Christ Once-for-All Sacrifice
Study Scripture: Hebrews 9:23 – 10:4, 11 – 14, 19 – 25
Background Scripture: Hebrews 9:23 – 10:25
Lesson 6 April 5, 2025
Key Verse
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:.
Hebrews 9:24
INTRODUCTION
We all love to set promises. Some promises are for important but not for life-saving benefits. But our Study Scripture calls on us to focus on the greatest promise ever made to mankind and the fulfillment of that promise and its meaning to those who do not want death to keep its authority over us.
The need for this promise is because man did something that was so serious he was unable to pull himself out of a pit in which he would die, Man’s situation was desperate. God therefore had to take the initiative and start the work necessary to get him out of the trap his deadly enemy had set for him and which he foolishly went into. We call the nature of his twisted condition in which man found himself as the state of sin.
What is sin? Why is it so critically important to therefore have a Great Day of Atonement and have a system of sacrifice where is a violent death of a substitute for human sins and a detailed structure to avoid death and judgment?
The structure had been set up on precise instruction given by God Himself. There was a tabernacle built as a copy of the sanctuary in Heaven. Inside the building there were two parts with one part called the Holy Place with an inner section in which the Ark of the Covenant was placed. On this Ark was the throne of God to which the High Priest could approach once a year on the Day of Atonement and seek forgiveness. It had a priesthood dedicated to sacrifice and the shedding of blood before God and where on a specific day, once each year the anointed High Priest shed his royal spectacular robes and crown and dressed in a simple linen garment entered the Holiest Place with blood and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat asking forgiveness for all in the nation. When the High Priest exited the Holy Place alive the nation gave a great sigh of relief for they were confident their sins had been covered for that year.
The system established by God was to teach one stern unavoidable lesson. The wages of sin is an inevitable death.
The mystery we face is that Christians will have a favourable end when death occurs. Those outside of Christ will face a fearful experience for at death they stop sinning immediately and the wages which come due are bad.
Our Lesson today is specifically designed to teach true Christian believers that they are on their way to a glorious spiritual destination because:
-Their sins are forgiven
-They no longer carry the guilt of rebellion and uncleanness of life
-Their consciences have been cleansed from sin.
The Text contains fundamental truth which we can be called Christian psychology, the real thing about the human mind and behavior.
Foundational to all this is the fact that all persons including Christians, live in an environment where there are two spiritual realities.
Every person makes the choice as to whether they are going to live their life on the basis of one or the other of these spiritual realities.
The book of Hebrews places much stress on the two realities, the heavenly reality and the earthly reality, spiritual worship and man-made worship. Believers are constantly urged to choose between these two ways.
There is no doubt that earthly worship can be majestic and beautiful for it aims at appearances, to our senses and so its primary concern is with the ‘flesh’ and trying to cleanse the ‘flesh’ through the use of ceremonies. This is not to say that a ministry or worship which tries to cleanse the ‘flesh’ is without merit. It can be of some help and might even help some a great deal to deal with certain issues. Scriptures typically speak of the ‘flesh’ along these lines:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders drunkenness, revelries, and the like; (Gal.5:19-21).
But it is in a sense, like modern psychological counselling, which though it has some effect, cannot change the heart. Modern counselling can encourage us to shift blame or attribute the reasons for our bad behavior to something or someone else. It seeks to explain away our neuroses by pointing to several causes and try to make us understand that our problems are common human suffering and so we should try to put it in proper perspective. It then try and motivate us to try and exercise better control of ourselves.
Its weakness, like the weakness of all the ministries to the ‘flesh’, is that it cannot change or cleanse our hearts. It is in the heart that troubles start.
All solutions that address the ‘flesh’ will fail because these cannot cleanse the heart, and therefore the conscience will never be quiet. Because of this, human beings will always be uncertain and uneasy and never quite sure that they are right before God.
The Text looks at the problem where the conscience would drive us crazy and trouble us about something we have done or have not done. It always has us facing constant thoughts about whether or not we are doing something wrong, or if we are certain that we have not done anything wrong, then it forces us to worry about whether or not we have done enough.
Many believers are living on a knife’s edge, always vulnerable to temptation when their conscience accuses them and when they are not sure about the fact that God has forgiven their sins. They live burdened by their past and are never at ease in their present daily lives.
This is a most serious problem and so the book of Hebrews brings us to face squarely the ministry of Jesus Christ as our High Priest whose service includes:
-a Covenant
-a Sanctuary
-a Sacrifice.
