The Sacrificial System: The Answer to Sin – Part 2
This is the second part of a previous article with regards to the sacrificial system. We first looked at how the sacrificial system was a type to the antitype, who is Christ. Now we will look at how the author of Hebrews sums up for us in showing that Christ has put an end to sacrifices. This article will be written in a commentary format.
“Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year” (vs. 1). The author of Hebrews starts off by telling us that the sacrificial system was only a “shadow” or “type” of a coming reality. Sacrifices were not a means to the end but pointed to something greater and more marvelous. These sacrifices could never make perfect the worshiper.
Now, the author does not mean perfect as in sinless. We have not yet been glorified, and we still struggle with the sinful nature in this age. So then, what does the author mean by perfect? The author points us to what he means when he mentions that they were continually offered “year after year.” The Levitical sacrifices were not efficacious. They were insufficient in making the worshiper right with God. Then the author goes on to say, “Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year” (vss. 2-3). If the Levitical sacrifices were efficacious, it would only need to be offered once. Therefore, the continual offering up of these sacrifices showed that the sacrifices cannot, nor were they meant to cleanse the sinner. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (vs. 4). The blood of a perfect being must take away sins and not that of an animal.
“Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said: You did not want sacrifice and offering, but You prepared a body for Me. You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said, “See, I have come– it is written about Me in the volume of the scroll– to do Your will, O God” (vss. 5-7)! If the sacrifices of “bulls and goats” could not cleanse the worshiper, why then was the sacrificial system established? Why all the pomp and circumstance? The author states that it was a “shadow” of the “reality.” They were to remind the worshiper and point the worshiper to the true Sacrifice, who was the “seed of the woman.” It is He who would “perfect the worshipe” by His own blood. We look back to Christ’s sacrifice, but the Old Testament saints were looking forward. They waited in anticipation to the redemption of their “crush the head of the serpent” and put an end to his rule. Also, they knew that He would be a King from the tribe of Judah, the seed of Abraham, the son of David, and a priest after the order of Melchizedek. The angel Gabriel announced this good news to Joseph when he said, “and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Not only were the sacrifices pointing to the Christ, but they were also a gruesome reality of what the worshiper deserved.
“After He says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings, (which are offered according to the law), He then says, See, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all” (vss. 8-10). The author tells us that Christ took away the “shadows” and the “types” in order to establish the “reality.” The Levitical sacrifices had no efficacious value and could not cleanse the conscience of the worshipper. The first was done away with to establish the second, so that we may be made right with God through the offering of Christ’s body for our sins. Christ has paid the full penalty for the elect.
“Now every priest stands day after day ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified” (vss. 11-14). The author gives us a much clearer distinction between the Levitical priesthood and the priesthood of Christ. The Levites that served in the temple continually offered up sacrifices to God and their work was never done. But Christ offered up a sacrifice (His own body) once and for all. After the offering of Himself, the author states that He “sat down at the right hand of God.” The sitting of this priest at God’s right hand denotes that the work in which He came to do was accomplished. This statement brings to mind the conversation between the Father and the Son in Psalm 110:1, “The LORD declared to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Father until that time when He should pour out His wrath upon all His enemies and usher in the consummated kingdom of God.
“The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He had said: This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts, and I will write them on their minds, He adds: I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin” (vss. 15-18). The author ends this first section of Hebrews 10 to bring in the connection of Christ’s finished work with the new covenant. The two go hand-in-hand. This quotation of the new covenant is taken from a bigger section in Jeremiah 31:31-34. In this original proclamation, we see that the new covenant is contrasted with the Mosaic covenant (Jeremiah 31:32). The covenant document in the Old Testament was written on tablets of stone, but now the Lord has declared that He will write them on our hearts and our minds. Furthermore, God promised that He would change our hearts of “stone” into hearts of “flesh.” The new covenant is only new in contrast to the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant was “do this and live” but the new covenant is “I will do” speaking of what the Lord Himself will do with regards to redemption accomplished and applied. The propagation of the new covenant is the fruit of Christ’s sacrifice. Christ fulfilled His covenantal obligation to the Father and now the Father will fulfill His promise. Christ’s righteousness will be imputed to those the Father has given Him. His sacrifice is efficacious in contrast to the Levitical sacrifices. Which then leads us into the author’s last statement: “Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering of sin.” Our sins have been paid in full and any other sacrifice to God would be an abomination to Him. This should also bring to mind what Christ said to His disciples in Matthew 24. He warned them before hand that He would pour out His wrath upon Israel and that He would destroy the temple. The destruction of the temple puts an end to the Jewish cultus and the Levitical law. Truly, the establishment of the later (Christ’s sacrifice) has abrogated the former (Levitical sacrifices).
Joshua Parker