What CAN WASH AWAY MY SINS? (Part 1)

Hebrews 10:1-18

July 15, 2001

 

Since the Garden of Eden mankind has looked to sacrifices to cleanse the conscience and establish a right relationship with God. We find this not only in the worship of Yahweh but also in virtually every religion throughout history. "Sacrifices and offerings are activities and concepts endemic to the human race," comments one scholar [ISBE vol. IV, 260]. Pagan religions have not only offered animals but also practiced the offering of human sacrificial victims to appease their gods. Ancient Phoenicians offered human infant sacrifices to the goddess Tanit, the Aztecs offered women as sacrifices to their gods, and even on occasion we find the Jews in the Old Testament borrowing ideas from their pagan neighbors and engaging in human sacrifices to the condemnation of prophets and biblical writers.

 

We rightly view human sacrifice as barbaric. But it was a way of life for centuries as worshipers sought to appease their gods, to find a relief from fear, to manipulate or persuade their gods, and to give thanks for what they perceived their gods had done. The sacrifices stood in the place of the worshipers—vicariously appeasing or offering thanks or even propitiating the gods on their behalf. The entire old covenant sacrificial system stood in sharp contrast to the pagan counterparts. Yet with all of its improvement over the shameful acts of paganism, the old covenant sacrifices could never take away sin. And God never intended these animal sacrifices to take away sins. He reserved forgiveness of sins to the sacrificial work of His Son, Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sins? With the hymn writer we cry, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"

 

I. What Christ has done

 

Our author is not plucking new strings upon his theological guitar. He continues to strum the same chords but with differing rhythm so that his struggling audience might come to grips with the sufficiency of Jesus Christ as their Redeemer. But to do this he had to convince them that the sacrificial system that they were accustomed to, along with their parents, grandparents, and everyone before them, was invalid, useless, and futile. So he has explained what Christ has done by entering the heavenly tabernacle through his own blood offered for eternal redemption (9:11-14). He has declared Christ to be the mediator of a new covenant, one that outstrips the old in both its efficiency and effects (9:15-22). And he has explained that what makes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ sufficient is both the qualification of Christ as the sacrificial victim and the solitary ability of his sacrifice to put away sin (9:23-28).

 

But our audience was still clinging to their traditional sacrifices. Now the writer must remove forever their attachment to the blood of bulls and goats by exposing them to the light of the work of Jesus Christ. By contrasting these sacrifices with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they can see that it is time to end their this useless tradition and glory in the cross of Christ.

 

Lest we get the idea that our view today is simply to have a nice history lesson, let me point out two needs that all of us have. First, we need to understand something of the human attachment to a sacrificial system and see how it is worthless in light of the cross of Christ. Second, we need to realize that while we would not think of offering a blood sacrifice, we can fall prey to more sophisticated sacrificial systems that are just as vain as those of the ancient world. Instead, we must cling to Jesus Christ; and we can only do so if we are fully convinced that what Jesus Christ has done is totally sufficient to carry us through this life and the one to come. With this in mind, what has Christ done that demands more than our attention but the complete submission of our lives?

 

1. Superceded the sacrificial system

 

The writer picks up again the idea that the Law's declarations concerning ceremonies were simply shadows of much better things to come. "For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who would draw near." There is a big difference between the shadow and "the very form of things" or 'the real thing'. You can stand on the Mall in Washington DC between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial and find a long shadow cast over you. The shadow might be admirable for the moment until you look up and cast your gaze upon the Washington Monument as it towers 555 feet above you, rising in the sky as though it will never stop! You quit looking at the shadow for you recognize that the real thing supercedes it.

 

Here was the basic problem. These first century brethren had been looking at the shadow of the sacrificial system for so long that they thought it to be breathtaking and wonderful. And compared to the sacrificial system of the pagan religions around them, filled with their superstition and human gore, it was wonderful. But compared to Jesus Christ, the One "manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," that old system loses its luster and no longer has an appeal. To understand this our writer basically says, "Take a look at the priests; they keep doing the same thing year after year; if their sacrifices are so adequate and wonderful, then why all the repetition? They cannot cleanse the conscience from sin!" "Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?" There would have been no need to go back to the brazen altar if the earlier sacrifices had atoned for sins and cleansed the conscience from dead works.

