SERMON MANUSCRIPT
The passage we’re studying today is the culmination of the first nine chapters of this letter and their “emphasis on the superiority of the person and work of Jesus over everything that Judaism has to offer” (Osborne, 196), that religious system out of which the original recipients had been saved and back to which they were thinking about returning. Essentially, the author writes, “Let me remind you, dear reader, from whom and what you’ll be walking away if you make this u-turn on the road to spiritual maturity.”
To shrink back from Christianity is to shrink back from Christ, the Son of God who, though greater than the angels (1:5–14), was made “for a little while lower than the angels” (2:9). He condescended himself to identify with humanity, be tortured by humanity, and die for humanity (2:10–18).
And, because the Son was willing to suffer in this way, the Father designated him as a permanent high priest, one eclipsing and replacing all predecessors (5:1–11; 7:1–28). As a greater priest, he presented to God a greater sacrifice (7:27; 8:3) which inaugurated a greater covenant (8:3–13) mediated from a greater tabernacle (8:1–2; 9:11–28).
Greater, greater, greater. Jesus is greater. What he’s done is greater. What he’s doing is greater. What he will do is greater. And as we come to chapter 10, the author reaches a theological crescendo in his presentation of how Jesus perfectly and eternally met humanity’s greatest needs: access to God, forgiveness from God, cleansing by God, and fellowship with God.
MANY SACRIFICES
The chapter opens with a reminder of what it was like before Jesus: there were many sacrifices. As I read the first four verses, feel the drudgery of life under the Mosaic Law. [10:1–4]
The Law of Moses prescribes burnt offerings for devotion, grain offerings for thanksgiving, peace offerings for fellowship, sin offerings for pardon, and trespass offerings for atonement. Bulls, goats, rams, calves, doves, and lambs. There were so many sacrifices offered “continually year by year” (10:1). They were incessant.
Now, repetition is bearable if it’s practical. Month after month I pay our hydro bill, phone bill, gas bill, and grocery bill. These are tedious and costly payments but, through them, my family enjoys shelter and showers, connectivity and food. We see and feel their worth and so we endure.
But that wasn’t really the case with the many sacrifices under the Law. They were not only incessant, but they were incompetent. “For the Law … can never … make perfect those who draw near” (10:1). The offerings were unable to accomplish this important and needed function. In verse 2 the author says, “This is obvious because if those sacrifices did bring perfection, if they did cleanse the sinner, if they did apply a holy balm to a guilty conscience, they would have ceased.” No one keeps making credit card payment when the amount owing is zero and no one keeps making sacrifices if all guilt is gone.
Those sacrifices didn’t bring God’s people perfection. Actuality, they reminded God’s people of their imperfection. [10:3] Why? [10:4] All they can do is remind, not redeem.
Imagine I owed a debt that accrued more interest than I earned—a hopeless situation. But I want to make it right and so, every year I visit my lender, not with money but with a stack of drawings that my children drew. The offering means a lot to me, and giving it reminds me of my debt but does nothing to pay my debt because it’s not even the right currency let alone the right amount to satisfy what’s owed.
The many sacrifices under the Law cost the people and reminded the people of their sin but couldn’t pay the debt because it wasn’t even the right currency let alone the right amount to satisfy what’s owed. The author of Hebrews points his discouraged readers back to that reality, the incessant and incompetent sacrificial system of the Law, and says, “you want to return to that?”
And yet God’s people do, even today. While few of us are tempted to sacrifice our pets for divine appeasement, we do retreat to other forms of self-righteousness. We live in a world obsessed with self-justification and, sometimes, it seeps into our lives.
“Look at the many sacrifices I make: charity work, general kindness, generosity of time, philanthropic endeavours, church attendance, gospel efforts, years of service, hours of prayer, days of fasting. Surely the Lord will look upon my modern-day burnt offerings and say ‘Well done, my child! You are really chipping away at that debt!’”
The problem is, all of those works, as sincerely and regularly as they may be offered, are the wrong currency and don’t even put a dent in the depth of our sinfulness. It’s impossible for our many efforts to take away sins just as it was impossible for their many sacrifices to take away sins, to cleanse them, and to remove guilt.
ONE SACRIFICE
Now, starting in verse 5, we arrive again at the greatness of Jesus. The author moves from the many sacrifices to one sacrifice.
[10:5–9] The author is quoting and commenting on Psalm 40 in light of Christ’s coming. Sacrifices and offerings were never God’s “desire” or “pleasure” in the sense that they were never the means by which God would permanently deal with sin. Instead, he sent his Son “into the world” in “a body” “prepared” for him because only through the incarnation could Jesus “do God’s will” in putting away sin and, inso doing, take “away the first order to establish the second.” [10:10].
That phrase, “once for all,” throws us back to verse 2 where the author wrote, “having once been cleansed.” In verse 2 he was being hypothetical: if those former sacrifices brought perfection, they would have stopped but they didn’t so they didn’t. But Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice, verse 10, does bring perfection, so sacrifices can stop. Through him God’s people “have been sanctified,” made holy, set apart unto God.
