[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       We arrive today at Hebrews chapter 10. We’ll take two weeks to through this chapter, so we can really dive into all that it says. Let’s begin reading the text. Verse 1: “For 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 sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (ESV).

       Laid before our eyes today is as clear as it gets, as clear as gets, to the Bible stating that the Old Testament system of sacrifices didn’t work. They didn’t permanently take away sin. This is why it is confusing, perhaps to anyone with understanding who is observing, why there are Jews who did not accept Jesus. Why are there Jews, even today, who wish, when the opportunity arises, to re-establish their Temple in Jerusalem and re-institute the system of animal sacrifices? No sense can be made of any of it. Why the rejection of the Christ? Why the rejection? Actually, we know why. The point has already been made, and that is the perspective that Christ did not and still does not match the image that the Jewish person has in mind when thinking of their Messiah. Their belief is that the Messiah should be a world leader, one who will bring them peace, who will let them have their land back for the Temple. A well-to-do person he should be in the world’s eyes they think. It’s a problem of the heart, really. The whole thing brings up the scene of a story Jesus told, that of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Remember, he said, “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-13, ESV). Why does the Messiah have be viewed as an exalted one? Why can he not instead by humble?

       It’s a good thing that the old system did not work, and will not work in the future, for if it did, we’d all be stuck under it—under the Old Testament Law with all its rules and regulations. One doesn’t have read very far into the Law to realize that’s not something that they really want. Interesting it is, and this was true of the Jewish people back then, and can even be true of people nowadays, is that people do indeed like to live under a law some times. Religion is easier when it is all Law based. One doesn’t have to think; one doesn’t have to contemplate in their heart. Yet, the problem is is that when religion is based solely on Law it can ironically become heartless. People can become mean and cringey. It reminds the speaker of an ex-Amish brother’s comments as pertains to Romans 12, which seem to be particularly fitting for our text today. We’ve considered this quote before, but let’s consider it again. Author Jerry Eicher in his book ‘Transforming the Believer’ (2002) notes, ““When we come to the New Testament we find the old concept of sacrifice gone. The apostle speaks now of a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). That is different. The new living sacrifice is like a bird in the morning sitting on his tree limb pouring out his song. The bird does not have to strain or struggle to offer his morning song, but from deep within of what he is, a songbird, he offered a joyous tune of joy to the world. That is a living sacrifice. When we do our religious service to God such as that, then we will know it is a living, and not a dead, sacrifice” (pg. 113). This quote really encapsulates the whole thing as it shows how now, under the New Testament, we are a new creation. It is as the Apostle Paul stated, “the old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV). If we stay under the old, our yoke is hard, and our burden is heavy.

       Already touched upon but let’s bring it to mind again, is the question of why do we need perfect human blood shed on our behalf to make us perfect before God? What makes this necessary? One doesn’t have to go very far, very far at all, to find an answer that will say something like this: “It is because God’s wrath stands against us. God is a wrathful being, and without perfect human blood as a sacrifice for our sins, we stand open in God’s wrath, in God’s anger.” That’s the common comment; that’s what most will say within Evangelical Christianity. Now go over to the Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which still believes in the early churches’ thoughts, and you’ll get a different answer. We talked about how the whole concept of God’s wrath having to be appeased has been interwoven into Evangelical Christianity—how this concept has become the predominant view (see the Hebrews Discussions 1-8 message). It is true that God can be wrathful, and he can display wrath. But to believe that God is in a constant state of wrath, or that humans are separated from him on account of his anger, simply doesn’t line up with a lot of verses in the Bible. John 3:16 is an easy example. The reason perfect human blood is needed to make us perfect before God is simply because God is holy. God wants us to be holy again, like Adam and Eve originally were. This is what makes us complete, as persons. This is what makes us whole like God is whole.

       Verse 5: “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 does away with 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” (ESV).

