WHO ME? PERFECT?
Hebrews 9:25-10:18
Without a doubt, the hardest part of the good news, what’s most difficult for us to believe—to understand in our minds and feel in our hearts—is that we’ve been made perfect in Christ.
We know ourselves too well. We know how often we come up short.
When we come to Hebrews 9 & 10, we stumble. We can’t quite believe it’s true:
“By one sacrifice He has made us perfect forever!”
That’s a bit more than we can force ourselves to believe!
And yet, that’s what makes the gospel such good news!
That’s what makes Jesus’ sacrifice so much better than the O.T. system.
That’s why Hebrews insists it would be useless to go back to Judaism.
It has nothing to offer!
Jesus’ offering makes us perfect, once for all.
JESUS’ MINISTRY IS BETTER THAN THE PRIESTS OF JUDAISM 8-10:18
Jesus’ ministry is better because it’s served by a better High Priest 8:1-5
Jesus’ ministry is better because it’s based on a better covenant 8:6-13
OLD => Deficient <= Because of our disobedience, unfaithfulness
NEW => Better <= It’s recorded on the heart
Jesus’ ministry is better because it’s offered in a better tabernacle 9:1-24
OLD => Deficient <= Access was limited
NEW => Better <= Provides direct, unlimited access to God
Jesus’ ministry is better because He offers a better sacrifice 9:25-10:18
10 WAYS JESUS’ SACRIFICE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICES OF O.T. SYSTEM:
LEVI CHRIST
1. Priests purify the figure 9:23Jesus purifies the true temple 9:23
Levi’s sacrifices only purify the figure, the earthly temple.
The figure is purified with animal blood—part of the creation.
The true tabernacle—the heavenly one—requires a better sacrifice–Jesus’ own blood.
Christ’s sacrifice purifies God’s heavenly tabernacle.
2. Priests entered a man-made copy 9:24
Jesus entered the true sanctuary 9:24
His sacrifice is presented before God Himself–in the heavenly sanctuary.
The priests only entered a copy of God’s temple.
In 10:1 the writer makes a similar statement.
Law is a shadow of the good things to come; not the reality. The reality comes later.
Paul also calls their religious rules a shadow in Col. 2:17.
Christ is the reality, the substance to which the shadow points.
By clinging to legalistic standards, people are hanging on to a shadow.
In our study of Col: coming home from a trip and hugging my wife’s shadow.
Kent Hughes talks about kissing his wife’s high school graduation picture.
Why would we hug or kiss the shadow, when we have the real thing?!!
The commandments, the tabernacle, are shadows of the real thing that was to come.
now that He has come, . . .
now that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, . . .
now that we have direct access to the very presence of God, . . .
why would you want to go back to the shadow?!!
3. Priests offered the blood of others 9:25
Jesus offered His own blood 9:25-26
4. Priests offered many times 9:25-26Jesus offered only once 9:25-26
10:11 points out the monotony:
“day after day” “once for all” 10:10
“again and again” “for all time” 10:12
“the same offerings” “by one sacrifice” 10:14
He doesn’t repeat it.It doesn’t go on and on, over and over again.
He finished the job offering it once because He was the perfect sacrifice.
This concept of “once” is seen in other areas of God’s dealing also.
It’s seen in the matter of death.
He assumes people only die once.
That’s the basis for his argument about Christ’s sacrifice.
Just as people only die once, Christ’s sacrifice, once for all, is enough.
While it’s not author’s intent to speak to our contemporary theological scene, he does speak to the popular idea of reincarnation.
God says, “man is destined to die ONCE, and after that to face judgment.”
There’s no coming back. No second chance.
The sequence: one death, then judgment. 9:27
Reincarnation’s popularity doesn’t change the way God established things.
Wishful thinking may alleviate peoples’ fears,
but it won’t change their destiny!
God says we’re destined to die ONCE, then face judgment.
Similarly, when Christ comes back, it won’t be to die again,
it will be to deliver those who are waiting faithfully for Him. 9:28
5. Priests’ offerings couldn’t make us perfect 10:1-2
Jesus’ sacrifice made us perfect 10:14
Priestly sacrifices were offered over and over because they never finished the job.
You don’t keep paying installments on your house after the mortgage is paid off!
10:10 “We have been made holy” through the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.
10:14 “By one sacrifice, He has made us perfect forever.”
The results are final. Our salvation is a completed thing—a “done deal.”
6. Priests’ offerings made us remember sin 10:3
Jesus’ sacrifice made us forget our sin 10:2, 17, 22
The law keeps reminding us of our guilt.
It reminds us that we’ve been weighed and found wanting; all fall short of God’s glory
10:2 We “no longer feel guilty” for our sins
10:17 God remembers our sins and lawless acts no more.