 

I can almost hear one of them saying, 'But wait a moment; God is the one who established that whole sacrificial system through the Law. Why did he do this if it had no effect?' It did have an effect. "But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year." The sacrificial system did exactly what God intended it to do when he instituted it through Moses in the giving of the Law. It gives us "a reminder of sins year by year." The word for "reminder" simply means, "to bring to the mind again." We are forgetful creatures concerning our sins. We can easily stuff them away or crowd them out through busy lives or deflect any thought of them through religious deeds. But the sacrificial system eliminated this by bringing to the attention of the worshipers the sinfulness of our sin. It is an offense to God. It is God who has created us and who holds us accountable to follow his law in perfect obedience. The fact that an animal must sacrifice its life in the place of the worshiper reminds us of God's disposition toward sin, that a price must be exacted for sin, and that price is one's life. The knife slitting the throat of the groaning sacrifice reminds the worshiper that God cannot be met on our own terms. Sin must be atoned for by the precise payment God demands.

 

'Well, a goat or two will do for me,' someone might quip. But the next thought eliminates this. "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." In one fell swoop, this writer cuts the life out of the entire sacrificial system. Bulls and goats cannot do what you—the worshiper must do. It is not the dumb bull or goat that has sinned; it is you. The bulls and goats had no understanding of God's law or any consciousness of sin. They are amoral creatures that have no concept of sin and righteousness as we find with human beings in every culture and every country. Even among people groups that have no Bible in their language or gospel preaching, there is the basic knowledge of God inherent within the conscience. Paul explains, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:18-20). Both the witness of creation and the internal witness of the conscience testify to God as Creator and Judge. No, every detail that we have in the revelation of Holy Scripture is not present in creation and conscience, but there is adequate revelation within them for a person to recognize that he is accountable to the Creator God.

 

It is interesting that sacrificial systems are found in the most primitive and even most sophisticated societies throughout history. But the reason is that man knows inherently that he must have a substitute before the wrath of God. The problem is that man has reasoned out his own plans for appeasing God. He runs from both the written Law that demands his obedience and the appeal of conscience that points toward moral behavior. He goes the direction of rebellion against God. Thus Paul wrote, "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures" (Rom. 1:21-23). So we find whole societies worshiping animals or images or heavenly bodies with varied sacrificial practices, but they deny the revelation of God.

 

Our writer was addressing the old covenant sacrificial practice that was superior to any of the pagan religious practices, since being established by God. Yet even that system could not take away sins, must less the myriad sacrificial rites of the nations.

 

Substitutions for the blood of bulls and goats characterize our society. We are repulsed by the idea of a bellowing bull being slain but quickly embrace the sacrifice of Christian "activity" and quaint liturgy and humanitarian projects that we believe will serve as an appropriate "sacrifice for sins." I was talking with a Jewish person one day and began to ask about the sacrificial system no longer being in force. Then I posed the question, "Since you do not have animal sacrifices any more, what do you depend upon to take away your sins?" The quick response was "good deeds and acts of service." No blood, no mess, just lots of activities seem to be the means for removing sin in our day.

 

But there was a reason for the blood of bulls and goats. They were substitutes for the worshipers before the righteous justice of God and his law—albeit inadequate substitutes since they could not identify with anyone in regard to sin and accountability before God. Yet in them were a reminder of sins, and a reminder that for true forgiveness to take place, God would have to intervene through his mercy and grace.