We have been told previously about the person of this exceptional Jesus Christ of Nazareth and now we are led into a discussion of His adequacy as our High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, and not in the order of the Aaronic priesthood established by God.. He offers His own blood instead of the blood of bulls and goats, and then instead of going into a place in the earthly tabernacle like Aaron enters into heaven itself to sit at the right hand of the Father FOR He is the sacrifice made to pay for sin once and for all.
He is superior to all others and has brought to us the New Covenant to cleanse our consciences from sin and to take us to a glorious destination.
Jesus’ work is presented as infinitely superior to all other work. We are to be shown why Jesus’ work is infinitely superior. Over 10 Chapters deal with a person who came down from heaven and given a human body sent to put away sin. Sin is an incurable disease. It is not a mistake or simply human error or misunderstanding for a person can be very religious with all kinds of impressive liturgy but have still lost any hope of eternal life. This task is unavoidable to avert the wrath of God.
Temple worship, though beautiful and majestic, did not contain the perfect provision to gain access to God. The Old Covenant was in fact critically important and necessary but was inferior and had to be replaced by a better Covenant.
In fact, the way that worship was carried out showed its weaknesses. No one was allowed to enter the ‘Holy of Holies’ where God was, except one man, and even then he could only do it one day each year and only after offering sacrifices for himself and his people and ritually cleansing himself by sprinkling. On the Day of Atonement he would have to offer special sacrifices for sin as instructed in Leviticus 16:2, in order to cover the sins that the people had committed ignorantly.
He could not offer sacrifices for deliberate rebellion against the Mosaic Covenant, for those were considered deliberate apostasy requiring instant death. (See Leviticus 4:1-2). But sins of ignorance, those done by the misguided who sinned ignorantly did matter to God because of his righteous nature and they had to be cleansed by the shedding of blood. The High Priest then had to go into the holiest place on earth once a year, fearful and trembling in the presence of God, asking for the forgiveness of the people and trusting that since he had done what was required afterwards he could assure the people that God would listen to their cries.
Hebrews makes clear and we should certainly understand that the Old Covenantal system though very good and necessary, did not meet the deepest needs of God’s people. God allowed the system for a while but then issued a promise to provide a better system; allowing this imperfect system to continue “until the time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10).
The outward obligations of worship did not make a conscience right with God. There remained the necessity for a cleansed conscience, for a stained conscience effectively barred one from true and continuing intimate fellowship with God.
Chapter 9 tells us plainly that the Old Sanctuary and its system were inferior for five reasons.
First, it was an earthly sanctuary.
Second, it was only a “type” of something greater.
Third, the people could not go directly before God.
Fourth, it was only temporary.
Fifth, it could not cleansed internally, (verse 9)
Only the High priest could go into the presence of God, and this occurred once per year when he went into the Holiest Place which is the innermost part of the tabernacle. Under this system established by God Himself, there was no permanent cleansing, and no man or woman could really draw near to God in the perfect sense. Men were just unable because of sin.
It must be noted that all through this we see clearly the mind and intended meaning of the Holy Spirit. God inspired the Scriptures with its instructions about the Tabernacle, the system of laws and worship. The Holy Spirit, according to chapter 9: 8 teaches us His lessons by way of “types”. The first Tabernacle was only a figure, a representation of something more perfect that was to come, in other words, a “shadow” of the more perfect reality.
The gifts and sacrifices offered under this system could not make or give believers an unstained conscience, or deliver them from the wrath of God. It was never designed to continue forever but only to continue “until the time of reformation”, when God would send the perfect Light to remove the curse from the earth and institute the superior and perfect New Covenant.
God wanted man to have access to the Holy of Holies, entering into the very presence of God. The way into the heavenly Tabernacle had to be revealed, and believers had to be given proper legal standing to see, understand and appreciate the way into the Heavenly tabernacle.
As we read about the ministry of Jesus, let us clearly understand the reality of our life. In reality, when we experience feelings of guilt, which we do constantly, and we want to do something to satisfy the conscience, the only thing we can do, is to punish ourselves in order to atone for sins. To escape this, since we don’t like our own punishment, we do all kinds of earthly things to satisfy our conscience. But still no matter what we do we remain in bondage to our consciences.
Of course this is unpleasant to consider but we should look at ourselves and the foolish things we continually do, the sins we keep on committing. We do not like to consider that the solutions we come up with to deal with our multiple problems do not work. Hebrews is trying to get us away from dealing with the imperatives of the flesh in this fashion. So it is very important that we reconsider our direction. One writer comments;
“In order to relieve guilt feelings, we engage in compulsive and frenetic activity tear or we repress the feelings, doing our best to push them from our awareness, but they always seem to surface in destructive ways, such as a rigid, legalistic, performance-based approach to life that imparts warmth to no one and places demands on many.
