INTRODUCTION
As we have seen in the book of Acts, the time between the resurrection of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was a time of overlap between the old and new covenants. Christ Himself was the sacrifice of the new covenant, which was better by far than the blood of bulls and goats. Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and our text today is designed in order that we would join with those heavenly voices saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Revelation 5:12).
SURVEY OF THE TEXT: HEBREWS 10:11-22
“Every priest in the Old Testament had to offer sacrifices continually (v. 11). Whatever those sacrifices did, they didn’t accomplish the job in a once for all fashion. Those priests stood daily and could never sit down and call it quits. But the man Jesus Christ, after offering but one sacrifice, did sit down (v. 12) to have all His enemies made His footstool (v. 13). By that one offering, He did not only cover sin but perfected His sanctified ones forever (v. 14). The Holy Ghost testifies to this perfection (v. 15) by writing God’s law on hearts in the new covenant (v. 16). In that new covenant, God has sworn an oath of amnesia, forgetting our sins (v. 17). No more sacrifice for sin can be offered to God because it would only be met with God saying, “And what is this for” (v. 18)? By the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, we have boldness to walk into God’s throne room (v. 19). The way into that throne room is through the living flesh of Christ (v. 20), our high priest over God’s house (v. 21). So we must draw near to God with hearts assured seeing we have our bodies and consciences washed clean (v. 22).
THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS
The book of Hebrews makes the point repeatedly that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins. However, we should not think that this means the Old Testament saints were not forgiven in real time. David says in Psalm 32:5, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, ‘I will confess my transgression unto the LORD.’ And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” While it was not the virtue of the Old Testament sacrifices themselves that accomplished this forgiveness, they did have a role to play. Israelites were instructed to bring sacrifices when they had sinned and Leviticus says in several places, “and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him” (Leviticus 5:10; 4:20; 26, 31; 6:7).
If these sacrifices were offered disingenuously, then God despised them, “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me” (Isaiah 1:12-13). But when they were offered genuinely from the heart, God did not despise them but covered their sin: “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
FORGIVENESS AND PERFECTION
However, even when those sacrifices were genuinely offered, the forgiven worshippers were not made perfect:
“For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Hebrews 10:1). If those sacrifices had made the worshippers perfect, “then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Hebrews 10:2).
The point is not that the Old Testament saints received a faux forgiveness. Their sins were like stains on the carpet. Those stains were covered and God really said, “All is well.” But they knew the stain was still there and the covered stain still weighed on their conscience. The marvel of the new covenant is that Christ’s bodily death has done what the blood of bulls and goats could not do, namely take sin away entirely and thereby make us perfect: “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). There is no more stain. Consequently, “there is no more offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).
PERFECTED FOREVER
The import of all of this is that you must live according to the Lamb who was slain. He says, “No more stain.” He says, “I have perfected you and your people.” And the Lamb is the One worthy of “power, and riches, and wisdom” (Revelation 5:12). You must agree with God that you and your people have been perfected through the once for all sacrifice of Christ. This is a potent truth, a bit too potent for some. “You can’t tell them that their sins have been taken away once for all,” comes the reply, “if you do that there is no telling what sin they will tamper with.” But, how can they who have had sins taken away still tamper with them?
Paul says in another place that you must “reckon yourselves to be dead to sin” (Romans 6:11). And by the same standard here, you must reckon yourselves perfected by the sacrifice of Christ. You can reason from the blood of the Lamb. But you may have no other starting point.
APPLICATIONS
This point has several applications. Your whole life must be lived in Jesus name and that includes your service, your good works. Having been perfected, we serve the Living God and there is no other way to serve Him: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14)?
The same goes for confessions. The corrupt heart of man wants to take his confession as the starting point, as the fundamental axiom from which he can get to the sacrifice of Christ. But the truth is the reverse. Having been perfected, we confess our imperfections.
And the same goes for forgiveness. Having been perfected, we forgive others and are forgiven. When you forgive another person, you are not accepting their apology as a blood sacrifice and thereby reckoning them clean. It is that kind of thinking that keeps people riddled with bitterness because that sacrifice simply isn’t enough. We forgive others because of the once for all sacrifice, the one that took our sins and theirs away.
This same logic appears in our worship. The worship that we now offer up to Almighty God is perfect because it is offered up in Jesus’ name. Having been perfected by His blood, we walk into the holiest place and we walk into that throne room of God in the only manner worthy of that blood, boldly.