God, if he knows the gospel.
Verse 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?” He says if it ever did bring perfection, they would’ve stopped doing it because once they arrived at perfection it would’ve been unnecessary. In other words, they wouldn’t have been burdened by the guilt of their sin.
Verse 3, “But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year.” Now, that’s exactly what was going on in Israel. They kept looking at the sacrifice and said, “Oh yeah, I’m just as sick as I’ve always been. And I’ve got to go down there again with another lamb.” All they can do is to remind a person that he’s a sinner and he’s not free to enter into God’s presence because he’s not holy.
Verse 4, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” All that the blood of bulls and goats could do would be an act of obedience that had an external significance. There is no relationship between the death and the physical blood of a dumb animal and the forgiveness of man’s moral offense against God. Only Jesus Christ, the union of humanity and deity, could satisfy God.
Verse 5-6 says, “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.” The way God invented it was all right. But the way men did it messed it up. They took something that should be real faith and they turned it into a ritual where there was no faith.
Christ’s sacrifice was so effective because, number one it was God’s will all along. God, You didn’t want sacrifices and offerings. All along You were well aware of the insufficiency of that whole system.” “But a body have You prepared for Me.” “Your ultimate plan was for My incarnation.” And the Bible says that He was God’s Lamb slain from the foundations of the world.
Verse 7, “Then I said, “See, it is written about Me in the scroll, I have come to do your will, God.” In Psalm 40:6-8, God said, “I’m sick of burnt offerings, but I’ve got another plan. I prepared a body.” This is a pre-incarnation conversation with God. And He says, “I come to do Your will, oh, God. You made a body for me, and I submit to it.” Christ is prepared to hear the will of God and be obedient.
Verse 8-9, “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.” John 1:17 says, “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” So Christ’s sacrifice was better.
Verse 10, “By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.” It was better because it sanctifies the believer, makes him holy. Could the old system make a man holy? No, it could not. You know that when Jesus died on that cross and you put your faith in Him, you became sanctified. It means you are set apart, not only positionally but practically.
It’s talking about permanence. “By which will we are sanctified.” Simply stated, you can’t lose your salvation. And, dear ones who know Christ, you shall remain positionally holy forever. Now, how are we doing practically? Paul says to the Corinthians, “You’re holy, but cleanse yourselves from all filthiness.” Practically, you’re hurting. And God’s will is that we be practically holy to match the position.
Verse 11-12, “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.” This is the complete removal of sin. The Jewish priests were always standing up because they never got done. But “Jesus sat down on the right hand of God.”
His was the position of a king. And today He’s seated in heaven for us. The sacrifice of Jesus was made once and it was effective forever. It accomplished everything it was ever intended to accomplish. And nor was there anybody who could reproduce it. It doesn’t need to be reproduced, for it removed sins forever for all who believe. Christ’s sacrifice was effective because it destroyed His enemy.
Verse 13, “He is now waiting until his enemies are made His footstool.” Do you know that all the sacrifices in the Old Testament didn’t do a thing to get rid of Satan? They had absolutely no effect on him at all nor on the godless people. But when Jesus offered Himself on the cross, He dealt a death blow to all of His enemies. Jesus destroyed Satan that had the power of death.
Verse 14, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.” And here is this same security of the believer, eternal forgiveness. He didn’t bring us into access with God until we blew it and deserved to get kicked out. “For by one offering” He brought us into God’s presence “forever.” There is no way that a believer can lose that forever forgiveness.
Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” “How shall we that are servants of Jesus Christ yield our members as servants of unrighteousness?” What do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know you’re dead to sin? If you’re really a believer, you won’t even have that desire. And so there is a permanent state of completeness in salvation brought about by one act of Jesus.
And the writer in Hebrews 10:15, begins to quote from Jeremiah 31, which is a prophecy of the new covenant. Verse 15-17 says, “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.”
That’s not on tables of stone, but right in their hearts. “And in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” That’s the new covenant promise, that it’s going to be inside, and sin’s going to be forgiven and removed. And Jeremiah was inspired by the Holy Spirit. If they accept what the Holy Spirit said, they’ll have to accept Christ and the new covenant.
If they reject Christ and the new covenant, they also reject Jeremiah and the Holy Spirit. Now, that’s a tough spot to be in because they loved Jeremiah and they believed in the Holy Spirit. And what He’s saying to them is, “You don’t need the Old Testament because the New Testament has come, and God even promised that it would come.” In the next verse, He wraps it up.
Verse 18 says, “Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” It’s forgiven. Don’t go back to the temple and make more sacrifices. It’s complete forgiveness. You just need to lean on the one sacrifice of Jesus. You say, “You mean to tell me that I can be saved tonight, without any works, by just leaning on the one perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ?” That’s right.
The sacrifice of Christ is effective forever because it fulfills God’s will. It replaces the Old Testament. It sanctifies the believer. It removes sin. It destroys the enemy. It has eternal security built into it. And it fulfills the promise for a new covenant. It’s so perfect, you can’t add anything to it. All you need to do is believe. You say, “Does God want me to do that?” Yes, He does.
In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter said, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God has revealed this glorious revelation in Christ for you, that you might come to Christ and have your sins forgiven. It’s a glorious and a perfect salvation. Let’s pray.