Or we engage in obsessive thinking, constantly fearing that we will make the wrong decision. Or we project our feelings of guilt unto others, finding the same fault in others that dwells in us.
All these are psychological defence mechanisms designed to relieve the guilt feelings that we have developed in order to atone for our sins. All this has its deepest roots in alienation from God. After all, if I can atone for my own sins, I don’t need God, who I don’t want to need because I’m terrified of it.
So we are in bondage to our own consciences, which will not leave us alone. In order to satisfy the conscience and get it working according to God’s design, we need an answer outside ourselves”.
The writer then gives us the answer, which it is clear that many professing believers do not want to accept, for they prefer to live with a “defiled” or “stained” conscience, constantly breaking the commandments of God and rejecting all appeals to cease and desist. This writer, who commented on the terrible danger that our guilt feelings brings, points us into the right direction and says as the Book of Hebrews does:
“We need “reformation”. We need Christ.”
THE TEXT
Verse 11. There was a necessity for a perfect sacrifice. The death of Jesus was necessary for the people who lived before His time, for the people who lived during His time and for us who are living now. The death of Christ is the only effective solution for sin with its accompanying uneasiness and dread. The death of Christ is the only thing that brings salvation.
Christ is not simply a priest but a High Priest. He not only brings the good things brought under the Old Covenant but He brings good things that are described as those “to come”. This is not just the “earthly” things but “heavenly things”, that come from the heavenly sanctuary.
This verse is about Christ’s High priestly ministry. The state He will now bring is a more perfect state, for it will be a perfection of the Old.
Christ is now not only a heavenly intercessor. This is a High Priesthood. This is a more magnificent ministry, more valuable, more effective.
Christ’s High Priesthood is now in Heaven made so higher because it is carried out in a “greater and more perfect tabernacle”. This more perfect and greater tabernacle is totally different, “not made with hands”. It is not of earthly creation as was the earthly tabernacle, and is therefore greater than anything that human hands can make.
Verse 12-14. As High Priest Jesus entered into Heaven, “into the holy place”. He did not enter into the “holy place” through the blood of bulls and goats, for that kind of blood is not good enough for anything but a temporary covering of sin.
His own blood is that of a human being, a better blood than that of an animal, and notably in this case the best blood because it is from one without “blemish”.
This man, a man without sin or blemish, was able to enter into the true “holy place” “once for all”. He did not have to enter into this presence of God once every year, like the human priests in Israel. He entered and remained in the presence of God forever. The imperfect priests of Israel could not obtain pardon for the people on a permanent basis, but was only granted permission to beg for pardon once per year. Those priests were the type, vastly inferior to the antitype, the real perfect sacrifice that was to come.
This perfect High Priest entered into the “holy place” in Heaven, after He had obtained eternal redemption for men by His death on the cross, where he shed His blood once for all. The priests in Israel provided a “picture” of redemption, for the “real thing” had to come to die once for all.
It is important to note that the sacrifice of the antitype was as one writer puts it: “… perfect, voluntary, rational, and motivated by love”.
This was a unique work and not like the work of the former human priests, (Leviticus 17:11). It is easily seen that the blood of Christ is infinitely superior.
The reasons lay in the fact that Christ was in a special position in Heaven and despite this, offered Himself. This was Jesus offering himself, taking on human nature, and offering Himself to God. He was God, but now He was ready to be also a priest and also a sacrifice.
In addition, He offered Himself through the Holy Spirit, which is here called the “Eternal Spirit”. Jesus had the Holy Spirit without measure during His life on Earth, and in a great act of obedience, offered Himself as the ‘lamb’ slain in sacrifice.
Note carefully that in redemption all persons of the Trinity or the Godhead played a part. The Son of God, the lamb, was perfect, and offered Himself to meet the just demands of God the Father. The Holy Spirit who is God provided the power without measure for the Son of God to do His work of perfect obedience.
He was without spot, with no stain of sin in His nature or in His life. The Devil could find nothing in Him. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice in every respect imaginable.
His blood was so efficacious that He could purge the conscience from anything that defiled the soul, the “dead works”, works which proceeded from someone under spiritual death and heading for eternal death. These works could not save for they were works done under sin. Sinners certainly cannot save themselves no matter what they do. Their works could never impart spiritual life, but at best could only remove sin temporarily, not offering or able to offer permanent cleansing.
