Jesus For You in Full
So last winter we began our series in the book of Hebrews anticipating that God would show us how just Jesus, in the New Testament era, fulfills all the Laws and sacrificial demands that we had seen established and on display in the book of Leviticus, which we had covered the previous fall. And, through the first nine chapters of Hebrews, the Lord certainly did just that.
Having now completed this summer’s Summer of Psalms series, we’re going back into Hebrews because there is still much more to be said. More glories to be seen. More truths to marvel over. More of Jesus for us to learn and love.
If you were with us last winter and Spring, you may remember the three-word phrase that has formed the DNA of the book of Hebrews up until this point is this: Jesus is better.
You may also remember, importantly, that the author to the Hebrews did not wave the “Jesus is better” flag as a matter of mere opinion, as suggestion, or as an educated guess. Rather, armed with thorough knowledge of the Old Testament, Jewish practices, and logic, the author to the Hebrews has presented an airtight and irrefutable case to his fellow Hebrews that Jesus (Ch. 1), is better than the angels, that Jesus (Ch. 3) is better than Moses, that Jesus (Ch. 4) offers a better rest than Joshua, that Jesus (Ch. 5) is the better High Priest, that Jesus’ (Ch. 7) Priestly line is better than that of Aaron, that Jesus (Ch. 7-8) is the guarantor of a better covenant, and that Jesus (Ch. 9) ministers in a better Temple.
Essentially, if you were to take all major threads of the Old Covenant promises and practices, and trace them all to their ultimate end, who you’d find waiting there as the fulfillment of them all is Jesus, every time. Because Jesus is better.
And that is news worth hearing. That is truth worth forming your world around. But I want to make sure, as we head back into Hebrews, that we’re capturing the full freight of what “Jesus is better” means. Because, I don’t know about you, but when I hear that something is better than something else, my first reaction is not to just go and discard the other thing that is now, no longer better.
For example…if you were to convince me that vanilla ice cream was somehow better than chocolate ice cream, which, I can promise you, you will not be able to do. But if you were to, I wouldn’t then go over to my freezer, grab the cartons of chocolate ice cream, and just start throwing them all away. I mean, sure, you’ve convinced me, vanilla is better than chocolate, but chocolate is still good. Chocolate still has a good flavor. In fact, a few scoops of chocolate alongside the vanilla might go along well with it – may even improve it’s overall taste – the less better flavor supplementing the better one.
Insufficiency of the Temple
Though we may get away with that kind of thinking when it comes to ice cream, the author to the Hebrews will not let us get away with it here. For when he says, “Jesus is Better,” he means it in an utterly exclusive sense. An “out with the old, in with the new” sense. A “not this, but this instead” sense.
Hebrews means to argue, in such a way, so as to convince the Jewish Christian readers to never, never, never go back to the old (ie. Temple, priests, sacrifices) now that the new has come. The text in which he is going to do that most emphatically in the book of Hebrews is the one before us this morning. Hebrews 10:1,
“For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.”
See, if any Jewish man or woman had been reading up until this point with even the slightest thought of going back to the Law, going back to the sacrifices at the Temple, going back to the annual Day of Atonement, it’d be here that their thought would have its feet kicked right out from under it. The Law has but a shadow. Not the true form. It can never make perfect those who draw near. Now that is quite a sweeping statement.
Not, “it can only sometimes make perfect.” Nor, “It can only make partially perfect.” Nor, “It’ll only ever be a supplement to making someone perfect.” But, definitively, “It can never make perfect those who draw near.”
He’s pointing out the futility of these shadow ceremonies. The insufficiency of imperfect priest and animal sacrifices. He’s pulling out the details in such a way that as we read, we almost hear the entire temple system groaning in weariness and exhaustion. Still verse 1, “The same sacrifices that are continually offered every year.”
