Blogging is difficult to do on mornings that I have class. No class on Wednesdays though so praises for pockets of time like to today when I can breathe.
This morning I read Hebrews 10:1-18. My study bible splits it into 3 parts so I will look at the verses in three parts.
The first is verse 1-4 which say "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins."
As a believer today in our world, the idea of animal sacrifices is just an abstract idea. After all, we have the New Covenant that we use and usually abuse. As a result I feel like we can never really appreciate the gravity of this passage from old to new. I will not recount the rituals needed to be done to be cleansed. For that I point you to the Deuteronomy which is where I believe it is recounted in painstaking detail. Rather imagine with me once a year taking your family and whatever animal you happen to need to a priest so that he can cleanse you and your family. In this sacrifice, you carry all the guilt you have. All the shame of whatever wrong doings you have committed go with you to this sacrifice. Now imagine watching the blood pour out of the animal, being told you are clean but, and this is an important but, in the back of your mind you know you will have to do this again because you are not really clean. For a moment sure, but the moment you sin, which lets be real for some of us it would be right as we leave the synagogue, another sacrifice is necessary. I cannot feel that sense of foreboding of another sacrifice, nor can I feel the joy of momentary cleanliness. If the sacrifice is enough, should we not, as the scripture says, have no more consciousness of sin? But we do when the sacrifice is not enough. Every subsequent sacrifice you make is a cleansing and a reminder that your failures will always outweigh your sacrifice. You are told though if you make enough sacrifices (reminders of sin) and live uprightly, you will be right in Gods eyes. The writer of Hebrews states it plainly in verse 4 "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins".
The next section is verses 5-10 and verse 5 starts with a "therefore" which I was taught is always a clue to look and understand what the therefore is "there for". In this case it is because of verse 1-4 and specifically verse 4. Sacrifices were always shadows and symbols of the real thing, the final sacrifice, Jesus. Verses 5-7 says "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. 7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come--in the volume of the book it is written of Me--To do Your will, O God." Verse 9 goes further and says, "He takes away the first that he may establish the second." Sanctification was never possible though the shadows and symbols of the former sacrifices. In the final sacrifice of Jesus, God stripped away the shadows of animal sacrifices and established the eternal sacrifice.
Verses 11-18 are about Christ sanctifying us. The writer makes the contrast between the priests who stand in the same place every day preforming the same sacrifices that have zero eternal significance with Jesus, the Son of God, who offered His life as a sacrifice and then sat down at the right hand of God until "his enemies are made His footstool." (V. 13) There is a difference in triumph in the sacrifices. In the old sacrifice there is no triumph, only a reminder of sin. In Jesus there is triumph because sin has been forgiven. I cannot with my words express fervently enough how stark a contrast this is and how confusing this must have been for the people hearing these words. Until I consider the Jewish man who had been seeking these sacrifices day after day, year after year, and then come to the realization that the Man he saw die on the cross makes it so that he never has to sacrifice again. That man is no longer bond to sacrifices which are there own kind of chains. He is free. Until I consider that man I cannot appreciate these verses.
It gets better though.
It is not just the promise and act of sanctification from Jesus' sacrifice, the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the Lord: I will put my laws in the their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (V. 16-17) We receive simultaneously eternal forgiveness but also the promise of our Helper to help us understand this great work the Lord has done through His son Jesus. Imagine again that Jewish man with me. The dawning realization that the sacrifice of reminding is unnecessary AND the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of Gods glory, will help you understand all of these things and plant His law in your heart and mind. The holiness that this man as been chasing for so long through sacrifice is now his. As a grand exclamation point to this whole passage is verse 18 which says "Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin." Glory Hallelujah our chains are gone, we've been set free. These words take on new meaning in light of these verses.
So what does this mean? I have, in some small way, crafted a story of 18 verses about sacrifice but why does it matter. I think that a lot of times Christians are that Jewish man, seeking sacrifice after sacrifice, unaware that the final sacrifice is the "one sacrifice for sins forever" (v. 12). I see many brothers and sisters, myself included, that miss the joy and faith of embracing Jesus for what he did and instead, remind themselves of what they've done. I can be the poster child for this if that you make you more comfortable because I am a sinner of the highest order. What I am saying though is it doesn't matter. These verses ask for trust, faith, and hope in Him. I hope that this can serve as a reminder of our precious freedom because that is what it was to me. Thanks for reading.
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