Hebrews 7:23-8:7 - Christ: The Better Sacrifice

As we continue our look at the book of Hebrews, we need to remember one important thing. In many respects, Hebrews was not written for us, although its great teaching is still applicable for us.

Remember, Hebrews was not written to Gentile Christians, but to a group of Jewish Christians who were contemplating abandoning Christ and returning to Judaism. Returning to the temple, priests, sacrifices, and the Law, and this is why the author’s entire argument focusses upon the various aspects of temple or tabernacle worship.

However, what he says is still applicable to us, for, even though we may not be being tempted to turn to Judaism, we are so often tempted to return to what we were before we became Christians. We are tempted to return to the lifestyles, values, actions, behaviours, attitudes, and everything else that we had or did prior to our coming to faith in Jesus, or, for that matter, to turn aside to the current lifestyles, values, actions, behaviours, attitudes, and morals of the world around us, and so his message of how Jesus is “better,” and the need to remain faithful and true to Jesus because he is greater than anything else, still applies to our lives.

This morning we are going to look at one of the author’s greatest themes as he continues to show us how Jesus is “better” than everything else and how turning from Jesus to anything else is going from that which is better, to that which is weak and ineffective.

In Hebrews 8-10 the author continues, and concludes, the theme which has run throughout the book: the theme of "the greatness of Jesus Christ". He has already mentioned many things which show the greatness of Jesus, the superiority of Jesus. Or, using his own term, how Jesus, and the work of Jesus, is "better".

He is greater than the prophets. Greater than the angels. Greater than Abraham. Greater than Moses. Greater than Joshua. His priesthood is greater than that of Aaron because Jesus became a "high priest forever" on the basis of God's promise, as well as God's oath.

Last week we saw how he described how Jesus is greater than Aaron and the priests because Jesus, unlike the priests, lives forever.

He is greater because he is in the "order of Melchizedek".
He is superior to Abraham because Abraham paid tithes to the greater person: Melchizedek.
He is superior to Abraham because Melchizedek, the greater, blessed Abraham, the lesser.
He is greater because Levi and Aaron, figuratively speaking, were still in the body of Abraham while this happened, and as a result Jesus, following in “the order of Melchizedek,” is greater than them all.

But our reading today, as well as all of chapters eight through ten, give his final proof of the greatness of Jesus, and in so doing he shows to this group of Jewish Christians why they need to remain true and faithful to Jesus, who is greater than all.

We won't look at everything in detail, but I do want us to look briefly at these final layers that declare the wonders of Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews chapter eight, he talks about how Jesus is a minister of a "new covenant". A new covenant that is promised in Jeremiah 31, and a new covenant that is fulfilled in Jesus' death on the cross, as Jesus said in Luke 22:20 on the evening before his death as he gave us the rite of communion:

This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Hebrews makes the point that we only needed a new covenant, because there was a problem with the old covenant. If the old covenant had been good enough, if the old covenant had been able to do the job, then it would have remained, and a new covenant would not have been required. However, as Hebrews 8:8 tells us, there was a problem, for:

God found fault with the people.

While Hebrews 7:18-19 says that:

[The] earlier commandment . . . was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect).

And because there was a problem with the old covenant, God has removed it, superseded it, and made the old covenant obsolete through what Jesus has done for us on the cross, and as a result, the "old covenant" is not applicable for us as followers of Jesus Christ.

Our aim as Christians is not to keep the Ten Commandments. Our aim is to walk by faith in Christ.
Our aim is not to obey the Law of Moses. Our aim is to walk by faith in Christ.
Our aim is not to keep the feasts and the festivals found in the old covenant. Our aim is to walk by faith in Christ.

When Jesus was condemned because his disciples were not fasting in keeping with the traditions of the past, he said in Mark 2:21-22:

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.

In other words, you do not, you cannot attach the old to the new. The new is new, the old is old, and as Hebrews 8:13b says, the old is now:

Obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

And throughout Hebrews 8 he talks about this "new covenant" we have received in Christ, and which has superseded, replaced, and is greater than the old covenant that was made at Mount Sinai.