After a thousand plus years of it’s existence – from the time of Moses, to Joshua, to Judges, to the kings, to the deportation to Babylon, and the return from Babylon, the 400 years of silence – Hebrews pulls up the scorecard of this shadow-like Temple system and says that after all its sacrifices, after all its ceremonies, all its Days of Atonements – these same sacrifices continually offered every day have resulted in a grand total of zero people being made perfect. Zero.
After all, “It is (v. 4) impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” And, 11, the priests who stand daily at their service offer repeatedly the same sacrifices, “which can never take away sins.”
Temple’s Purpose
On the whole, it could come across to you as a rather dismal passage. But take heart — while it is true that he is intending to deflate any remaining sense of our confidence in the Temple system, he is also, at the same time, attempting to bolster and grow our confidence in what the Temple was designed to point toward.
See, look again at verse 1:
“The Law has but a shadow…”
A shadow of what?
“Of the good things to come.”
See, the shadow of the earthly temple, imperfect priest, animal sacrifice had a purpose, but not to be the means by which sins would be forgiven. If that had been its purpose, then it would have proved an epic failure. But, in fact, that was not it’s purpose. Rather, it’s purpose was more akin to that of a blueprint for a house. You don’t expect the blueprint to be your house. You don’t drive home from work and park your car next to a blueprint. You don’t put down a welcome mat in front of a blueprint. You look at a blueprint, study it, and dream of the day when the thing signified by the blueprint becomes reality.
God designed the temple as a blueprint, so to speak. As a hint at what was to come. As a teaching mechanism, saying, “watch the exchange of death for life that happens here, watch the movement from unclean to clean depicted here. Watch this progression of priest and blood in the outer court, on into the Holy Place, and on into the blazing center – the Holy of Holies. Trace these lines and get familiar with their contours so that when the true form comes, you recognize it in all its fulfillment splendor.
See, the old has served as a shadow of the good things to come. And, dear brothers and sisters, hear the good news, these good things have, indeed, come.
Jesus as the Willing Sacrifice
And now, take a look at this amazing statement, verse 5:
“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said...”
Can you see the quote marks there?
It’s not a quote from the gospels, but the Psalms. Psalm 40. A Psalm that had been written by David. A Psalm that had been written about a century before Jesus was born. And yet Hebrews says these are Jesus’ words. Hebrews implies these words, though written by David, are actually more Jesus’ than David’s. They’re more fitting on Jesus’ lips, than David’s. But how does that work if David was the one who wrote them first?
Well, it works like a shadow. Like a blueprint. See just as the brick and mortar Temple that one could argue was in the world first, was a shadow, a pointer, to the truer Temple still to come, so the words of Psalm 40 on the lips of David were Psalm 40’s meaning in shadow, While Psalm 40 on Jesus lips were this Psalm’s meaning in full. David – king, man after God’s own heart – lived a life as a blueprint, a shadow, of the better King, the man wholly after God’s own heart, still to come.
You might say, “Well, so what?” Why does this matter?
Well it matters because it would mean two things for Jesus to say,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me, in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”
First, that Jesus, unlike every single animal ever offered upon the altar in Jerusalem, gave his life intentionally. Intentionally, Jesus answered the call, went forward with the mission, knowingly, intentionally, to go and die as a sacrifice for mankind.
The goats in the temple never arrived there on purpose. It was never the intention of any lamb to go and die as a sacrifice. Not one of the animals ever aimed to cleanse sinners. The calves were led unknowingly to the temple. They were just being animals.
And though God designed it to be that way, he didn’t ultimately take pleasure in them for there was never any sense in any of the animals that, “I am going to do God’s will in this moment.” Nor, “I aim to worship God through my obedience in this moment.” Nor, “I aim to give my ‘yes’ to my Father though everything in my flesh may be tempted to say ‘no’ in this moment.” Animals, by nature of being animals, lack the capacity to intentionally obey God by their actions.
