The book of Hebrews is one of the most captivating, amazing, and down-right beautiful books in all of Scripture. Sadly, though, it has eluded many Christians. Many believers are simply unaware of Hebrews and what is able to offer them. There is a trend in evangelical Christianity where people only cycle through a couple books of the Bible; the Gospels, James, and Proverbs are staples of practical and daily Christian reading—and they are wonderful books, as all Scripture is life-giving—but they only intend to communicate so much. The word of God is amazing in every place, and it should be the duty, privilege, and joy of a believer to engage with the whole of Scripture. And the best place to begin ‘exploring’ the Bible—I think—is the book of Hebrews.
It’s very easy to miss Hebrews. Immediately, the title of the book is a tad misleading. “Hebrews” sounds like it should be an Old Testament book, but it isn’t. Instead, it’s tucked between Paul’s epistles (ending with Philemon) and James. So, it’s very easy to flip past it to get to other, more familiar books. Additionally, Hebrews is—as far as the epistles go—pretty long. It’s thirteen chapters (making it equal in length to 2nd Corinthians), and the language of Hebrews is pretty ‘scholarly’… This ain’t no 1st John. Lastly, the subject matter of Hebrews is incredibly deep and complex. It assumes that the reader is comfortably familiar with the Old Testament (which most Christians throughout church history have not been), and its main audience no longer exists today. These factors can make Hebrews a difficult read, but they also make Hebrews a deeply rewarding book to study, which I hope we will all find is the case today.
Background
There is a raging debate about the origin of Hebrews. No one denies that the book dates back to the first century, but there are serious questions about its authorship. The book of Hebrews is truly anonymous. No author is clearly identified within the epistle (as opposed to the other New Testament epistles, which all start with a greeting from the author), and it doesn’t seem that the epistle was tagged with an author’s name when it was originally distributed (as it appears was the case for the Gospels). Historically, Hebrews was collected with the letters of Paul (which is why it appears between Philemon and James in modern Bibles), but possible authors include Luke, Barnabas, Peter, Mark, or really any New Testament writer/Apostle.
The original audience seems to be first century Jews who had recently converted to Christianity. They believed in Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, but were wrestling with the question of how they should engage with the Judaism that they used to practice. They hadn’t left Judaism per se, but they knew that they couldn’t just keep doing what they had been doing now that they had come to believe in Jesus.
Particularly, Hebrews addresses Jewish Christians who are thinking about going back to Judaism, or at least, back to the sacrificial system of the temple. This is, first, the reason why nearly everyone agrees that Hebrews is a first century work—the Jewish temple was destroyed in 70 AD, so it would make no sense for Hebrews to have been written after 70 AD, because the issue it seeks to resolve wouldn’t exist (or, at the very least, we would expect Hebrews to mention the events of 70 AD because it so strongly supports the overall argument).
To me, Hebrews reads like a recorded sermon, likely given by Paul or an associate of Paul’s, which may have been recorded by Luke or another Greek-speaker in the Apostolic band. The theology (specifically the reliance on the Old Testament) is very Pauline, and the Greek reads like Luke (so I’ve heard). This would also explain the no-name. Paul was not liked by the Jews who heard him preaching during his missionary journeys, nor would he have to sign it (like he did for his other epistles) because he didn’t write it; and Luke likely would not have attached his name since he did not create the content.
What to Expect
What we will find here in Hebrews chapter 10 is an absolutely beautiful passage about what Jesus has done for us and what He has accomplished on our behalf—but we will also find a warning. If you are familiar with the book of Hebrews, then you know that it can be summarized in one sentence: Jesus is better. Jesus is better than prophets and angels; Jesus is better than Moses; Jesus is the better high priest; Jesus is better. But because Jesus is better, He carries a unique and final authority. Rejecting Jesus, the ultimate culmination of God’s work in the world and the fulfillment of His promises, is a decision that carries serious and eternal consequences.
Our focus today will be upon what I would call the climax of Hebrews: chapter ten. In chapter ten, the author takes the theme of Hebrews and finally applies it to the specific issue of his day, saying that Jesus is the better sacrifice. At the heart of The Gospel, at the very center, is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When we preach The Gospel, it all hinges on the reality of Jesus offering Himself as the perfect Lamb of God. Paul says to the Corinthians that he “determined to know nothing among [them] except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” [1st Corinthians 2:2]. The Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is this:
Though we are not, in ourselves, worthy to receive the kingdom of God, Jesus, in His love for us and obedience to the Father, came down from heaven, being made incarnate by the virgin Mary, lived a perfect and sinless life by keeping the Law on our behalf, yet nevertheless was crucified by the Jews and by Pontius Pilate; while on the cross, Jesus bore the wrath of God on behalf of all who would believe in Him, taking their sin upon Himself, and the penalty thereof, so that they could be made righteous in the sight of God; He then rose on the third day to prove to all that He truly is the Son of God and the savior of the world.
Understand that without the crucifixion—and without the implications of it—the life of Jesus is utterly needless. If He did not offer Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice, then why did He need to be sinless? Why would He need to become incarnate at all? Furthermore, if Jesus did not bear our sin on Calvary, then why should we care if He is risen or not? The crucifixion, and the sacrifice that was made possible by it, are absolutely essential to understanding who Jesus is and what He has done.
What Hebrews will tell us is that in His crucifixion, Jesus accomplished a single, sufficient, and final redemption for all who believe in Him. Jesus is a perfect Savior, perfecting everyone who clings to Him in faith, never failing to present His people as holy before God.
Diving into the Text
“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 draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” [Hebrews 10:1 - 4]
In the first century, there existed a very strange time. Jesus had come to earth, died, and risen from the dead—but there was still a temple in Jerusalem. Now, you would rightly ask, ‘Why is it at all important that there was still a temple in Jerusalem?’ The reason why is this: just as the crucifixion is absolutely central to the Christian faith and practice, so too was the temple essential to the Jewish faith and practice. Before the coming of Christ, the Jewish temple is where the Jewish people went to have their sins dealt with; the temple is where the sacrifices happened.
Sin has been a problem since nearly the beginning. Since Genesis chapter 3, humanity has been in slavery to sin [John 8:34]. Now, the Bible teaches explicitly that “the wages of sin is death” [Romans 6:23], but God also says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked” [Ezekiel 33:11]. So how can God continue to have a relationship with mankind if it is so ensnared in sin and continues to rebel against God? Through atonement.
From the very first sin, committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God has shown that He deals with sin through atonement—specifically vicarious atonement. In Genesis 2:16 - 17 God commanded Adam, “From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Yahweh promised that Adam would die if he disobeyed—or sinned against—God. However, when Adam and Eve give into sin and eat the fruit, they do not die (at least, right away). So did God lie to them? No, He made atonement for them. In Genesis 3:21 Moses tells us that after Adam and Eve sinned, “Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.” So Adam and Eve didn’t die, but what did? The animal. Whatever animal the skins came from died, and died in their place so that God could cover them. This is vicarious atonement, all the way back in the beginning; God deals with our sin through atoning sacrifices.
As God called the Jewish people, He continued the use of sacrifices to restore the relationship between Himself and His people. Leviticus chapters 4 and 5 lay out the rules for sin-sacrifices under the Old Covenant. The purpose? Atonement.
“Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven.” [Leviticus 4:35]
Eventually, when it was constructed under Solomon (and then rebuilt following the Jews’ return from exile) the temple would become the center for animal sacrifice. So, if you were a Jewish person between the years of 500 BC and 70 AD and you wanted to have your sins atoned for, you went to the temple to have the priest perform a sacrifice for you.
Animal Sacrifice: Good But Not Nearly Enough
But now, for about forty years, there’s a very strange situation. Jesus had come and offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins [1st John 4:10], but the temple—where the sin offerings had been and still were being made—was still standing. Ultimately, what the author of Hebrews is warning his audience about is going back to the temple. It seems as though this was the current problem that caused Hebrews to be written; this was the key issue! Again, Hebrews is focused on developing the idea that Jesus has come and He is better than all the things that came before Him. What came before—recorded in the Old Testament—was actually a type (or a shadow) of Jesus Himself; it was all supposed to point the Jewish people to Jesus. But what the Jews in the first century were in danger of was rejecting the work of Jesus (the ultimate figure) and reverting to the temple system (the shadow). This, much to the pain of Hebrews’ author, would leave those Jews dead in their sins and without the propitiatory work of Christ.
In establishing that Jesus is the better sacrifice, the Apostle says that it is “impossible” for the sacrifices of the temple to take away sins. For, if the sacrifices did take away sins and were able to actually perfect the ones for whom those sacrifices were made, the sacrifices would no longer need to be offered.