Then, in Hebrews 9, he begins to compare the two sanctuaries. The earthly sanctuary, the tabernacle built at God's command in the book of Exodus, and the heavenly sanctuary, which is the home of God. He had already mentioned this heavenly sanctuary in Hebrews 6:19-20:

We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Now he shows in Hebrews 8:5 that the earthly sanctuary built by Moses, is merely a "sketch",[1] a "shadow"[2] of the heavenly one. In other words, the heavenly sanctuary, the presence of God, the place where Jesus entered, that is the reality, and what has taken place in the heavenly sanctuary is the reality.

This tabernacle or temple here on earth, this place where human priests who die enter, that structure, and what takes place there, is a "nothing". It is nothing more than a copy. A model. It is only a "shadow", or a "dream".

Just as Hebrews 10:1 says:

the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form -

of the realities of the good things of God, so also the tabernacle, this earthly structure where the priests entered with the blood of animal sacrifices, is also a nothing. Nothing but a shadow.

Therefore, if the tabernacle with its sacrifices is only a shadow, why go back to the shadows? Why go back to the nothingness? Why go back to that which has no ultimate value in your relationship with God when a new covenant is yours through what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

A new way into the presence of God is yours.
All of the blessings of God are yours.
Why would you want to go anywhere else?

And so often, whether we realise it or not, Christians want to "go back" to the shadows.

They want to "go back" to the idea that we "have to keep the Ten Commandments.
They want to “go back” to what I can do to earn my way.
They want to "go back" to keeping rules, regulations, to legalism, instead of a life of "faith".

Faith, in what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

Faith in the God of the universe.
Faith that God, who knows all, and sees all, will guide, provide, and enable us in the path that he wants for us.

It is so much easier to "live by rules" than it is to live by faith, but God has called us to a life of "faith".

Then, having discussed the new covenant and the heavenly tabernacle, he brings us to the main theme of the last half of chapter seven, as well as chapters eight through ten, and this main theme brings together all the others. This theme which is the capstone of his entire building is the theme of "sacrifice".

It is the sacrifice of Christ which is brought into the heavenly tabernacle.
It is the sacrifice of Christ which ushers in the new covenant.
It is the sacrifice of Christ which is greater than that offered by the priests in the temple because it only needed to be offered once, while the sacrifices in the temple needed to offered day after day. Year after year.
It is the sacrifice of Christ that accomplishes everything which the sacrifices of the law were unable to bring about.

And because of this, the sacrifice of Christ is the great theme of Hebrews chapters seven through ten, and, as he often does in this letter, he first introduces his topic early on and then discusses it in detail much later on.

Sacrifice was first mentioned in Hebrews 5:1-3:

Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. . . . he himself is subject to weakness; and . . . must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.

Early on he lets us know that "sacrifice" will be very important. But after this mention in Hebrews 5, he doesn't mention sacrifice again until Hebrews 7:27, when he says that:

Unlike the other high priests, [Christ] has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all [time][3] when he offered himself.

And when he starts to mention offerings and sacrifices in Hebrews 7, he then mentions them another eleven times in chapters eight through ten.[4]

But notice how he does this. In Hebrews 5, his mention of "sacrifice" is all about how continuous they are. Hebrews 5 talks about how sacrifices had to be made regularly for both the priest and for the people, but in Hebrews 7:27, the sacrifice of Jesus is once for all time, never to be repeated. Then this comparison between the ongoing sacrifices in the tabernacle and the once for all time sacrifice of Jesus is regularly repeated in his discussion.

Talking about what happens in the earthly tabernacle, he says in Hebrews 9:9:

This is a symbol of the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.

Hebrews 10:1:

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.

And then Hebrews 10:11:

Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.

Because the sacrifices under the old covenant could never deal with the full impact of sin, Hebrews 10:3 says:

In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.