This purging of the conscience allowed a believer to “serve” the living God. It is pointed out that the word “serve” is the same root as the word for “worship” (9:6) and “worshipper” used in 9:9. These dead works cannot really help on any permanent basis or significantly assist with worshiping the living God, for they do not permanently cleanse or help the conscience.
On the other hand the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience from any sense of guilt. The atonement done by Christ paid for every evil thought and deed. The atonement of Christ brought forgiveness for all our sins. One writer puts it this way: “We are forgiven for all our misguided efforts to satisfy our consciences- compulsive activity, repression, obsessive thinking and projection, for example.
It may come as a surprise to us that what we do to atone for our sin is in itself sin, but it is.
The blood of Christ cleanses us from the sin of dead works.
Finally, if the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin, the obvious implication is that we don’t need to do it ourselves. Dead works are not only ineffective, they are unnecessary”.
This magnificent work of Christ in His atonement cleanses our conscience, so that we are free to worship God. Now that we are no longer under the burden of guilt we can worship God with immense gratitude and awe at what He has done. Our sense of gratitude will become amazing.
Our guilt feelings which previously prevented us from listening to His Spirit are now gone and we can appreciate God’s intentions for us. We can begin to better understand the love of God. We do not serve God out of a sense of guilt, but we serve God out of a sense of love. The Spirit shifts us to the correct motivation for service to God.
We are now able to “understand” that it is Christ who has paid the penalty for our sins, and we realize that we can have peace only in God’s way. We cease depending on our selves and are now liberated to worship the living God out of love, not guilt.
We should carefully consider what Christ has done for us. Do we understand it? Is it hard for us to appreciate? Are we prepared to move away from wrong thinking, learn and understand the principles of Scripture and apply them to our lives? It is only when we understand that Jesus made salvation possible that we will worship Him in the right way. We must make a deep and thorough analysis of ourselves, so that we can properly worship the One who made this new way of life possible.
Verse 15. In order to properly understand what Jesus has done for us, what eternal redemption means, we are introduced to the issue of a “last will and testament”, so that we can understand and appreciate our eternal inheritance which the more effective ministry of Christ brought into being.
Having looked at the death of Christ and the effect that Christ’s death had on sin and salvation, we are now examining what the people of God will receive from God, namely, an eternal inheritance. It is necessary for us to be told the means by which these benefits were brought to the people of God and so the discussion takes place around the death of the Mediator. Jesus’ work as mediator was accomplished on account of His perfect sacrifice, namely, His death. His death resulted in the redemption of the transgression committed by all those who were under the first covenant. One writer explains: “Every sacrifice for sin made in faith under the Mosaic command was an IOU cashed in at the cross.”
Every one, Jew or Gentile, rejected God, for the law of God was written on their hearts according to Romans 1 and 2. Those who did not know the details of the Mosaic law often behaved according to the law, because the law was written on their hearts. The Jews as well as those separated from God needed redemption, so that they could receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Jesus’ death provided redemption for all. He offered to all the promise of an eternal inheritance, a promise which was infinitely greater than the promises made before to the people of God.
Verses 16 -18. How would one obtain these benefits? An acceptable offering had to be made, a death was necessary for the New Covenant blessings of inheritance to be realized. The Greek word translated covenant was used to refer to an agreement between two or more people made with or without a mediator. The terms of the covenant dictated when the agreement took effect and when its terms were to become effective. God and man had entered into a covenant, a solemn transaction. Of course, man did not keep his part of the bargain.
That is now the idea. Jesus promised that those in Him would have life as an inheritance. That was in His will and testament. His death made the promise irrevocable. The death of Jesus made the promise unchangeable. The inheritance we have been promised is now ours and because of the death of Christ there was the absolute guarantee that His promise cannot be changed.
Christ instituted a better covenant, a superior covenant, and He had to died to make this testament or will effective. Once he died His beneficiaries must benefit.
Verse 18-22. The first testament or agreement was inaugurated with the use of blood. When Moses spoke the law to the people and showed them its terms, duties, rewards and punishments, he asked them to consent and they consented to the terms of the covenant. Then he sacrificed calves and goats and took the blood with water and sundry instruments and applied the blood by sprinkling the altar and the people. Everyone also knew when the sanctuary or Tabernacle was erected that was also sprinkled with blood.
The principle was that without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins. The principle is that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood and there is no perfect forgiveness without a perfect sacrifice.
This matter of the shedding of blood and its significance might sound a little odd to modern people, for we do not want to accept that sacrifice for sin is necessary. We try to make up for our inadequacies by insisting that there are no absolutes, that death is not necessary for forgiveness, that there are avenues other than those mentioned in Scripture and made clear in history that we can help ourselves.