The author continues to hammer home the singularity and finality of Christ’s offering. [10:11–13] Jesus’s one sacrifice was so satisfying and conclusive all that’s left for him to do is sit down and wait for its effects to be fully realized.
Like a graduate waiting for the commencement ceremony—classes are over, work is done, grades are in; all that’s left to do is wait to walk the stage and be handed what’s already yours. So Jesus is waiting, right now, for the redemptive dominos to inevitably fall.
But his sacrificial work is done. [10:14] Feel the weight of this passage: “Once been cleansed … once for all … one sacrifice … one offering.” While there used to be many, now there is one and it’s the right currency and the right amount to make us “cleansed,” “to take away sins,” through which we are positionally “sanctified” and “perfected” “for all time.” Because of Christ, God’s people are, right now, acceptable to God because we are, right now, draped in the righteousness of the Son of God.
When I met my now-in-laws for the first time, they welcomed me warmly, fed me generously, and embraced me lovingly. Why? Because of my resume? No. Because of my money? Nope. Because of my personality? No! They accepted me because of my association with their beloved daughter. They loved me because she loved me.
[Eph 1:5–8a] God the Father accepts us because of our association with God the Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross once for all and rose from the dead. Our accomplishments, finances, and personalities do not make us acceptable. Only a right relationship with his Beloved by faith makes us acceptable to the Father. There we find forgiveness, guilt-removal, and unfettered access to God.
The author of Hebrews is reminding his readers that these treasures weren’t possible under the Mosaic Covenant. But they’re available in the New Covenant, that which was enlivened by the blood of Jesus and predicted long before that by the Holy Spirit. [10:15–17]
The Old Covenant, what with its many sacrifices, provided only a reminder of sin and bandaid for sin. But the New Covenant, with its one sacrifice, offers forgiveness of sin and a solution for sin. One for all … offered once for all … freely to all.
There’s nothing greater! So, don’t shrink back from him. Don’t drift away from sound doctrine. Don’t pull back from the person and work of Christ. Don’t pull that u-turn on the road to spiritual maturity.
As Jesus asked his disciples in John 6, so the author of Hebrews is asking his readers and the Holy Spirit is asking you and me: “You don’t want to leave too, do you” (6:67)? May the Lord help us to answer the way Peter answered: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (6:68–69 niv). You’re so much greater. Anywhere else we turn will be to embrace deficiency, defectiveness, and deception. You are the One sacrifice offered for all, once for all, and freely to all. Where else would we go?
NO SACRIFICES
This section concludes in [10:18]. The author has moved from many to one to none. Under the Law there were many sacrifices, incessant and incompetent. But that all went away with Christ’s one sacrifice, an offering that was sufficient and sanctifying. And, because of its finality, God’s people today are left with no sacrifices.
When it comes to our sin, our defilement, our guilt, there’s no sacrifice we can make that will add anything to the one Christ made on our behalf. There’s no offering we can give that will top up our already perfect acceptance. All we can do is, by faith, fall with gratitude on the mercy of the finished work of Jesus. From many to one to none.
So let’s stop the bloodshed! No more metaphorical bulls and goats. No more offerings of our efforts to gain peace with God. No more self-righteous sacrifices to secure forgiveness for sins. Stop the bloodshed and rest in the blood shed by the Lord Jesus Christ. One for all, once for all, free for all.
This is called grace; undeserved favour. [Eph 2:8–9] The world around us, the flesh within us, and the devil about us all conspire to confuse grace with works and to lead us, along with the original readers of Hebrews, in the exact wrong direction: from none to one back to many! The Enemy can’t have our souls—we forever belong to Christ—but he can steal our joy, our maturity, our usefulness, and our witness if he distracts us with the necessity of metaphorical bloodshed for the forgiveness of sins and assurance of salvation.
Tragically, many Christians (and pastors and ministries) aid in this confusion. They say, teach, and preach that to be saved we must “believe in Jesus and surrender your life to him,” “believe in Christ and promise to serve him,” “trust in Christ and turn from all your sins,” “believe in Jesus and live a godly life,” “put your faith in Jesus and obey his commands,” “believe and be baptized,” “believe and confess,” “believe and give,” “believe and gather,” “believe and,” “believe and,” “believe and.”
Now, are surrendering, serving, turning, evidencing, obeying, committing, confessing, giving, and gathering good things for Christians? Absolutely. In fact, they’re necessary … necessary to grow not to be saved, to be faithful not to be forgiven, to thank God not to have access to God, to be useful not to be cleansed.
When we are told by Paul to “present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1) he’s describing how saved people should respond to their salvation not how to get saved.
There used to be many sacrifices for sins. They were incessant and incompetent. Praise God he sent Jesus to be the one covenant-ratifying sacrifice, totally sufficient and perfectly sanctifying for all who believe. May we not devalue that precious offering by trying to add to it rather than accepting the truth: there are now no sacrifices to be made for our forgiveness, our cleansing, our justification, our salvation.
One for all, once for all, free for all.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