Each of these are showing us that the old system, the system of the old covenant (which the sacrifice of Jesus in the Heavenly tabernacle made obsolete), this old system was never going to be good enough. It could never bring eternal forgiveness. It could never bring cleansing. It could never bring us assurance.

But the sacrifice of Jesus is greater because the sacrifice of Jesus does for us everything that the sacrifices in the temple could not do. Hebrews 7:27 says:

Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all [time][5] when he offered himself.

Hebrews 9:12:

He entered once for all [time] into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:25-26:

Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all [time][6] at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Hebrews 9:28:

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

And then Hebrews 10:10:

And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And notice in these five verses the repetition of that word "once". He sacrificed for their sins "once for all" when he offered himself.[7] He entered the holy place once for all.[8] He appeared once to do away with sin.[9] He appeared once to take away the sin of the many people.[10] We have been made holy by the once for all time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.[11]

"Once". Not "again and again" as under the old covenant, but "once, for all time" through the sacrifice of Jesus, as he says in Hebrews 10:12:

But when Christ had offered for all time[12] a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

"Sat down"! His job complete. As we saw previously, in the tabernacle there were many pieces of furniture: altars, lamps, tables, but there was no chair. There was no place to "sit down" because the work of the priests never finished.

There was always one more sacrifice. One more offering. One more. Every morning, every night, and even extra on the Sabbath. Every time someone came for cleansing. Every time someone came because of sin. Every feast and every festival. Every Passover and every Day of Atonement. One more. No rest. No stopping. No "sitting down".

But when Jesus came and offered himself "once for all time", the job being complete, the sacrifice being sufficient, he "sat down", and Hebrews 10:14 shows us that he was able to "sit down", his job being complete, because:

By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Then in Hebrews 10:18:

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

There is no other sacrifice for sin because, as the song says:

Jesus paid it all.

All to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain.

He washed it, white as snow.

And through what he has done we have been "made perfect/complete/whole" forever.

Back in Hebrews 7:18-19 we read that:

There is, on the one hand, the abrogation

(that is, the nullification, the removal, the setting aside)

of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect).

Then in Hebrews 10:1:

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.

However, we then read in Hebrews 10:14 that:

By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

And if Christ has paid it all.
If there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
If through him, we have been made holy.
If through him we have been made "perfect", whole, and complete.
If through him we have reached the goal that God desires and longs for us, why would we ever think of going anywhere else but Jesus?

As the song says:

He's all I need.

Jesus, is all I need.

And this is where the entire book of Hebrews leads us. All of the talk about the superiority of Christ to prophets, angels, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and Aaron. All of the talk about new covenants and heavenly tabernacles. All of the talk about the priesthood of Aaron and the priesthood of Melchizedek. All of it has been designed to bring us to this one place.

To realise that in Jesus, we have everything.

In Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins.
In Jesus we have assurance of salvation.
In Jesus we are the receivers of a new covenant, and an eternal home with Christ.

But he has also brought us to this place to help us to realise that outside of Jesus, we have nothing. No forgiveness. No salvation. No home, and no hope.

Then, having shown us the assurance we have through what Jesus has accomplished for us, he goes on to say in Hebrews 10:19-23:

Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.

And this is his entire purpose. To encourage us as followers of Jesus Christ to faithfulness. To encourage us, when life gets tough,

or when life is filled with disappointments,
or when people oppose us,
or when things don't go our way,
or when we don't get what we wanted,
or when whatever else may happen that may cause us to stumble and hold us back,

he writes to us in order to help us to cling to Jesus.

To continue to trust in Jesus.
To continue in faithfulness to Jesus our great high priest, who sacrificed himself once for all time, for us.

Hebrews 3:1 says:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider[13]

that is, notice something about

consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.

Then, for the next eight chapters he talks about things that we need to consider about the greatness of Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2-3:

Look to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider[14]

using a different word here which means to “think carefully about” something.

Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

And why? Why should we look to Jesus? Why should we fix our thoughts on Jesus? Why should we continue to trust in and follow Jesus? Because, as Hebrews 13:8 says:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

He is still greater than all. He is still the son of God. His sacrifice on the cross is still effective for the forgiveness of sins, and he is still at the right hand of God, interceding for us.

So let us hold fast. Let us be faithful. Let us cling to Christ; the better, and greater sacrifice, no matter what is going on around us.

No matter what the world may say or do.

No matter what challenges we may face.

Let us cling to Christ, the one who is better, greater than all of us; the one who died and rose again for us.

[1] ὑπόδειγμα

[2] σκιά

[3] ἐφάπαξ

[4] θυσία Hebrews 8:3; 9:9, 23, 26; 10:1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, 26. Also in Hebrews 5:1; 7:27; 11:4; 13:15-16. The word ἱλάσκομαι, “sacrifice of atonement” is found in Hebrews 2:17.

[5] ἐφάπαξ – Heb 7:27; 9:12; 10:10

[6] ἅπαξ – Heb 9:26, 27, 28; 10:2

[7] Hebrews 7:27

[8] Hebrews 9:12

[9] Hebrews 9:26

[10] Hebrews 9:28

[11] Hebrews 10:10

[12] εἰς τὸ διηνεκὲς

[13] κατανοέω

[14] ἀναλογίζομαι

Hebrews 7:23-8:7 - Christ: The Better Sacrifice

As we continue our look at the book of Hebrews, we need to remember one important thing. In many respects, Hebrews was not written for us, although its great teaching is still applicable for us.

This morning we are going to look at one of the author’s greatest themes as he continues to show us how Jesus is “better” than everything else and how turning from Jesus to anything else is going from that which is better, to that which is weak and ineffective.

He is greater than the prophets. Greater than the angels. Greater than Abraham. Greater than Moses. Greater than Joshua. His priesthood is greater than that of Aaron because Jesus became a "high priest forever" on the basis of God's promise, as well as God's oath.

Last week we saw how he described how Jesus is greater than Aaron and the priests because Jesus, unlike the priests, lives forever.

He is greater because he is in the "order of Melchizedek".

He is superior to Abraham because Abraham paid tithes to the greater person: Melchizedek.

He is superior to Abraham because Melchizedek, the greater, blessed Abraham, the lesser.

He is greater because Levi and Aaron, figuratively speaking, were still in the body of Abraham while this happened, and as a result Jesus, following in “the order of Melchizedek,” is greater than them all.

But our reading today, as well as all of chapters eight through ten, give his final proof of the greatness of Jesus, and in so doing he shows to this group of Jewish Christians why they need to remain true and faithful to Jesus, who is greater than all.

We won't look at everything in detail, but I do want us to look briefly at these final layers that declare the wonders of Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews chapter eight, he talks about how Jesus is a minister of a "new covenant". A new covenant that is promised in Jeremiah 31, and a new covenant that is fulfilled in Jesus' death on the cross, as Jesus said in Luke 22:20 on the evening before his death as he gave us the rite of communion:

This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

God found fault with the people.

While Hebrews 7:18-19 says that:

[The] earlier commandment . . . was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect).

And because there was a problem with the old covenant, God has removed it, superseded it, and made the old covenant obsolete through what Jesus has done for us on the cross, and as a result, the "old covenant" is not applicable for us as followers of Jesus Christ.

Our aim as Christians is not to keep the Ten Commandments. Our aim is to walk by faith in Christ.

Our aim is not to obey the Law of Moses. Our aim is to walk by faith in Christ.

Our aim is not to keep the feasts and the festivals found in the old covenant. Our aim is to walk by faith in Christ.

When Jesus was condemned because his disciples were not fasting in keeping with the traditions of the past, he said in Mark 2:21-22:

In other words, you do not, you cannot attach the old to the new. The new is new, the old is old, and as Hebrews 8:13b says, the old is now:

Obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

And throughout Hebrews 8 he talks about this "new covenant" we have received in Christ, and which has superseded, replaced, and is greater than the old covenant that was made at Mount Sinai.