The unpleasant fact is that the soul that sins will die. Death had to occur. Blood had to be shed for salvation.
Verse 23-24. We are told again that since the sanctuary on earth was a copy or a pattern of things in heaven. It was required that the things of earth be purified by a sacrifice of bulls and goats. It was obvious that the heavenly things would have to be purified by better sacrifices, since Heaven was a better place and would require better things. The perfect Christ would of necessity have to ascend to Heaven, and be installed as High Priest to begin His present high priestly work. He became the ‘lamb’ offered for our sins on earth and then ascended to heaven to continue His work as Mediator and High Priest and defend us against our accuser. He could not do this work without having previously made the better sacrifices which were capable of cleansing what had occurred on earth and capable of purifying these people of Earth that were gaining access to God in Heaven.
The people of God need free access into the presence of God and they need to have fellowship with God. They had already been given a down payment of the eternal inheritance, namely the Holy Spirit
(Eph.1:13-14). Their High Priest had to secure their acceptance with God for them to have this access and the blessings that it would bring. To intercede in prayer for them and to help them required that all of the heavenly activity that the believers in Christ would now engage in would have to be purified. This was done by the better sacrifices.
Jesus does not continue to atone for sins in heaven because He had offered Himself once and for all. His ministry in Heaven is not one of atonement but one of intercession.
Jesus appeared before the Father and the Father had looked at him in joyful reunion. They shared their love and joy at His victory for they knew that no additional sacrifice was necessary. The Son could now be invited to sit at the right hand of the Father until the Father had made the Son’s enemies His footstool.
Jesus is not in a holy place made with human hands, for those human–created places were only “types” of the true holy place. He’s ministering in the very presence of God, in the True Sanctuary. His ministry as High Priest concerns us and involves heavenly matters concerning people who are to be perfected in glory.
Verse 25. His ministry cannot be compared to that of the ministry of the priests on earth, and His sacrifice could not be compared to the frequent sacrifices made since sin entered the world. The earthly high priests went into the holy place every year with the blood from the sacrificed animals to obtain atonement for the sins of the people. They were limited in their work. They were imperfect.
Verse 26. Jesus’ sacrifice was not like that made by the “types”. He did not have to suffer continually and shed His blood continually in order to save. No multiple sacrifices were necessary for the blood of Christ was completely different. The sacrifice of Christ was the oblation of himself; he offered his own blood, truly called, by virtue of the hypostatical union, the blood of God; and therefore of infinite value. This is the value of His blood, the value of His sacrifice. He was eternal and from His sacrifice He did not cover up sin, He put away sin.
Imperfect sacrifices would have to be always continuing, but a perfect sacrifice needed only to be made once, not just to cover sins, but to put them away.
His coming and His sacrifice had “put” away sin.
Verse 27-28. God made certain appointments and one was that men had to die. God made another appointment, and that was that after death man would have to come into judgment. This decree of God cannot be altered. Men must die and they must be judged.
There is a certain finality about death that no one can argue. But it is important to remind all persons that the apparent finality of death only relates to the ability of the “dead person” to operate in the world. It is not as many people think a complete and final end.
Death is extremely serious because it is followed by the judgment.
This is a most terrifying idea. For many it is not something to look forward to. For most there is a terrifying expectation of judgment.
Judgment awaits all of us and we should pay close attention to what God has to say.
He has said that Christ’s death made judgment become our salvation. In His death He bore our sins. He took them all unto himself. For us believers, evil died for it could not overcome Christ.
As a result of the work of Christ on earth God had made an appointment for Christ. That appointment was that Christ would appear the second time not to deal with sin this time. He had already borne the sins of those that want to see Him. All of those are eagerly awaiting Jesus for they have been saved. When He comes their salvation will be complete for they will have their new bodies (1Cor. 15:44).
So why was the death of Christ necessary? We can summarize that it was necessary for our salvation, our purification, our receiving the eternal inheritance and for the blessings of the New Covenant. There is no condemnation or fear necessary after death for those who believe in Christ, for they have been delivered from the penalty of sin.
Deliverance from the penalty of sin and condemnation after death, is the first benefit of salvation. After that first deliverance, will come the second deliverance, deliverance from the presence of sin. This occurs when Jesus comes.
Remember that there is nothing better than to wait for Messiah’s second coming. There is no better person to want or to wait for.
Jesus died for us and was humiliated on our behalf. The death of Jesus the Christ was scandalous. It was unbelievable that people would kill the One who made and loved them.
But the book of Hebrews has turned that scandal of the death of Messiah into something beautiful, for there is nothing more beautiful than waiting for and seeing the Redeemer.
CHAPTER 10
Verse 1-4. This section of the chapter gives much detail about the high priestly ministry of Christ and emphasizes that the sacrifice of Jesus had a transforming effect on believers.
All persons would have to choose between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant for both could not coexist. One had to choose to accept Christ or to reject Him, to be cleansed by Christ, or to try to cleanse the flesh in a way that was and would always be imperfect.
The sacrificial system was inadequate. It was a shadow, a type of the good things that would come. It was not the real thing itself. The good things to come was the sacrificial work of Christ and this work cast a shadow backwards in time. The sacrificial system, the types, existed to hint at the priestly work of Christ that was to come. Being a “shadow”, the sacrificial system was not able to permanently deal with human sin. The sacrifices had to be done year after year for it could not take away sin or the guilt of sin. The worshippers could not be purged so that their guilty conscience would be gone forever, and they would be made perfect and be able to live as God wanted them to live.
So under the sacrificial system at the temple, believers continued to have a “consciousness of sin”, a guilty conscience, and so sacrifices had to be offered. Each year as they offered the sacrifices they would be reminded of their sins and special atonement made for them.
The ongoing sacrifices showed the people that sacrifices would not be enough. The sacrifices were not completely effective, because the blood of animals was not effective to remove sin. The Day of Atonement would remind the children of Israel every year that they had sins, and that the sins needed to be removed in order for them to continue to have fellowship with God during the ensuing year.
Under this system God was showing to the people the necessity of sacrifice for sins and through this “shadow”, was pointing them to the One that would come to atone for the sins of all the worshipers from the times sin entered the world. This One would remove the curse from the earth and allow people to draw near to God in freedom.
A look at the meaning of some words would help us. One writer observes:
“The ‘shadow’ (Greek skia) then is the preliminary outline that an artist may make before he gets to his colors and the “eikon (literally image, “form”) is the finished portrait. The author is saying that the law is no more than a preliminary sketch. It shows the shape of things to come, but the solid reality is not there.”
“Make perfect” (verse 1) does not mean to make sinless but to make perfect in our access to God.”
“Take away” (Greek “aphaireo” in verse 4) is used of a literal taking off, as of the terrors cutting off the ear of the high priest’s slave (Luke 22:50), or metaphorically as of the removal of reproach (Luke 1:25). It signifies the complete removal of sin so that it is no longer a factor in the situation. That is what is needed and that is what the sacrifices could not provide.”
Verses 5-7. As a result of the inadequacy in the sacrificial system which Christ fully recognized, He decided that He would come into the world to do what needed to be done.
Jesus quotes from Psalm 40:6-8 to express His knowledge that animal sacrifices were inadequate to please God. God’s pleasure was to have obedient people. He wanted believers in Him to be cleansed.
Clearly David and others understood clearly that animal sacrifices meant nothing to God. They recognized that God wanted something better, something more than animal sacrifices. David and others knew that God wanted their hearts. Enoch lived appropriately and God took him because he had walked with God.
It is interesting to note that in Psalm 40 David spoke to God. Now in this chapter we have the Son of God who knew the problem that men were having speaking to God the Father in intimate terms, upon His entry into the world, using the very same words. Some believe that these are the last words Jesus spoke to His Father before He came into the womb of Mary.
Now let us look closely as Jesus speaks about the four kinds of offerings that the Father wanted and what was involved in the offering of sacrifices.
First, Jesus knew the mind of the Father and He knew that the Father neither desired nor was pleased in the offerings of the sacrificial system, even though He had established it. Clearly in some sense God the Father wanted the sacrifices, but those sacrifices were not the final, nor the most important things that He wanted. He delighted in something else and we should examine what God delights in as far as we are concerned.
Next Jesus said that God desired “a body” which He had prepared for Him. David had the same idea for he realized that God had formed him, and had prepared him for a particular role.
We had better realize that God has prepared our bodies for a specific purpose. God wants our bodies to be presented to Him, so we should carefully consider our purpose here.
Next, knowing what the Father really delights in, Jesus said to his Father,
“Lo, I come to do thy will”.
Jesus knew what the Father delighted in, it is something He had already spoken to in the Mosaic Law and the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He knew that His Father’s will was the purpose for which He came into the world. The Father wanted His body (the body of Christ) and He was perfectly willing to give the Father His body (Ps 40:6).
The very obedient Son of God who trusts the Father, takes on a human body, and lives a life committed to do with the will of the Father. In Gethsemane he prayed:
“Not my will but your will”.
Obedience is required. Sacrifice without obedience means nothing. Aiming to do what we consider to be the will of God without following everything written in the Scroll of the Book is worthless. We will get no credit for it.
Verses 8 – 10. Jesus again emphasizes that God does not delight in sacrifices if they are not the product of a proper attitude. Christ understands this and is teaching us that the Father does not have pleasure in anything but seeing His will accomplished. He does not delight in animal sacrifices and neither does He delight in us doing what we consider to be sacrifices. Our works will not please him. He has laid down in Scripture what the “pleasing” works are, and He has laid down the proper attitude for any work to be pleasing to Him.
God the Father is pleased to remove the Old Covenant, and establish the second, for that New Covenant gives God what He really wants.
We will be sanctified, or made holy in the New Covenant. To be made holy means to be set apart for God. That is God’s will.
Now you might tell us that you feel unwanted, but that is not true, for God tells us that He wants us. In addition He tells us that He has enabled us to want Him. This is the will of God. He has set us apart and made us holy for Himself.
So begin to understand that God’s will can be trusted, and God says that He wants your body.
Notice that this view of sanctification is called positional sanctification. You are sanctified when you come to Christ. This is pretty close to the concept of justification. Note however that there is a difference between this concept and justification. One writer defines the difference in this way:
“Justification deals with position in relation to God as Judge, while sanctification deals with position in relation to our fellowship with God and our approach to Him in fellowship.”
The idea is that once we come to Christ we are in fellowship with God and we are considered sanctified, because we are in a certain position with God the Father. Once we are in this position of sanctification, we will then continue to be progressively sanctified, or made more and more into the image of Christ.
Verse 11 & 12. What Jesus had done is fundamentally different from what the priests and High Priest have been doing. The perfect efficacy of the priesthood of Christ had been demonstrated to contrast with that of the other earthly priests. Christ no longer has to offer any offering to the Father for the sins of His people. That is done! Now He sits at the right hand of God the Father and His ministry of intercession for His people, now is at hand. We should understand that that ministry flows from His completed work. He now adopts a posture of rest, until He returns to claim His people on earth. What Jesus has done in His work is that we are sanctified by His blood. We can now partake of the benefits of His redemption, meaning we can approach the Father in boldness because no longer are we hampered by the weight of the sins of are past. We should clearly understand that because of the work of Jesus, God the Father no longer sees our sins. It is as if, it NEVER existed. But know that comes with certain responsibilities as a child of God. Jesus Christ is a child of God. We saw on earth how He acted. He was here to do the will of His Father. That is our example.
Verse 13. This verse says to believers that God the Father has made certain promises. These promises will be fulfilled to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. All those who do not except Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as God, is God’s enemy. God’s enemies (Satan, Death, and also now, Man) will find themselves in the lake of fire for eternity because they all rejected their Master, their Creator and their Sustainer! The Father and the Son, testify of one another.
The subjection of His foes fully shall be at His second advent, of which the children of God expectantly wait for, to see our returning King and Saviour (Rev. 19:1 – 20:15).
Verse 14. This verse makes it clear that the sacrifice and the work of Jesus Christ is effective only for those who are being sanctified. His work is capable of saving human being, but it is only effective in saving those who are being sanctified (set apart to God).
Verse 19. Jesus did not fear praying to God or making requests to God the Father. He had this boldness because, yes, He and the Father are one. But, His was an example to us that if we have this relationship with God, we too can boldly approach the Father asking for things (Strength in different situation, knowledge and wisdom in answering adversaries about the Word of God and Purpose of God’s plan, and the way to lead our lives and do the will of God). Trembling and fear will never be part of our interaction with God the Father, as Christ has blotted out all are sins, and this is part of the consequence of that action, that we can approach the Father with confidence, with boldness.
Verse 20 & 21. Jesus is not a Saviour that is dead. He has conquered death and is a Living Testator. He can usher us into the presence of God, and present us faultless. Jesus’ sacrifice was a perfect sacrifice of the sinless Son of God; that is why He is able to usher us into the presence of His Father.
Verse 22. There are certain duties that bind us to God the Father, Jesus – the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, due to the privileges that we are open too as the children of God.
We should always remember that we should continually draw near to God in the right manner. God will draw near to us, if we draw near to Him. By our conversion, we draw near to God. By taking hold of His covenant, we draw near to God. As we draw near to God we will find our holy conversation changes us and will be able to bring forth certain types of fruit, to great depths like what occurred with Enoch. As we draw near, we will exhibit humility, a level of holy dependence, a conformity to God, and communion with Him. All of this will transform us into that mature Christian which is able to do the things that Jesus said we are capable of doing.