“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 draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” [Hebrews 10:1 - 4]
If the sacrifices were effective at taking away sins, then they would have stopped eventually. If we understand sin in the ‘debt’ paradigm (which is not unprecedented in Scripture), then we could say, “When a debt is paid off, then the payments cease to be made for no more payments are needed.” However, the fact that sacrifices still needed to be made—those sacrifices which are the payment of our debt—tells us that the debt of sin had not been paid; the Old Testament sacrificial system did not truly take away sins, but was established to point us towards the one who could: the Lord Jesus Christ.
The fact that the sacrifices continued—and the fact that God set up the sacrifices to be continual—shows us what their true purpose was. Now, it is not as though the Old Testament sacrifices were pointless. Indeed, God did promise to observe the sin-offerings under the Old Covenant, but this was in light of what Jesus would come and do. In observing the old sacrifices, the Jewish people demonstrated their faith in the promises of God and their hope of a coming savior who would take away their sin. And Christ is this one who truly takes away sin.
“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 burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, “Behold, I have come, In the scroll of the book it is written of Me, To do Your will, O God.”’ After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” [Hebrews 10:5 - 10]
It is here that we see the Apostle making his grand conclusion—this is the entire culmination of the book: “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” [Hebrews 10:10]. But we will unpack the ramifications of that when we finish the chapter.
Jesus Christ: The Worthy Sacrifice
First, let’s examine verse five. So far, we’ve seen that the theme of Hebrews is that “Jesus is better.” And, seeing that the author of Hebrews has turned his attention upon the sacrificial system, we can foresee that he intends to argue that Jesus is the better sacrifice. In fact, he has already said so in Hebrews chapter 9, saying,
“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him” [Hebrews 9:28 - 29].
The author has then strongly proclaimed that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” [Hebrews 10:4], showing the inadequacy of the Old Covenant. But, the next question that must be asked is, “How could Jesus be the better sacrifice?” Answer: the incarnation. The incarnation is what makes Jesus’s sacrifice effective where the animal sacrifices were not; Jesus’s identity as the incarnate God-man is what makes His sacrifice so much greater than the sacrifices of mere bulls and goats.
The incarnation is an unavoidable biblical doctrine. It was prophesied in the Old Testament [Isaiah 7:14, 9:6 - 7; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 12:10], realized in Judea under the rule of Herod [Matthew 1:24 - 25; Luke 2:11], and explained by the Apostles in the New Testament [John 1:14, 18; Philippians 2:5 - 8; Colossians 1:15 - 19, Hebrews 1:1 - 3].
Of these passages, John 1:14 stands out as a clear parallel to the language found here in Hebrews 10:5. John 1:14 reads: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” In the prologue of John, the Word—the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God—“became flesh,” or perhaps, came into the world and took on a body, just as Hebrews says. How unthinkable, the eternal Son of God, the Holy One, Yahweh Himself, became a man. Why? To offer Himself on behalf of all who would believe in Him. The incarnation is the mechanism through which God is able to save the sinner; the reality of the incarnation is why the death of Jesus can be counted as a worthy and effective sacrifice.
In his work Cur Deus Homo (Latin for ‘Why God Man’ or, ‘Why Did God Become a Man’), Anselm of Canterbury wrestles with the question of the incarnation. Essentially, Anselm argues that, because of sin, there exists a deficit between God and man—but there is a cosmic question of how to resolve it. He breaks it down like this: Man owed a debt, but couldn’t pay it; God could pay the debt, but didn’t owe it. How then, will the debt be resolved? God could not merely wave the debt, for that would be unjust and therefore would injure His character. Man could not pay the debt, for to do so he would need to become God, and that is not possible. So, if the debt was going to be resolved, God would have to pay it. But, because of the nature of the debt (a debt which is paid by enduring wrath), God had to become our representative so as to take the wrath that we deserved upon Himself. Thus, God, in His infinite wisdom and love for us, became a man—Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus then, to fulfill the promise of God and to show us His love, bore the weight of our sin, endured the wrath of His Father, and paid our debt by offering Himself as sacrifice on the cross.
And this was the point the whole time! This is the central revelation of Scripture! The incarnation and the cross are the first climax of God’s redemptive plan (the second being Christ’s return). The need for effective atonement is made clear by the Old Testament. Look again at verse three: “In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.” The repetitive nature of the sacrifices was a “reminder of sins” to all for whom they were continually made. If you were an observant Jew, living under the Old Covenant, then you ought to have been made constantly aware of the sacrificial system’s inadequacy. Imagine, every year having to witness the re-offering of the sacrifices on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). Imagine, every day being presently aware of your sin and knowing, “I have to go offer another sacrifice.” You would be distraught or down-right frustrated about the lacking power of the sacrifices. Of course, you would be grateful that God has provided a means of grace by which you can have your sins overlooked, but you would be made to wonder, “Can’t there be a better sacrifice that covers all my sins forever?” And then you would read what David writes in Psalm 40:6, “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired.” “Well,” you might ask, somewhat exasperated, “what does He desire?”
But it all was meant to point to Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus—as Isaiah 53 so powerfully describes—was what God desired. “Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” [Isaiah 53:10]. In Jesus—and in Jesus alone—is God satisfied. Why is it that the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not actually able to deal with sin? Because, while they prefigured Christ, they were not Christ, and therefore could never attain His worth. But now that Christ has come, the worthy sacrifice has been made, and He can “perfect for all time those who are being sanctified” [Hebrews 10:14].
The Seat of Triumph
The incarnation of Christ allowed Him to be the perfect sacrifice, fulfilling the prefigure of the Old Testament sacrificial system. But the incarnation is also the mechanism of Christ fulfilling another Old Testament image: the priesthood. In the Old Testament, the Levitical Priesthood was entrusted with numerous tasks, chief of which was performing the temple sacrifices. The priest’s job was to go before God on behalf of the people, present the atoning sacrifice of their sin, and to repeat the process until he died. Just as the sacrifices themselves were repeated endlessly, so the work of the priest was never finished. But when Christ comes as both our sacrifice and our High Priest, His work is completed.
“And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies are put as a footstool for His feet.” [Hebrews 10:11 - 13]
Here again the author notes that the priests offered “the same sacrifices” that “never take away sins,” bringing to mind the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. But next, he says that Jesus, after offering His perfect sacrifice, “sat down at the right hand of God.” Jesus “sat down.” What does this mean? It means His work is finished. The priests of the Old Testament could never sit down (in fact, there was nowhere to sit down in the Tabernacle or the Temple)—the priest was always working, which served as a reminder that sin remained a lingering problem. But Jesus, having cleansed us of our sins, sits down. He stops offering atonement because all the needed atonement has been accomplished “for all time.”
It is from this “seated” position that Christ makes intercession for us, replacing the constant reminder of sin with the constant reminder of our salvation. See what Hebrews chapter 7 says:
“And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” [Hebrews 7:23 - 27]
Because Jesus has perfected us by one sacrifice, He is able to represent us to the Father forever. Jesus has “sat down” from His atoning work, and now He intercedes for us in front of the Father, ensuring our salvation.
What it Means
We’ve now seen that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the insufficient Old Testament sacrifices, who unlike those sacrifices, fully and completely took away the sins of all for whom He died. Next, we saw that because of the perfection of His work, He is able to intercede for the saints before the throne of God forever. And now, the writer to the Hebrews is going to tell us what it all means:
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” [Hebrews 10:19 - 22]
The author says that we can have “confidence” to go before God—confidence! We, who were once dead, wretched, rebellious sinners—who were condemned under the wrath of God—can go before the throne of Yahweh with confidence because of what Jesus has done. Cast aside your doubts and inhibitions; let not our accuser prevail against you; but cling fast to the Lord Jesus and find confidence in His perfect work. Take “full assurance” of The Gospel, and inherit the reward that Christ has purchased for you with His own blood.
Hebrews chapter 10 explains to us in no uncertain terms what confidence we can have in our salvation. Christ has died for us, bearing our sin, and has “perfected” us “for all time” [Hebrews 10:14]. What more is there to say? We perhaps should borrow from Paul’s words in Romans 8:31 - 34:
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who indeed did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
The Lord Jesus has done what the sacrifices of the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. He has taken all of our sin, all of our transgression, and nailed it to the cross along with Himself, offering Himself as the ultimate, final, and sufficient sacrifice. Because of that, we are saved, sanctified, and secured forever. Even in the face of worldly struggle, spiritual doubt, and even moral failure, we can turn our eyes confidently to Christ and find the full assurance of our salvation, knowing that it rests not in our own hands, but in His work, which has been accomplished perfectly and forever.
.jpg)
.JPG)