10:22 Our hearts have been cleansed from a guilty conscience.
7. Priests couldn’t take away sin 10:4
Jesus takes away our sin 9:26; 10:18
Animal sacrifices can’t take away sin; His sacrifice removes sin forever.
10:4 “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
9:26 “He has appeared once for all . . . to do away with sin.”
10:18 “[sins] have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”
The writer was not the first to understand that animal blood couldn’t atone for sins.
God’s people had known this for hundreds of years.
Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah
all affirm that it’s not sacrifices God wants.
It isn’t about just “going through the motions” of religion! 10:5-8
God finds pleasure in people who offer sacrifice with a contrite, obedient heart.
Though God Himself required the offerings, to teach us the need for shedding blood, to pay the price of sin, and to point His people toward the Savior,
The sacrifices were never enough to take away our sin.
Sacrifices are a mockery unless the heart is seeking God.
Ritual is meaningless.
Our problem is the heart! Only Jesus can solve that problem.
Doctor working in rural village served people with compassion. After his death, his books were examined and entries found on which he had written in red: “Forgiven—too poor to pay.” Wife decided to collect debts. She filed suit. When judge looked over books, he asked, “Is this your husband’s writing?” When she affirmed it, he responded,
“No court can touch those whom he has forgiven.”
That’s what Jesus did for us. He writes in bold crimson letters, “FORGIVEN!”
Paul asks in Rom. 8, “if God is the One who justifies, then who can condemn us?”
Our sin has been taken away!
In case the contrasts aren’t enough,
Hebrews adds a few reasons why Jesus’ offering is superior to that of the priests:
8. (Offered by a sinner) Jesus was obedient 10:9
10:9 “I have come to do your will”
The quotation from Ps. 40 is based on King Saul’s experience.
He disobeyed God by taking animals he’d been told not to take,
then used some to make sacrifices.
That’s supposed to persuade God that His disobedience is OK!
God responds that He wants obedience more than sacrifice.
He uses a Hebrew idiom which exaggerates extreme contrasts.
It isn’t sacrifice He wants; it’s a heart that’s inclined to obey His will.
Ritual doesn’t satisfy God; obedience does.
In that Spirit Jesus fulfills the law. He has come to obey God’s will.
This isn’t a statement that God doesn’t want sacrifices, He required them.
But obedience is more important.
Sacrifices are meaningless unless they are tied to doing His will.
Jesus is the One who came to do His will.
He is obedient, in contrast to the priests, who were sinful.
10:9—”He sets aside the first to establish the second.”
Donald Grey Barnhouse was walking through the battlefields of Belgium after W.W. I.
He was struck by falling leaves, which disintegrated in his hands.
When he realized that it was spring, not fall, he noticed that the leaves had outlived the autumn winds and winter frosts, and were falling on a wind-free day. Why?
In spring the sap begins to run, and new buds push from within.
New life expels the deadness left over from the previous year.
This is what happens when God writes His will on our hearts:
New life expels deadness.
Our renewed hearts pump fresh blood through us.
His will to obey pushes aside the first covenant, characterized by unwillingness to obey.
The life found in the new replaces the old, which is characterized by death.
9. (Priests never sat down) Jesus sat down in God’s presence 10-13
He is seated at the right hand of the Father—waiting for the victory to be complete.
His work is finished.
10. (Priests serve to cure problem) Jesus prevents problem 14-18
He has changed our hearts so that we are no longer obligated to sin.
“He writes His laws in our hearts”
He’s changed us on the inside—in the heart.
Sum of what God tells us in these 10 contrasts is noted in 10:1 and 10:14:
10:1 [The law] “can never make perfect those who draw near to worship”
The law can never make us perfect!
10:14 “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
We have been made perfect in Jesus!
That’s the essence of the difference.
WE HAVE BEEN MADE PERFECT IN HIM!
How much does this leave US to do?
How much depends on us? What do WE add?
It’s all about Him! He did it all! It is finished!
We are complete in Him; there’s nothing for us to add!
All God asks US to do is to trust Jesus–stop trying to “do it ourselves”–and trust Him!
Thus we see that in every way Christ offers us more than Judaism.
There’s nothing to go back to.
Who would want to go back to the bondage of legalism,
once God has transformed our heart and set us free?!!
Gal 5:1: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free;
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.
And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
HOW SHOULD THIS MESSAGE CHANGE OUR LIVES? Author’s conclusion:
If Jesus accomplished all of this, we can have confidence to come into His presence boldly.
Therefore, let us draw near to Him!
We don’t have to be afraid any more!We don’t have to struggle with guilt.
He has taken it all away. He remembers it no more.
God says, “By this one sacrifice, He has made us perfect forever.”
That’s good news!
We can draw near to Him with confidence!”
Let’s spread the Word!