 

"Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, 'SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE'." The "therefore" has potent force! After explaining that the repetition of the sacrificial system demonstrated its impotency and reinforcing this by explaining that the bloody sacrifices could never take away sin, he sets forth the whole rationale for Jesus Christ entering the world to be our redeemer. The statement has an intentional ring of the preexistence of Christ, for "He comes into the world" as one who created the world (1:2-3), and as one who has a specific purpose (v. 9). Our writer once again finds refuge in the Old Testament Scriptures to prove his point. He was not coming up with a new idea of religion but simply amplifying what the prophets before him had spoken many times over. The sacrificial system was not the end-all for a right relationship with God.

 

When David sought the Lord for forgiveness in regard to his sin with Bathsheba, he prayed, "For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (Ps. 51:16-17). When Samuel reproved King Saul who offered a sacrifice contrary to the word of the Lord, the prophet declared, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (I Sam. 15:22). It was the heart that God desired to change. Sacrifices did nothing to change the heart. Thus through the psalmist, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah, God thundered to awaken the slumbering people under the old covenant that their burnt offerings apart from a changed heart were worthless (Psa. 40:6-8; Isa. 1:11-13a; 66:3-4; Jer. 7:21-23; Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8—I was helped by Kent Hughes' insights at this point, Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, II, 20-21).

 

Who would do the will of God? Who would walk in perfect obedience and honor God from a perfect heart of submission? Did Moses or David or Isaiah or Jeremiah fulfill that divine desire? Just like you and me, none of them did. But Jesus Christ did perfectly obey the will of God! The divine will led our Lord to the cross. Two things happened in this: Christ fulfilled God demands for righteousness in regard to the Law and Christ satisfied God's demand of righteousness in regard to our sin. "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD'." The divine will demanded perfect obedience and perfect satisfaction. Bulls and goats could do neither. They had no consciousness of walking in obedience to fulfill the law of God vicariously for the worshipers. Nor could they satisfy the divine justice rendered by atonement since they did not qualify as morally responsible human beings. So Jesus Christ came to do both! Jesus Christ obeyed the Father's will. And what did that "will" encompass?

 

2. Established the new covenant

 

This is where we find the explanation of the new covenant. All along, from the beginning of creation, God's intent was to establish the new covenant as a means (1) to change hearts of rebellion into hearts of glad submission, (2) to render satisfaction to the eternal justice of God as the one who forgives sinners, and (3) to demonstrate the wonder of God's grace in it all. But to do this the old covenant had to be overturned. Just like a cruel despot ruling a kingdom, the old covenant's throne had to be demolished and a new throne of grace established. By comparison with all the other religious systems, the old covenant was the best thing that men had going for them before God. Yet at its best it was inadequate due to the sinfulness of men. It was inadequate by design so that men might understand their sinfulness and the eternal price necessary to remove sin and declare them righteous. The old covenant gave a means to atone for sin through animal sacrifices yet not as a final, absolute remedy for taking away sins. Every sacrifice was temporary, and waiting the day when the shadow would give way to the substance in Christ. There were bound up in it the moral desire of God for his creation, but no power to fulfill these desires expressed in the commandments. The old covenant was clear, written in stone, but it was inadequate to write these laws upon the mind and heart. Men could see what God commanded yet not have the power to obey due to the weakness of the flesh and human disposition.

 

So what had to take place? Our writer explains, "Then He said, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL'. He takes away the first in order to establish the second." There it is! It was Jesus Christ who met the demands of the law with perfect righteousness so that Paul could declare, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 10:4). This will of God led to the cross so that the demands of righteousness were satisfied through the substitutionary death of Christ. Therefore in the high priestly prayer our Lord declared to the Father, "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4). Having done the Father's will, "He takes away the first [that is, the old covenant with all of its sacrificial system and inadequacies] in order to establish the second." Through the righteousness of Christ and his death on our behalf, the old covenant was overturned! The word for "take away," was used in Classical Greek to refer to a law or government or custom that was abolished or repealed or destroyed. The strength of the word must have been startling to the audience receiving this epistle. They knew precisely what the writer meant: it is over. The old covenant has no more demand over your life. The sacrificial system offers you nothing. The rituals and ceremonies are no longer valid or needed. You are free from the tyranny of the old covenant that constantly exposed your weakness but gave you nothing to change the heart.