Jesus, on the other hand, can say, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” He had capacity to fully and perfectly obey his Father on purpose, and even unto death.
Second, note that he says,
“I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”
“As it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” In other words, Jesus’ coming to replace the Temple and its sacrifices was not him improvising. Not him as plan B at saving mankind. But him fulfilling the will of his father that had been written in the scroll all along. The will that had been inscribed there all along. Planned all along. The Hebrews, reading this letter inscribed to them, might at this point say, “Hold on a sec, there’s a few words in the scroll I want to now go back to and read again in light of this.” Perhaps they’d go to this one:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed…He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;” (Isaiah 53)
They’d look back on a text like that, written in the scroll, and say, “Oh, it was there, all along.”
So, the earthly temple, imperfect priests, animal sacrifices – in a John the Baptist type way, prepared the way for the Great High Priest, the Pure and Spotless Lamb, the Heavenly Temple. These good things having now come, the temple that must now decrease, and Jesus who must increase. Or, in the words of verse 9,
“He does away with the first in order to establish the second.”
But I know what you might thinking: Hold up, did it actually work? Did the true form actually live up to its promised blueprint? Did his death on the cross actually accomplish what the death of animals at the Temple could not?
Once and For All
Imagine with me for a moment, and it will require some imagination here. Imagine that you speak that question out loud. As you do, an angel appears before you, and says, “I heard your question, let me bring you to the place where you will find your answer.” He grabs you by the hand, he pulls you out of the realm of this world, flying at a million miles an hour, feeling the wind whip by you for a time till you finally come to a stop. When you do stop, you look up, watch as the clouds part before you, and you catch a glimpse, right there, of the brightest light you’ve ever seen in your life, you make out the figures of millions of the most glorious people you’ve ever seen crowded as a sea before you. You notice in the center of them all – the King over all. And he’s sitting. The angel whispers to you what you already know, “That’s Jesus.”
You wonder, “Why is he not up on his feet? Why is he not racing around? Why is he not at some helm of operations furiously clicking buttons and turning dials? Why is he not like the priests at the Temple who are working, moving, sacrificing animal after animal after animal for a covering for my sin? Does he not care? Does he not know how great of a sinner I am? Does he not know that he’s my own hope in life and death?”
And then the one upon the throne, the king of all, turns and says to you: Son, daughter, “I have sat down because all that you need to be saved from your sins, I have already done.”
Everything that the Father demands for your pardon, Jesus has accomplished. All that the father willed regarding the cleansing of his church, Jesus has completed. In the words of Verse 10,
“We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”
It’s done. It’s completed. It is finished. We have been sanctified.
Jesus has done away with the Temple, done away with the priests of Aaron, done away with blood of goats and bulls, and having offered for all time this single sacrifice of himself, Jesus now sits, verse 12,
“at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
“Perfected” means the pardon for your sins is complete. “Perfected” means the holiness required of man is yours in full. “Perfected” means that when God sees you, covered by the blood of his Son, he sees not a single wrinkle, or spot, or blemish. Jesus has made you, by faith in him, “perfect” in the eyes of God.
Can you handle that kind of weight of glory? Can you handle a love, a mercy, of that magnitude? I mean, doesn’t the gospel threaten to swallow you whole by its immensity? Do you not find yourself wholly engulfed by the depth of his grace?
Hebrews puts you out on the top of that mountain, so to speak, and allows you to peer over the vastness of Jesus’ perfect-making sacrifice for you. And then Hebrews draws you to the obvious conclusion, verse 18,
“Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
None. None.
Receiving Forgiveness
And now, what about us? What about you? I mean, I think it’s safe to say none of us have ever felt the temptation to offer a lamb on an altar at a Temple. We’re not, in that way, similar to the Hebrews who first received this letter. We’re not in danger of leaving Christ for the blood of animals. Not prone to turn from Christ and to a brick and mortar Temple. But might we take a look at the core idea of this warning, which is, “Now that you’ve received Jesus as the means of having your sins forgiven, don’t turn back to those former means you used to look to for the forgiveness of sins.” For the Hebrews, those former things involved the Temple, and the performance of the priests therein. For us, it often involves our world, and our own performance therein.
In other words, prior to receiving Jesus’ grace to you, in full:
Did you previously look to your attendance in church, your participation in a small group, your daily Bible reading, even in the slightest way, served as being a means of having your sins forgiven?
Did you previously think that your being a good person, avoiding sexual immorality, honoring your father and mother, getting good grades, being a good citizen, or making an honest living, served or contributed, even in the slightest way, to your sins being forgiven?
Were you prone to rely on what was tangible, what could be completed, what could be checked off a list, rather than what could be believed on by faith?
Listen to this one because I think it is very prevalent in many Christians, myself included: Did you attempt to bear any of the weight for your sin on your own shoulders before putting the rest upon Jesus’? Do you do that even now? Like, say it’s nine o’clock tonight and you’ve just committed some sin that you immediately regret, immediately feel guilty of, immediately know that was wrong. Do you take it right to God? Like right then and there? Right in that very moment? No preamble, no wait time, no pause in between, just right as soon as you feel guilt, do you take it to him? If not, why not?
Are you under the impression that you have to let things cool for a bit, settle for a bit, before you take it to him? If so, then you are treating time as if its passing has the power to shrink the debt of your sin.
Do you think, “I should go do some nice things for others, show some kindness to others, and then I’ll go and take my sin to him? If so, then you are treating good works as if they contribute to your sins being forgiven.
Do you think, “I need to first sit with my head bowed low for a bit, think poorly about myself for a bit, penalize myself for a bit before I go and take it to him? If so, then you are doing penance – swallowing a bit of the bitter cup on your own before handing the rest off to Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, when Hebrews says Jesus is the Better sacrifice, he says it in an exclusive sense. In an “out with the old, in with the new” sense. In a “not this, but this instead” sense. In a “doing away with the first in order to establish the second” sense.
Do you want to be cleansed of your sin?
Do you want the removal of your consciousness of sins?
Do you want your sins taken away?
Then you need to give Jesus all of them. All of them. They must go upon his shoulders in full. He will not receive 99% of your sins while you try and pay off the 1% on your own. He will not accept 99% of your sins while you try and take the 1% elsewhere. Your self-made sacrifice cannot serve as supplemental payment for your sin. Before the cross of Jesus, Hebrews says, all other attempts at forgiveness for sins must end.
Brothers and sisters, the gospel is for those who have nothing. Nothing. No bull to sacrifice, no lamb to offer, no capacity to earn any favor before God. The gospel is for those who have nothing, and who know they have nothing. The gospel if for those who have sin on their hands and possess no means of getting it off on their own. The gospel is for those who come empty-handed and asking, “Lord, would you take care of it all, for me?” Would you drink every simple drop of this bitter cup for me?
So, are you ready to come empty-handed to him? Are you ready to spend the rest of your life, the rest of your eternity, empty-handed, and happy to receive your all from him?
The Table
As we turn now to the table, one final thought to consider… Our text points out here that the annual sacrifice at the Day of atonement served as, verse 3, “a reminder of sins every year.” A reminder of sin still needing to be pardoned, still needing to be paid for, still needing to be dealt with. This table, which we partake of every week, also serves as a reminder of sins. But not a reminder of sins still hanging over us, still indicting us, still making us guilty before God, but, instead, a reminder that our sins, through our faith in Jesus, have been paid for in full through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
Because that is what this table represents, if you’re here today and you’ve trusted in Jesus for the full forgiveness of your sins, then we invite you to take and eat. Likewise, if you’ve not put your trust in Jesus, we ask that you’d let the elements pass, but that you would, in this moment, ask, “Lord, I need you to make me perfect by grace through faith alone.”