Christ's sacrifice once for all (by His will)

Christ’s sacrifice once for all (by his will)

Hebrews 10:1-18

Key verse 10:9,10

Merry Christmas! Thank God for giving us his son Jesus Christ! By the way what comes to your mind when you think about Christmas? Gifts, Christmas trees, good food, Christmas songs, family gathering, and all kinds of good stuff, right? Last night I walked around my neighborhood and saw many houses decorated with lots of lights. One neighbor put the baby Jesus decoration light display in the front yard. Yes, it is hard to think about Christmas without the baby Jesus lying in the manager. What do you see and feel when you see the baby Jesus in the manager? I know Paul and his wife see their first baby upcoming. Whenever I see the baby Jesus, I see peace and grace. But this year I see something else. And I believe that without what I see, Christmas is not really appreciated and enjoyable because that is the spirit of Christmas. Do you see what I see? That is what I am going to share with you today.

Today’s passage is from Hebrew 10, which is not a popular passage for Christmas. We usually study Luke 1-2 or Matthew 1-2 in the Christmas time. However, I believe that this passage helps us to better understand the birth of Jesus from the perspective of God’s redemption and feel the spirit of Christmas. I pray that through this passage you may see the spirit in the baby Jesus and truly rejoice in him.

The book of Hebrews teaches that Christ is superior to angels, Moses, the Law, and any other high priests. Chapters 7-10 in particular elaborate on Jesus the new high priest. And today’s passage summarizes all this, focusing on Jesus’ sacrifice offered once for all by his will.

To better understand this passage, you may need to be familiar with some notions that appear in the passage – covenant, the law, and sacrifice. These notions are very crucial to understand not only this passage but also God’s redemptive work and even the whole Bible.

What is a covenant? A covenant is a legal contract made between two parties in ancient times. God used a covenant to establish his relationship with Israel. As soon as he led the Israelites out of Egypt, he made a covenant with them through Moses at Mount Sinai. The covenant consisted of more than 600 commands (or laws), including the Ten Commandments, promises, blessings and curses, which are described in Ex 19-24. The commands are collectively called the law and the law plays the major role in the covenant. It is so important that occasionally the law is used to refer to Moses’s five books and even the whole Old Testament. In fact, the relationship with God was established and kept by their obedience to the law. What was the purpose of the covenant then?

When God made the covenant with the Israelites, he clearly said that he would be their God and they should live as God’s people. (Ex 6:7; 19:5-6) In Lev 20:26 God said, “ You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” In other words, the purpose of the covenant is to help the Israelites to live as God’s holy people by keeping the law. So, if they obeyed the law well, they would be blessed and live as a holy people to God. If not, they would be cursed. (Lev 26, Deut 28)

However, God knew that they would not be able to keep all the laws and break the covenant because of their sinfulness. (Deut 31:16) That was why God introduced the sacrificial system whereby their sins could be forgiven and their broken relationship with God due to their sins could be restored. (See Ex 25-30 and Lev 1-8 for details.) So, sacrifice was a very important to Israel along with the law. In short, the covenant was made to help Israel keep living holy as God’s people by keeping the law and by offering scarifies.

The law cannot make us perfect

Let’s read verses 1-4.

“¹ The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. “² Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³ But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.” 

Every year all the people of Israel offered sacrifices together on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is called the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). (Lev 16) This was the only day when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place for the forgiveness of the whole nation. Other than this, they also offered numerous sacrifices for their sins, so priests always stayed in the temple to offer sacrifices for worshipers. However, the author raises a question – “Why do they repeat the same sacrifices endlessly year after year? Why is a single sacrifice not sufficient once for all?” If onetime sacrifice made the worshipers clean, they would not need more sacrifices. But the reality was that they offered sacrifices year after year. Why? It was because they still sinned and felt guilty for their sins. What does this tell us about the sacrifice offered according to the law?

Sacrifice can give forgiveness for sure but it cannot fix their sinful nature. So if you sin even just after offering a sacrifice, you need to come back to offer another sacrifice. This was their struggle with the law. In Rom 7:14-15, Paul, who used to be a Pharisee, confessed, “¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Though he was a perfect Pharisee, he still struggled with his sins inside.

It is clear that the law and its animal sacrifice can’t solve our sins perfectly. Why is it so?

“⁴ It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

The animal sacrifices symbolize payment for sin. Sin demands life and life is in the blood. (Lev 17:11)  But no animal was worthy of paying the full price for our sins before God. Last year’s sacrifice does not cover this year’s sins. Yesterday’s sacrifice does not cover today’s sins. What is the conclusion about the law?

“¹ The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

God allowed for the sacrificial system as a temporary measure to deal with our sins until the real thing would come. The law is only a shadow of the real thing. The law itself cannot change us fundamentally. Rather, it teaches us God’s holiness, exposes our sinfulness, and eventually leads us to the real good thing to come whereby we can be truly perfect and holy. What is that?

Jesus’s sacrifice has made us holy

⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;  ⁶ with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

This quotation is from a Davidic psalm about the Messiah. (Ps 40:6) King David was the one who planned to build the temple where sacrifices would be offered. But he knew the imperfectness of sacrifice. Then, he was inspired to see what was coming – Christ! When Christ came into the world, he said that God did not desire sacrifices and offerings. Christ saw the Father’s concern for men. He knew that sacrifices and offerings could not solve their sin problem forever. And he also knew that God had actually prepared a body, which could be consumed as the full payment for our sins and thus make us holy and perfect. God said to Christ, “Son, you are the body to be sacrificed.”

No fathers would say that kind of thing to their kids. And no kids would do that. If I said it to my children, they would say, “Dad, are you crazy? How can you say that?” Some kids would call 911 for help. What was the response of Christ?

⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”

Christ said, “Here I am. I have come to do your will, my God.” Jesus willingly and obediently came to be the sacrifice. That meant that his bones would be broken and his body would be crushed and all his blood would be poured out. Who would be willing to be such a sacrifice? Who wants to sacrifice himself for sinners? No one! But here Jesus came to do the will of God. “Yes, Father, here I am. I will be the sacrifice.” Then he came to this world as a tiny baby to be the sacrifice that would be torn apart. And he was the baby Jesus! In John 6:51 and 54, Jesus declared,

⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world…⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” 

Do you see what I see now? In the baby Jesus I see his will. I see his desire to please God. I see his obedience and determination. I feel his pain and his joy as well in dying for our sins. I see his life-giving spirit. Christ came to give his life willingly and obediently and pleasantly. That is the spirit of Christmas. That is what we should see and feel, accept, and enjoy more than anything else. Let’s praise God for Jesus who came to do God’s will and became a sacrifice for your sins and my sins.

What came about when he came and died by his will?

First, by that will he has made us holy once for all.

”¹⁰ And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Day after day every priest offered the same sacrifice again and again because their sacrifices did not take away sins. However, when Christ offered one sacrifice for sins, he immediately entered heaven. This means that his sacrificial work has ended and that the full payment for our sins has been made. So, he did not need to stay on earth and stand to offer more sacrifices. All these tell us the powerful efficacy of Christ’s onetime sacrifice.

“¹⁴ For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

Sin is never forgiven or forgotten without sacrifice. It must be paid. The law could never make us perfect and holy by the repeated sacrifice. But Jesus has made us perfect forever by a single sacrifice.

Secondly, by his sacrifice Christ has set aside the first to establish the second. (9b) The first refers to the covenant made through Moses and its the animal sacrifices and offerings. The second refers to the new covenant sealed by the blood of Christ once for all.

The Holy Spirit testified about this new second covenant through Jeremiah.

“¹⁶ “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. ¹⁸ And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”

Jeremiah lived in a most difficult time. Israel in the north had been already destroyed by Assyria. And Judah in the south was about to be destroyed as well because of their sins and unrepentant hearts. And the temple, the symbol of the first covenant, would be demolished. That meant the end of the covenant made through Moses. It looked like God was abandoning his people. However, God did not give up on them. Instead, he promised that he would make another covenant, better and perfect – the reality of the first one (1). By this covenant God would put his laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds so that their inner beings would change and grow continually until they reach the fullness of Christ, holy and perfect before God. This new covenant was sealed by Jesus’ blood. When Jesus was crucified, he said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” So, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary!

We do not offer sacrifices for our sins now. Do you bring sacrifice animals to the Sunday worship service? Do you still feel guilty of your sins? No, it is because Jesus died for our sins once for all. He has paid for all our sins fully and completely. Amen!

As we can see so far, Christ’s sacrifice has made his people holy and perfect once for all because his blood is powerful enough to pay for all our sins in the past, present, and for the future. God’s holiness has been fully satisfied and he will not remember any of our sins. What an amazing grace! We have received this grace because Christ willingly became the sacrifice and gave his life for us. “Here I am. I have come to do your will, my God.’”

Last week I saw my youngest daughter playing piano. Then she stopped it all of sudden and then sighed. I asked, “Why are you sighing?” She said, “Christmas is so stressful.” I said, “Because of Christmas gifts?” She nodded. Each year she prepares gifts for all the people she knows. So, I said, “You should not give gifts to all out of a sense of duty. God wants you enjoy Christmas, not be stressed out. By the way, I do not need a gift. The best gift for me is your massage.”

Around this time, many people are stressed out. Some are tired of preparing Christmas gifts like my daughter. Some parents are stressed out with their babies. Some lose joy because of all kinds of worries. We are missing something very important – God’s gift for us.

The spirit of Christmas is giving, but I prefer receiving gifts as far as God’s gift is concerned. We should receive and enjoy God’s gift first, which is his son Jesus. His gift is presented without pretty wrapping paper. Yet, there is life in it. There is the life of Jesus’s life and his will.

One day one pastor introduced an old minster to his congregation. The old ministered shared a story. A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the pacific coast when a fast storm was approaching. The waves were so high that they were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized. The father barely grabbed a rescue line and then had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the other end of lifeline. Then he yelled out, “I love you, son!” and threw out the lifeline to his son’s friend. His son’s friend was rescued but his son disappeared forever. As finishing the story, the old minister said, “The reason the father made such a decision was that his son was a Christian but the friend of his son was not. God did the same for us. Our heavenly father sacrificed his only son so that we could be saved.” Hearing the old minster, a young man said, “That was a nice story, but I don’t think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son’s life in hope that the other boy would become a Christian.” “Well, you’ve got a point there,” the old man replied. “It sure isn’t very realistic, is it? But I was the father and your pastor is my son’s friend.”

God gave us his son’s life to save us from our sins and the eternal judgment. That was God’s will. And Jesus’ will was to become the sacrifice for us to do God’s will. What else can be bigger than this gift? Why don’t you open it and take it and you will be full of joy and thanks.

When Jesus was born, the angel declared in Luke 2:10-11, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Merry Christmas to all! May God fill you with joy and thanks in Jesus Christ who came to be a sacrifice for us by his will. No more sacrifices are needed for your sins.
By David Yun