Then, in Hebrews 9, he begins to compare the two sanctuaries. The earthly sanctuary, the tabernacle built at God's command in the book of Exodus, and the heavenly sanctuary, which is the home of God. He had already mentioned this heavenly sanctuary in Hebrews 6:19-20:

We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

This tabernacle or temple here on earth, this place where human priests who die enter, that structure, and what takes place there, is a "nothing". It is nothing more than a copy. A model. It is only a "shadow", or a "dream".

Just as Hebrews 10:1 says:

the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form -

of the realities of the good things of God, so also the tabernacle, this earthly structure where the priests entered with the blood of animal sacrifices, is also a nothing. Nothing but a shadow.

Therefore, if the tabernacle with its sacrifices is only a shadow, why go back to the shadows? Why go back to the nothingness? Why go back to that which has no ultimate value in your relationship with God when a new covenant is yours through what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

A new way into the presence of God is yours.

All of the blessings of God are yours.

Why would you want to go anywhere else?

And so often, whether we realise it or not, Christians want to "go back" to the shadows.

They want to "go back" to the idea that we "have to keep the Ten Commandments.

They want to “go back” to what I can do to earn my way.

They want to "go back" to keeping rules, regulations, to legalism, instead of a life of "faith".

Faith, in what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

Faith in the God of the universe.

Faith that God, who knows all, and sees all, will guide, provide, and enable us in the path that he wants for us.

It is so much easier to "live by rules" than it is to live by faith, but God has called us to a life of "faith".

It is the sacrifice of Christ which is brought into the heavenly tabernacle.

It is the sacrifice of Christ which ushers in the new covenant.

It is the sacrifice of Christ which is greater than that offered by the priests in the temple because it only needed to be offered once, while the sacrifices in the temple needed to offered day after day. Year after year.

It is the sacrifice of Christ that accomplishes everything which the sacrifices of the law were unable to bring about.

And because of this, the sacrifice of Christ is the great theme of Hebrews chapters seven through ten, and, as he often does in this letter, he first introduces his topic early on and then discusses it in detail much later on.

Sacrifice was first mentioned in Hebrews 5:1-3:

Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. . . . he himself is subject to weakness; and . . . must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.

Early on he lets us know that "sacrifice" will be very important. But after this mention in Hebrews 5, he doesn't mention sacrifice again until Hebrews 7:27, when he says that:

Unlike the other high priests, [Christ] has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all [time][3] when he offered himself.

And when he starts to mention offerings and sacrifices in Hebrews 7, he then mentions them another eleven times in chapters eight through ten.[4]

Talking about what happens in the earthly tabernacle, he says in Hebrews 9:9:

This is a symbol of the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper.

Hebrews 10:1:

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.

And then Hebrews 10:11:

Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.

Because the sacrifices under the old covenant could never deal with the full impact of sin, Hebrews 10:3 says:

In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.

But the sacrifice of Jesus is greater because the sacrifice of Jesus does for us everything that the sacrifices in the temple could not do. Hebrews 7:27 says:

Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all [time][5] when he offered himself.

Hebrews 9:12:

He entered once for all [time] into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:25-26:

Hebrews 9:28:

Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

And then Hebrews 10:10:

And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

"Once". Not "again and again" as under the old covenant, but "once, for all time" through the sacrifice of Jesus, as he says in Hebrews 10:12:

But when Christ had offered for all time[12] a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

"Sat down"! His job complete. As we saw previously, in the tabernacle there were many pieces of furniture: altars, lamps, tables, but there was no chair. There was no place to "sit down" because the work of the priests never finished.

But when Jesus came and offered himself "once for all time", the job being complete, the sacrifice being sufficient, he "sat down", and Hebrews 10:14 shows us that he was able to "sit down", his job being complete, because:

By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Then in Hebrews 10:18:

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

There is no other sacrifice for sin because, as the song says:

Jesus paid it all.

All to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain.