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Easter: The Final Sacrifice

April 12, 1998 ~ Bloomfield Standard Church

April 19, 1998 ~ Pickering Standard Church

Hebrews 10:1-18 - 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. If it could, 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. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am— it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.’" First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 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 stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "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." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

The passage underlined above takes a quote from Psalm 40:6-8 which is here expounded upon to confirm to the Hebrew Christians who had converted from Judaism that the practice of continual sacrifice finally came to an end in the sacrifice of the perfect Christ for our sakes. Not because they were no longer required but because the event of which they were a foretelling had occurred. The book of Hebrews contains a wonderful comparison of the priesthood of Aaron to the priesthood of Jesus:

The final difference, which is the core of our text, is that the sacrifices made by the Levitical priests were incomplete. In verse four we read:

Hebrews 10:4 - It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

and Hebrews goes on to say that where the Levitical priests offered sacrifices to God on a daily basis for the people Jesus, when He had risen from the dead after His own sacrifice, ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God:

Hebrews 10:11-12 - 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 stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

His presence in heaven is symbolic of the completion of His sacrifice, Jesus would not be in heaven if more sacrifices were to be required. That Jesus is in heaven at God's right hand is an unassailable fact. His disciples saw Him ascend into heaven and were told that He would return from there:

Acts 1:9-11 - After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

and Stephen, upon his execution, saw Jesus in heaven at God's right hand:

Acts 7:55-56 - But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

David, in an other of his psalms, records a prophecy of the Saviour being honoured at the right hand of God:

Psalm 110:1 - The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

So He is indeed in heaven at the right hand of God and there is therefore no further need of sacrifice, His performance of the High Priest's sacrifice is complete and requires nothing else. We are told by John that from the right hand of God Jesus intercedes for us before God, a reminder as it were that His blood has washed away all of our sins, even those done after we are saved. John continues by emphasizing that Jesus' duties as our advocate are contingent upon His sacrifice being sufficient for all our sins, that He could not be our advocate if His sacrifice were not sufficient:

1 John 2:1-2 - My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

We therefore have in Jesus all that we need, there is no further payment to be made, our sins are fully covered through His blood. Because of Him we are free from our burden of sin and we are saved. We are no longer dead but alive, alive through the death of Christ and His resurrection. Through Him the debt has been fully paid. As Jesus said on the cross so long ago:

John 19:30 - It is finished.