The End-All Sacrifice for Sins

The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of sinners everywhere and at all times (Rom 1:18). God hates sin (lawlessness); and sin invites God’s righteous judgment and wrath against those who do iniquity (Heb 1:9). Therefore, it behooves us to know what delivers one from the wrath of God to come.

Sin separates every person from a right relationship with God. Its wages is death (Rom 6:23). Sinners die (Gen 2:17); and then they have their appointment with judgment (Heb 9:27; 2 Cor 5:10). Without reconciliation to God (2 Cor 5:18–20), the sinner is already condemned and merely awaits sentencing to eternal punishment in fiery hell (Mt 25:41, 46; Jn 3:18; Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15).

The old covenant dispensation gave provision in the Law for animal sacrifices to be offered for the sins of ethnic Israel. These sacrifices were offered on the altar at the tabernacle in the wilderness (from 1446 B.C.) and later at the temple in Jerusalem (from 966 B.C.). It was the high priest of the Aaronic family from the tribe of Levi who would take the blood of an unblemished animal (the blood of bulls and goats) into the holiest of holies each year on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement). He made a substitutionary blood offering for himself and his family before making the atonement offering for the whole nation of Israel (Lev 16:29–30; 23:26–32).

Year after year, those who would draw near to Yahweh were reminded of their sins by the continuing sacrifices. Through these sacrifices, the worshiper would be made ceremonially clean; and Israel received a temporary reprieve from the punishment of God against the nation. The sinner’s conscience was never cleansed and the worshiper was never made perfect, however (Heb 10:1).

One error of Judaism was the belief that God had actually forgiven Israel. The guilty conscience and the next round of sacrifices bore witness that sin had not been put away (Heb 9:26; 10:4).

The writer of the book of Hebrews informs his Jewish-Christian readers that Christ is superior to Judaism; hence, there is a better sacrifice securing a new and better covenant (Mt 26:28; Heb 7:22; 8:6; 9:23; 12:24), resulting in the better promise of a better inheritance, reserved in heaven for believers in Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:4), the mediator of the new covenant (Heb 9:15; 12:24). The old economy was filled with types and shadows of better, substantial things to come in the future. The substance, as we are learning, belongs to Christ (Col 2:17).

God prepared a body for Jesus, the Son of God (Ps 40:6; Heb 10:5). This body was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Is 7:14; Mt 1:23). At the fullness of time, that is, the time of reformation, Jesus was born of a woman, thus, fully God and fully man (Gal 4:4; Heb 9:10).

It has always been God’s will for man to be obedient to all He commanded. Man failed to comply. Sacrifice was added into the Law for God’s chosen people in order to temporarily rectify their disobedience. Obedience, not sacrifice was God’s desire (1 Sam 15:22). Jesus came into the world to do God’s will (Ps 40:8; Heb 10:9); and He did it, always doing what was pleasing to the Father (Mt 3:17; 17:5; Jn 8:292 Pet 1:17). Jesus was the perfect God-man (Heb 5:9; 7:28).

Thus, the first order (types and shadows) was made obsolete (Heb 8:13), being replaced by the second order (substance and reality). The Bible refers to these as the old covenant and the new covenant, as revealed in the Old Testament and the New Testament (Heb 8:7; 10:9).

With the old covenant sacrifices, there was no expiation of sin; hence, there was no peace with God. There was no real atonement. There was no real cleansing. There was no conscience clearing. There was no placating God’s wrath or procuring His blessing. There was no liberation from sin or even the sacrificial system temporarily dealing with sin.

As our great high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek (Gen 14:18; Ps 110:4–6; Heb 5:6), Jesus made a one-time offering of Himself to God (Heb 10:12, 14; Eph 5:2). In perfect obedience to the will of God, Jesus presented Himself as the substitute sacrifice acceptable to God.

First, avoiding original sin through the divine conception (Mt 1:23; Rom 5:12), Jesus was like us, yet without sin during His whole life (Heb 4:15). He knew no sin, but He became sin for us by imputation (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus was crucified as the sin bearer for His chosen, holy nation of royal priests (1 Pet 2:9, 24). His acceptable sacrifice opened the way for our acceptable worship in Spirit and in truth (Jn 4:42; Rom 12:1).

Second, Jesus’ sacrifice was offered only one time (Heb 10:10). This points to the end of sacrifice. A permanent, acceptable solution for sin was achieved by the meritorious work of Jesus in His perfect life and perfect, substitutionary, sacrificial death on the cross (Lev 16; Rom 5:8; Heb 9:14). His precious blood has produced a permanent state of forgiveness and a permanent position in righteousness, that is, “in Christ” (1 Cor 1:30; Eph 1:7; 1 Pet 1:19).

With the fulfillment of the Law for righteousness (by Jesus), the Christian “in Christ” now enjoys the freedom to serve the living God (1 Thess 1:9). No longer is one’s conscience bogged down by nagging reminders of sins committed in the past; rather, the blood of Jesus cleanses one’s conscience (Heb 9:14). The Christian remembers only one sacrifice; and that is the unblemished Lamb of God hanging on the cursed Roman tree (Ex 12:5; Num 19:2; Jn 1:29; Gal 3:13; 1 Pet 1:19).

Being made holy (sanctified) aligns the saint with the holy God through the holy One of Israel (Jesus). The effect is eternal. Jesus’ one-time blood sacrifice for sins, forever cleanses those who draw near to God in Him. God is just to forgive sinners because the penalty for sin has been paid by the currency of Christ’s debt-cancelling blood (Col 2:14).

There is a perpetual efficacy. The born again of God’s Spirit continues to sin in his body of death; but there is always the blood of the new, better, and eternal covenant reminding one of the judgment made at the cross and the ensuing declaration…forgiven.

Christian baptism and the Lord’s Supper serve as shadows in the New Testament. They have no inherent efficacy (power to get the job done); but they serve like the shadows in the Old Testament. They are symbols that point to a reality.

The greatest need of man is to be reconciled to the holy God. The separation between man and God requires a perfect redemption. The coming of the Son of God into the world, to do God’s will as the Son of Man, has produced exactly what was needed and required. The end-all sacrifice for sins has been offered once for all of those for whom Jesus laid down His perfect, sinless, human body (Mt 1:21; Jn 10:11, 15).

“It is finished” is the declaration of a mission accomplished (Jn 19:30). These words were never uttered by the Aaronic priests of the old covenant system. The reason is that their work was never finished because it was an imperfect work that always needed to be repeated. The old covenant sacrificial system of Judaism has ceased because Jesus paid it all…once and for all…as the final sacrifice for sins.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

February 20, 2024

Hebrews 10:1–10