       At this juncture is tackled an important area of discussion, an important area, which pertains to how God actually, in reality, views the whole Old Testament system of animal sacrifices. Truth be told, it is the experience of the speaker that a lot of Christians don’t understand this—whether we are speaking of Evangelical Christians, or speaking of Anabaptist—it doesn’t seem to matter, a lot don’t understand it. The speaker didn’t understand it for a long time in his Christian journey. Really, what we have here in this section is good news. It’s encouraging what the writer is relaying to us. Yet, a lot of people miss it. The writer is simply telling us that it was not God’s desire the animal sacrifices be introduced and practiced in the Old Testament times. Best, it appears, is to understand the text as an acquiesce of God for the Israelites of old. An acquiesce. This means that God allowed them, and some individuals aren’t going to like this, God allowed them to offer animal sacrifices so they could be like the other pagan nations. We know back then that other nations liked to do things like this. Even in movies of modern times we’ve seen where these kinds of things are done in tribal settings. Some persons aren’t going to like what is being said because they don’t believe God would acquiesce to pagan things. They don’t believe God works that way. Yet, we know he does. We see it, for instance, in God allowing the eating of animals in Acts chapter 10. We see it in Acts 15 where the first church in Jerusalem gives a very short list of what needs to be practiced by the Christians in Antioch. It could have been much more than what was on the list, but it wasn’t. Another reason people don’t like this whole discussion is because they think that the animal sacrifices, specifically, were something God wanted and, perhaps, perhaps, desired in a spirit of bloodthirst, as part of his wrath or something. Again, that would be very incorrect.

       Interestingly, we receive a quotation from Jesus of which he apparently said while he was on the earth, and of which is actually a quotation from Psalm 39:7. No record exists of Jesus saying this, but by the way the sentence is phrased, it appears that he did. Really, these words should be printed in red in our Bibles. He did say something somewhat similar to this in Luke chapter 4:18 and 19, in the synagogue in Nazareth. Or, in John chapter 8 and verse 28, when he stated, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me” (ESV). Anyhow, the point is that what Jesus accomplishes on the cross makes obsolete that which was achieved with the old system. The covering for sins provided by the old system is no longer needed. Christ’s accomplishment is a sure and real victory, not one that has temporary affect, but it has lasting affect. It does not have to be repeated like the sacrifices of old. What other alternatives could there have been besides the animal sacrifices of old? Actually, we really don’t know. But that was what was established, even though God didn’t desire it, and so that’s what God has to work with. Regardless, God was planning to come into the world to pay the ultimate price.

       Let’s take a moment and rewind back to Genesis, because where is the first place that we see people sacrificing animals? Well, it would be Genesis chapter 4 with Abel and Cain, right? Did God institute this, that Abel and Cain were the offer animal sacrifices to him? There’s no record of that. The appearance is that they willingly choose to do that—whether they conjured it up out of their guilt or whether they had witnessed others doing who were in or out of fellowship with God—whatever it was, it doesn’t appear God instituted that. Over time—over a lot of time—we understand people probably continued doing this practice (as Jacob did in Genesis 31). And it would be at some point when God instituted it as part of the Jewish Law. Yet, the people were already used to doing this. Some theologians think that God instituted it because it was where the people were already at. It’s what they already were doing over many years. God didn’t try to change what they were familiar with, but rather worked with it. But going back to Cain and Abel, why would they have been doing it in the first place? Obviously it was due to the fact they had sinned, and they believed God was upset with him. They desired to make God happy again. They were afraid of any wrath he might bestow upon them. So the belief would be that God took the practice of the animal sacrifices and made it to remind individuals that sin leads to death. Sin leads to death. This would also explain, or show the meaning of why God killed the animal in the Garden, remember, to provide clothing for Adam and Eve. Some of you had to of been thinking of this already. That’s why he did it. Not because he desired a sacrifice, or was bloodthirsty to appease his wrath, but simply to show Adam and Eve that sin brings forth death. It’s not something they want to do.

       So, the way Jesus accomplishes God’s will is by dying on the cross—by being our sacrifice for sin. Since all humans of old—no matter what time you consider—broke God’s Law—broke the Jewish Law—the only One who satisfies the requirements of the Law would be One who lived it perfectly. We know this was accomplished in Jesus Christ. He arrived on earth, as a human, and lived under the strict Law without violating it once. The penalty of death from breaking the Law was supposed to be borne by ourselves, as the Law itself prescribed. Yet, Christ lived the Law perfectly and yet actually bore the penalty as if he had violated it. In this way, he stands in our place. It’s not that he stands in our place in that God’s wrath was bearing down on us to kill us, and he bears God’s wrath instead. That’s not the picture. It is since we violated the Law, there is no more we can expect but death as we are now unholy. Unholy beings can’t live in fellowship with a holy God. It won’t work. But Christ takes care of the problem once and for all—for all time! Again, this just goes to show the permanency of what Christ accomplished on the cross. It seems so strange that there are whole groups of Christians who don’t see it this way, who see salvation as more of a living thing, a thing we have to keep as we live daily lest we lose it somehow. The picture painted here by the writer of Hebrews doesn’t seem to show that—doesn’t seem to show a system like the Old Testament one that had to be continually maintained. While Jesus did instruct us to daily ask for forgiveness of sins, like in the Lord’s Prayer, it doesn’t mean that we lose our salvation every-time we sin. There is a permanence that has occurred in our salvation. Paul said we are sealed by the Holy Spirit from the moment we believe.