 

But the good news is that not only did Christ through obedience to the will of the Father overturn the old covenant, but also established the new covenant: "in order to establish the second." The first covenant had to be removed so that the new covenant mediated through Jesus Christ might be established. IT IS REMOVED! All who cling to the hope or even fear that obeying the law or following a ritual will put you into a right relationship with God must see that this old covenant is removed. But you are not left hanging with no hope; instead you have a better hope, a sure one in what Christ has done. Jesus Christ established with finality the new covenant. The language of the text expresses this beautifully. A literal rendering would be, 'He removes and forever removes the first in order that the second might be established with finality' (the use of present tense for "takes away" and aorist for "establish" makes this clear).

 

We will consider more of what the new covenant establishes next week (D.V.) but for now know that what Christ has done provides forgiveness grounded in his death on the cross and made possible by grace, and a new disposition that will follow after God (vv. 16-17). The blood of Christ takes away our sin and purchases for us a new life created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph. 4:24). Our writer describes it like this: "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Unlike the old covenant, the new covenant affirms that you are sanctified or made holy, set apart unto the Lord forever. The use of the perfect tense, "have been sanctified," points to the effectiveness of the offering of Jesus Christ. The former sacrifices could not cleanse the consciences of the worshipers from their sins, but the sanctifying work of Christ through the shedding of his blood on our behalf actually sets us apart as holy unto the Lord. Christ's sacrifice is "once for all," an unrepeatable event that secured both our standing with God and the certainty of our progress in relationship to him.

 

Now the question must be posed to the first century audience: how can you continue embracing the old covenant when Christ has taken it away? How can you treat lightly the new covenant established through mediation of the Son of God by the shedding of his own blood? But that first century audience has been gone for 2000 years; now the question confronts each one of us. Are you trying to substitute something for what Jesus Christ has done in fulfillment of the Father's will as our only mediator before God?

 

One final thought will help us see the necessity to rest in Jesus Christ, his being seated at the Father's right hand.

 

3. Sat down at God's right hand

 

We're already noted that there were no chairs in the tabernacle. There was never any sitting down for the priests because their work was never finished. "Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." The monotony of what they did, gave way to futility. The perfect tense verb, "standing," reminds us that their work was never done. Add their sacrifices together and they still amount to nothing before God in terms of satisfying his righteousness or forgiving sinners. Contrasted with this is the work of Christ being completed: "but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD." No repetition was needed with Jesus Christ because he alone qualified as the perfect sacrifice acceptable to God in our stead. So intentionally, Jesus offered himself at the cross, a sacrifice bearing the judgment of God on behalf of sinful men; soaking up every righteous blow of divine wrath so that we might have a new standing with God.

 

Put yourself for a moment in the place of these believers. They had witnessed a long line of sacrifices for generations. That was all they knew. Now the writer tells them that what Christ did satisfied God "for all time," and he demonstrated this by the fact that he "SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD." Their minds were reeling! They were in the habit of offering sacrifices. Now they were told that such activities were useless. How could they get away from their old pattern? They had to look to Jesus Christ to set their eyes and minds upon the wonder that God the Son became the all-satisfying sacrificial victim before the wrath of God. Justice was served toward us through the mercy of Jesus Christ taking our place. And they could be assured that the sacrificial system was over because Jesus had taken his seat of authority at the Father's right hand. The work was over—it was time to sit down as one who has finished the will of the Father, "waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET."

 

Redemption is complete through Christ. We are just waiting for the day when death will be no more. The presence of sin will no longer exist. Satan will no longer tempt and abuse. The inclinations of our minds will be in perfect concert with God's own perfections.

 

Are you clinging to a shadow or resting in the substance, Jesus Christ and his completed work at the cross?

 

Part II, July 22, 2001

 

II. What Christ is doing

            1. Waiting

            2. Sanctifying

            3. Applying

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