“When we are in tough times, we should remember that many people have gone through worse times and have had a better attitude, and more joy, than you do now. What is the difference? They knew how to draw near” [Guzik, D]
Verse 23. Our hope in manifested and seen in our demonstration or exercise of faith as it relates to the future inheritance. Hope rests on faith, and at the same time quickens faith. It also is the ground of our bold confession. Hope is similarly connected with purification. God is faithful to His promises, as is Christ, we as children of God should through the leading of the Holy Spirit should strive to be as Christ was.
The duty itself-to hold fast the profession of our faith, to embrace all the truths and ways of the gospel, to get fast hold of them, and to keep that hold against all temptation and opposition. Our spiritual enemies will do what they can to wrest our faith, and hope, and holiness, and comfort, out of our hands, but we must hold fast our religion as our best treasure…
The motive or reason enforcing this duty: He is faithful that hath promised. God has made great and precious promises to believers, and he is a faithful God, true to his word; there is no falseness nor fickleness with him, and there should be none with us. His faithfulness should excite and encourage us to be faithful, and we must depend more upon his promises to us than upon our promises to him, and we must plead with him the promise of grace sufficient. [Matthew Henry]
Christians should tenderly consider and have a concern for one another. Each Christian at times, especially leaders will undergo certain trials and tribulations. It is not to say at times, I will pray for you. Sometimes, we might have to walk or carry them through the storm, as Jesus says he will do with us. We are not all immediately filled with knowledge and wisdom and how to apply this to our lives, it is a process where growth takes some time, and we as Christians should understand that of each other. It is not a free pass to err, but to understand how to deal with brethren if an error is made, and how to restore them and prevent something like that from occurring again. This is our duty of love that we should extend to all brethren in the faith. A good example given to others is the best and most effectual provocation to love and good works.
Verse 24 & 25. In these next two verses are advice to help us, as Christians to grow in our service and life to God. We have here the means to prevent our apostasy, and promote our fidelity and perseverance in our walk with God into eternity.
It is the will of Christ that His disciples should assemble together, sometimes more privately for conference and prayer, and in public for hearing and joining in all the ordinances of gospel worship. This is where the enjoyment of being a Christian will be observed, and is of importance to the younger members of the congregation. There were in the apostles’ times, and should be in every age, Christian assemblies for the worship of God, and for mutual edification. The communion of saints is a great help and privilege, and a good means of steadiness and perseverance, which will be reflected in fact that their hearts and hands are mutually strengthened.
The assembly is there to exhort one another, to exhort ourselves and each other, to warn ourselves and one another of the sin and danger of backsliding, to put ourselves and our fellow-Christians in mind of our duty, of our failures and corruptions, to watch over one another, and be jealous of ourselves and one another with a godly jealousy. It is a check and balance. They say “iron sharpens iron“, so being together as one will only enhance our journey towards the kingdom.
THE CONCLUSION
We have now been introduced into the mind of God the Father. We have been told by Jesus what the Father wants. Jesus has assessed our condition and He knows that animal sacrifices can never take away our sins.
So He and the Father has spoken and He graciously decided to do what the Father wanted in order to take us out of our absolutely helpless condition and to bring us back to God the Father.
The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient. It was done once for all. Christ is our intercessor and our High Priest. He is in the place of power and authority, constantly speaking with the Father about us and our welfare.
We have been sanctified in the past, and we are being sanctified in the present. We have been brought to the fulfillment of the Father’s purpose which is to love, worship, and obey God.
We are told to press on to this perfection, to fulfill the purpose of the Father. We have no excuse for Christ has perfected us, qualified us, cleansed us from sin so that we may do exactly what God the Father wants.
Christ has made us holy before God and we are to learn to live out our holiness before all.
The Holy Spirit has written the law of God in our hearts and our minds. That means that everyone who claims to be under the New Covenant has their heart changed, so that they can trust and love God and obey Him, and are willing to give Him their body to do His will.
Simply look at yourself. If you have been forgiven of your sins through the once for all offering of Christ, and if you know that God the Father will remember your sin no more, you must show your understanding by doing the specific will of God for you, enjoying the fellowship with God and having the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit delight in you.
Every one should be willing to say as Jesus did eagerly:
“Behold, I have come – in the roll of the book it is written of me – to do your will, O God.”
You should be able to say without fear of contradiction, “Lord I have brought my body to you. Use it for your purpose.”
There is an eternal inheritance waiting for us.