       Verse 11: “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. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” (ESV).

       Before us now is the image of where Christ is presently, in our current time. The writer says he’s in Heaven, seated at the right hand of God. This is the visual we are familiar with. And he is sitting there “until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” It appears best to understand this as primarily speaking of Satan and his demons, right? Satan is the one who rebelled against God way back at the beginning, and took one-third of the angels with him. They choose to willingly follow after him instead of continuing to follow after God. A bad choice that was, a bad choice. Forever they will be separated from God, who ironically, is the only One who can give real life. In God is the Truth. Satan and his demons seek to destroy that which is good, the harm God’s people, to harm the world, and to take away life and make it not so good. That’s what they desire to accomplish, and that’s unfortunately what they do accomplish in person’s lives. Christ has to wait, and we don’t know why. It’s not something we really understand. We know that we are in The Times of the Gentiles right now. We understand that God is working to save individuals from both the Jewish and Gentile Nations. It’s not that God is desiring persons to suffer for a period, or that he wants the world to suffer for a period. We just don’t know why there is the time delay. God tells us he wants people to be saved, and we know that the Jewish Leaders rejected Stephen in Acts 7, in their one last chance to believe. This brought about the times of the Gentiles. But why there is the delay, we really aren’t sure.

       Then is made the marvelous statement: “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” This verse encapsulates Christian sanctification, or we might say, human sanctification. It shows both sides of the coin. For one, we who believe in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins are already “perfected for all time.” That’s our current status. That’s the beautiful thing. That’s also why it doesn’t make any sense to believe otherwise, and the speaker would encourage those Christians listening who don’t believe it’s already done to really think about that. Nothing a person can do can add to what has already been done. A person can’t make themselves ‘more’ perfect. Anyone who believes in Jesus is already completely perfect. Now second, it’s also true, and the verse encapsulates this as well, that our Christian lives, the human life after coming back to God, also involves continual sanctification in that we seek to align our thoughts, words, and actions (which really it all stems back to our thoughts), into alignment with righteousness, with truth, with what God says to be true in his Word. And we even have to be careful with that as Christians differ on what they think that is. Regardless, the point is that it takes all of our life to continue to make correction to ourselves, in how we deal with ourselves internally, and how we deal with the world externally. The sin-nature within our flesh has messed things up so bad that it’s going to take all of life. Unfortunately, negativity is always going to be there and have to be ignored inside ourselves, to some degree, because of that sin-nature. We don’t lose the sin-nature when we believe for the first time. But, we do become a new creation indwelled by the Spirit of God.

       Jeremiah 31 is quoted again by the author (recall, he also quoted it in Hebrews 8), and this section demonstrates two different things. It shows two things that the New Covenant does. God had foretold that he would 1) basically give them a new Word that was based on the heart—hence the teachings of Christ and the Apostles. The new teachings weren’t like the old ones in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, the focus was on external things, whether that be external ceremonies or whether it was external behaviors. But the New Covenant dives into the heart and mind of the person. It is a better Word. The New Testament gets to the heart, and through the Spirit of God transforms one from the inside out if one follows what it says. The second part quoted by the author involves the fact that 2) Christ’s sacrifice obliterates sin so that, again, there is not that continual need to offer sacrifices, and God does not keep account as if sins weren’t forgiven yet. Under Christ’s sacrifice, all sins are forgiven for those who believe, which means that God no longer has to remember them year after year. It means that once a sin is repented of by a person, God decides to forget the sin ever occurred when relating to us. It’s a beautiful thing for us since it means that we as humans can willingly choose to let go of shame and guilt that result from our sin as God already has. It’s not wrong to let go of those things. Even if people in society still shame us for a sin, we don’t have to shame ourselves. That doesn’t mean we want to become haughty about it, but that’s the reality of the situation.

Reference

Eicher, Jerry S. (2002). Transforming the Believer. Farmville, VA: Gospel for the World.